Problems with LXDE applications and Synaptic after upgrade from Wheezy to Jessie

[Markus <pet2001@epbfi.com>]

I just upgraded a Beaglebone Black system from Wheezy to Jessie.
Everything looks good so far, but I have encountered 2 problems:

My X11 desktop system is LXDE. After the upgrade, all applications which
used to start using my home directory, are now defaulting to /var/cache.
Examples: I launch an LXterminal and it comes up with /var/cache as the
current directory. I launch PCManFM and it shows /var/cache. The
environment is ok. The system knows who the user is and what his home
directory is (e.g. a "cd ~" in an LXterminal works).

Synaptic (0.81.2, now a GTK3 application) takes forever for even the
simpliest action (like Help / About) and causes 100% cpu load all the time.

I did not have any of these problems with Wheezy. Anyone out there with
similar experiences and/or suggestions how to fix it?

Thanks,
Markus