This was caused by a backport of vte by a third party. Information on how to fix this is found at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=239238
** Changed in: synaptic (Ubuntu) Status: Needs Info => Rejected -- synaptic doesn't work; aptitude does https://launchpad.net/bugs/56877 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs