[SOLVED]Will uninstalling default programs like Brasero hurt the OS?

[Mintuser998]

Will it really hurt the OS? A page on the "Linux Mint Tips Project" said it could. What would it do if it does damage anything? I wanted to delete Brasero, Hexchat, Pidgion Internet Messenger, Thunderbird Mail, and Transmission. They annoy me by being on my computer.

[Mattyboy]

https://askubuntu.com/questions/361741/ ... pendencies

Sometimes when you install programs, they rely on other programs to work. These other programs are called dependencies.

For example, if I write a messenging application, and I want my messages to be encrypted, instead of creating a way to encrypt the messages myself, I'll use a package that someone else has written, which will do the encryption for me. Now when you want to install my program, you need my program, but you also need the package I used to encrypt the messages. My program depends on the other program.

When Ubuntu installs new programs, it installs them from a big warehouse of programs called a repository or a repo. It's quite clever too, if it notices that a program depends on another program, it will install both at the same time so you don't have to worry about it.

However, problems come up when a program depends on another program, but Ubuntu can't find it in the repositories.

This happens more often when there is a new version of Ubuntu, becase a new version of Ubuntu means a whole new repository, and sometimes not all programs are updated for the new version of Ubuntu and therefore aren't in the repository. Over time, as programs get updated and added to the new repository, this problem should happen less and less.

I hope that helps.

[trytip]

create a Timeshift snapshot then you can test it out. if you mess your system up you can restore it. your dependencies may differ from others. i don't have Brasero, Hexchat, Pidgion Internet Messenger, Thunderbird Mail, and Transmission which i uninstalled a long time ago in my 17.3 mate but don't quote me on this if your system breaks. i always only use synaptic for everything not sure if software manager will block you or act different.

[Moem]

You can just remove the menu entries, and you'll never see them again.

[Mintuser998]

create a Timeshift snapshot then you can test it out. if you mess your system up you can restore it. your dependencies may differ from others. i don't have Brasero, Hexchat, Pidgion Internet Messenger, Thunderbird Mail, and Transmission which i uninstalled a long time ago in my 17.3 mate but don't quote me on this if your system breaks. i always only use synaptic for everything not sure if software manager will block you or act different.

How do I create a Timeshift snapshot? Also, can I keep it on the same hard drive? I seriously doubt these programs are dependencies for anything. I thought it was for another reason that I couldn't delete them...

[trytip]

open timeshift > settings >
type > rsync
location > select your home partition
schedule > weekly ( i don't use schedule as i don't like things running in background without my supervision)
users > /root / include all (this is unchecked by default but i use it)
filters > just leave it as is
close > the settings will close and main Timeshift window will stay open
then hit Create this will take a long time depending of cpu and partition size. let it do it's thing and don't play with the computer till it's done

restore is the same. boot with live mint select settings and go through the settings but you don't need schedule/users/filters mainly the location you chose for create. click on the date of snapshot and restore

Warning: there is no confirmation for CREATE / RESTORE / DELETE so if you have them selected and you somehow click on one of these buttons, well what ever you click on is what's gonna happen. Timeshift developers need to give you at least a confirmation maybe two for beginner, then maybe a setting to turn off confirmations if you like.

it does a good job of restoring. i broke my arch linux last week about lost count maybe 4/5 times trying to and not succeed in upgrading xorg-server 1.20, i have timeshift installed in my linux mint mate 17.3 and used it to restore. there are minor issues i have with timeshift but as far as linux system restore goes it's the only backup program that has all files included for a good backup. most backup programs come with a blank configuration and ask you what you want backed up. a good backup program you open select where and hit create/restore and have some coffee

ps: one thing to note when restoring on multiboot systems. when you hit restore you get a window where things will get restored to. leave everything like so BUT > Bootloader Option (Advanced) UNcheck everything if you don't want your bootloader disturbed. when restoring my arch i uncheck these since my bootloader are belong to mint

[Mintuser998]

I don't have Timeshift installed... I thought it was a default program.

[Pjotr]

Brasero, Thunderbird and Pidgin can be safely removed. I've tested that on several machines: no negative side effects.

[Flemur]

Brasero, Hexchat, Pidgion Internet Messenger, Thunderbird Mail, and Transmission.
They annoy me by being on my computer.

