Comment 17 for bug 288797

I had Ubuntu intrepid installed (from live cd) and the quick search and the search utilities in synaptics worked well. However I had some other issues with scratchy sound, keyboard and touchpad behaving abnormally (sometimes) so I decided to try installing a fresh copy of intrepid but using the alternate CD. It fixed my issues, for the most part, but it screwed up my quick search and search in synaptics. I used the work around you came up with and it solved the problem. But I find this whole thing rather strange.