Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > linux.debian.user > #175202 > unrolled thread

Uninstalling Gnome

Back to article view | Back to linux.debian.user

Contents

  Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-28 22:50 +0100
    Re: Uninstalling Gnome Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2016-11-28 23:30 +0100
    Re: Uninstalling Gnome Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-11-28 23:40 +0100
      Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 10:20 +0100
        Re: Uninstalling Gnome rhkramer@gmail.com - 2016-11-29 14:10 +0100
          Re: Uninstalling Gnome rhkramer@gmail.com - 2016-11-29 14:10 +0100
            Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 14:40 +0100
        Re: Uninstalling Gnome Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 17:00 +0100
          Re: Uninstalling Gnome Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-11-29 17:10 +0100
          Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 17:20 +0100
            Re: Uninstalling Gnome Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> - 2016-11-29 18:10 +0100
            Re: Uninstalling Gnome Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2016-11-29 18:50 +0100
              Re: Uninstalling Gnome Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-11-29 20:00 +0100
            Re: Uninstalling Gnome Seeker <seeker5528@comcast.net> - 2016-11-30 05:20 +0100
        Re: Uninstalling Gnome Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-11-29 19:00 +0100
    Re: Uninstalling Gnome Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-11-28 23:40 +0100
      Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 12:50 +0100
        Re: Uninstalling Gnome Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2016-11-29 13:30 +0100
          Re: Uninstalling Gnome Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2016-11-29 14:00 +0100
            Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 14:10 +0100
              Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 14:30 +0100
        Re: Uninstalling Gnome Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 18:10 +0100
          Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 18:30 +0100
            Re: Uninstalling Gnome Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 20:50 +0100
    Re: Uninstalling Gnome Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-29 14:40 +0100
    Manually installed packages (was: Uninstalling Gnome) Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-11-30 00:50 +0100
      Re: Manually installed packages (was: Uninstalling Gnome) David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-11-30 01:30 +0100
        Re: Manually installed packages (was: Uninstalling Gnome) Cindy-Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2016-11-30 05:30 +0100
        Re: Manually installed packages Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2016-11-30 14:50 +0100
          Re: Manually installed packages David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2016-12-01 17:10 +0100
            Re: Manually installed packages Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2016-12-01 18:10 +0100
              Re: Manually installed packages Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-12-01 19:40 +0100
                Re: Manually installed packages Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2016-12-01 20:10 +0100
                  Re: Manually installed packages Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-12-03 14:40 +0100
                  Re: Manually installed packages kamaraju kusumanchi <raju.mailinglists@gmail.com> - 2016-12-03 19:00 +0100
                  Re: Manually installed packages Jörg-Volker Peetz <jvpeetz@web.de> - 2016-12-04 10:50 +0100
                    Re: Manually installed packages Jörg-Volker Peetz <jvpeetz@web.de> - 2016-12-04 11:00 +0100
                      Re: Manually installed packages Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> - 2016-12-04 13:00 +0100
                        Re: Manually installed packages Jörg-Volker Peetz <jvpeetz@web.de> - 2016-12-04 13:10 +0100
                Re: Manually installed packages Jörg-Volker Peetz <jvpeetz@web.de> - 2016-12-01 20:50 +0100
                Re: Manually installed packages Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2016-12-01 22:00 +0100
            Re: Manually installed packages Cindy-Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2016-12-02 19:20 +0100
          Re: Manually installed packages Cindy-Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2016-12-02 18:30 +0100
      Re: Manually installed packages Jörg-Volker Peetz <jvpeetz@web.de> - 2016-11-30 09:50 +0100

Page 1 of 3  [1] 2 3  Next page →

#175202 — Uninstalling Gnome

Hi all Debian users.

When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose Gnome as my
Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free space, now I want to
remove all those Gnome packages that I haven't used any more but am not sure
what of them I may delete without perturbing the system.  How can I know?  More
in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not using and so can be
removed?

Thanks for any help,

Rodolfo

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#175203

On Mon, 28 Nov 2016 21:44:00 +0000
Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all Debian users.
> 
> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose Gnome
> as my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free space,
> now I want to remove all those Gnome packages that I haven't used any
> more but am not sure what of them I may delete without perturbing the
> system.  How can I know?  More in general, is there a way to know
> what packages one is not using and so can be removed?
> 
> Thanks for any help,
> 

Sure if I was going there, I wouldn't be after starting from here...

