Remove a package without removing dependencies

[BeWop]

I need to remove libgl1-mesa-swx11, as after I installed it, it has slowed down all my graphics. However, in SPM, it says in order to remove it, I have to remove most of my system, it seems as though it's "dependencies" involve everything to do with graphics, which I was running fine and much better before.

So, how do I remove this package without removing dependencies?

[dv3500ea]

By dependencies, do you mean packages that libgl-mesa-swx11 depends on or packages that depend upon it.

You can't uninstall a package without uninstalling all packages that depend on it.

Just uninstalling it normally shouldn't remove any packages it depends on.

[James78]

How do you remove it without removing the dependencies?

sudo dpkg -r --force-all libgl1-mesa-swx11

or (purge everything, I prefer this way)

sudo dpkg -P --force-all libgl1-mesa-swx11

WARNING:: Doing this will probably make your system unusable, DO NOT ATTEMPT UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND THIS. Don't blame me if your system breaks.

[BeWop]

How do you remove it without removing the dependencies?

sudo dpkg -r --force-all libgl1-mesa-swx11

or (purge everything, I prefer this way)

sudo dpkg -P --force-all libgl1-mesa-swx11

WARNING:: Doing this will probably make your system unusable, DO NOT ATTEMPT UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND THIS. Don't blame me if your system breaks.

Thanks, this did the trick. Everything's working again.