uninstall question - how to clean up system?
 

Hi all

I installed Debian a week an a half ago (rather new to Linux) and since then managed to successfully compile a new kernel, which I'm using now (2.6.13.1 - from kernel.org) and I got very comfortable with fluxbox as a WM - instead of using KDE or GNOME, which I find rather bloated.

I'm curious how I could uninstall certain items to free up some space (not that I'm overly worried about it, but I see it's filling up since the installation of Debian. Since at the time of installation I wasn't quite certain what packages to install manually I let the installer do the job for me. Now, however, I'l like to get rid of the packages I have no use for such as KDE-based games.

Problem is dependencies. I tried apt-get uninstall to get rid of "Atlantik" as a trial run, but the dependencies include "kde"!! I'd still like to use some kde apps but I don't want to ditch "kde" because of some strange game that takes up 3MB!

Is there any way to uninstall these packages without "killing" kde or gnome?

Also - any suggestions on how to "clean" a system by uninstalling unused libs or other packages, orphaned files, old kernel versions, etc?

Thanks ... (back to tweaking).

Cheers

deborphan will clean out libraries that are no longer being used.

As for KDE apps, you will probably have to uninstall KDE along with the games then reinstall just KDE. Personally I wouldn't worry about 3mb unless you really need the space.

Are you sure it was a legitimate KDE library and not just some meta-pkg?
Run the apt-get session in a terminal and post the output if unsure.

Right! thanks for the response fellas.

I'll try deborphan to see what I can free up.
I currently have 12GB allocated for / (35% used) and another 12 for /home (10% used) as separate partitions. Thing is I have a laptop which I use as a dual-boot system (XP/Linux). So I'd like to pear down the Linux installation and remove some packages that are useless for me (kde games, for instance), without removing the base packages (either KDE or GNOME) since I use some KDE and GNOME apps. Of course, there's still LOTS of space left but


Here's the result of "apt-get remove atlantik":

:D

As you can see it attempts to remove kde as a dependency which is rather strange.
Actually I wouldn't mind uninstalling KDE altogether but then again, there are certain K-apps I use. Not quite sure how I would re-install a pared down version of KDE later .... Hehe... something to fiddle with I suppose. A bit more research would be in order.

:study:

'locale-purge' is another way to freeing up some disk space.

I would also like to investigate dependencies. I assume the packages are compiled with most options enabled, to make full use of other packages´ features, and thereby linking them together in a big dependency chain. But as alsac says, why does it seem like when one tries to remove just a single little application, the dependency checker wants to remove an entire desktop system? That is more of a rule than exception for me when I try to get rid of seemingly innocent small applications or libraries.

And the other way too, if I want to install an application I know do not need kde-libraries at all, the dependency checker wants to install the complete kde-system, just because the package maintainers have compiled the package with support for kde. I understand that this will make most applications work without problems in general, but if one wants a slim system, what to do?

Okay, just for reference here are the packages to be removed:

atlantik
atlantikdesigner
kde
kde-amusements
kdeaddons
kdegames

Kde is the meta-pkg name for the kde environment. You are uninstalling a package that is dependent upon the meta-pkg kdegames which in turn is dependent upon kde. You see how this is just a chain effect? Atlantik is a part of the kdegames meta-pkg, which is part of the kde meta-pkg. So, when the link is broken they all tumble over.

To illustrate this let's assume I want to remove the kdegames meta-pkg.
Let's see what else gets pulled in:

Look familiar? The only difference between this and your apt session is that you went deeper into the dep hierarchy and pulled an application that was dependent upon kdegames itself. Once this occurred the rest was easily predictable. In short, this meant that kdegames had to be removed and then of course kde had to be uninstalled.

... Which means that the only solution really is to completely uninstall everything related to KDE and then re-install KDE (base) and only those packages that are usefull - at least for me. Rather awkward method but a good lesson for future installation.

:rolleyes:

I'll keep checkin around for alternate solutions - maybe just erase individual packages and foresake the dependency string - hopefully my system won't complain too much.

cheers!

hi guys just want to ask..il be reinstalling my gxine and xine.. so il be uninstalling them first... hmm wat command will i use? uninstall? ? pls help.. newbie hre.. thanks...

apt-get remove pkgname

where pkgname is the package to uninstall.

or

aptitude remove pkgname