First, Openbox is a window manager and doesn't have much in the way of
bells and whistles. Is that really all you want? If not, there is at
least one light(ish)-weight desktop environment which uses Openbox,
which is Xfce. There may be others, I haven't felt the need to look
around recently.

As for removing Gnome, tricky. I use some Gnome applications, but
without the full DE being present, so I have some libraries installed.

If I had to try this, I'd look through the dependencies of the 'gnome'
metapackage, make a note of anything I used, to later reinstall, then
remove the metapackage and anything it wants to take with it. I'd run
deborphan, or in fact I'd run upgrade-system which I normally use to
maintain my system, which recursively runs deborphan and will remove
anything you haven't explicitly asked for.

At that point, then one might like to think that the only gnome
components left are those which you've explicitly installed, and their
dependencies. Certainly the applications you don't use should be gone.

Something that may still be there that has a fair number of
dependencies is gdm3, the display manager. You almost certainly do want
a display manager, unless you're happy to boot into a text shell and
use startx to get a graphic display. A lightweight display manager is
xdm, though I find that a bit too Spartan, and I use kdm. That has a
fair number of dependencies as well, but I want many of those for a few
KDE applications I use, so it's not a problem.

Hopefully, there may be other suggestions to help reach your goal..

-- 
Joe

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175204

On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:

> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose Gnome as my
> Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free space, now I want to
> remove all those Gnome packages that I haven't used any more but am not sure
> what of them I may delete without perturbing the system.  How can I know?  More
> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not using and so can be
> removed?

apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
apt-get autoremove

And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.

-- 
Brian.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175211

Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> writes:

> On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
>
>> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose Gnome as my
>> Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free space, now I want to
>> remove all those Gnome packages that I haven't used any more but am not sure
>> what of them I may delete without perturbing the system.  How can I know?
>> More
>> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not using and so can
>> be
>> removed?
>
> apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
> apt-get autoremove
>
> And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.


Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing so will not
perturbing my system?

Rodolfo

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175224

On Tuesday, November 29, 2016 04:11:37 AM Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing so will
> not perturbing my system?

From the peanut gallery--I don't think you can--I mean, very little in life is 
sure... (and, ime, computer software is low on any ordered list of sure things 
;-)

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175225

On Tuesday, November 29, 2016 08:02:48 AM rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> On Tuesday, November 29, 2016 04:11:37 AM Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> > Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing so
> > will not perturbing my system?
> 
> From the peanut gallery--I don't think you can--I mean, very little in life
> is sure... (and, ime, computer software is low on any ordered list of sure
> things ;-)

Oh, what I meant to add is:

What I would do, is delete all of Gnome, and then see what might be missing, 
and add those things back as I find them missing.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175228

rhkramer@gmail.com writes:

> On Tuesday, November 29, 2016 08:02:48 AM rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
>> On Tuesday, November 29, 2016 04:11:37 AM Rodolfo Medina wrote:
>> > Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing so
>> > will not perturbing my system?
>> 
>> From the peanut gallery--I don't think you can--I mean, very little in life
>> is sure... (and, ime, computer software is low on any ordered list of sure
>> things ;-)
>
> Oh, what I meant to add is:
>
> What I would do, is delete all of Gnome, and then see what might be missing, 
> and add those things back as I find them missing.


Yes, thanks, I was now thinking of the problem more in general: remove all
those packages from my system that are useless now so to free space on disk...
It seems that `apt-mark' could be useful to that purpose...

Rodolfo

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175234

On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 09:11:37 +0000 Rodolfo Medina
<rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:

> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> writes:
> 
> > On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> >
> >> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose
> >> Gnome as my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free
> >> space, now I want to remove all those Gnome packages that I
> >> haven't used any more but am not sure what of them I may delete
> >> without perturbing the system.  How can I know? More
> >> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not using
> >> and so can be
> >> removed?
> >
> > apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
> > apt-get autoremove
> >
> > And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.
> 
> 
> Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing
> so will not perturbing my system?

