Lubuntu - removing Abiword etc?

**2CV67** · March 7th, 2013

After upgrading Lubuntu to 12.10 I suddenly found my LibO .odt files were being opened by Abiword instead of previously-set LibO Writer.
I reset the default application to LibO Writer & that works OK for now.

But I thought I had removed Abiword some years back, so was surprised to find it there again.
I was even more surprised when I tried to remove it in SynApt and was told I must also remove Lubuntu-Desktop!

Some Googling showed this was an old concern & advice generally seemed to be to just go ahead removing it & everything would be OK, not actually removing my Lubuntu Desktop, just lubuntu-desktop...
Many discussions point to the Wiki item here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lu...LubuntuDesktop

Disconcertingly, that wiki says "The lubuntu-desktop would just need adding back in for the update from 10.04 to 10.10, after that it can be safely removed again."

Does that mean I have to remember to reinstall lubuntu-desktop before every upgrade?
Or is lubuntu-desktop & Abiword automatically included in every upgrade & I need to remember to remove them again after every upgrade?
Or is it simpler to just leave Abiword lying idle?
Or what?

Seems like a mess, so far...

Thanks for all advice!

**Rex Bouwense** · March 7th, 2013

After installing Libe Office Writer and Calc, I uninstalled Abiword and Gnumeric. It is no big deal since they do not take a lot of space but I just removed them. I had tried to operate with Abiword but I found that I needed a few things that it was not capable of doing so I just installed Libre Office. I'll put up with the larger foot print. Abiword is a default install. Your choice if you un-install or leave it.

**cortman** · March 7th, 2013

Just uninstall Abiword with

Code:

sudo apt-get purge abiword

if it tries to uninstall lubuntu-desktop as well, run

Code:

sudo apt-mark manual lubuntu-desktop

then uninstall.

**Rex Bouwense** · March 7th, 2013

Originally Posted by cortman

Just uninstall Abiword with

Code:

sudo apt-get purge abiword

if it tries to uninstall lubuntu-desktop as well, run

Code:

sudo apt-mark manual lubuntu-desktop

then uninstall.

Houston, we may have a problem. Is that last code necessary, because I never have done that. I hope that I haven't screwed up my stuff. It does seem to be working at max efficiency. I was under the impression that when the computer spit out that little blurb about having to uninstall the lubuntu-desktop, it was a bug because it really didn't do it. Is that wrong?

**lykeion** · March 8th, 2013

Originally Posted by Rex Bouwense

Houston, we may have a problem. Is that last code necessary, because I never have done that. I hope that I haven't screwed up my stuff. It does seem to be working at max efficiency. I was under the impression that when the computer spit out that little blurb about having to uninstall the lubuntu-desktop, it was a bug because it really didn't do it. Is that wrong?

lubuntu-desktop is a meta package. It does not itself contains anything to install, it only declares some dependant packages (like lxterminal, leafpad, etc) and recommended packages (like abiword). apt-mark manual is used to mark a package as being manually installed, which will prevent the package from being automatically removed if no other packages depend on it.

**Rex Bouwense** · March 8th, 2013

Thank you.

**vasa1** · March 8th, 2013

Originally Posted by cortman

...
if it tries to uninstall lubuntu-desktop as well, run

Code:

sudo apt-mark manual lubuntu-desktop

then uninstall.

That's really useful. Why don't you update https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lu...LubuntuDesktop with that information?

**cortman** · March 8th, 2013

Originally Posted by lykeion

lubuntu-desktop is a meta package. It does not itself contains anything to install, it only declares some dependant packages (like lxterminal, leafpad, etc) and recommended packages (like abiword). apt-mark manual is used to mark a package as being manually installed, which will prevent the package from being automatically removed if no other packages depend on it.

Thanks for explaining that.

Originally Posted by vasa1

That's really useful. Why don't you update https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lu...LubuntuDesktop with that information?

Thanks; I'll do that- never thought to check if it was there.
That command works for any large meta-package; e.g., xubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-desktop, gnome-core, etc.

**2CV67** · March 8th, 2013

I am struggling to follow the ideas here, but I see you wasted no time in updating the wiki - thanks!

Still not clear for me though.
Following the new wiki, I STARTED (was that wrong?) by running

Code:

sudo apt-mark manual lubuntu-desktop

even though I avoid command line wherever possible (see signature).

What I got was:

Code:

chris@Acer-desk:~$ sudo apt-mark manual lubuntu-desktop
[sudo] password for chris: 
lubuntu-desktop was already set to be manually installed.
chris@Acer-desk:~$

Should I have removed Abiword (& lubuntu-desktop) first, THEN run sudo apt-mark manual lubuntu-desktop?

What will happen at future upgrades?
Do I get Abiword back again every time?

**vasa1** · March 8th, 2013

Originally Posted by 2CV67

I am struggling to follow the ideas here...

What I got was:

Code:

... 
lubuntu-desktop was already set to be manually installed.
...

...

You've opened an interesting can of worms! After reading the response you got, I ran

Code:

sudo apt-mark showauto

and

Code:

sudo apt-mark showmanual

. The lists don't make sense to me. Things I've never fiddled with, very basic software, are showing in the "showmanual" list.

I must clarify that I don't upgrade or even preserve /home. I do a clean install for each Ubuntu release. And this time, when I clean installed Lubuntu 12.10, I promptly removed Abiword and games and lost lubuntu-desktop as a result. Come 13.04, and I'll install afresh and remove what I don't want but I'll try to remember to run the apt-mark show commands to see what a new install looks like.