Comment 12 for bug 1178024

I've got the same issue while installing Linux Mint 15 Mate 64bit version on a new Asus s200e laptop with an Intel i3-3217u processor (have been using an earlier version on another laptop previously), so I've been using synaptic quite a lot over the past 24 hours...

It fails consistently within a few minutes of operation when called via gksudo. I don't think keyboard activity has anything to do with it - I've even put the keyboard out of reach to be sure I wasn't fiddling with any arrow keys subconsciously.

On the other hand, I haven't had a single failure when calling it from a rooted terminal, with or without an ampersand.