A few years ago, I attempted to entirely remove GNOME from my system.
I had switched to the window manager Openbox and no longer needed GNOME
and all its parts taking up valuble hard drive space. It proved
impossible (or impractical) to do. GNOME lists OS parts among
others, lots of others, as dependencies.  Most of its utilities do the
same. GNOME is quite invasive.  So, a general "remove" or "purge"
gnome, etc. would end up removing most of the OS rendering it useless.
Even trying to uninstall its utilities and apps would result in similar
situation, a broken system

To make a long story short, I eventually ended up reinstalling the OS
without any desktop environment, terminal only, then adding X, the
window manager, etc. It was the only easy way I found to be totally
GNOMEless.

Good luck

B

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175235

In the days of yore, when GNOME was just version 2 point something,
it used to be possible to rip out (most of) GNOME with a simple apt-get
remove libgnome2-common.  This would leave a few things lying around,
but not enough for most people to worry about.

I have no idea how to do the analogous operation with GNOME 3.x.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175236

Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> writes:

> On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 09:11:37 +0000 Rodolfo Medina
> <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> writes:
>> 
>> > On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
>> >
>> >> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose
>> >> Gnome as my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free
>> >> space, now I want to remove all those Gnome packages that I
>> >> haven't used any more but am not sure what of them I may delete
>> >> without perturbing the system.  How can I know? More
>> >> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not using
>> >> and so can be
>> >> removed?
>> >
>> > apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
>> > apt-get autoremove
>> >
>> > And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing
>> so will not perturbing my system?
>
> A few years ago, I attempted to entirely remove GNOME from my system.
> I had switched to the window manager Openbox and no longer needed GNOME
> and all its parts taking up valuble hard drive space. It proved
> impossible (or impractical) to do. GNOME lists OS parts among
> others, lots of others, as dependencies.  Most of its utilities do the
> same. GNOME is quite invasive.  So, a general "remove" or "purge"
> gnome, etc. would end up removing most of the OS rendering it useless.
> Even trying to uninstall its utilities and apps would result in similar
> situation, a broken system
>
> To make a long story short, I eventually ended up reinstalling the OS
> without any desktop environment, terminal only, then adding X, the
> window manager, etc. It was the only easy way I found to be totally
> GNOMEless.


I wonder if it's possible to provide Debian a set A of packages and say:
`please install these and only these and remove all the other packages present
on the disk except the ones from which some of A depends.'  This would be
equivalent of reinstalling everything as reported by Patrick.  Do you think it
would be possible?

Rodolfo

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175238

On Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 04:12:52PM +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
>Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 09:11:37 +0000 Rodolfo Medina
>> <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> writes:
>>>
>>> > On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose
>>> >> Gnome as my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free
>>> >> space, now I want to remove all those Gnome packages that I
>>> >> haven't used any more but am not sure what of them I may delete
>>> >> without perturbing the system.  How can I know? More
>>> >> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not using
>>> >> and so can be
>>> >> removed?
>>> >
>>> > apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
>>> > apt-get autoremove
>>> >
>>> > And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing
>>> so will not perturbing my system?
>>
>> A few years ago, I attempted to entirely remove GNOME from my system.
>> I had switched to the window manager Openbox and no longer needed GNOME
>> and all its parts taking up valuble hard drive space. It proved
>> impossible (or impractical) to do. GNOME lists OS parts among
>> others, lots of others, as dependencies.  Most of its utilities do the
>> same. GNOME is quite invasive.  So, a general "remove" or "purge"
>> gnome, etc. would end up removing most of the OS rendering it useless.
>> Even trying to uninstall its utilities and apps would result in similar
>> situation, a broken system
>>
>> To make a long story short, I eventually ended up reinstalling the OS
>> without any desktop environment, terminal only, then adding X, the
>> window manager, etc. It was the only easy way I found to be totally
>> GNOMEless.
>
>
>I wonder if it's possible to provide Debian a set A of packages and say:
>`please install these and only these and remove all the other packages present
>on the disk except the ones from which some of A depends.'  This would be
>equivalent of reinstalling everything as reported by Patrick.  Do you think it
>would be possible?

