Hello, doctors: Tanks for the "medication" so far. The "patient" is showing some improvement, but it's still in critical state. "Touch /preferences" solved one problem; removing "/filters" solved the other. Started synaptic and, for a try, clicked on 'Update'. At the end, got an error: could not open RPM package list file /var/state/apt/lists/ftp.gwdg.de_pub_linux_suse_apt_SuSE_7.3- i386_base_pkglist.base The file exists, but in a subdirectory. Both files there are zero (0) bytes long [or short, depending on your philosophy...]: linux:/var/state/apt/lists/partial # ls -A ftp.gwdg.de_pub_linux_suse_apt_SuSE_7.3-i386_base_pkglist.base ftp.gwdg.de_pub_linux_suse_apt_SuSE_7.3-i386_base_release.base With this error present and unresolved, synaptic stays grayed out; clicking on 'OK' in the error window, the whole thing closes. On the third try, I clicked the error window to close it. It did, but synaptic stayed grayed out. Worse, it could not be closed, except with a 'kill'. I de-installed /apt and re-installed it, with no result. What should I do? -- Regards, gr (in /usually/ balmy, sunny Florida's Suncoast) [powered by SuSE-7.3 Linux 2.4.10]