[SOLVED] Synaptic not running

[siamhie]

That is likely because you are in there as regular user and you need to be root for that. "Open root thunar here" :)

Indeed. That much terminal I can do! And, @dolphin_oracle, once that content was deleted, all was good again! Thanks!

@DPool A quick search on the interwebs for the synaptic error message "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'Xapian::DataBaseCorruptError'" showed this fix (going back to 2009).

Code: Select all

sudo update-apt-xapian-index

Code: Select all

╔═[siamhie@flux23]═[13:05  09/02/24]═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════[~]
╚═> sudo update-apt-xapian-index
[sudo] password for siamhie:         
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_non-free_i18n_TReading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_non-free_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_debian-security_dists_bookworm-sReading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_debian-security_dists_bookworm-security_contrib_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_main_i18n_TransReading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_main_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_non-free-firmwaReading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_non-free-firmware_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_debian-security_dists_bookworm-sReading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_debian-security_dists_bookworm-security_non-free-firmware_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_debian-security_dists_bookworm-sReading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/security.debian.org_debian-security_dists_bookworm-security_main_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_contrib_i18n_TrReading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm_contrib_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm-updates_main_i1Reading en translations from /var/lib/apt/lists/deb.debian.org_debian_dists_bookworm-updates_main_i18n_Translation-en: done.  
Rebuilding Xapian index: done.  
╔═[siamhie@flux23]═[13:05  09/02/24]═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════[~]
╚═>

Posting this (to your thread) as a reference for all who may experience this error.

[DPool]

@DPool A quick search on the interwebs for the synaptic error message "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'Xapian::DataBaseCorruptError'" showed this fix (going back to 2009).
[/code]

I know that means the info was there for me had I looked (fair enough)...but now I'm really puzzled as to what this is about and how/why such a fix has been necessary for 15 years.

[fehlix]

@DPool A quick search on the interwebs for the synaptic error message "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'Xapian::DataBaseCorruptError'" showed this fix (going back to 2009).

I know that means the info was there for me had I looked (fair enough)...but now I'm really puzzled as to what this is about and how/why such a fix has been necessary for 15 years.

Xapian is used /can be used by apt and apt related tools.
When apt (and apt based tools) fetch/receive the package list and from the repos
the xapian index will be refreshed also.

All those package lists are text-files and contain all the package information like version, dependency, etc++ but also long and short descriptions. Now xapian is building an index-system to allow very fast search within those text-files.
The xapian incremental update of the index happens just after apt's finished to build it's own apt-cache ( for it's pkg-dependency handling) from the downloaded package lists.
In rar situation this incremental xapain index update might get corrupted during refresh. Maybe during a broken update or any other interruption.
Synaptic is using the xapian index, e.g. for "Quick Search/Find" box. Without a valid Xapian-index the Quick Search/Find box would not be shown.
So any time such a corruption happens (which is rar) or when the "Quick Search/Find" is not shown in Synaptic one can rebuild manually the index even if the index is broken or even if it completely up to-date by running e.g this:

Code: Select all

sudo update-apt-xapian-index --verbose --force

Or wait until the next package list update (apt update), when the rebuild of the index is triggered.
HTH

[DPool]

Your lack of a swap partition is cause for concern. There are a lot of folks touting the idea that with enough ram available you can forgo creating a swap partition or file, but the reality is that some applications still expect it to be there (even though it may never be used) and can give unpredictable results when swap space is not present. The good news is that you can add a swap file at any time and here’s how:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/ ... -debian-11

Thank you very much for your concern and for that very clear and easy-to-follow information. I have just added (and enabled) a 4G swap file (equal to the installed RAM).

[ADDED LATER] I just checked fresh installs of the latest versions of Linux Mint, Zorin OS and Kubuntu...and saw that they all apparently installed with 2G swap files as "standard equipment." Is there a reason why MX Linux does not do this?

[DPool]

Your lack of a swap partition is cause for concern. There are a lot of folks touting the idea that with enough ram available you can forgo creating a swap partition or file, but the reality is that some applications still expect it to be there (even though it may never be used) and can give unpredictable results when swap space is not present. The good news is that you can add a swap file at any time and here’s how:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/ ... -debian-11

It's possible my "ADDED LATER" below was posted after you saw the earlier part of the reply...so I'm posting it again here since I'm really curious to know:

Thank you very much for your concern and for that very clear and easy-to-follow information. I have just added (and enabled) a 4G swap file (equal to the installed RAM).

[ADDED LATER] I just checked fresh installs of the latest versions of Linux Mint, Zorin OS and Kubuntu...and saw that they all apparently installed with 2G swap files as "standard equipment." Is there a reason why MX Linux does not do this?

And even more curious now that I've discovered that the install of MX Linux 23.2 on a simply little netbook I had...ALSO created a swap file (or so the sudo swapon --show and free -h commands say). And other than a few package installations, that's all I did with that device. Why, then, did MX Linux not automatically create one when I installed it on the device we've been talking about here, described/assessed near the top of this topic?

[j2mcgreg]

@DPool wrote:

And even more curious now that I've discovered that the install of MX Linux 23.2 on a simply little netbook I had...ALSO created a swap file (or so the sudo swapon --show and free -h commands say). And other than a few package installations, that's all I did with that device. Why, then, did MX Linux not automatically create one when I installed it on the device we've been talking about here, described/assessed near the top of this topic?

MX 23 only creates a swap file if you use the 'automatic install using entire disc' method. Otherwise creating swap space is the responsibility of the user.

[DPool]

MX 23 only creates a swap file if you use the 'automatic install using entire disc' method. Otherwise creating swap space is the responsibility of the user.

Got it...thanks! Interestingly (maybe) those installs of Kubuntu and Linux Mint, where swap files were created, were not "entire disc" installations. So I guess there are different development team philosophies at work here. Again, thanks for the explanation.