The package "equivs" seems destined for this task. equivs can create 
"trivial" debian packages which, typically, only contain dependency 
information. So you could, for example, create a package which depends 
on evolution, libreoffice and gedit. You install this new package and 
attempt to uninstall 'gnome'. apt should then, in theory, say "all these 
parts of gnome are no longer needed (because 'gnome' is being 
uninstalled) EXCEPT for evolution, libreoffice and gedit, which are 
still needed by $newpackage, so I can't uninstall those".

You just have to be careful that apt doesn't decide that "the easiest 
way to solve this is to also remove $newpackage", but you might be able 
to mark the package as essential, which SHOULD trump everything.

>
>Rodolfo
>

-- 
For more information, please reread.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175241

On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 16:12:52 +0000
Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:

> Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 09:11:37 +0000 Rodolfo Medina
> > <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
> >  
> >> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> writes:
> >>   
> >> > On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> >> >  
> >> >> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose
> >> >> Gnome as my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To
> >> >> free space, now I want to remove all those Gnome packages that I
> >> >> haven't used any more but am not sure what of them I may delete
> >> >> without perturbing the system.  How can I know? More
> >> >> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not
> >> >> using and so can be
> >> >> removed?  
> >> >
> >> > apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
> >> > apt-get autoremove
> >> >
> >> > And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.  
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing
> >> so will not perturbing my system?  
> >
> > A few years ago, I attempted to entirely remove GNOME from my
> > system. I had switched to the window manager Openbox and no longer
> > needed GNOME and all its parts taking up valuble hard drive space.
> > It proved impossible (or impractical) to do. GNOME lists OS parts
> > among others, lots of others, as dependencies.  Most of its
> > utilities do the same. GNOME is quite invasive.  So, a general
> > "remove" or "purge" gnome, etc. would end up removing most of the
> > OS rendering it useless. Even trying to uninstall its utilities and
> > apps would result in similar situation, a broken system
> >
> > To make a long story short, I eventually ended up reinstalling the
> > OS without any desktop environment, terminal only, then adding X,
> > the window manager, etc. It was the only easy way I found to be
> > totally GNOMEless.  
> 
> 
> I wonder if it's possible to provide Debian a set A of packages and
> say: `please install these and only these and remove all the other
> packages present on the disk except the ones from which some of A
> depends.'  This would be equivalent of reinstalling everything as
> reported by Patrick.  Do you think it would be possible?
> 
Possible, but probably not off the shelf, or someone would have
suggested it by now.

As I said to begin my first reply, the only way to do a proper job is
to start again from scratch, with a minimal text system, no DE, then
add the GUI software of your choice, and your applications. 

And you probably want sudo, which as far as I know, is still not
installed by default.

-- 
Joe

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175244

On Tue 29 Nov 2016 at 17:45:39 +0000, Joe wrote:

> On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 16:12:52 +0000
> Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> writes:
> > 
> > > On Tue, 29 Nov 2016 09:11:37 +0000 Rodolfo Medina
> > > <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >  
> > >> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> writes:
> > >>   
> > >> > On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> > >> >  
> > >> >> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose
> > >> >> Gnome as my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To
> > >> >> free space, now I want to remove all those Gnome packages that I
> > >> >> haven't used any more but am not sure what of them I may delete
> > >> >> without perturbing the system.  How can I know? More
> > >> >> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not
> > >> >> using and so can be
> > >> >> removed?  
> > >> >
> > >> > apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
> > >> > apt-get autoremove
> > >> >
> > >> > And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.  
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >> Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing
> > >> so will not perturbing my system?  
> > >
> > > A few years ago, I attempted to entirely remove GNOME from my
> > > system. I had switched to the window manager Openbox and no longer
> > > needed GNOME and all its parts taking up valuble hard drive space.
> > > It proved impossible (or impractical) to do. GNOME lists OS parts
> > > among others, lots of others, as dependencies.  Most of its
> > > utilities do the same. GNOME is quite invasive.  So, a general
> > > "remove" or "purge" gnome, etc. would end up removing most of the
> > > OS rendering it useless. Even trying to uninstall its utilities and
> > > apps would result in similar situation, a broken system
> > >
> > > To make a long story short, I eventually ended up reinstalling the
> > > OS without any desktop environment, terminal only, then adding X,
> > > the window manager, etc. It was the only easy way I found to be
> > > totally GNOMEless.  
> > 
> > 
> > I wonder if it's possible to provide Debian a set A of packages and
> > say: `please install these and only these and remove all the other
> > packages present on the disk except the ones from which some of A
> > depends.'  This would be equivalent of reinstalling everything as
> > reported by Patrick.  Do you think it would be possible?
> > 
> Possible, but probably not off the shelf, or someone would have
> suggested it by now.

