I am running a Crunchbang(Jaunty 9.04) system with the Xfce DE installed. I installed PK 0.3.13 i believe is in the repos and installed the smart backend. Removed the apt one then. The setup worked but i wasnt able to install or update packages. No matter what package i clicked on, it would say the package wasnt installed on my system or in the repos. I added Karmics repo to my sources and updated PK to 0.4.9 and PK gnome(2.28) too. 

I then downloaded 0.5.4 tar.gz package and tried to install. At ./configure i had to install a few dependencies for it to proceed which satisfied. Then at make check i got a 'Fail'.

Heres a C/P:

> check #111	PkControl: 	get control......OK
> check #112	PkControl: 	get TID async...TI:19:16:28.547	FI:pk-control.cFN:pk_control_get_tid_async,295
 - state array add 0x9d99f20 (0x1)
TI:19:16:28.766	FI:pk-control.c	FN:pk_control_get_tid_cb,232
 - failed: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 127
TI:19:16:28.766	FI:pk-control.c	FN:pk_control_get_tid_state_finish,196
 - state array remove 0x9d99f20
FAILED [failed to get transaction: Launch helper exited with unknown return code 127]
FAIL: pk-self-test
====================================
1 of 1 test failed
Please report to richard@hughsie.com
====================================
make[4]: *** [check-TESTS] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory `/etc/PackageKit/PackageKit-0.5.4/lib/packagekit-glib2'
make[3]: *** [check-am] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/etc/PackageKit/PackageKit-0.5.4/lib/packagekit-glib2'
make[2]: *** [check] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/etc/PackageKit/PackageKit-0.5.4/lib/packagekit-glib2'
make[1]: *** [check-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/etc/PackageKit/PackageKit-0.5.4/lib'
make: *** [check-recursive] Error 1