Fix - quick search box not visible in synaptic package manager.

Problem

I like to install software using synaptic package manager rather than using Ubuntu software center or using gnome software center. Recently I have noticed that the quick search or filter box is disappeared from the top bar of the synaptic package manager. I this post I will discuss how to get the quick filter box back.

Solution

The quick search box is provided by the package apt-xapian-index, and it does not installed by default with synaptic since it is in the recomended dependency list. So to solve the problem, we just have to installed the package and rebuld the search index. To install the package, run the following command in terminal

sudo apt install apt-xapian-index

After installing the package, we have to rebuild the search index, which we can do by running the following command in the terminal.

sudo update-apt-xapian-index -vf

Now if you lunch the Synaptic Package Manager, we can see that the quick search box is there, and if we type anything on the box it will start filtering package according to it.

Hope this will be helpful.

Cheers

A.Paul