Tried MATE, didn't work, and now stuck with tons of unused packages

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I use KDE 4 on OpenSUSE 13.2, but I wanted to have a backup DE in case of problems with KDE, and I also wanted to see where other DEs are at these days. So I installed MATE Base System and Mate Desktop Environment using the appropriate patterns in Yast.

MATE simply didn’t work – on the first couple runs it went nuts adding hundreds of windows to the task bar (apparently Dolphin), and it didn’t let me launch MATE/Gnome programs (I was able to launch Firefox just fine), making it completely useless.

Okay, no big deal – back to KDE, where I used Yast to uninstall the two patterns I mentioned above. This operation took about 1/4 of a second, which can’t be right. And indeed, when I go to Yast’s list of installed packages for MATE, nothing at all seems to have been uninstalled!

So now I’ve got a system with many GBs of cruft and detritus. **How do I use Yast to uninstall what I used Yast to install? **I can’t really go through the package lists and manually ininstall everything. Plus, I do use a few apps that are from Gnome/MATE, so I don’t want to uninstall everything, just what I just installed.

SO, um… help!

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If you’re using btrfs, use snapper to return to the last snapshot before the MATE install.

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I use “Icewm” as my backup. For something more versatile, I recommend XFCE.

Note that I actually have KDE, Gnome, XFCE, LXDE and MATE installed (on one of my boxes).

MATE simply didn’t work – on the first couple runs it went nuts adding hundreds of windows to the task bar (apparently Dolphin), and it didn’t let me launch MATE/Gnome programs (I was able to launch Firefox just fine), making it completely useless.

MATE works for me, after a fashion.

Take a look at Bug 905808 MATE / caja gone mad
Those are caja windows (not dolphin). There are hints in the bug report on how to tame caja.

Okay, no big deal – back to KDE, where I used Yast to uninstall the two patterns I mentioned above. This operation took about 1/4 of a second, which can’t be right. And indeed, when I go to Yast’s list of installed packages for MATE, nothing at all seems to have been uninstalled!

A pattern seems to be a small text file with dependencies and recommends that pull in other software. You successfully removed the small text file, but kept everything else.

Unless you are seriously short of disk space, it is harmless to leave MATE installed, and just never select it at the desktop login screen.

I almost never use Gnome, XFCE, LXDE or MATE, but keep them installed anyway. I do occasionally login for testing something. The extra disk space that they use is not too huge. I also have latex installed, and that probably takes more additional disk space than those other desktops.

If I really want to get rid of all unneeded software, I would do a complete reinstall (but keeping the same “/home” partition). It’s not easy to identify and remove just what is not needed.

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I’m an ext4 kind of guy, actually. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I actually had IceWM installed, but I’m 100% positive I never chose to install it! It was just… there… the first time I looked at the alternative DEs for logging in. No idea how or why.

I logged in just to check it out, and it was a real blast from the past! 1994 or so, I’d say. :wink: I can’t figure out how to get much of anything done with it, though, and I really don’t have time to learn right now :frowning:

MATE works for me, after a fashion.

Take a look at Bug 905808 MATE / caja gone mad
Those are caja windows (not dolphin). There are hints in the bug report on how to tame caja.

Great tip! I just followed its recommendations, and we’ll see what happens.

Unless you are seriously short of disk space, it is harmless to leave MATE installed, and just never select it at the desktop login screen.

This is really sage advice. I just know that if I go rooting around uninstalling things willy nilly, I’ll end up with an unusable system. And I’ve got more than enough disk space to have all the major WMs/DEs installed, really. Hell, I’ve never installed Gnome, but I already had virtually every Gnome package unwittingly installed, presumibly because I use a few Gnome apps and they pulled in everything imaginable as a dependency.

Thanks for your help!

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Yes, it is there as part of a standard install. But it is a bit primitive if you want to do anything fancy, which is why XFCE is a good alternative.

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Well, since IceWM comes standard, most of Gnome was already installed, and almost none of MATE would uninstall, I just decided to go in full hog and install Gnome, MATE and XFCE.

I’ve been using KDE for forever now, and I know it like the back of my hand, and… I don’t think I’ll be leaving it any time soon! My only real complaint about it is all the orphaned **** that surrounds it – themes, Dolphin menu modifications, Krusader actions and the like that are still hosted on semi-official sites, but are from 5, 10 or more years ago and are pretty much guaranteed to fail. That, and the fact that Dolphin and KDE are second-class citizens for things like Dropbox.

Two of the biggest factors that make my workflow flow are (a) my custom shortcuts and (b) my personal reordering of software in the launcher. Is there any way to import these from KDE into XFCE, Gnome and / or MATE?

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Sorry, I can’t help with that. I’ve never tried a custom shortcut. Instead, I would use a custom shell script and start it in a terminal session.