Can 12.04 be lightened?

[MibunoOokami]

I changed from Ubuntu 12.04 to Lubuntu 13.10 after realising my HP mini netbook didn't seem to have the power to run videos. Whilst Lubuntu has provided the power to run videos, I really don't like it and want Ubuntu back.
I basically want to know if I could install the full desktop version and lighten it, rather than installing the minimal version since for the most part Ubuntu seems to work fine on my netbook? If so, can you please explain how I would go about this?

[t0p]

Installing ubuntu-desktop then manually removing the stuff you don't want should work I think.

[DuckHook]

NO NO NO! ubuntu-desktop is the metapackage. This installs the whole thing and you may as well install Ubuntu outright.

@OP

It is always harder to remove what you don't want from a full-fledged install. This is because APT is designed very conservatively to leave all sorts of libs/services/modules untouched when apps are removed: in the interest of safety, to preserve dependencies and so as not to inadvertently break other apps. This is why those of us interested in highly efficient and minimal installs always start with next to nothing and then build up only what we want.

You will also find that Ubuntu is simply a beast. It cannot be helped. What you like about it--presumably all the fancy effects, Unity, Compiz, etc etc--is what makes it such a pig. Some people claim that they can get Unity 2-D running as fast as Xubuntu or Lubuntu, but I've never been able to. Even without Compiz/3D/spinning desktop cubes, etc, everything else that comes with Ubuntu slows my older machines to a crawl.

If you want to go the subtraction route anyway, then you can't use anything more than 12.04. This is the last version that comes with Unity 2-D. Anything later only has 3-D. This will limit your upgrade path, but since 12.04 is supported until 2017, this isn't really a big deal. To invoke Unity in 2-D, just make sure this is the option selected at login.

Post your specs. It really is impossible to advise you without knowing the details.

[MibunoOokami]

After reading your comments and putting further thought into it, since I have no idea what I don't want/need I should improve my Ubuntu skills by installing the minimal version.
Thanks for your advice

[newb85]

This is because APT is designed very conservatively to leave all sorts of libs/services/modules untouched when apps are removed: in the interest of safety, to preserve dependencies and so as not to inadvertently break other apps. This is why those of us interested in highly efficient and minimal installs always start with next to nothing and then build up only what we want.

I'm afraid you're selling apt a little short. When apt installs a package as a dependency of another package (except as a dependency of a metapackage), it marks that package as automatically installed. Any package installed as a dependency that is no longer a dependency of any package on the system is called an orphaned package. And all orphaned packages (no-longer-needed dependencies) can be removed with

sudo apt-get autoremove

Of course, as mentioned, metapackages are different in that their dependencies are marked as manually installed. So, for example, if you install ubuntu-desktop, Thunderbird and Firefox are installed. If you decide you want to use Chrome and remove Firefox, ubuntu-desktop also has to be removed. However, this does not automatically remove Thunderbird, nor does it make Thunderbird an "Orphaned Package", because Thunderbird is marked as manually installed.

You can change whether a package is marked as manually or automatically installed with the apt-mark command. You can view the mark status of all installed packages in the file /var/lib/apt/extended_states, or by using the showmanual and showauto modes of apt-mark.

[vasa1]

....

You can change whether a package is marked as manually or automatically installed with the apt-mark command. You can view the mark status of all installed packages in the file /var/lib/apt/extended_states, or by using the showmanual and showauto modes of apt-mark.

IIRC, there's been something odd in the past about this apt-mark business. I don't know if that is still true:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/2389/...ages/2393#2393
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=727799

But I too feel that it should be possible to reach the same state from either direction. In other words, start with a full install and trim or start with a minimal and build.

BTW, this seems interesting: Keep only essential packages

[MibunoOokami]

I know I marked this thread as solved but I need a little help please. I want to back up everything that's on Lubuntu but I can't mark the script I use as executable. I've gone to properties-> permissions, but there's no box to tick and mark as executable. Is there a way round this? Maybe via terminal? Thanks

[oldfred]

Is script in / so you need / permissions to make it executeable and run it?

If you are in the directory with the script mybackup.sh. If not a user directory you also need sudo.
chmod +x mybackup.sh
Originally Posted by MountainX View Post #20 also other backup apps
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ghlight=backup

[MibunoOokami]

I use a script called incbackup. I just made the file executable using your command but got this message

sending incremental file list
rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 4 bytes to socket [sender]: Broken pipe (32)
rsync: mkdir "/media/ADATA/Backup.HPII" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync error: error in file IO (code 11) at main.c(605) [Receiver=3.0.9]
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (9 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(605) [sender=3.0.9]

I don't recall ever seeing that before. What is a broken pipe?

[DuckHook]

...it should be possible to reach the same state from either direction.

Theoretically, yes. Practically, no. Especially so for new users who do not know what typically comes bundled in a full install, what can be turfed, what must be kept. After all, what is Avahi? Zeitgeist? Whoopsie? How does a new user begin to figure such stuff out?

So perhaps I should have rephrased rather than blame APT. It is easier from a decision-making perspective to go the other way. By starting with a barebones system and adding only what you need, you can be pretty much assured that the only things pulled in will be the dependencies for just the apps that you want. It does take some research. For example any flavour-desktop package is a metapackage that pulls in everything and essentially installs the full flavour/distro. Also, installing kde packages in a gnome environment pulls in all of QT whereas a Gnome package in a tight distro pulls in most of Gnome, etc. But in the end, the install strategy is still better than the removal strategy because it requires less knowledge of the arcanna.

This is a good time to mention that a good habit for minimalists when considering a new package is to first run apt with the -s flag. This simulates an install instead of actually installing it and you can see exactly what and how many dependencies will get pulled in. If you end up having to pull in most of Gnome just to run Nautilus, then perhaps another lighter-weight file manager would be wiser.

@MibunoOokami

At the risk of actually muddying the waters instead of clearing things up for you, you may wish to look at Bodhi Linux. It is much leaner than any of Ubuntu's official flavours because it starts out with almost nothing except a light browser and Synaptic, which is all that you need to figure out what you really want to install. This distro is designed for people who want the ultimate in customization. It uses the Ubuntu repos, so you will likely feel at home there. Best of all, it directs you to a home page with preset app bundles. By installing these bundles, someone has already done the research on which combinations will give you the most bang for the buck. People like you who need minimalist installs can then choose the best resource-conserving apps that still get the job done.

A final word and then I'll stop beating this dead horse: it seems to me that you have severely limited computing resources in that netbook of yours. You will have to make a decision--do you prefer eye-candy to functionality, or the reverse? You can't have both in a limited form factor like a netbook. But the nice thing about the Linux-sphere is that you get to decide.