[CentOS] Ailing MATE desktop

Thu May 14 20:12:35 UTC 2020
Jon LaBadie <jcu at labadie.us>

On Thu, May 14, 2020 at 05:24:13AM -0500, Robert G (Doc) Savage via CentOS wrote:
> On Thu, 2020-05-14 at 08:18 +0200, Simon Matter wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2020-05-06 at 10:26 -0500, Robert G (Doc) Savage via CentOS
> > > wrote:
> > > > On Tue, 2020-05-05 at 19:25 -0500, Robert G (Doc) Savage via
> > > > CentOS
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > I'm about ready to run "dnf erase *mate*" and try re-installing
> > > > > MATE
> > > > > from scratch from the GNOME3 desktop. Is that possible without
> > > > > ripping
> > > > > the heart out of C8 by deleting other critical packages?
> > > > 
> > > > I've attached a capture of "dnf erase *mate*" that shows the 104
> > > > packages that would be removed. It looks safe enough, but if
> > > > there's
> > > > a
> > > > a better way to fix the problem I'd rather try that.
> > > 
> > > Having gotten no responses, I'm about ready to plunge ahead and try
> > > removing MATE v1.22 with dnf, then do a fresh reinstall of all
> > > packages. However, I'm unsure about the safest way to proceed.
> > > 
> > > If you look at the listing attached to my last message, you'll see
> > > three different groups of packages:
> > > 
> > > Removing:
> > >   xxx
> > > Removing dependent packages:
> > >   xxx
> > > Removing unused dependencies:
> > >   xxx
> > > 
> > > I don't understand the meaning of the last group of "unused
> > > dependencies".
> > > 
As I understand them, dependent packages are dependent on MATE.
If MATE goes away they are useless.

Dependencies are packages MATE is dependent upon.  Other things
may also be dependent on those packages.

Unused dependencies are things that if MATE were removed have
no other packages dependent on them.  So MAYBE they are no longer
needed and can be removed.

But be careful with these.  Nothing may depend upon them, but you
may use them.  First in your list is ImageMagick.  You may use this
whether MATE is there or not.

The "--noautoremove option prevents removal of "unused dependencies".
You can then take your list and see which you really don't need and
remove them separately.

Jon
-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                 jon at jgcomp.com
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