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I recently installed zotero on Ubuntu but would like to remove it. I suppose the problem is that I installed it manually. Though it doesn't appear in my list of installed programs in Ubuntu software, it runs fine when I click on the zotero icon, which DOES appear in "Show Applications".

I went to usr/home/share/applications and the folder is completely empty, which also seems strange, but I suppose that is a subject for another thread.

I tried:

sudo apt-get remove zotero

It said the file was not found.

E: Unable to locate package zotero

I tried doing this both with zotero with a small "z" and Zotero with capital "Z". Neither returned any result.

Screenshot of home screen folder

Zotero appears in two folders in the "home" menu. One of which is locked. There is no readme or uninstall file available.

  1. How do you recommend uninstalling the program correctly so that I can install zotero via Ubuntu software manager and avoid a problem like this in the future?
  2. If I do need to install a program manually in terminal, how can I avoid a situation like this happening again?

Thanks!

Zanna
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jalthouse
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  • How did you install it "manually" ? There probably will be a similar uninstall method found the same place. – Soren A Nov 20 '18 at 13:53
  • Maybe you can use synaptic. – Vijay Nov 20 '18 at 14:02
  • Apt is not omniscient - it ONLY knows about deb packages. Apt doesn't know anything about Snaps, AppImages, Flatpacks, Wheels, Pips, tarballs, or any other non-deb method of installing software. Use other methods at your own risk. – user535733 Nov 20 '18 at 16:32

2 Answers2

6

I recently installed zotero on ubuntu but would like to remove it. I suppose the problem is that I installed it manually.

Correct.

It said the file was not found.

Because you did not use apt install to install it.

How do you recommend uninstalling the program correctly so that I can install zotero via ubuntu software manager and avoid a problem like this in the future.

The installer should also have a document about uninstalling it. Or even have an uninstall script. If you followed the instructions on the website:

Linux

For Ubuntu, the tarball includes a .desktop file that can be used to add Zotero to the launcher. Move the extracted directory to a location of your choice (e.g., /opt/zotero), run the set_launcher_icon script to update the .desktop file for that location, and symlink zotero.desktop into ~/.local/share/applications/ (e.g., ln -s /opt/zotero/zotero.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop). Zotero should then appear in your launcher.

... all you need to do is

sudo rm -rf /opt/zotero/
rm ~/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop

If i do need to install a program manually in terminal, how can I avoid a situation like this happening again?

Follow the uninstall instructions if there are any otherwise use our friend rm.

Community
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Rinzwind
  • 299,756
  • Thanks! Since one of the Zotero folders was locked I had no permission to do anything with it. Using sudo rm was the only possible solution, given my minimal knowledge. – jalthouse Nov 21 '18 at 16:15
2

IF you installed Zotero using sh installer like this Github 

wget https://raw.github.com/smathot/zotero_installer/master/zotero_installer.sh -O /tmp/zotero_installer.sh
chmod +x /tmp/zotero_installer.sh
/tmp/zotero_installer.sh

Follow the instructions : 

$ ./zotero_installer.sh
>>> This script will download and install Zotero standalone on your system.
>>> Do you want to continue?
>>> y/n (default=y)
y
>>> Do you want to install Zotero globally (g) or locally (l).
>>> Root access is required for a global installation.
>>> g/l (default=l)
l
>>> Installing locally
>>> Please input the version of Zotero.
>>> (default=5.0.56)
5.0.56
>>> Please input your systems architecture (i686 or x86_64).
>>> (default=x86_64)
x86_64
>>> Downloading Zotero standalone 5.0.56 for x86_64
>>> URL: https://download.zotero.org/client/release/5.0.56/Zotero-5.0.56_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
--2018-11-20 21:07:40--  https://download.zotero.org/client/release/5.0.56/Zotero-5.0.56_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
Resolving download.zotero.org (download.zotero.org)... 13.35.20.99, 13.35.20.113, 13.35.20.46, ...
Connecting to download.zotero.org (download.zotero.org)|13.35.20.99|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 59389833 (57M) [application/x-tar]
Saving to: ‘/tmp/zotero.tar.bz2’

/tmp/zotero.tar.bz2                   100%[=======================================================================>]  56,64M   433KB/s    in 2m 53s  

2018-11-20 21:10:35 (335 KB/s) - ‘/tmp/zotero.tar.bz2’ saved [59389833/59389833]

>>> Extracting Zotero
>>> Target folder: /home/praz/zotero
>>> Creating menu entry
>>> Done!

>>> Don't forget to check out Qnotero, the Zotero sidekick!
>>> URL: http://www.cogsci.nl/qnotero

When your choose as Globally installation, to remove it follow : 

sudo rm -rf /opt/zotero
sudo rm -f /usr/local/applications/zotero.desktop

Else if your choose as Locally installation, to remove it follow :

sudo rm -rf /home/[user]/zotero
sudo rm -f /home/[user]/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop

Hope this helps.

abu-ahmed al-khatiri
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