https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package en a blog about Debian and self-hosting Sat, 17 Sep 2016 23:57:00 +0000 PluXml https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1474156656-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1474156656-1 Thank you Tanguy, for this interesting discussion on meta-packages. I think meta-packages is how distros preserve their identity, so we can't avoid breaking them without consequences. I've decided to keep Evolution and Gnome-Games -- begrudgingly. Also, in Debian I'm seeing that some of the Gnome *components* also attach Evolution as a dependency -- so now it's more complicated than unmarking meta-packages. My problem with Evolution is that it does not seem to work well with IMAP for MY Gmail account (it never succeeds in signing in, so it's useless unless I use it as a POP client which downloads messages to my hard drive (who wants that any more?!) For those having similar issues with Evolution for their Gmail account, I did find a possible solution in a package called gnome-gmail which integrates your Gmail account with the Gnome Desktop. It worked for me when I ran Ubuntu Unity (until recently) and appears to be working in Debian Gnome (Jessie.) My attempt to install a manually downloaded package failed, but adding the dev's PPA allowed it to appear in Debian Packages (Ubuntu Software Center) and it installed successfully. Below is the gnome-gmail dev site. Good luck to all. https://davesteele.github.io/gnome-gmail/ Sat, 17 Sep 2016 23:57:00 +0000 DebianUser https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1382627504-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1382627504-1 I've got Wheezy, and followed the instructions; but it stall wanted to uninstall Gnome. I also tried the aptitude GUI method as suggested; but I get the same thing. What burns me, is RhythmBox sends metadate on EVERYTHING I'm playing to Last.fm. Ubuntu pulls the same crap with Amarok - which reports everything I play. VLC player reports everything I play to MusicBrains.com. My conclusion: freeware is probably being invaded by "helpers" that are paid to subvert our privacy. Thu, 24 Oct 2013 15:11:00 +0000 CodeLurker https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1351150245-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1351150245-1 Nowadays what I do when installing Debian is that I start from nothing (the "server mode" with no graphical environment) and then I only install what I strictly need :) Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:30:00 +0000 Doom https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1349117003-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1349117003-1 Thanks! I adapted your explanation to remove mate-keyring :) It's a much grater... pain than evolution. Evolution just lingers somewhere and keyring... stalks. Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:43:00 +0000 nuoritoveri https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1335612693-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1335612693-1 Thanks for the unmarkauto explanation. Then how to reinstall or rebuild GNOME things free from useless components with deeper dependencies, like avahi that I won't use on my network? I tried to force remove it with dpkg but the desktop menus were gone after reboot, had to reinstall with synaptic fixing so-called broken packages. In the end, I did not feel much more free than on Windows. Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:31:00 +0000 silicium https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1330570541-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1330570541-1 @shirish > An update, it seems now evolution brings in evolution-exchange and > evolution-plugins and both seem to be circular dependencies as trying > either of them gives something like this :- The relevant dependencies: - gnome depends on evolution-exchange, evolution-plugins -- evolution-exchange depends on evolution, libevolution --- evolution depends on libevolution -- evolution-plugins depends on libevolution Note that these are not circular; the depended on packages never themselves depend on a package higher up in the tree. For a circular dependency you would have to see something like libevolution depending on evolution, which would be quite bogus :-) As mentioned by Tanguy a few comments back, it is expected that removing something like evolution or evolution-plugins is going to break the gnome meta-package and cause it to be removed also. However, after doing the unmarkauto commands from the post you will not see the other packages from gnome being removed also. Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:55:00 +0000 mandyke https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1330141914-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1330141914-1 An update, it seems now evolution brings in evolution-exchange and evolution-plugins and both seem to be circular dependencies as trying either of them gives something like this :- $ sudo aptitude remove evolution-plugins The following packages will be REMOVED: evolution-plugins 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 1,158 kB will be freed. The following packages have unmet dependencies: gnome: Depends: evolution-plugins (>= 3.0) but it is not going to be installed. The following actions will resolve these dependencies: Remove the following packages: 1) gnome 2) gnome-desktop-environment Leave the following dependencies unresolved: 3) evolution recommends evolution-plugins 4) task-gnome-desktop recommends gnome Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] q Abandoning all efforts to resolve these dependencies. Abort. $ sudo aptitude remove evolution The following packages will be REMOVED: evolution 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 5,167 kB will be freed. The following packages have unmet dependencies: evolution-plugins: Depends: evolution (= 3.2.2-1) but it is not going to be installed. evolution-exchange: Depends: evolution (>= 3.2) but it is not going to be installed. Depends: evolution (< 3.3) but it is not going to be installed. gnome: Depends: evolution (>= 3.0) but it is not going to be installed. open: 32; closed: 301; defer: 8; conflict: 26 .The following actions will resolve these dependencies: Remove the following packages: 1) evolution-exchange 2) evolution-plugins 3) gnome 4) gnome-desktop-environment Leave the following dependencies unresolved: 5) evolution-common recommends evolution 6) libreoffice-evolution recommends evolution 7) task-gnome-desktop recommends gnome Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] q Abandoning all efforts to resolve these dependencies. Abort. Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:51:00 +0000 shirish https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1330141686-1 https://tanguy.ortolo.eu/blog/article8/uninstall-meta-package/#c1330141686-1 Hi, I'm running Debian sid/unstable. I know I shouldn't run commands that I don't understand still I did and this is what happened :- $ sudo aptitude unmarkauto '?reverse-depends(gnome) | ?reverse-recommends(gnome)' [sudo] password for shirish: "python2.5-pyorbit" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "ocaml-base-nox-3.11.2" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. Note: selecting "ocaml-base-nox" instead of the virtual package "ocaml-base-nox-3.12.1" "liblablgtk2-ocaml-h3pg1" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. Note: selecting "liblablgtk2-ocaml" instead of the virtual package "liblablgtk2-ocaml-yfv67" "libghc6-haskell98-dev-1.0.1.1-0fdaf" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "python2.6-gtk2" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "libghc6-base-dev-4.2.0.0-2cc27" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. Note: selecting "liblablgtk2-gnome-ocaml" instead of the virtual package "liblablgtk2-gnome-ocaml-aow60" "perlapi-5.10.0" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "ada-compiler" is a virtual package provided by: gnat-4.6 gnat-4.4 You must choose one to install. "libghc6-containers-dev-0.3.0.0-4a332" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "python2.5-gobject" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "libghc6-glib-dev-0.11.0-ca645" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "ocaml-nox-3.11.2" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. Note: selecting "ocaml-nox" instead of the virtual package "ocaml-nox-3.12.1" "libghc6-array-dev-0.3.0.0-ed0c6" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "libghc6-gtk-dev-0.11.0-05911" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "python2.5-gtk2" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "liblablgtk2-ocaml-dev-h3pg1" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. "liblablgtk2-gnome-ocaml-4ol02" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. Note: selecting "liblablgtk2-ocaml-dev" instead of the virtual package "liblablgtk2-ocaml-dev-yfv67" "libghc6-mtl-dev-1.1.0.2-23ca4" exists in the package database, but it is not a real package and no package provides it. No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed. 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used. Should it be giving output like this ? Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:48:00 +0000 shirish