synaptic manager preferences not remembered

[Gene Caldwell]

Binary package hint: synaptic

This bug seems to be similar to bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/28250 . Synaptic does not remember nor does it seem to check for a preference of considering suggestions as dependencies. I have set this preference no less than a dozen times on several different computers and it never gets remembered anymore since Gutsy was released. No matter what I do, I cannot get Synaptic to remember this preference choice regardless if desktop effects are turned on or not.

[Matthew Woerly (nattgew)]

Yes I can confirm this in the latest Hardy (0.61ubuntu7)

[clovepower (mzattera)]

Confirmed using 8.04.1

Ubuntu 8.04.1 AMD64 (2.6.24-21-generic)
synaptic 0.61ubuntu9

[Inox (inox)]

Confirmed using 8.10, 2.6.27-3-generic (i686), 0.62.1ubuntu8!
My problem is that "consider recommended as dependencies" switches automatically to "on".
It is really annoying.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

I just want to remind the devs that this bug showed up for the first time when compiz was added to ubuntu. this bug did not exist prior to the effects addition leading one to believe that the OGL rendering seems to be getting in the way of saving the preferences.

[Tang (robertmcgreg)]

Gene Caldwell wrote:
> I just want to remind the devs that this bug showed up for the first
> time when compiz was added to ubuntu. this bug did not exist prior to
> the effects addition leading one to believe that the OGL rendering seems
> to be getting in the way of saving the preferences.
>
>
Must add that my (default) VIA S3 Unichrome Pro driver does not support
visual effects, including at least one screen saver, yet I, too, have
the problem.

[Inox (inox)]

DIR=/root/.synaptic/

What did I do today was:
- deleting $DIR/synaptic.conf
- starting "synaptic"
- going "Settings"->"Preferences"->"Apply"
- closing "synaptic"
- creating copy of $DIR/synaptic.conf -> $DIR/synaptic.conf.1
- starting "synaptic" again
- going "Settings"->"Preferences"-> putting a thick next to "Consider recommended..." -> "Apply"
- closing "synaptic"
- creating copy of $DIR/synaptic.conf -> $DIR/synaptic.conf.2
- diff $DIR/synaptic.conf.1 $DIR/synaptic.conf.2
- result: NO DIFFERENCES FOUND!
- thesis: Synaptic simply stores no information about "Consider recommended..." to $DIR/synaptic.conf
- further steps: added "UseRecommends "false";" line to synaptic.conf
- starting "synaptic" - box still checked :(
- going "Settings"->"Preferences"->"Apply"
- closing "synaptic"
- no effect - line is not modified - remains untouched

[Ares2 (ares2)]

Adding "UseRecommends "false"; to synaptic.conf only fixed it for the next time I started Synaptic, then it was ignored again.

However, adding a new file to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d named for example "02recommend" with the content

APT "" {
  Install-Recommends "false";
};

disables the option permanentely and removes the tick in the preferences.