How to uninstall MS Edge with dpkg

Question

I downloaded the microsoft-edge-stable_121.0.2277.98-1_amd64.deb from internet, then installed it manually with:

dpkg -i microsoft-edge-stable_121.0.2277.98-1_amd64.deb

I can't figure out how to remove it. "dpkg" doesn't show it on it's installed list. I tried with apt and snap they don't recognize it.

Try sudo dpkg -r microsoft-edge-stable? If it doesn't appear in dpkg --get-selections, then you didn't actually install it — Daniel T, Feb 02 '24 at 07:13
Does this answer your question? remove package with apt-get or dpkg — Daniel T, Feb 02 '24 at 07:20
@DanielT Good call. btw the linked question was not really a duplicate of the question it was closed for being a duplicate of, so I reopened it. — karel, Feb 02 '24 at 10:24
thanks, it worked using "sudo dpkg -r microsoft-edge-stable" — titler, Feb 02 '24 at 19:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 03 '24 at 06:20

As described in this article on baeldung.com dpkg provides two primary methods for uninstalling packages that have been installed using the dpkg tool (rather than apt or apt-get):

dpkg -r <package_name>: removes the package and its associated files, but leaves configuration files
dpkg –purge <package_name>: not only removes the package but also purges its configuration files and leftover data

More inormation is available in the dpkg man page:

man dpkg
...
   -r, --remove package...|-a|--pending
       Remove an installed package.  This removes everything except conffiles
       and other data cleaned up by the postrm script, which may avoid having
       to reconfigure the package if it is reinstalled later (conffiles are
       configuration files that are listed in the DEBIAN/conffiles control
       file).  If there is no DEBIAN/conffiles control file nor DEBIAN/postrm
       script, this command is equivalent to calling --purge.  If -a or
       --pending is given instead of a package name, then all packages
       unpacked, but marked to be removed in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are
       removed.
   -P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
       Purge an installed or already removed package. This removes everything,
       including conffiles, and anything else cleaned up from postrm.  If -a
       or --pending is given instead of a package name, then all packages
       unpacked or removed, but marked to be purged in file
       /var/lib/dpkg/status, are purged.

How to uninstall MS Edge with dpkg

1 Answers1