Deborphan and a few more things (I checked my installed stuff...)

[Goatmilk]

Some more niggles - I'm a aware they are likely totally different things, but if I open a new topic for each, I'm surely getting the boot for spamming.

I checked my installed list to see what's going on in this little pill here - not that seeing and understanding is getting any closer these days.

First thing, I found a thing called deborphan, which, according to DuckDuckGo, is a tool "in Debian-based Linux distributions to find orphaned packages that are no longer needed because no other installed packages depend on them".

I ran it, and little Max spat out the following list:

$ deborphan --guess-all
desktop-defaults-mx-common:all
ftp:all
ghostscript-x:amd64
gnupg-agent:all
ieee-data:all
java-common:all
kio-ldap:amd64
libcanberra-gstreamer:amd64
libelf-dev:amd64
libnss-myhostname:amd64
lo-main-helper:all
python3-bluez:amd64
python3-cffi-backend:amd64
python3-pycurl:amd64
python3-software-properties:all
qml-module-qtquick-xmllistmodel:amd64
qt-heif-image-plugin:amd64
telnet:all
vrms:all

Does that mean I can go and delete them all? And why hadn't autoclean and autoremove and autopurge done that already if nothing needs that stuff? I also installed Stacer, and while I'm wary to use it since at least in Windows those Digital-Clorox-tools often do more harm than good, it didn't find those obsolete things either.

More niggles:

fprintd = D-Bus daemon for fingerprint reader access - Do I need that? I have no fingerprint thingies or whatever.

Graphviz = tool for drawing graphs - who or what needs it?

hspell = Hebrew spell checker - Heck, I don't even speak Hebrew. What's it for?

kamera - digital camera support - I put duct tape on that little web camera in my laptop lid. Would I still need this package, or is it for something else entirely? Like, scanning in the images from my smart phone?

krdc = Remote Desktop connection client - Is that anything like Windows' Remote Registry??? That was always the first thing that got disabled in any new Windows installation.

yakuake = dropdown terminal - Seems the MX developers love it, as it jumps at you at every corner. But I don't like it, I always use the other one, konsole. Can I safely uninstall it?


Oh, and the last thing: any way to reign in my "Conky", I'm aware it's probably just a little piece of window decoration not to be taken seriously, but where does it get its data from?

I don't think my laptop uses 9.57g/15.5g. According to stacer, it's just 2.7g.


Sorry for being a bother. Up to now, I had easy living with Linux, as it sat on my laptop only and was for going online only. But next week, the big computer comes back.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I ran it, and little Max spat out the following list:

For instance gnupg-agent was reported as orphaned, please run apt rdepends --installed gnupg-agent and post results here.

You can do this for other items listed as well to see if they're really orphaned or if this program doesn't work as expected.

 

[KGIII]

but if I open a new topic for each, I'm surely getting the boot for spamming.

Probably not. So long as they're separate topics, I don't care.

 

[Goatmilk]

owl@Max:~
$ apt rdepends --installed gnupg-agent
gnupg-agent
Reverse Depends:
  Breaks: gnupg-utils (<< 2.1.21-4)
  Enhances: pinentry-qt
    gpg-agent:i386
    gpg-agent
  Replaces: gpgconf (<< 2.1.21-4)
  Breaks: gpgconf (<< 2.1.21-4)
  Replaces: gpg-agent (<< 2.1.21-4)
  Breaks: gpg-agent (<< 2.1.21-4)
  Replaces: gnupg-utils (<< 2.1.21-4)



$ apt rdepends --installed desktop-defaults-mx-common:all
desktop-defaults-mx-common
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed ftp:all
ftp
Reverse Depends:
  Replaces: ftp (<= 0.17-35)

$ apt rdepends --installed ghostscript-x:amd64
ghostscript-x
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed ieee-data:all
ieee-data
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed java-common:all
java-common
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed kio-ldap:amd64
kio-ldap
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed libcanberra-gstreamer:amd64
libcanberra-gstreamer
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed libelf-dev:amd64
libelf-dev
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed libnss-myhostname:amd64
libnss-myhostname
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed lo-main-helper:all
lo-main-helper
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed python3-bluez:amd64
python3-bluez
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed python3-cffi-backend:amd64
python3-cffi-backend
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed python3-pycurl:amd64
python3-pycurl
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed python3-software-properties:all
python3-software-properties
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed qml-module-qtquick-xmllistmodel:amd64
qml-module-qtquick-xmllistmodel
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed qt-heif-image-plugin:amd64
qt-heif-image-plugin
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed telnet:all
telnet
Reverse Depends:

