Arch Linux

toothandnail

Member

From: Oxfordshire, UK

Registered: 2012-05-05

Posts: 90

[Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

Just went to do an update, and got a bit of a shock. Something has suddenly added a whole slew of gnome dependencies. This is the list of stuff that I never had installed before (and really don't want installed now...):

gnome-desktop-1:3.8.1-1  gnome-dictionary-3.6.0-2  gnome-font-viewer-3.8.0-1
          gnome-icon-theme-3.8.0-1  gnome-icon-theme-symbolic-3.8.0.1-1  gnome-keyring-3.8.1-1
          gnome-screenshot-3.8.1-1  gnome-search-tool-3.6.0-2  gnome-system-log-3.8.1-1
          gnome-system-monitor-3.8.0-1 gobject-introspection-1.36.0-1
          lib32-pango-1.34.0-1  libgee-0.10.1-1  libgee06-0.6.8-1  libgnome-keyring-3.8.0-1
          libsoup-gnome-2.40.3-1 [removal]  libtracker-sparql-0.16.0-4  libusbx-1.0.15-1

Going through my installed packages, these are the only bits of gnome that I currently have installed (I use Xfce):

gnome-keyring
gnome-system-monitor
gnome-utils
libreoffice-gnome

Something has changed, and I really don't want to install most of gnome. So, how do I track down what has added all this bloat?

Searched the wiki and the forum, but either the topic hasn't come up, or I'm using the wrong search terms....

Paul.

Last edited by toothandnail (2013-04-22 20:23:27)

opt1mus

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2011-12-31

Posts: 212

Website

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

You can take the slow, methodical approach to these extra packages you 'really don't want installed', by issuing;

$ pacman -Sii <packagename>

For each of them in turn and review their Required by : line, to narrow down the blame.

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

That's a very good question... Unfortunately I can't think of an elegant solution.

SOMETHING you have installed wants those packages, and I truest pacman in knowing what it needs to install for things to run correctly. I assume what you want to do is find the package that requires all of those new packages and remove it or replace it with something else.

I know of a simple workaround: Go ahead and install all those packages, but keep a list of everything you don't want installed. When you finish updating your computer, begin trying to remove those packages. Pacman will tell you what package requires it before allowing you to remove it.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,456

Website

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

I'd suspect libreoffice-gnome.  Why use that at all if you don't use gnome?  Libreoffice-gnome depends on gconf, which depends on gtk3, which depends on much of gnome.

EDIT: my suspicion is wrong, it's gnome-utils.  Much easier to check with `pacman -S <pkg>` then just say no to install after it lists dependencies.  Gnome-utils isn't even a package, it's a metapackage that includes all kinds of gnome stuff ... again why have this installed if you don't use gnome?

Last edited by Trilby (2013-04-22 16:55:02)

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

alphaniner

Member

From: Ancapistan

Registered: 2010-07-12

Posts: 2,810

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

In the future, pactree might be helpful in these sorts of situations.

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But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
-Lysander Spooner

toothandnail

Member

From: Oxfordshire, UK

Registered: 2012-05-05

Posts: 90

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

You can take the slow, methodical approach to these extra packages you 'really don't want installed', by issuing;

$ pacman -Sii <packagename>

For each of them in turn and review their Required by : line, to narrow down the blame.

Thanks. Took a while but that did it....

It seems that gnome-utils is the culprit. What I can't work out is why I've even got gnome-utils installed.

Paul.

toothandnail

Member

From: Oxfordshire, UK

Registered: 2012-05-05

Posts: 90

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

I'd suspect libreoffice-gnome.  Why use that at all if you don't use gnome?  Libreoffice-gnome depends on gconf, which depends on gtk3, which depends on much of gnome.

I'm not sure - think it may have been my fault. I'll have to check and remove it if I can't find any reason for it being installed.

EDIT: my suspicion is wrong, it's gnome-utils.  Much easier to check with `pacman -S <pkg>` then just say no to install after it lists dependencies.  Gnome-utils isn't even a package, it's a metapackage that includes all kinds of gnome stuff ... again why have this installed if you don't use gnome?

I'd just come to the same conclusion. I have no memory of installing it, though I must have pulled it in at some stage. I'm going to remove it and see if that creates any problems....

Paul.

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

libreoffice-gnome is useful to make libreoffice fit in with other GTK apps (theme, file dialogs, maybe more I don't know about).

toothandnail

Member

From: Oxfordshire, UK

Registered: 2012-05-05

Posts: 90

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

libreoffice-gnome is useful to make libreoffice fit in with other GTK apps (theme, file dialogs, maybe more I don't know about).

Interesting. I removed it, can't say I've noticed any difference in libreoffice so far. I don't think it was dragging anything else in, so I will probably try putting it back and see what the difference is.

Paul.

toothandnail

Member

From: Oxfordshire, UK

Registered: 2012-05-05

Posts: 90

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

Took a bit of fiddling, but removing gnome-utils and a number of other things that seemed to only be required by gnome-utils has fixed the problem. It was still a fairly big upgrade, but a lot smaller than it had been, and everything seems to be working as it should.

Looks as though I should think about auditing the system more often - I did remove a lot of crud that I'm not sure how I got there is the first place....

Thanks for the help people.

Paul.

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: [Solved] something wants to install most of Gnome....

libreoffice-gnome is useful to make libreoffice fit in with other GTK apps (theme, file dialogs, maybe more I don't know about).

Interesting. I removed it, can't say I've noticed any difference in libreoffice so far. I don't think it was dragging anything else in, so I will probably try putting it back and see what the difference is.

Paul.

If you already have gtk installed, it basically just adds gconf.

But I clearly see a difference in appearance after removing libreoffice-gnome (and restarting lo). Looks a bit like Windows classic.