I just changed my root account password and got the same error today.
I might note that I had NO PROBLEM using "sudo apt-get update" then "sudo apt-get install" That worked fine and was done immediately after the problem was detected. Since this is not a production machine, and I don't really care if I have to use the terminal, I'm going to leave it alone and help test any bug fixes done on the related packages. Copy and paste my matching error message: E: ERROR: could not create configuration directory /home/root/.synaptic - mkdir (2 No such file or directory) -- [users-admin] Changing anything about the root account sets and invalid home directory https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/198172 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs