Comment 17 for bug 174570

Confirm on 9.04.
8.10 updated to 9.04.
Few days synaptic worked just fine, now it fails with same symptoms.

Interesting:

1. login with SSH and start synaptic on external x-server. prefs saved just perfectly. For testing purposes changed "store history for 90 days" (BTW, why such value? I want to have at least semi-annual history!)
/root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf contains correct value of "90"

"treat recommended as dependencies" turned off. And during the session it remains OFF.

After re-launch number of days is same as I've set up. "treat recommended" NOW is ON again.

2. launch under regular user WITHOUT sudo. Hangs.
Delete ~/.synaptic
Launch w/o sudo. Hangs. ~/synaptic directory is empty.

Same, but with sudo/gksu

"Keep history" now is 30 (thirty!) days. Where did synaptic took that value?
Of course, "treat recomended" is ON. :-)