Aptitude can't uninstall gnome-core, how is this possible?
 

I recently installed gnome-core. I wanted to get rid of the gdm login manager but I was unsuccessful. So I gave up and went the other extreme uninstall gnome-core. I did “aptitude purge gnome-core” and it is still there. the login manager is still there it is as if aptitude does not know what to do.

How can i fix this?

Edit:

I just noticed something I install gdm and notice it looks the same as what i was seeing but now i have options. Is it possible that kdm login is being skinned to look like gdm and behaving differently? If so how can set it back to the default look?

Aptitude knows exactly what to do when you type aptitude remove gnome-core: it removes all the packages that are part of gnome-core. Your problem was that gdm is not a part of gnome-core, so you would need to remove it separately. If you want gnome-core, but not gdm, then reinstall gnome-core and remove gdm.

If you have the gnome or gnome-desktop-environment meta-packages installed, then trying to install gdm with aptitude may cause a lot of other things to be removed. In that case, you have two options. (1) Remove it all and then reinstall the pieces you really use every day. That actually gets rid of a lot of cruft, so I recommend it. (2) Use apt-get to surgically remove gdm, then enter aptitude keep-all and go back to using aptitude as normal.

The Scenario

I wanted to install and test Compiz. It was not working with KDE so I decided to install Gnome to see if Compiz would work better. Well I was shocked, Compiz work almost perfectly with Gnome. To install Gnome I did

This is my Microsoft way of thinking coming out. When I installed gnome-core it change KDM's theme. I have never bothered to changed anything with KDM or KDE. I am not a big skinner/theme user. I only use a computer a a tool so I always keep things looking the way they came installed. This confused me because all of a sudden KDM had the gnome back ground image and my face browser, what I use to click on user(s) to log in was gone. I though I was using GDM now.

In my panic I tried to uninstall GDM which was never installed. I thought this was weird since my default theme and behavior for KDM was no longer the same. I thought aptitude and Synaptic was broken.

I decided to install GDM just to see if things might be different and they were I had new options that have never been available for KDM before this verified that the package was never installed and that this was a theme change. I never new that themes existed that could exclude the face browsing functionality.

[SOLUTION]

I unistalled GDM went to KDE's website and search for a KDM theme that supports face browsing and I was once again able to log in using a face browser.

My question is how can I get the original KDM theme back? Is this theme available some where for download, like other KDM themes?

Thanks