synaptic: column visibility preferences not saved

[Alain Perry]

Package: synaptic
Version: 0.53.4-1ubuntu4
Severity: important

Once column visibility preferences have been modified in synaptic, the
package view becomes empty. If I quit and re-launch synaptic, the
preferences window shows that no column is selected. If I re-select one,
several or all of them, and apply the changes or validate, it doesn't
work. If I quit and launch synaptic again, no column is selected once
again. Modifying /root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf did the trick. The file
is writable by root, so I believe it is not a permission problem (I
didn't touch those anyway). Tried purging the package and reinstalling
it, to no good. Tried to look at the source, but I'm to lame to get why
it doesn't save the preferences properly.

Thanks.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8.1-3-powerpc
Locale: LANG=fr_FR, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR

Versions of packages synaptic depends on:
ii  apt [libapt-pkg-l 0.5.27.1               Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii  gksu              1.2.0-2ubuntu2         graphical frontend to su
ii  libatk1.0-0       1.8.0-1ubuntu2         The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6             2.3.2.ds1-13ubuntu2    GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libfontconfig1    2.2.2-2ubuntu3         generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6      2.1.7-2.1ubuntu1       FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgcc1           1:3.4.2-2ubuntu1       GCC support library
ii  libglade2-0       1:2.4.0-1              Library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0      2.4.7-0ubuntu2         The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0       2.4.10-1ubuntu1        The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libncurses5       5.4-4                  Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libpango1.0-0     1.6.0b-0ubuntu1        Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libstdc++5        1:3.3.4-9ubuntu5       The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libvte4           1:0.11.11-4            Terminal emulator widget for GTK+ 
ii  libx11-6          4.3.0.dfsg.1-6ubuntu25 X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxft2           2.1.2-6                FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxml2           2.6.11-3ubuntu1        GNOME XML library
ii  libxrender1       0.8.3-7                X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  scrollkeeper      0.3.14-8               A free electronic cataloging syste
ii  xlibs             4.3.0.dfsg.1-6ubuntu25 X Window System client libraries m
ii  zlib1g            1:1.2.1.1-3ubuntu1     compression library - runtime

-- no debconf information