Synaptic can't install a package if /var/cache/apt/archives is empty

[dhenry]

My /var/cache/apt/archives directory is mounted as a tmpfs partition, therefore after a fresh boot, the directory is empty.

In such a situation, synaptic fails to install any package with the following error:

E: Could not open lock file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (2: No such file or directory)
E: Could not open file descriptor -1
E: Unable to lock the download directory

Workaround to repair synaptic for current session:

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
sudo touch /var/cache/apt/archives/lock
sudo chmod 640 /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

synaptic should silently create those files if they are missing, instead of failing, like apt does.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.