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I was running Ubuntu server and wanted to use a DE, but now I can't uninstall it. There are some problems with sleep settings, where the server will go to sleep because of some packages installed by KDE Plasma. When I try to remove it I get "not installed so not removed"

Here is exactly what I do.

sudo apt purge plasma-desktop:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package 'plasma-desktop' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 30 not upgraded.

But then I run sudo apt list plasma:

Listing... Done

plasma-applet-redshift-control/focal 1.0.18+phabricator~2019080100-1 all


plasma-browser-integration/focal-updates,now 5.18.5-0ubuntu0.1 amd64 [residual-config]


plasma-calendar-addons/focal-updates 4:5.18.7-0ubuntu0.1 amd64


plasma-dataengines-addons/focal-updates 4:5.18.7-0ubuntu0.1 amd64


plasma-desktop-data/focal-updates 4:5.18.8-0ubuntu0.1 all

... And even more packages.

Clearly SOMETHING is still installed. How can I get rid of it?

Nmath
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Sid
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    Installing desktop packages on a server setup can change many configs to desktop defaults (inc. power), removal of those packages will remove the packages; but settings changed on install need to be reversed manually; some changes being done by post-install scripts not the packages themselves (a consequence of installing the packages yes). Your issue maybe isn't package related; but configs changed. You should provide release details & be specific as to what packages were installed, how removed etc. Did you use purge though even that won't likely fix all. Did you sudo apt autoremove – guiverc Feb 19 '22 at 00:13
  • Does the problem resolve when you remove those other packages? – Nmath Feb 19 '22 at 00:18
  • @guiverc I have used both the sudo apt purge and the sudo apt autoremove commands. I didn't know that the settings could be permanently changed, but it seems like the packages are still installed, due to the apt list | grep plasma command that I ran. – Sid Feb 19 '22 at 00:42
  • @Nmath My problem is that I cannot uninstall the packages. For instance if you look at the second command that I ran, and i pick any package from the listed packages it will not uninstall. For instance, the plasma-desktop package. If I use sudo apt purge plasma-desktop the result is: Reading state information... Done Package 'plasma-desktop' is not installed, so not removed.

    If I run apt list | grep plasma-desktop the result will be show that it is still installed.

     – Sid Feb 19 '22 at 00:45
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    You've not provided details of what you actually installed; mentioning a specific package you removed (or attempted to remove) but no clues have been provided as to what was actually installed. You have access to the machine, thus can view it's logs, we cannot. If we're to properly help you need to provide what was installed (ideally commands); and what was removed/purged; your pasted error implies you didn't install that package (or had already removed it - ie. operator error) – guiverc Feb 19 '22 at 00:49
  • But the meta package plasma-desktop is not in that list. plasma-desktop-data is a different package. In any case, you may have learned the hard way why adding a DE just to try it is a bad idea. In the future you can use a live session so it won't affect your installed system. DE meta packages pull in dozens, sometimes 100+ dependencies. It's really messy to remove or change a DE, that's why Ubuntu comes in so many official flavours – Nmath Feb 19 '22 at 00:51
  • Maybe useful (recent question - https://askubuntu.com/questions/1393497/safe-way-to-remove-des) but as already outlined you've not provided clear details of what was done to install the desktop, so I at least have no clues to guide you (& I'm somewhat familiar with adding/removing desktops!) – guiverc Feb 19 '22 at 01:03
  • @Sid your second output (apt list) does NOT seem to include any installed packages. Installed packages are denoted by the marking [installed]. You are showing a single package (plasma-browser-integration) that is marked [residual-config] use apt's 'purge' command to get rid of residual configs. – user535733 Feb 19 '22 at 01:32
  • @Nmath I have definitely learned my lesson. I cut the list of packages due to length, but plasma-desktop was included among them. – Sid Feb 19 '22 at 01:36
  • @guiverc In case I wasn't clear enough, I use 'apt list | grep plasma' and see many installed packages, but when I try to remove them I get the "not installed so not removed. However, user535733 says that installed packages are marked by [installed], which means that I am somehow seeing not installed packages. If they really aren't installed and my power problems are due to bad config files, how should I change these things back, and what are the listed packages? – Sid Feb 19 '22 at 03:12
  • But I'm asking how they were installed; as the best method of removing them is the reverse of how installed (if you're trying to avoid issues on your base system; otherwise you're best looking at the package logs & reversing that way; but the fewer packages changes the better into the future with release-upgrade etc in mind). You've not provided that detail which is what I'd use to ensure best results & least impact on the system you had before you added KDE/Kubuntu packages (and as already stated; into the future should you wish to release-upgrade to 22.04 easily etc)... – guiverc Feb 19 '22 at 03:29
  • @guiverc I honestly don't care about any issues on my system as it's a side project that only has a few extra packages. I just want to avoid the fuss of resetting the system. Is there any straightforward way of doing this? Sorry if I'm being a bit silly, I'm still a novice at this kind of thing. – Sid Feb 19 '22 at 03:59
  • As already stated the easiest is to reverse what was done; apt logs are a huge clue (var/log/apt/history.log) where it's apt/dpkg commands that made changes, otherwise it'll be elsewhere. If you manually installed https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/plasma-applet-redshift-control https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/plasma-desktop-data & the other packages in your list; you can remove them - but I'm betting unless you specifically manually installed them; you're just going after easy fruit and not the real problem (and the more changes made the more non-standard you're making your system.. – guiverc Feb 19 '22 at 04:39

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