Synaptic List saves as zero bytes

[Dave M G]

Nils, Brummelen,

Thank you for responding.

The command line solution does create a list of packages for later 
install, so thank you for that.

However, it does not answer the original question, which is why Synaptic 
is not working. I'm hoping that someone can still address that issue.

And, sorry for not being more clear, but what I am trying to save is 
essentially a list of all my installed packages. I'm trying to create a 
list of everything so that if I ever have to reformat my HD and start 
fresh, I can quickly get all the applications I like.

-- 
Dave M G