2. The Main Window

2.1. Overview

When you start Synaptic Package Manager, the following window is displayed.

Figure 1. Synaptic Package Manager Start Up Window

Table 1. Synaptic Package Manager Window Components

ComponentDescription
Menubar Contains menus that you use to perform in Synaptic Package Manager.
Toolbar Provides global actions (update, upgrade and execute) and a package search field.
Package list Lists available packages. The list can be narrowed down using filters.
Package details Provides information about a selected package
Statusbar Displays global informations about the status of Synaptic Package Manager

2.2. Toolbar

The toolbar provides access to global actions and a quick search for packages.

Figure 2. Synaptic Package Manager toolbar

Global Actions

Update List

Query all package sources (repositories) and rebuild the list of known packages.

Upgrade System

Queue all packages with a later version available than installed for upgrade.

Execute

Execute all queued changes.

Find Field

Jump to the fist package in the list whose name matches the entry.

Tip

For detailed instructions on the quick search, see Section 3.1.

2.3. Package List

The package list shows all known packages by default. You can apply filters to narrow down the list of shown packages, see Section 5.

Figure 3. Package List

To arrange the packages you can choose the following modes from View menu:

Table 2. View Modes

View Description
Flat list List all packages non hierarchically.
Alphabetic tree Group the packages by their initial name letter.
Section tree Group the packages by their section, e.g. "admin", "base", "gnome", etc.
Status tree Group the packages by their status, e.g. "installed", "not installed", "obsolete" etc.
Tag tree Group the packages by their tag. Tags are keywords provided by third parity. Only Debian GNU/Linux with installed "debtag" supports this feature.

The column order and the used colours can be changed in the preferences, see Section 6.3.

2.4. Package Details

The package details area gives you detailed information about the selected package and also provides controls to modify the status of the package.

Figure 4. Package Details

The information notebook contains the following tabs:

Information notebook

Package controls