Ubuntu
evolution package

Cannot uninstall Evolution

Asked by Fred

I cannot uninstall Evolution, because it depends on ubuntu-desktop, and many many other packages.

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Ubuntu evolution Edit question
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Sam_
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This question was originally filed as bug #294438.

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chadwik (chadwik) said : 		#1

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in evolution.
For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

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Sebastien Bacher (seb128) said : 		#2

that's not a bug but an user question rather

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#3

Hi Fred,
ubuntu-desktop is a metapackage which contents no data, but defines dependencies.
It can be uninstalled without taking a risk.
Evolution and others can be removed and optional you may reinstall ubuntu-desktop again if you wish.
In general unused packages don't take a lot of disk space, if they disturb the menu appearance they have to be just unchecked in there.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaPackages

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Fred (eldmannen+launchpad) said : 		#4

Yeah, but not only does it try to remove ubuntu-desktop, but it also tries to remove ekiga, gnome-panel and other stuff!

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Fred (eldmannen+launchpad) said : 		#5

If it isn't a bug, then why does it try to remove gnome-panel which would make my ubuntu broken and useless?

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Best Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#6

Hi Fred,
I've read the discription of the bug you've filed and agree with Sebastien, the package Evolution-data-server is essential regarding dependencies. To understand the reason of not removing certain packages one has to understand the relations in between the system architecture. Synaptic is quite cool in showing which dependencies are affected, Add and Remove is not.
However, I've removed Evolution, but, I've kept the data-server package. Beside that, it was reinstalled after upgrading from Gutsy to Hardy LTS, same with f-spot for example.
If this all is annoying you, you are free to talk to developers about this subject.

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Fred (eldmannen+launchpad) said : 		#7

Thanks Sam, that solved my question.

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Pander (pander) said : 		#8

See also https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+question/141534