$ apt rdepends --installed vrms:all
vrms
Reverse Depends:
  Breaks: check-dfsg-status (<< 1.28)
  Replaces: check-dfsg-status (<< 1.28)

Breaks and replaces?? Oh dear...

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Breaks and replaces?? Oh dear...

There's your proof that deborphan should be dumped to trash for misleading you.
I suggest you don't attempt to clean your system just because some random programs tells you.

 

[osprey]

Breaks and replaces?? Oh dear...

One way of looking at this issue is to assess whether or not the package is useful to the user. In that respect one can look at each package and make a decision. Commands like the following are just there to help the user rather than to be automatically invoked because they have some mystical benefit to the system:

deborphan selects packages which are libraries that have no packages dependent upon them.
deboprhan -a selects all packages which have no other packages dependent upon them.
deborphan --guess-all tries to guess which packages aren't useful, but see manpage for what it does.
apt list ~o selects obsolete packages which are ones that no longer exist in repositories.

Just because a package has no other packages dependent upon it, or is obsolete, does not mean that it's not useful to the user.

In the case of some of the packages in the list in post #1, one might ask:

Do I use telnet? Would telnet be useful for me in the future? Am I concerned about the space the telnet software takes up on my drive? A consideration might be that telnet can be useful for checking connectivity, e.g. telnet google.com 80. In the case of entering other systems it lacks the security of ssh but for just for connectivity that may not be necessary. Some telnet sites still do exist which can be entered.

Looking at vrms, a program which checks non-free packages, 'apt show vrms' says:

This is a transitional package to install the check-dfsg-status package and
which can be safely removed

If one wishes to check non-free packages on the system one can install and use check-dfsg-status.

ftp is the file transfer program used on the command line, e.g. ftp ftp.oreilly.com (one can use anonymous as the login to get in), or ftp ftp.funet.fi (auto login). Is that useful or of interest?

libelf-elf is used in compilation of binaries such as with gcc. Would one be building such software?

Packages deemed useless and have no repercussions if deleted, can of course be deleted, and re-installed in the future if a need arises.

In general, a meticulous approach to the matter is more likely to be benign to the system than any blind use of commands that delete packages. One is best to know quite what they are doing and it may take some research to do that in a safer way. It's really just learning linux .

 

[osprey]

There's your proof that deborphan should be dumped to trash for misleading you.
I suggest you don't attempt to clean your system just because some random programs tells you.

Yes, deborphan needs some evaluation to go with its processing! Running the following shows deborphan itself to be obsolete!

[~]$ apt list ~o
ddate/now 0.2.2-2 amd64 [installed,local]
deborphan/now 1.7.35 amd64 [installed,local]
<snip>

 

[Goatmilk]

There's your proof that deborphan should be dumped to trash for misleading you.
I suggest you don't attempt to clean your system just because some random programs tells you.

I won't - that's why I asked

Yes, deborphan needs some evaluation to go with its processing! Running the following shows deborphan itself to be obsolete!

[~]$ apt list ~o
ddate/now 0.2.2-2 amd64 [installed,local]
deborphan/now 1.7.35 amd64 [installed,local]
<snip>

There was a time when "system optimization tools" where all the rage in Windows, like "Norton Suite" et all - utter resource hogs that sat fat and heavy and totally useless in the background to "monitor" the system. The best system optimization usually was to kick them out as fast as possible. At least deborphan doesn't seem to be a resource hog.

(Stacer seems to be a little like that: every time I open it to look at the dashboard and then quit it, it sneaks into the system tray, where I have to quit it AGAIN. Not sure if I like that)

And you're right, it's probably things I might need. Not sure about Telnet, but ftp:all sure sounds like something that might be useful when ftp is required - or isn't it anymore? I see these days everything gets uploaded via "click here"...