Has something recently changed re debian gksu for kernel-image-2.6.8-11-amd64-2.6.8-14?
In the past as a user I could run synaptic from the Applications menu by entering the root password when asked. After an upgrade about three days back, that box that asked for the root password changed slightly and I noticed it now mentions gksu. When I put in the root password, nothing happens.

So I used an xterm and found that when I did
gksu -u root /usr/sbin/synaptic
I got "Segmentation fault"

So after much searching the internet etc I was at a loss and for some reason tried
sudo gksu -u root /usr/sbin/synaptic
which allowed be to run synaptic.

Presently I have sudo set up to allow my user name ALL=(ALL) ALL - is that wrong?

I have since found that I can go to properties of the synaptic launch button via Applications and add sudo in the command line and it all seems to work okay.

This however makes me wonder why that changed and if maybe I have set something up wrong etc. It's also been near impossible for me to search on this as I haven't a clue how to describe what the problem is if in fact it's a problem.

So I ask if anyone can enlighten me?

BTW, I'll also quickly ask if someone can also tell me - when I watch my machine boot up and I read as best I can the bootup messages, I see warnings but can't read it fully as it quickly runs off the screen, but they aren't anywhere to be found in dmesg. Should I be concerned and/or how do I find what the warning was/is?

That seems to be a problem with gksu. Try reinstalling it.

I've given that a go about 5 times purging & re-installing gksu and other related packages - still the same. I've now settled on altering each relevant Application items properties command to have gksudo instead of gksu - that seems to work fine.
It's strange as I also run a laptop with an Intel Centrino chip so run a slightly different kernel and it works just fine as is (without the above modification).
This has led me to surmise that it perhaps is a bug with AMD64 - I'll wait and see what happens with any future gksu upgrades.

PS Anyone got any suggestions re the warning in my bootup message that doesn't appear in dmesg?

Hi joffa,
I've been having this same problem too, for a few weeks now. Did you get it to work again?

Matthijs.

No I gave up assuming it's a bug and so wait till someone fixes it.
It actually has made me less fanatical about doing upgrades and now only do an upgrade about once a week instead of daily.
I tried upgrading to sid and it still was segmenting. Plus with gnome 2.10 (the version in sid) I don't get the properties option for it under the 'Applications' 'System Tools' listing like I did with testing! So I add synaptic to the panel, then go to it's properties, and change gksu to gksudo and it works. Of course I also can do it much faster from a terminal by just going 'sudo synaptic'.
I reloaded my laptop which runs intel and there's no sementing fault with it so that leads me to further believe it's a bug with the AMD64 kernel-image.

My fanticism has deminished as well, especially since the release of sarge. I am a little more selective as well.
Anyway, I don't think it has to do with AMD64 since I run on a regular Athlon XP. I only get the segmentation fault when I have a remote XDMCP session, and it works fine when I work locally.

Anyway, long live sudo synaptic on the terminal! Yay!