I have had this same problem for months. It would be nice to be able to use synaptics again. Have I missed the response to this bug?
The problem is launching from CLI root terminal which used to work. I *can* launch from a GUI menu, but that is overcomplicated for simple things. Running current debian testing. 4.18.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.18.10-2 (2018-11-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux Package: synaptic Status: install ok installed Priority: optional Section: admin Installed-Size: 7810 Maintainer: Michael Vogt <m...@debian.org> Architecture: amd64 Version: 0.84.5 ael