remove installed programs?
 

I did search for this topic, and there was not suse specific answers, but was suprised to see that apparently, in other distros, there is no "uninstall" facility, such as is found in 'that other operating system?"

I am new to open suse 10.2, and thought that I was once in an app that offered to remove programs, but I cannot find it, and sure would like to know if I was just up in the night, or there really is such a thing. Asking a relative newbie "how was it installed" might only glean a wrinkled forehead, and a look of "duh!" on the face :-)

Specifically, I want to uninstall xmms, which I know I installed, but don't recall how. More generally, I want to learn how this process works.

You see, when I use Yast, there is are confusing amount of options and choices for software installs, and it seems that no matter what I choose, it spends a long time downloading from the sites I have configured. I don't understand why that is, and I am concerned because I will soon be without broadband internet, reverting back to a modem :-( and unless I get a grip on how this is working, I think I might not be able to use linux anymore, as it seems to rely a great deal on the internet to update, and install programs, beyond the specifics of what I seek. I am guessing that is a configuration issue, but its on my mind nonetheless.

Anyway, is there a "remove programs" application? If not, how do I proceed when I want to remove something?

Thanks a lot, as always.

John

Go to YaST and then to "software management" and it will list your software and their dependences. Uncheck the ones you don't want and they will be removed. It will also give you warnings in case you go to wild.

If you install programs trough YaST (which is a good idea; it resolves any dependencies, downloads and automatically installs other needed software for you), you uninstall programs trough YaST. If you manually download (binary) SuSE specific RPM packages and install them using rpm (I believe SuSE uses rpm like Fedora, Mandriva etc.) like "rpm -i package.rpm", you can use rpm to remove the package too, like "rpm -e package.rpm". I for install, e for erase. If you, instead, compile software from source code, you'll need to read the appropriate README and INSTALL files; if the source code write offers a way to remove the program more or less automatically, it's mentioned there. Often "make uninstall", but not for every source release.

Your easiest way is to use YaST. If you use .rpm packages downloaded manually from the web, you'll face sooner or later dependency issues: to install a .rpm package, you are told you need another piece of software first, and then you'll need to search, download and install that first (manually). And the same thing can go on for that package, and it's dependencies etc....this is why package managers (like YaST's package manager, or pacman, or yum, or apt, etc.) were created: they can use reposities from the web which have a big amount of packages available, and automatically calculate what is needed to install some piece of software and then install everything for you. Manual installation of .rpm packages (that are SuSE specific; other distributions use other formats, like Debian uses .deb files) is the next easiest thing, but with potential dependency problems. Installing software by compiling from source is slightly more difficult, you need the compilation software first (included in Linux distributions) if it's not installed by default, then you'll need to have correct versions of every needed piece of software (again, manual search & download and installation -- maybe compilation -- is needed), then you'll need to, maybe, know what kinds of parameters you'll have to use to configure the source code build operation so that the code can be built on your machine, and only then compile it and after this "install" the software (copy the compiled files to correct places on the system). And after this, if you want to upgrade the software, you'll need to remove it and then install a newer version. Binary .rpm (or other) packages make this easier as they can be upgraded with one command (rpm in that case), and removing them goes with one command (source-compiled software's removal process can be unique per every software project; not every project uses the "make uninstall" thing).

Thanks. I am just not getting this quite yet.

I went to the software management, and it spent several minutes downloading and parsing files, (been here a dozen times, always takes that long) then popped up an empty pane on the right side window, and the search properties on the left.

I don't see any applications. I enter * in the search, and its not a wildcard :-)

On top of this, how much of a drag is this gonna be, when I am back on a modem next month? If I have to wait for all those downloads on 49K connection, I am doomed :-)

It seems like every time I go to look at what is available, and hope to find what is installed, its a huge download, and a long wait, even on broadband.

I must be missing something, but I don't quite know what it is. I just want a list of what is installed on my system. Where am I going wrong? <g>

I do intend to, and so far have exclusively used, Yast for installs, at least until I have a better understanding of how things work.

Thanks much,

John

When you get your software management open in the left panel there is a top grayed option named "Filter". Click the drop down arrow to the right and in the drop down menu click "installation sources". This should show all the installed programs and options for new programs. Also the left panel will open a window showing the available download sites. I can't tell which it will show but if you installed from DVD it will show all the other programs they (Suse) has availible on the DVD. If you get this far I suggest you go to Suse forums and add the packman for multimedia according to the sticky by reddaz - http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=509097

I do understand how slow it can be if you are doing your internet via 56 baud modem.

Thank you. That was what I was missing. Seems I always need just one more click or selection to get there :-)

I have gotten the multimedia stuff to work, except xmms simply refuses to play anything, but there are other apps, for the moment.

What I want is to play DVD Movies, but I am not making any progress on the links and info from the stickies, and other searches. Probably a topic for another thread, or I need to keep hammering on it. I can play mpegs that I have created, but my PC is the way I watch movies when my kids are hogging the big TV :-)

Is it really true, that there is no way to legally play encryted movie DVDs in the US, using Linux? There must be some way to buy the rights. Not a big moral issue to me, but in the end, it seems to be simply illegal no matter what

(not a judgement or anything, just an observation)

Thanks a lot,

John

I think the main reason for it being illegal is that you may be able to record them after watching them.
Maybe one day someone will make a program that will run into a temp file and as soon as the DVD is pulled out everything in the encrypted file disappears.