[vox-tech] Weird problem with Synaptic

[Jeffrey Nonken]

Running Edubuntu 8.04 on an old laptop. (Fujitsu Lifebook B-2130) 30gb  
hard drive, 192 mb RAM.

It includes a built-in 10/100 ethernet connection. I've been using a D- 
Link MA111 for my wireless (USB, 802.11b) which seems to work pretty  
well. But the computer is old and slow and the batteries are toast,  
and my MacBook works fine, so mostly I've just been using the Lifebook  
for unattended stuff like Bittorrent. Since it's always plugged in  
anyway and I want to transfer files on and off, it makes sense to  
leave it on the wired network.

Problem is, Synaptic doesn't work properly on the wired network. This  
includes the main package manager, the update manager, and the "Add/ 
Remove" utility under the "Applications" menu.

What happens is I start it up, it works fine, lets me "check", select,  
and so on. When I hit Apply it starts spinning and never stops. It  
doesn't ask me for a password. The system continues to work otherwise,  
but the package manager is stuck. ... It even seems to be alive! It  
just never recovers, and never gives up. I've let it go for hours just  
to see what happens.

If I run it with the wireless it works fine. But the wired has to be  
unplugged, otherwise the machine automatically switches over to the  
wired network and Synaptic uses that. And fails, of course.

I've done some web searching but haven't found reference to this  
problem yet. Any suggestions?