How to stop defaut applications reinstalling themselves?

Hi all , I’m new to opensuse and really liking what I’m seeing so far but a few annoyances one being:

First thing I do on installing a new distro is remove the applications I don’t use/like.

I’ve always had issues with braesero so removed that along with other applications that are fine but I simply don’t use , transmission , pidgin , thunderbird , totem (gui and plugins only) , juicer , rhythm box. (I use alternatives.)

Then I went back to install applications and it automatically re-ticked them all for installation , so I un-ticked them all.

Then I did an update and it re-installed every single one.

How can avoid this happening again?

Thanks for your time. :slight_smile:

Hi,

You can put a lock on those apps that you don’t want to install/use but beware it might break some other apps.
I assume you are using yast2 for installing packages if so you can right click on the package you don’t want to be installed and taboo or lock it.
Also

zypper help al

and see how to put a lock on a program using zypper.

These are recommended thus brought in.

Go to Yast Software management Options - Ignore recommendation for already installed packages

The you can gut things to your hearts content.

On 2015-06-13 03:36, DanDare wrote:

> Then I did an update and it re-installed every single one.
>
> HOW CAN AVOID THIS HAPPENING AGAIN?

You don’t say what release you are using, but this is an issue that
appeared with 13.2.

A search on the forum will find you dozens of times this question has
been asked.

You have to taboo each of those packages, or disable something named
“install recommends for already installed packages” or similar wording,
in YaST.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

*“Go to Yast Software management Options - Ignore recommendation for already installed packages”
*
Thanks gogalthorp , perfect , I sense some hostility with the "gut" remark though , I feel the flexibility of Linux is one of it’s greatest and healthiest features.

Sorry for not searching the forums adequately I Googled a fare bit and forget there’s much more to searching than that.

LOL no but that is what you do when you remove recommend packages. I never quite got the reason to do this since if you don’t want to use a program don’t use it. At worst it takes a bit of disk space. Also in general there is a reason for a recommended package to be recommended. It my not be a requirement but something would use it if it was available. On the other hand there is ample reason to do this gutting on a new Windows machine to remove the bloatware. But your system you are free to break anything you like :stuck_out_tongue:

OpenSuse tells me if anything I remove has dependent packages and I always remove them too or remove nothing at all. Surely that means nothing unexpected will break. I think your trying to make it sound much more reckless and scary than it really is.

No just saying that it it not as wise as you think.

There are reasons that some package recommend others. True it will not “break anything” however it may limit usability or options in some packages. You certainly don’t have to follow what the programmers that packaged the stuff think is a good combination but why just blow it away?? No Law says that you have to use the packages Most things sit quite on the disk not bothering anybody unless you need them.

On 2015-06-14 00:46, DanDare wrote:

> OpenSuse tells me if anything I remove has dependent packages and I
> always remove them too or remove nothing at all. Surely that means
> nothing unexpected will break. I think your trying to make it sound much
> more reckless and scary than it really is.

There are dependencies, that are absolutely needed, and there are
recommended packages, that are optional, but recommended.

The recommendations can be for many reasons. A program may need a set of
things to run, but often there are alternatives, or it may also use
another set of packages if they are installed. If they aren’t, well,
some feature or other will not work. A menu may be grayed out, for instance.

Till 13.1, if you removed a package, YaST would remember, and even if
something recommended it would remember and respect that you had removed
it. But apparently this feature misfired and caused problems, so it was
removed on 13.2.

In Linux, having many packages installed usually only takes disk space,
and this is mostly cheap nowdays. Arguable. They also take bandwidth on
updates.

So, you either taboo those packages (which is what I would do), or
disable the feature to install recommended (which I would not do). Your
choice :slight_smile:


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Fare call , I’d be ok leaving them all except brazero in the future. Just had so many failed burns (4+ different PCs) that I want to make sure u don’t have any of its packaging , I just really like things “exactly so” like a lot of other people even if it doesn’t make total sense technically. That being said if anything created any sort of instability I’d definetly live with it being not “perfect”.

Can you give an example of removing a recommended application and it affecting something that’s not technically dependent on it?

I haven’t come across that before. (Not saying your wrong.)

On 2015-06-14 01:46, DanDare wrote:

> Can you give an example of removing a recommended application and it
> affecting something that’s not technically dependent on it?
>
> I haven’t come across that before. (Not saying your wrong.)

Yes, you have.

k3b evaluates what applications are installed in the system
(configure/programs), and will use those it finds. All can be
recommended, none is absolutely needed.

Firefox. It will use the system installed flash, but it is not a hard
requirement to have it installed.

LibreOffice. If found, it will use java, but it can run fine without it;
without wizards, though.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Fare call , is the recommended system something all distros and package managers use or is it unique to opensuse?

On 2015-06-14 05:46, DanDare wrote:
>
> Fare call , is the recommended system something all distros and package
> managers use or is it unique to opensuse?

I don’t know.

The example I gave, being upstream programs, have to be handled by all,
somehow.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

This is not unique to openSUSE at all.
The “Recommends” (also called “weak” requirements) and “Suggests” (also called “very weak” requirements) are part of the RPM specification, which also tells that recommended packages should be installed by default.

See http://www.rpm.org/wiki/PackagerDocs/Dependencies, the last paragraph:

Weak dependencies

In addition to the strong dependencies created by Requires, there are 4 dependencies that are completely ignored by rpm itself. Their purpose is to be used by dependency solvers to make choices about what packages to install. They come in two levels of strength:

  • Weak: By default the dependency solver shall attempt to process the dependency as though it were strong. If this is results in an error then they should be ignored and not trigger an error or warning.
  • Very weak: By default the dependency solver shall ignore them. But they may be used to show the matching packages as option to the user.

The depsolver may offer to treat the weak like very weak relations or the other way round.

RPM doesn’t handle that itself though, as RPM doesn’t automatically install dependent packages at all. This is left to higher-level tools like YaST/zypper.
So it might be that not all higher-level package management tools support them (correctly).

I don’t know about other package management systems like DPKG though.