Hi! I did the release upgrade and noticed that xfce was replaced with lxqt and wayland. Nice! I also did the safe autoremove procedure. When I checked my installed packages however, I noticed that there are a lot of xfce* packages left. Is it safe to remove those?
Which ones?
As soon as no meta package is removed, that should be safe.
Basically the entire DE, it seems:
apt list --installed | grep 0i xfce
0u
WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.libxfce4panel-2.0-4/stable,now 4.20.4-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libxfce4ui-2-0/stable,now 4.20.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libxfce4ui-common/stable,stable,now 4.20.1-1 all [installed,automatic]
libxfce4ui-utils/stable,now 4.20.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libxfce4util-common/stable,stable,now 4.20.1-1 all [installed,automatic]
libxfce4util7/stable,now 4.20.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libxfce4windowing-0-0/stable,now 4.20.2-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libxfce4windowing-common/stable,stable,now 4.20.2-1 all [installed,automatic]
xfce4-appfinder/stable,now 4.20.0-2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-battery-plugin/stable,now 1.1.5-1+b3 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-clipman-plugin/stable,now 2:1.6.6-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-clipman/stable,now 2:1.6.6-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-cpufreq-plugin/stable,now 1.2.8-2+b3 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-cpugraph-plugin/stable,now 1.2.10-1+b2 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-datetime-plugin/stable,now 0.8.3-1+b3 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-dict/stable,now 0.8.8-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-diskperf-plugin/stable,now 2.7.0-1+b3 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-fsguard-plugin/stable,now 1.1.3-1+b3 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-genmon-plugin/stable,now 4.1.1-1+b3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-goodies/stable,now 4.20.0 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-helpers/stable,now 4.20.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-indicator-plugin/stable,now 2.4.2-1+b1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-mailwatch-plugin/stable,now 1.3.1-1+b2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-mount-plugin/stable,now 1.1.6-1+b3 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-netload-plugin/stable,now 1.4.1-1+b3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-notes-plugin/stable,now 1.11.1-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-notes/stable,now 1.11.1-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-notifyd/stable,now 0.9.7-2 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-panel/stable,now 4.20.4-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-places-plugin/stable,now 1.8.3-1+b3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-power-manager-data/stable,stable,now 4.20.0-1 all [installed,automatic]
xfce4-power-manager-plugins/stable,now 4.20.0-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-power-manager/stable,now 4.20.0-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin/stable,now 0.4.9-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-screenshooter/stable,now 1.11.1-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-sensors-plugin/stable,now 1.4.4-1+b1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-session/stable,now 4.20.2-2 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-settings/stable,now 4.20.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin/stable,now 0.5.2-1+b3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-sntray-plugin-common/now 0.4.13.1-2 all [installed,local]
xfce4-sntray-plugin/now 0.4.13.1-2+b1 amd64 [installed,local]
xfce4-systemload-plugin/stable,now 1.3.2-2+b3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-taskmanager/stable,now 1.5.8-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-terminal/stable,now 1.1.4-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-timer-plugin/stable,now 1.7.3-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-verve-plugin/stable,now 2.0.3-1+b3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-wavelan-plugin/stable,now 0.6.3-1+b3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-weather-plugin/stable,now 0.11.3-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin/stable,now 2.9.2-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xfce4-windowck-plugin/stable,now 0.5.1-1+b3 amd64 [installed]
xfce4-xkb-plugin/stable,now 1:0.8.5-1 amd64 [installed]
xfce4/stable,stable,now 4.20.1 all [installed]
Backup recommended. Feel free to remove as long as no meta package is removed.
Question is, why is that needed? Did you previously remove a meta package and then used sudo aptitude keep-all as it was (or similar) previously documented?
I distromorphed from debian, and periodically upgraded via upgrade-nonroot, and then I followed the doc to do the release upgrade. I can see that a lot of these packages are flagged as “automatic”, but not all, particularly xfce4. So maybe at some point I installed some xfce4 addon or something? Anyway I’ll back up and remove it. Thanks!
2 Likes
Ah. That explains it.
By removing xfce (also a meta package), many others can probably be apt autoremoved.
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