[SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

multipitch · 2013-10-30 21:41:06

I've had gnome and cinnamon on my system for a while but am no longer really using gnome.
From cinnamon 2.0, there are various reports that cinnamon is independent of gnome (although I think it still depends on some other gnome-* packages).

I'm trying to remove gnome as a DE, while retaining whatever packages are required by cinnamon.
I tried running the following command:

# pacman -Rns gnome gnome-extra

...I get the following output:

checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: anjuta: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: cinnamon: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: cinnamon: requires gnome-themes-standard
:: evolution: requires gnome-desktop
:: gnome-clocks: requires gnome-desktop
:: gnome-clocks: requires gnome-themes-standard
:: gnome-devel-docs: requires yelp
:: gnome-documents: requires evince
:: gnome-documents: requires gnome-desktop
:: gnome-documents: requires tracker
:: gnome-getting-started-docs: requires yelp
:: gnome-online-miners: requires tracker
:: gnome-panel: requires gnome-desktop
:: gnome-photos: requires gnome-desktop
:: gnome-photos: requires tracker
:: gnome-screensaver: requires gnome-desktop
:: gnome-settings-daemon-compat: requires gnome-settings-daemon
:: gnome-tweak-tool: requires gnome-settings-daemon
:: gtkhtml4: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: libgweather: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: nemo: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: network-manager-applet: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: rhythmbox: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: system-config-printer: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: vinagre: requires gnome-icon-theme
:: virt-manager: requires gnome-icon-theme

Is there an easy way to remove gnome that ensures cinnamon isn't broken in the process?

Last edited by multipitch (2013-10-30 22:34:59)

karol · 2013-10-30 21:55:17

From the output of 'pacman -Sqg gnome gnome-extra' remove (delete from the list) the packages that are dependencies for other packages and try removing ('pacman -Rns') the rest.

Last edited by karol (2013-10-30 21:56:28)

clfarron4 · 2013-10-30 22:10:30

multipitch wrote:

From cinnamon 2.0, there are various reports that cinnamon is independent of gnome (although I think it still depends on some other gnome-* packages).

I've said this many a time on Google+, and I will say it here: The settings to run Cinnamon that used to be based on GNOME have been forked, but Cinnamon still requires certain packages.

As for removing gnome packages without nuking cinnamon, try this:

 sudo pacman -Rncs gnome-desktop gnome-session

Note that removing gnome-desktop will remove programs like evolution, eog, cheese and gnome-control-center.

Last edited by clfarron4 (2013-10-30 22:12:01)

multipitch · 2013-10-30 22:30:22

Thanks karol,

Running 'pacman -Sqg gnome gnome-extra' produced a fairly long list, I removed the above 'requires <package>' packages from the list and ran pacman -Rns <long list!>
This threw up a few more errors, which were resolved by removing one or two more packages from the list until pacman would run

The following ran fine:

pacman -Rns baobab empathy eog epiphany evince gnome-backgrounds gnome-calculator gnome-contacts gnome-control-center gnome-dictionary gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-icon-theme-extras gnome-keyring gnome-screenshot gnome-session gnome-shell gnome-system-log gnome-system-monitor gnome-terminal gnome-user-docs gnome-user-share mousetweaks mutter nautilus sushi totem tracker vino xdg-user-dirs-gtk yelp accerciser aisleriot anjuta brasero cheese devhelp evolution file-roller five-or-more four-in-a-row gnome-chess gnome-clocks gnome-color-manager gnome-devel-docs gnome-documents gnome-getting-started-docs gnome-klotski gnome-mahjongg gnome-mines gnome-nettool gnome-nibbles gnome-photos gnome-robots gnome-sudoku gnome-tetravex gnome-weather iagno lightsoff nautilus-sendto orca quadrapassel rygel swell-foop tali vinagre

pacman -Rns gnome-tweak-tool

As a result, I've removed about 950 MB of unwanted packages.
Thanks for the help.

multipitch · 2013-10-30 22:33:57

clfarron4; I just saw your post after acting based on karol's post.
Running 'pacman -Rcns gnome-desktop' (gnome-session had already been removed in the first step) has taken another 110 MB of packages away.
I can always add back any packages I feel I am missing but I don'y really have any use for most of what I removed.
- Thanks for the help.

karol · 2013-10-30 22:42:31

Since you're doing major cleanup, you can run 'pacman -Qqdt' to see if there are any other potential removal candidates. Go through the list and make sure you don't need any of them. Piping the output to 'sudo pacman -Rns -' w/o double-checking is not a good idea.

Marshal Kilgore · 2013-10-30 23:01:25

Albeit it's too late for the OP now...

Please note that Cinnamon 2.x does not longer require the GNOME Shell to be installed, and the corresponding package can be removed, whereas gnome and gnome-extra are groups of packages which add the full gnome DE.
So I would recommend to try

# pacman -Rns gnome-shell

first and then hunt down other unwanted stuff. Pacman might warn about packages that would be removed, but are still optional dependencies of installed packages. In this case add them to the database as explicit installed first.

I removed gnome-shell from my system successfully and with no problems so far, but I had only installed Cinnamon 1.8 (?) and its dependencies, not the whole gnome group.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-30 21:41:06

[SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

#2 2013-10-30 21:55:17

Re: [SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

#3 2013-10-30 22:10:30

Re: [SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

#4 2013-10-30 22:30:22

Re: [SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

#5 2013-10-30 22:33:57

Re: [SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

#6 2013-10-30 22:42:31

Re: [SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

#7 2013-10-30 23:01:25

Re: [SOLVED]Removing gnome 3.x now that cinnamon 2.x no longer requires it

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