Hello,
I am a complete newbie with OpenSuse so please bear with me here. I managed to download & install the wrong version of Evolution (version 2.29)its an unstable & incomplete release. I want to download & install 2.28 instead which is a stable version of the program.
QUESTION. un-installing software in OpenSuse Linux is such a different process from MS windows I’m really not sure how to safely remove Evolution 2.29 now, feeling abit stuck TBH. Please could someone guide me through the process step by step instructions if that’s possible & not asking to much.
YES,your completely right how dumb of me to not mention that.:shame: I downloaded it from the OpenSUSE software repository online over the web directly using the 1click install method. I assume the installation was via YaST Qt.
As I am so completely unfamilar with YasT & this particular method of adding & removing software. I wasn’t feeling very confident of removing Evolution 2.29 without asking someone more familiar with this process. I could see Evolution listed in YasT within the right pane, some files were already checked with red X’s against each file (about x5 or x6 only)but many files below these were not checked so I wasn’t sure if I removed the program weather it would be cleanly removed. I was trying to avoid a dirty or incomplete removal.
The standard action of removing a package installed via YaST (the same btw when zypper was used, because YaST is but a GUI interface to zypper) is YaST > Software > Software management, search for the package as you already did). Then mark it for removing (right mouse click on the tiny box).
The problem here is that you may have installed more then one package because of dependencies. And when you did a 1-click install, you will not have written down what came with it. This is one of the reasons some people do not like the 1-click. So you can deinstall the main package (of which you know the name, but there may be left some orphans behind. Now that is not something dramatic. They will not occupy much disk space and that is it.
This problem of the software management system not being able to delete everything that came with a product (because of dependencies) is sometyhing loathed by many people, but it is not easy to be resolved. You could have installed other products that need one of those (what would be found because of that dependency), but you could also be the happy user of one of those either by direct execution or by a program not installed uing YaST/zypper.
THANK YOU! for your detailed reply & I understand everything you have said. However,on a practical level talking about how to work with YasT. OK! I have Evolution marked in the components (files)listed in the right hand pane but how to actually delete/remove/uninstall the selected files. How do I do that please?
As said, there is the box before the packet name (they are not files, but packets that include normaly several files, etc).
When a packet is available, but not installed the little box is empty.
When it is instaled there is a V in it.
Click right on this little box and there is a choice, among them deinstall/remove (or what it is, but it wiull be clear enough). Choose that one and click the lower right button (Accept IIRC).
I have YaST2 on my system here. OK! now being a little braver I think what I have now succeeded in doing is removing/uninstalled evolution 2.29 itself i.e. main application but as I feared I now have a whole load of orphaned files left over. in the YaST2 right hand pane. These definitely are left over & all related to Evolution 2.29 there are x30 files in all.
The remaining files have a empty/blank square next to each one on the left side of the file listing V next to the package column. I cannot seem to find a way to select these left over files nor a way to remove them safely. I now appear to have a partially uninstalled evolution. Its what I was trying to avoid, I’m sure the answer is simple if you know how. But being a newbie I’m probably missing something very straight forwards here, help!!
I’ve downloaded & installed Evolution 2.28 stable release version (install successful)which is what I was aiming at. It all appears to be working nicely now.
**If I now open YaST & search on Evolution I now have a mixture of Evolution 2.28 files mostly & a few remaining although fewer than before version 2.29 files. But it doesn’t seem to be a big problem. But its a bit messier than I would have liked really, but perhaps that’s me just being a wee bit of a perfectionist as usual.
Thanks for your help though, feel like I kind of got there in the end by feeling my way. The sighted leading the partially sighted perhaps?
If you want more explanation about what you see, post a copy of the screen (or a link to a picture of it on a image server on the net), so I can see what you see and understand what you say.
OK! yes I agree images are often more useful in this circumstances. I will do that & put it up on my home page website space and send you a link to it you can see what I’m talking about. May be I’m just barking up the wrong tree here, because if the files concerned were vital surely OpenSUSE would have flagged it up or displayed an error. I’m sorry but I am still stumbling & learning as I go along here. Will report back to you tommorrow when I have more time on it. Thanks Ivan
That is fine. We are here to help you. Not only with problems that you encounter, but also (personaly I like that even more) by pointing the way to more knowledge.
I will be away the next two days. In case nobody else will jump in, I will certainly come back after saturday.
I was having difficulty transferring files from one machine to another in order to upload them for you, but its been a real hassle so have given up on that for now.
TBH Evolution 2.28 stable version is installed & working fine so I can live with the fact that some old version 2.29 files still exsist but are not causing any problems.
So I think its all working OK now, so I don’t I’ll pursue this any further. But just wanted to say I have really really appreciated your help & support. Thanks once again and all the best over the holiday period & best regards for 2010. Ivan
