Friday, July 29, 2011

How to remove installed software packages in ubuntu

In normal case, if you want to remove a good quality software package you can remove it easily using,

1. synaptic package manager(GUI method) or
2. in terminal type sudo apt-get --purge remove yourpackagename

This should remove the package from the system.

wrost case:

But there are some cases, you try to install some bad quality software packages, after that the synaptic package manager crashes and you cant open up it.
And also you can't use terminal to remove it.

The real headache is you may not be able to install or remove any software package using software center or terminal.

if you are in this kind of situation the following command is the solution.


sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq yourpackagename

if you want to list all the packages in your system and make sure weather the package has removed properly, use the following command.

dpkg --list



note:
I personally had to face that problem from which i had to face many difficulties.

2 comments:

  1. Now this is the one of the most valuable posts I have found out to repair damage caused due to broken package installation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Even if you cant remove package using
    "sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq yourpackagename"
    You can try following
    "sudo dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq yourpackagename"
    That Worked for me.
    ;)

    ReplyDelete