Ubuntu

how to uninstall updatedb? why deletes "ubuntu-desktop"?

Asked by dinar qurbanov

how to uninstall updatedb?

i have just searched. and found "slocate". then looked for "locate" in synaptic. here it is: slocate, installed. looked for its files: there is updatedb. checked it(slocate) to remove. it says "ubuntu-desktop" is also should be removed. is it safe? i have just looked at it. there is nothing in it: installed files:
/.
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/ubuntu-desktop
/usr/share/doc/ubuntu-desktop/copyright
/usr/share/doc/ubuntu-desktop/changelog.gz
(in "ubuntu-desktop")
why then it wants to delete it?

so then this is not "how to uninstall updatedb?" question, it has become other question. i have just added an other question to the "summary". so i should search with that. ... now i have just looked at it.

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dinar qurbanov (qdinar) said : 		#1

i should try "how to uninstall updatedb? why removes "ubuntu-desktop"?" and tried. there is one "relevant" question, "remove kubuntu-desktop" https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/36749 from content of that thread/topic i can think that removing ubuntu-desktop is not safe.

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Elfy (elfy) said : 		#2

ubuntu-desktop is a meta package - if you remove one of the packages in it - it is uninstalled, as it no longer exists. In your case reinstalling updatedb would mean you once again had ubuntu-desktop.

I've uninstalled ubuntu-desktop many times apparently, it can cause a problem when you want to upgrade but is easily dealt with by reinstalling ubuntu-desktop.

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dinar qurbanov (qdinar) said : 		#3

can i install ubuntu-desktop not installing slocate?

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Best Elfy (elfy) said : 		#4

If you reinstall ubuntu-desktop it will install the missing packages - if you have removed slocate it will put it back.

You won't need to reinstall ubuntu-desktop unless you're upgrading, when not having the meta package could cause problems.

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dinar qurbanov (qdinar) said : 		#5

Thanks forestpixie, that solved my question.

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dinar qurbanov (qdinar) said : 		#6

now that updatedb is working while slocate is uninstalled.

i just have made this to switch off that updatedb: installed slocate back, and deleted updatedb from cron daily. i'll see tomorrow whether it still runs.

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dinar qurbanov (qdinar) said : 		#7

i have now found another solution to {shut up/ calm down /stop from killing my hdd} updatedb and use it now:
edit /etc/updatedb.conf:
add "/" to PRUNEPATHS, it will then look like:
PRUNEPATHS="/tmp /var/spool /"
(or you can also remove /tmp /var/spool , if you do not need them to restore old setting, i think, and maybe setting "/" before other paths is better than appending it to end of paths, and by the way probably there can be comment lines beginning with # symbol.)

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dinar qurbanov (qdinar) said : 		#8

the configuration has been modified back seems on upgrade to 9.04. there is dpkg old file. and now i cannot kill the process with system monitor nor with sudo killall, system monitor crashes. solution: i have deleted updatedb's database files.
warning! that i cannot kill it and that upgrade replaced configuration looks like ubuntu spies my files!

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dinar qurbanov (qdinar) said : 		#9

i do not know, may be that upgrader to 9.04 asked about saving old configuration but as i left upgrading to night and as nobody answered it during some time it replaced configuration as default option and has gone to install further.