Removing un-needed programs
 

My problem all started with Firefox. I, like many other's I found, was having issues with Firefox freezing up. Looking for other options, I installed Konqueror, which I didn't really like. I eventualy solved my Firefox problems, and removed Konqueror.

Now, I run Fedora 19 with the gnome desktop on a slightly older laptop, so when I removed Konqueror, I decided to remove a few programs that I hadn't used yet(almost a year after installing the OS), or didn't plan to use in the near future. Sorting through, I found nepomuck backup and cleaner. After a little research I found out these are KDE programs, and were likely installed as dependancies for Konqueror. I found the binary files under /bin, but for some reason cannot remove then. Running

sudo yum remove nepomukbackup

for example, returns:

Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit
No Match for argument: nepomukbackup
No Packages marked for removal

I tried again, thinking I mistyped the name, and instead copy-pasted it direclty from the listing after running ls | grep nepomuk. Same thing. I know it's there, but for some reason yum remove doesn't recognize it.

There is no reason to have these KDE programs on my machine, as I had already removed Konqueror. Any suggestions?

To find out which package a file belongs to, use the helpful Apparently nepomukbackup belongs to nepomuk-core-4.10.5-1.fc17

So you have to run rpm has tonnes of query optinos that let you search for all kinds of information about packages. lists all files in a package, for example. Running it on the package in question gives

Happy uninstalling!

So, now what
 

Alright. Using rpm -qf nepomukbackup the current version I have is nepomuk-core-4.11.5-1.fc19.x86_64. I tried to run rpm -e nepomuk-core-4.11.5-1.fc19.x86_64, and it came back two dependancies. The first was nepomuk-core-libs-4.11.5-1.fc19.x86_64. When I ran rpm -e on it, it came back failed due to dependancy on nepomuk-core-4.11.5-1.fc19.x86_64. It's a catch 22. I'm new to using rpm directly. Is there an easy way to handle this dependancy issue?

there isn't. i've been there.
not with kde, but the scenario is the same.
that's why it's called desktop environment - there's all those interdependencies and as long as you use the DE as it is, that's a good thing.

as i said, i've been there, and in the long run the best and maybe only real solution is to go the other way:
install a barebones system and start padding it out with what you need - and only what you need.

as an example, this worked nicely with my current archlinux install. i'm running a "homebrew" openbox environment and i'm totally satisfied. wasn't too difficult either.
whenever i install a new app i look closely what dependencies it wants to pull in, and if it seems too much i choose something else.

DJ Shaji likes this
 

:)

Yes there is, Kevin!
btw you could yum remove them too.

Solved
 

Thanks for the help all. I eventually just started copy-pasting the programs that had what I found as a dependancy, then ran again, and copy-pasted again, until it removed everything.

And to onoho, I'm not running kde as a desktop environment. I'm running GNOME. These programs were installed as dependancies when I installed Konqueror. It's not an integrated part of my system, just a bunch of files that, now that I've removed Konqueror, serve no purpose.

before you put too much work into fedora 19
it WILL be going End Of Life in 4 months
after August ( or 30 days after fedora 21 is released) there will be NO support
No security updates , no nothing


so you might want to install Fedora 20
THEN
remove any unneeded software