Uninstall and start over?

caelestis · 2010-06-10 00:10:39

I want to clear my system of all the trash that has accumulated from experimenting and testing my system. I have lost track of all the loose ends on my computer and I would like pacman to clean everything to the point where it was after you just installed archlinux.

Either that or someone please tell me why my usb key won't start up. It just hangs at boots screen. If you stick it in, you can immediately choose boot menu options, but AS SOON as you put it back moving the selection is frozen again. I have an acer 3810tz laptop and used win32diskimager in windows.

eldragon · 2010-06-10 00:12:15

there is a dd app for windows, i used that to copy the image to the usb drive with success.

caelestis · 2010-06-10 00:45:47

Nope, I used dd from my existing linux install this time. Refused to boot with it in. The old images worked fine. It's the new hybrid one that is the problem.

JuseBox · 2010-06-10 07:07:03

There isn't anything wrong with starting all over again if that is what you would like to do... I keep everything stored on network and external drives. So reinstalling isn't really much for me to do personally. When I uninstall something I use the command:

pacman -Rs {package}

or

yaourt -Rs {package}

Have you tried reinstalling the tools used to mount. Hal, Gamin, Dbus.... what does your .xinitrc look like? I mean there could be many things going on stopping something from happening.

eldragon · 2010-06-10 11:11:42

if the old image works ok, use that one... use the netinstall one and you will have the same install.

you could also file a bug report on the new isos and describe how it fails accurately.

GSF1200S · 2010-06-11 01:05:49

You could run as root:

pacman -Qqe > pacman.list

or if using bauerbill (substitude with yaourt/clyde/etc):

bauerbill -Qqe > pacman.list

Doing this would place a file called pacman.list in the terminal directory (by default /home/username) containing the packages you have installed explicitly. This might give you an idea of things you would like to remove... I dont know a command that would remove all the packages you have installed..

Omit the e from the above and it will list all packages including dependencies. Knowing what packages you have explicitly installed, you can decide which ones you dont want and remove them as an above poster suggested (pacman -Rs). Once you are done with this, you could also run:

pacman -Qdt

which will list all packages that are orphans (packages installed as dependencies that are no longer required by any explicitly installed program).

Last edited by GSF1200S (2010-06-11 01:11:23)

demian · 2010-06-11 08:36:26

This will delete all packages except for those in base:
pacman -R $(pacman -Qq | grep -v "$(pacman -Qqg base)")
Use pacman -Rf if it complains. You might want to do it with a LiveCD ready.
Have fun

Last edited by demian (2010-06-11 08:44:44)

GSF1200S · 2010-06-12 01:02:43

demian wrote:

This will delete all packages except for those in base:
pacman -R $(pacman -Qq | grep -v "$(pacman -Qqg base)")
Use pacman -Rf if it complains. You might want to do it with a LiveCD ready.
Have fun

Nice.. Writing that one down

mcmillan · 2010-06-12 02:05:36

demian wrote:

Use pacman -Rf if it complains.

I'd be very wary giving a general suggestion to use pacman -Rf when something complains. In this case I'm pretty sure if that happens it deserves a bug report, as it would mean a base package depends on a non-base package which should never happen.

Anikom15 · 2010-06-12 02:18:48

Try this:
1. Save all the crap you want.
2. Boot the LiveCD
3. run /arch/setup

TaylanUB · 2010-06-13 13:58:12

demian wrote:

This will delete all packages except for those in base:
pacman -R $(pacman -Qq | grep -v "$(pacman -Qqg base)")
Use pacman -Rf if it complains. You might want to do it with a LiveCD ready.
Have fun

Sadly, files scattered around during runtime of a program (as opposed to installation) might remain in place even after a `pacman -Rnssc`.

You might want to go crazy and compare $(pacman -Ql) to $(find / <some options to list everything sanely>), but then you might harm files created/modified in the install-script of a package.

If you have another *nix with pacman installed, `rm -rf /mountpoint` is a good start IMO.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-10 00:10:39

Uninstall and start over?

#2 2010-06-10 00:12:15

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#3 2010-06-10 00:45:47

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#4 2010-06-10 07:07:03

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#5 2010-06-10 11:11:42

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#6 2010-06-11 01:05:49

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#7 2010-06-11 08:36:26

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#8 2010-06-12 01:02:43

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#9 2010-06-12 02:05:36

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#10 2010-06-12 02:18:48

Re: Uninstall and start over?

#11 2010-06-13 13:58:12

Re: Uninstall and start over?

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