They all also annoy me and I uninstall all of them and nothing is broken. At worst you might loose the association, say, between brasero and burning CDs, very easy to fix.

Re dependencies: when you uninstall something LOOK AT THE OTHER THINGS which might depend on what you're uninstalling. The uninstallers will tell you the extra stuff that'll get removed if they depend on the thing you're removing.

Or you can do this (show what packages depend on transmission):

Code: Select all

$ apt-rdepends  -r transmission
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
transmission
  Reverse Depends: lubuntu-desktop (0.65.3)
lubuntu-desktop

IIRC, lubuntu-desktop is a meta packagte which includes a set of packages to make the complete desktop, including the stuff you don't want or need...like transmission.

Show what packages transmission depends on:

Code: Select all

$ apt-rdepends  transmission
...
transmission
  Depends: transmission-cli (>= 2.84-3ubuntu3)
...
transmission-cli
  Depends: libc6 (>= 2.14)
  Depends: libcurl3-gnutls (>= 7.18.0)
...hundreds of lines more...

So if you were to uninstall libc6, then it would want to uninstall transmission, and maybe most of the rest of the OS.

Edit: if you want to watch your terminal for a few minutes, try this (240,126 lines of output):

Code: Select all

apt-rdepends  -r  libc6 

[Mintuser998]

I just deleted everything. Before seeing the posts just before mine. It didn't hurt anything.... I didn't think there would be a program that depended on any of them.

[Moem]

I don't have Timeshift installed... I thought it was a default program.

That depends on your version of Mint, which you haven't told us.

[Mintuser998]

Oh. Cinnamon 18.3.

[trytip]

I don't have Timeshift installed... I thought it was a default program.

neither did i on mint 17.3

[pbear]

I don't have Timeshift installed... I thought it was a default program.

Yes, it's default in 18.3 (all desktops). You want it and should be using. Makes updates (including Level 4) virtually risk free, as you always have the ability to revert to a working version of your system. Click Menu, then look under Administration. If that doesn't work, try the search box. If still MIA, open Synaptic Package Manager and see what it says. If listed but not installed, guess what you do next?

[Pjotr]

Indeed, Timeshift is a fine application that I recommend as well.... Note that it does require quite some disk space. So I advise to configure Timeshift to put its snapshots on a dedicated storage partition or even on an external USB hard disk.

[Mintuser998]

What is the difference between RSYNC and BTRFS?

[Pjotr]

What is the difference between RSYNC and BTRFS?

Forget about BTRFS if you haven't made that your filesystem. Which certainly isn't default; good old EXT4 is the default. Also in Mint 19, by the way.

[Mintuser998]

Can RSYNC copy literally everything like BTRFS?

[pbear]

From the Timeshift website:

In RSYNC mode, snapshots are taken using rsync and hard-links. Common files are shared between snapshots which saves disk space. Each snapshot is a full system backup that can be browsed with a file manager.

In BTRFS mode, snapshots are taken using the in-built features of the BTRFS filesystem. BTRFS snapshots are supported only on BTRFS systems having an Ubuntu-type subvolume layout (with @ and @home subvolumes).

BTW, in my humble opinion, whether you need to worry about the size of the Timeshift backups depends on how you set up your system. No reason to worry if it's the default installation with a single large root partition. It's folks with separate root and home partitions who have run out of room, in part because the old recommendations for the size of root didn't take Timeshift into account. Even then, it's easy to direct snapshots to the home partition. Perhaps there's a modest performance advantage to having a dedicated snapshot partition, but it's not necessary.

Likewise, external storage has advantages but isn't necessary for Timeshift's primary purpose and makes snapshots more complicated unless the external drive is always attached. Personally, I use image backup for the system, so off-loading or duplicating the Timeshift snapshots isn't worth the hassle. YMMV.

ETA: In retrospect, I realize I'm probably mistaken as to why Pjotr is recommending a separate partition or external drive. He'd be the person to explain, of course, but I suspect the rationale is mainly to sequester Timeshift snapshots so they can't overrun a partition needed to operate the system. Fair enough, but I'd call that advanced strategy, not something most newbies need or will be comfortable trying to implement.

[Mintuser998]

I'm more of a low intermediate Linux user(only mint) than a noob. I have been using it on and off for over a year now.