[SOLVED] Removing Cairo

[dollyp]

I installed Cairo but didn't like it (Plank more to my taste). I removed it through Software Manager but that only removed the main package but left dozens of other Cairo packages that were installed with Cairo. Is there a single command that will uninstall all of these?

David

(Mint 20.3 Cinnamon)

[zcot]

Cairo is a graphics library. Cairo dock, using the cairo lib, there's some potential variation to installing that package. It used to be called cairo-dock, but is more recently a reference with glx dock.

How did you install it? With the software manager that's as easy as removing the package, and using apt autoremove terminal command. Probably similar enough while using a 3rd party PPA but you need to end up also removing the PPA source afterward.

What packages are you seeing that are left over?

[dollyp]

How did you install it? With the software manager that's as easy as removing the package, and using apt autoremove terminal command

I installed the cairo metapackage using Software Manager. It installed loads of other packages. I uninstalled the cairo metapackage, again using Software Manager, but this only uninstalled the main cairo but left all the other cairo packages on my system. They're probably not taking up much space but they're still cluttering my system up.

I saw no reference to glx dock and didn't use a ppa.

apt autoremove would surely need a package name or multiple names.

What packages are you seeing that are left over?

cairo-dock-alsamixer-plugin, cairo-dock-animated-icons-plugin, cairo-dock-cairo-penguin-plugin are the first 3 of very many dozens showing as ticked in the Software Manager, too many to list. I'm looking for something like sudo apt purge cairo * that will take them all out in one command but I am not confident enough of using the apt command to guess at the syntax.

David

[all41]

open Synaptics and in the toolbar choose File/History
Search Cairo--that will reveal all the packages installed

[zcot]

Using synaptic should be straight forward, as all41 mentions above.

apt autoremove does not require package names, they are marked within the system as being installed and not any longer attached to their parent package thus just being inactive by themselves, well they are usable, but they were installed as a dependency and are not longer a dependency. You can take a look for yourself by using the command: apt autoremove --simulate (after that, if you like what you see, you can use UP ARROW, erase the --simulate part and go with it. There might be previous leftover kernel related packages as well, and those are fine to get rid of too)

Yes, you wouldn't want to "just guess" on terminal. But at least based on the 3 samples you gave, you could do it like this. First check what packages show up and that it is not catching other obviously wrong packages:
(use dpkg to list packages based on the pattern)

Code: Select all

dpkg -l "cairo-dock-*"

If that looks like a good pattern:
(use apt to remove and purge based on the pattern)

Code: Select all

apt purge "cairo-dock-*"

Further check:

Code: Select all

dpkg -l "cairo*"

Maybe there is something else, maybe not, or maybe it starts to include other non "cairo-dock" related system cairo packages, which would not be a good test to do on a production system.

[dollyp]

Many thanks all41 and zcot for replying.

apt autoremove --simulate showed no cairo packages but many references to kernel packages so I felt that it was best not following that through.

I used the dpkg and apt purge commands and that removed all of the cairo packages, and I have learnt some useful terminal commands, not least that I can use the * just as I would in a file search.

I find Synaptics very confusing and really don't like it. As an example I tried a search for cairo in Synaptics after using the purge command and all the packages still appear, although they can't be selected.

Marking this as solved.

David