Is "remove all the other packages present on the disk except the ones from which some of A
depends" a serious desire? That would remove the kernel.

> As I said to begin my first reply, the only way to do a proper job is
> to start again from scratch, with a minimal text system, no DE, then
> add the GUI software of your choice, and your applications. 

I agree with the sentiment and the technical simplicity here. However,
to get to the same state from a running system isn't too hard and quite
satisfying.

apt-get purge gnome gnome-*
apt-get --purge autoremove
apt-ge purge $(deborphan)

The final two commands being repeated as often as necessary.

'dpkg -l' will tell you what else you need to remove to get very close
to a d-i basic install.

Tested? Of course.

-- 
Brian.



 
> And you probably want sudo, which as far as I know, is still not
> installed by default.
> 
> -- 
> Joe
> 

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175259

On 11/29/2016 8:12 AM, Rodolfo Medina wrote:

>
> I wonder if it's possible to provide Debian a set A of packages and say:
> `please install these and only these and remove all the other packages present
> on the disk except the ones from which some of A depends.'  This would be
> equivalent of reinstalling everything as reported by Patrick.  Do you think it
> would be possible?
>
> Rodolfo
>

That's a good way to get into trouble. ;)

The list would typically be created on a computer that is set up the way
you want already using....

dpkg --get-selections > package.txt

You can set the install state of all non-essential packages to
'deinstall' with...

dpkg --clear-selections

That's the part that could be trouble if you don't have a good list of
packages to feed back in. What is essential is not necessarily
everything you need to be able to connect to the internet and begin
re-installing things.

If you have your list of packages you can set the install state with

dpkg --set-selections < packages.txt

Synaptic has a way of creating these lists and installing from them,
don't think it cares about the install state of anything not on the
list, also never tried using Synaptic to install from a list that had
package install states other than 'install'.

The list would be in the form of....

package package-state

so for example....

package1 install
package2 deinstall
package3 hold
etc....

Once the install states are set then you would do...

apt-get dselect-upgrade

to perform the installations and removals.

What kind of havoc that would create for aptitude if you try to use it
after doing these things, I don't know. I don't use aptitude.

You could create the list of selections on your current machine and load
it in a text editor and start deleting stuff, after saving an extra copy
somewhere so you can set the selection back the way they were if needed.

Personally I would use Synaptic to remove the stuff you don't want, then
if you still want to use aptitude later, deal with it's issues after the
fact.

Later, Seeker

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175242

On Tue 29 Nov 2016 at 09:11:37 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:

> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> writes:
> 
> > On Mon 28 Nov 2016 at 21:44:00 +0000, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> >
> >> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose Gnome as my
> >> Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free space, now I want to
> >> remove all those Gnome packages that I haven't used any more but am not sure
> >> what of them I may delete without perturbing the system.  How can I know?
> >> More
> >> in general, is there a way to know what packages one is not using and so can
> >> be
> >> removed?
> >
> > apt-get purge gnome gnome-shell
> > apt-get autoremove
> >
> > And go from there with 'dpkg -l'.
> 
> 
> Thanks.  But, my question is: how can I be sure and safe that doing so will not
> perturbing my system?

