3

I accidentally installed desktop environment at the debian install. Now I'm trying to remove it but no chance: tasksel remove desktop changed only i to u if tasksel --list-tasks.

sudo apt-get remove task-desktop doesn't work neither: no output at all.

I even cannot see what task-desktop package has as meta-package in there.

I just want to get a server debian, not a desktop.

static
  • 341
  • 2
  • 4
  • 16

1 Answers1

2

What I would do, in preference order:

  1. Reboot and reinstall my server using PXE + preseed. This way you have a reproducible method of installing without error prone human intervention. The time spent setting this up pays off the second time you use it.

  2. If reinstallation is off the table:

    a. I'd try to find out what packages were installed by the task selection, starting by listing available selections:

    $ tasksel --list-tasks
u desktop       Debian desktop environment
u web-server    Web server
u print-server  Print server
u database-server       SQL database
u dns-server    DNS Server
u file-server   File server
u mail-server   Mail server
u ssh-server    SSH server
u laptop        Laptop

    b. Followed by listing the specific selection:

    $ tasksel --task-packages desktop
task-desktop

    c. Show the package metadata to find out its dependencies:

    $ aptitude show task-desktop
Package: task-desktop
State: not installed
Version: 3.16
Priority: optional
Section: tasks
Maintainer: Debian Install System Team <debian-boot@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: all
Uncompressed Size: 21.5 k
Depends: tasksel, xorg, xserver-xorg-video-all, xserver-xorg-input-all, desktop-base, menu
Recommends: task-gnome-desktop | task-kde-desktop | task-lxde-desktop | task-xfce-desktop, xdg-utils, avahi-daemon, libnss-mdns, anacron, libgl1-mesa-dri, eject, iw, alsa-utils, alsa-base, pm-utils
Description: Debian desktop environment
 This task package is used to install the Debian desktop.

    d. You can repeat the last step for each and everyone of the dependencies, or use another tool to find that information directly:

    $ apt-cache depends task-desktop
task-desktop
  Depends: tasksel
  Depends: xorg
  Depends: xserver-xorg-video-all
  Depends: xserver-xorg-input-all
  Depends: desktop-base
  Depends: menu
 |Recommends: task-gnome-desktop
 |Recommends: task-kde-desktop
 |Recommends: task-lxde-desktop
  Recommends: task-xfce-desktop
  Recommends: xdg-utils
  Recommends: avahi-daemon
  Recommends: libnss-mdns
  Recommends: anacron
  Recommends: libgl1-mesa-dri
  Recommends: eject
  Recommends: iw
  Recommends: alsa-utils
  Recommends: alsa-base
  Recommends: pm-utils

    e. There are tools to list forward and reverse dependencies, with output filtering options:

    $ apt-rdepends -r task-desktop --state-follow=Installed
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
task-desktop
  Reverse Depends: task-gnome-desktop (3.16)
  Reverse Depends: task-kde-desktop (3.16)
  Reverse Depends: task-lxde-desktop (3.16)
  Reverse Depends: task-xfce-desktop (3.16)

$ apt-rdepends task-desktop --state-follow=Installed
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
task-desktop
  Depends: desktop-base
  Depends: menu
  Depends: tasksel
  Depends: xorg
  Depends: xserver-xorg-input-all
  Depends: xserver-xorg-video-all
menu
  Depends: dpkg (>= 1.15.4)
  Depends: install-info
  Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.5)
  Depends: libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1)
  Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 4.6)
dpkg
  PreDepends: libbz2-1.0
  PreDepends: libc6 (>= 2.11)
  PreDepends: liblzma5 (>= 5.1.1alpha+20120614)
  PreDepends: libselinux1 (>= 1.32)
  PreDepends: tar (>= 1.23)
  PreDepends: zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4)

    f. At this point, you can start uninstalling stuff, using tools like orphaner to ensure you leave nothing behind, or start looking at option 1. with better eyes.

dawud
  • 15,096
  • 3
  • 42
  • 61