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Thread: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

  1. #1
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    Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    Hi, I don't know much about Zeitgeist, but from what I can find by searching online, it looks like one of those programs like Google Desktop Search that constantly runs, indexing your files and keeping track of your history.

    I generally try to stay away from programs like this. I like to use "find" to find files and a Terminal to run programs and do most of my work. Once in a while I need to go into Firefox's history to find something, but firefox already handles that. After a couple weeks of honestly trying Unity, I disliked the crashes/unresponsive windows and went back to Ubuntu Classic, so I don't need Unity's "recent files" thing. Ubuntu One's web interface and Google Docs are the closest I ever come to cloud computing; I definitely don't like anything that takes resources to constantly update itself, other than the little weather applet.

    I want the computer to do the things I am asking it to do, and as little extra as possible. After every Ubuntu upgrade I habitually delete everything I don't use (evolution, ubuntu one, bluetooth, and couchdb among others.) Should I add Zeitgeist to my delete list?

    thanks, hreichgott

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    643
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    Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    Is this the thing that from time to time tells me it is "suspending desktop indexing to save resources"? I was puzzled by this one, as far as I could remember I had not told anything to index anything.

    If that's the one I'll delete it also, please tell me how when you do it. I'm not so worried about resources but I like a clear desktop, I hate having little uncalled messages popping up now and then, drawing my attention - I seem unable to stop myself from reading them - and distracting me from what I'm doing.

    Mariane
    The result of the "make" command:
    - Sitting bored in front of a computer
    - Watching abstruse output scrolling upwards too fast to be read
    - And waiting for something to go wrong

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    Quote Originally Posted by hreichgott View Post
    I want the computer to do the things I am asking it to do, and as little extra as possible. After every Ubuntu upgrade I habitually delete everything I don't use (evolution, ubuntu one, bluetooth, and couchdb among others.) Should I add Zeitgeist to my delete list?
    From the sounds of it, you wouldn't miss it much.

    You may want to consider coming at your system from the other direction. Start with a very minimal command line install and only add what you do want. There are very stripped-down versions of Gnome 2, XFCE, LXDE and even Unity available in the Ubuntu repos. The script in my sig will also help you build a system this way without a lot of prior knowledge of the packages required.

    You could use the list of packages the script installed to write your own script to completely automate the install process. Wouldn't be complicated or hard at all, just one big apt-get line with heaps of packages in it.
    Last edited by Paqman; June 2nd, 2011 at 02:18 PM.

  4. #4
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    Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    Code:
    sudo apt-get --purge remove zeitgeist

  5. #5
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    109

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to delete zeitgeist and will post here again if deleting causes any problems.

    Mariane, that would make sense, but I've never seen that message myself. It could be some other indexing program.

    Paqman, that is an interesting idea about a minimal install. I will need to do some learning about which packages I do need. Is there anything non-obvious required to run a minimal installation that can still handle 3D OpenGL graphics (on a Radeon 6310 card using ATI's Catalyst driver), heavy-duty audio processing, and video editing, not at the same time? I use my laptop for these things (part of why I like to have control over what resources are being used for).

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    please do post if you've already removed it and let us know. I looked it up in synaptic and found that it keeps a journal for use with unity on 11.04 but I have my system set to use classic ubuntu. Still when I click on remove completely it says also to be removed Ubuntu-Desktop.

    I remember doing this before with other packages that said they would remove ubuntu desktop and sometimes they don't really remove it but once it did remove it and I had nothing but a terminal login and had to reinstall ubuntu-desktop. Can't remember what it was because it was over a year ago.

    Also there are many other packages for zeitgeist than just the zeitgeist package.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    I have had a problem like this with another package. The problem is automated tools will not let you break dependencies. So if ubuntu-desktop is listed as being dependent upon zeitgeist you cannot use them to remove zeitgeist without removing ubuntu-desktop.

    The solution is to use the manual tool dpkg. Now be careful with it, right? It could really mess things up. But my guess would be (not necessarily in this order):

    Code:
    sudo dpkg -r zeitgeist-datahub
    sudo dpkg -r zeitgeist
    sudo dpkg -r zeitgeist-core
    Mariane
    Last edited by Mariane; June 3rd, 2011 at 07:25 AM.
    The result of the "make" command:
    - Sitting bored in front of a computer
    - Watching abstruse output scrolling upwards too fast to be read
    - And waiting for something to go wrong

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    The New Forest
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    Hidden!
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    without removing ubuntu-desktop.
    Shouldn't cause a problem, though if you wish to later upgrade it's probably best to reinstall it. It's a meta package so as soon as something that is part of ubuntu-desktop is removed then so is ubuntu-desktop.

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaPackages
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Co...ubuntu-desktop

  9. #9
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    Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mariane View Post
    Is this the thing that from time to time tells me it is "suspending desktop indexing to save resources"? I was puzzled by this one, as far as I could remember I had not told anything to index anything.

    If that's the one I'll delete it also, please tell me how when you do it. I'm not so worried about resources but I like a clear desktop, I hate having little uncalled messages popping up now and then, drawing my attention - I seem unable to stop myself from reading them - and distracting me from what I'm doing.

    Mariane
    Hi, the indexing it is probably referring to is the one that indexes files so you can search them quicker, but that is just a guess.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    109

    Re: Any reason to keep Zeitgeist?

    Zeitgeist removed. Had to do both

    Code:
    sudo apt-get --purge remove zeitgeist
    and

    Code:
    sudo apt-get autoremove
    and reboot, to get all the Zeitgeist processes to go away and stop running. Everything is fine. Desktop (ubuntu classic) is the same. Things even seem faster but it could be just my imagination.

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