rpm remove, but system says not installed
 

This is what happens when I try to remove a rpm... can anybody tell me why?

you don't uninstall an installation file, you uninstall a package...

rpm -e VMware-workstation

would you try to uninstall "setup.exe" in windows?

You're not supposed to enter the full rpm name (including version and .rpm) when removing the package. rpm looks for the package by it's name, the version is automatically the latest because there usually can't be two same packages installed at the same time with different versions. So the correct command to remove would be
In installation you need to provide the full package name of course, so rpm knows which file to work with, if you happened to have several files there for example. But with removal only the name is needed, rpm finds out the version information from it's database. If you use yum as your package manager, for example, you also don't use versions or .rpm in the package names, just the name part:
and so on, provided that such a package existed in the yum reposities.

yum applies to Fedora series, and to the other distributions that happen to use yum. The naming scheme is pretty common among package managers (use full filename to install single package, but only the name-part without version or .xxx when removing or using automated package management program).

Why does it tell me it is already installed then?

Do you know how to see if something is in the RPM database? Try:

Yep already did

Actually, these work:
and this not:
Anyway, the normal usage is the one suggested above: you need only the package name (w/o version, w/o architecture, w/o extension). If you re-read posts from acid_kewpie and bOuncer, you already have the solution! ;)

From that output, you could uninstall the rpm by doing
or using the version number as well

because you install a package FROM a file... e.g. you double click on setup.exe to install a windows program. that contains a package. sorry, but i'm not wrong...

Im not saying you were wrong, but I just don't get it.

Here, Ive done as you said, dropping the .rpm, but im getting the same result, where:

...

That's not entirely correct. It is possible to have multiple versions of the same RPM on your system (ie kernel). In such cases, you need to be specific on which version you need to remove.

Did you try what I suggested above?

as stated clearly quite a few times now, the package is called "VMware-workstation" or "VMware-workstation-5.5.1-19175" it even says it right there in the output you pasted in... "package VMwareWorkstation-5.5.1-19175 is already installed" . please read the replies fully in future. thanks...

[whoops, slight mistake from me there of course... it's VMwareWorkstation not VMware-workstation. i'll leave my typo in place for everyone elses amusement! :D]

Thanks Redazz, usefull and diplomatic (not like everyone :O) as usual!

this:

indeed worked out! In the future, I do I know how to spell the name correctly? meaning, how did you came up with "VMwareWorkstation" instead of "VMware-Workstation" or "vmwareworkstation"...?

Thanks very much!

as above, it was written in the output you pasted to us in the first place. it fair to say that in 99.9% of other occasions it's just the first part of the file name. seems odd that vmware deviated from that.