Impossible to answer because we do not know what you mean by "all those
Gnome packages that I haven't used any more". For example, is pulseaudio
a gnome package? Or dosfstools? Both are installed when GNOME is
installed.

If the technique above removes anything of value to you make a note of
it and reinstall it later to get an unperturbed system.

-- 
Brian.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175205

On 2016-11-28, Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all Debian users.
>
> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose Gnome as
> my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free space, now I
> want to remove all those Gnome packages that I haven't used any more
> but am not sure what of them I may delete without perturbing the
> system.  How can I know?  More in general, is there a way to know what
> packages one is not using and so can be removed?
>
> Thanks for any help,
>
> Rodolfo
>
>

See the deborphan package. It is useful for trimming unwanted (and
unneeded) packages from your system.

-- 

Liam

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175214

Liam O'Toole <liam.p.otoole@gmail.com> writes:

> On 2016-11-28, Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi all Debian users.
>>
>> When I freshly installed Debian on my present system, I chose Gnome as
>> my Desktop manager, then I switched to Openbox.  To free space, now I
>> want to remove all those Gnome packages that I haven't used any more
>> but am not sure what of them I may delete without perturbing the
>> system.  How can I know?  More in general, is there a way to know what
>> packages one is not using and so can be removed?
>>
>> Thanks for any help,
>>
>> Rodolfo
>>
>>
>
> See the deborphan package. It is useful for trimming unwanted (and
> unneeded) packages from your system.


I ran `deborphan --guess-all' but it seems to me that it wants to remove some
packages that I use a lot, like, e.g., musixtex and pmx.  So it doesn't seem to
be very reliable...

Rodolfo

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175217

On 2016-11-29, Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> See the deborphan package. It is useful for trimming unwanted (and
>> unneeded) packages from your system.
>
> I ran `deborphan --guess-all' but it seems to me that it wants to remove some
> packages that I use a lot, like, e.g., musixtex and pmx.  So it doesn't seem to
> be very reliable...

Well, it was a guess.

I think you're going to be obliged to cherry pick the software you want
to hold on to, e.g. 'apt-mark manuel pmx'.

Or I believe you can perform an 'apt-get install pmx musixtex' etc for a
similar if not identical result.

> Rodolfo
>
>


-- 
“It is enough that the arrows fit exactly in the wounds that they have made.”
Franz Kafka

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175221

On 2016-11-29, Curt <curty@free.fr> wrote:
> On 2016-11-29, Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> See the deborphan package. It is useful for trimming unwanted (and
>>> unneeded) packages from your system.
>>
>> I ran `deborphan --guess-all' but it seems to me that it wants to remove some
>> packages that I use a lot, like, e.g., musixtex and pmx.  So it doesn't seem to
>> be very reliable...
>
> Well, it was a guess.
>
> I think you're going to be obliged to cherry pick the software you want
> to hold on to, e.g. 'apt-mark manuel pmx'.
>
> Or I believe you can perform an 'apt-get install pmx musixtex' etc for a
> similar if not identical result.

Maybe an identical result actually.

>> Rodolfo
>>
>>
>
>


-- 
“It is enough that the arrows fit exactly in the wounds that they have made.”
Franz Kafka

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#175223

Curt <curty@free.fr> writes:

> On 2016-11-29, Curt <curty@free.fr> wrote:
>> On 2016-11-29, Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> See the deborphan package. It is useful for trimming unwanted (and
>>>> unneeded) packages from your system.
>>>
>>> I ran `deborphan --guess-all' but it seems to me that it wants to remove
>>> some packages that I use a lot, like, e.g., musixtex and pmx.  So it
>>> doesn't seem to be very reliable...
>>
>> Well, it was a guess.
>>
>> I think you're going to be obliged to cherry pick the software you want
>> to hold on to, e.g. 'apt-mark manuel pmx'.
>>
>> Or I believe you can perform an 'apt-get install pmx musixtex' etc for a
>> similar if not identical result.
>
> Maybe an identical result actually.


Both show that the package is already installed.  What do you mean?

Rodolfo

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

Page 1 of 3  [1] 2 3  Next page →

Back to top | Article view | linux.debian.user

csiph-web