Warning: Don't use 'tasksel' on a Ubuntu desktop

[indytim]

I have always used tasksel on all my Ubuntu machines for installing LAMP server, additional desktops or Ubuntu Studio packages. Never had any troubles.

But perhaps the bug is related to running tasksel on it's own instead of directly telling it what you want to install. (I always run "sudo tasksel install lamp-server" instead of running "tasksel" and selecting LAMP-server from the list. Although I do occasionally use the list feature through Synaptic Package Manager and that' hasn't caused any problems either).

I agree with McDuck. I too have used tasksel to install LAMP for several years without incident. I've always used it from the whole tasksel menu.

I did have a reader of one of my tech papers bork up his whole operating system once by using tasksel. Seems the genius decided that he would "de-select" a lot of the system installed services from tasksel as well as installing LAMP.... duh.

IndyTim

[HermanAB]

Yup, the issue is a general one, not just limited to tasksel.

Uninstalling complex programs from a Linux system should be done with the utmost care, since it is akin to unscrambling an egg. I never bother to uninstall anything. It is far less hassle to re-install the whole system every few years from scratch.

[SlugSlug]

I done the same yesterday,

I was a bit suspicious as Ubuntu Desktop was unticked as soon as I hit OK I seen it uninstalling stuff it shouldn't.


So a new ssh session to kill it (Ctrl+c dnt work)

and then a grep removed /var/log/dpgk showed me what I had to reinstall

[tgalati4]

Sounds like tasksel does exactly what it's supposed to.

[oregonbob]

How can you say it does what it is supposed to do? It removes packages with no warning. I've used it before too with success. I didn't deselect the packages it removed. All I did was select "DNS Server".

When one gets totally unexpected behavior from a program there is no way it does what it is supposed to do. There is a long list of users caught by this bug. It should have a warning at least. The idea behind installing packages is great, removing them without warning is not.

Further: Do you realize there is NO way to simply quit out of tasksel menu without it taking actions you didn't intend? Take a look. I went back into the menu and it displays a list of install choices and then an "OK" button. When you hit OK it starts removing things without any prompt. You can't even Control-C out of it. You have to kill it and kill background package manager.

I tried "grep removed /var/log/dpkg.log" but that doesn't work for discovering exactly what it removed. It lists bundle names not packages. I guess the trick is NEVER run tasksel without options, always use command line instructions.

[oregonbob]

This has numerous bug reports and apparently it has never been corrected. If you hit the bug, prepare to have to reinstall the OS. Try googling these words: "tasksel launchpad bug".

Among a long list of victims you will find such as this one:
http://www.google.com/search?source=...AAAKoEBU_QzyVA

It may happen when you select an option and then deselect it. Regardless tasksel is a loaded gun with a bad safety. That is a shame because concept is great.

[jtarin]

It's an axe....not a scalpel.

[oregonbob]

There appear to be many "axe" in Ubuntu these days. apt-get is just as dangerous. If you want an example (DON'T DO THIS), run the simple command "sudo apt-get install xfs" (DON'T DO THIS). If you are running the ubuntu version that almost all users are, this will completely remove your entire desktop system and all unrelated applications that use gnome without warning. It is funny to think that apt-get warns you if you want to add a small package that might use 10 MB of disk space, but it does NOT warn you if it is about to remove your entire system. Something is wrong with this. I guess there long line of users caught by this will have to get longer before a change is made.

Yes, I did this on another system. I was installing 64-bit flash because a flash website wasn't working (speakeasy speed test). When I did it, it displayed a line that said "Suggested package to install: xrunner... xfs". So I did that and it wiped out a system. Heaven forbid it was a mission critical system. It removed gnome and all applications that use gnome...think about that.

This is a very serious bug. There needs to be an override option for removing a large number of packages and then make default to prompt warnings.

[niteshifter]

Hi,

tasksel was doing what it was instructed to do. I will say this: It takes some getting used to

And how would you do that, without doing damage?

tasksel -t

aka test mode, show what is going to happen without actually doing it. As to it being poorly written, wonder why that option is present?

[NightwishFan]

If you want an example (DON'T DO THIS), run the simple command "sudo apt-get install xfs" (DON'T DO THIS). If you are running the ubuntu version that almost all users are, this will completely remove your entire desktop system and all unrelated applications that use gnome without warning.

It did not here on lucid. apt-get should always warn you.

sudo apt-get install xfs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  xfs
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 89.8kB of archives.
After this operation, 369kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/universe xfs 1:1.0.8-6 [89.8kB]
Fetched 89.8kB in 1s (47.1kB/s)         
Selecting previously deselected package xfs.
(Reading database ... 156386 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking xfs (from .../xfs_1%3a1.0.8-6_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up xfs (1:1.0.8-6) ...
Setting up X font server socket directory /tmp/.font-unix...done.
Starting X font server: xfs.