I recently moved over to LMDE elsie and was doing the post install adjustments to personal preferences, etc. .
I use Brave Browser and set it as my default browser. I then tried removing the LMDE browsers, but when I try it just replaces the browser with another package. Uninstalled Firefox and it added Chromium. Unistalled Chromonium and it added something else, the name eludes at the moment, but the icon just say Web now.
What am I missing? Is there anyway to remove the native LMDE Browsers without it trying to protect me from deleting my browser?
Hi Ed,
That is really strange, and I do not have the answer.
Some things you might look at
did you use apt-get purge to remove Firefox?
I wonder if update-alternatives has something set that might force it to install a browser?
it is not normal for a distro to force an install of a package, other than at the initial installation. Do you have any unusual
configurations related to packages or browsers?
Not much help, but you need to probe for a reason.
Regards
Neville
Not an answer but an interesting experience yesterday related to this.
I have a client who could not access her email so deleted Firefox, could not get access on Chromium so deleted that as well, so had no browser, still struggling she removed thunderbird and wine ⌠Leaving nothing. Her problem was a forgotten password.
Cost her 20 euros for being stupid and wasting my time reinstalling chromium and resetting her password.
But to go back to your question, normally when you remove it does not offer another, unless it was installed and the system offered a new default. Hence I suspect you still had brave browser and removing chrome defaulted to brave
Answer would be start it up and then go to help about.
Or check in your control panel what is the default browser.
There has to be a config file somewhere that controls this behaviour.
You have to look for it. ⌠somewhere in /etc
It might help to read the LMDE docs
The clue is this
it does not seem to be noticing that Brave is a browser
it seems to insist that there be one browser installed
you have a list of browsers that it recognizes⌠try to find where that list is stored
When you find it, you can edit the list and add Brave. Then it should be happy
I think this behavior can be somewhere in apt dependency tree as well.
If you have a package (A) installed, which depends either on package âBâ or package âCâ, then one of those (B or C) has to be installed to fulfill requirement of âAâ.
So if there is âBâ installed, and it is being removed, âCâ has to be installed to keep âAâ installed.
I donât know if this is the case, but could beâŚ
That will list all the reverse dependencies of firefox ( ie packages that depend on firefox)
If you forcefully remove a package that other things depend on, then the system will try to satisfy those dependencies by installing something⌠maybe even another browser. Maybe even putting the same browser back after you purge it.
So yes Laszlo, that may be the answer, and there is no way around it. If Brave can not meet all the dependencies, then you may need another browser.
If this proves to be correct, ignore my previous reply #5
I dont like it. Things like this are getting too complicated.
Thanks for the suggestion. It yielded some interesting results, the majority of the dependencies are from LibreOffice-help and the minority is shown in the photos attached.
Yeah, I tested it in LM⌠the same .
I guess any program that does internet help will need a browser⌠it is rather strange, though, that it should be tied to a specific browser, or to any browsdr except Brave.
I think it may be because you installed Brave by some procedure outside the package system, so the package system does not include it in its dependency structure.
There is a caution here. Alternate install procedures that undermine the package systemâs integrity are not desirable. This includes things like pip and cargo/rust.
Thank you for testing the problem. I did add Brave outside of the package system, I guess I just have to live with it.
I noticed when I was using LM20 that it kept updating firefox even though I thought I removed it. I didnât investigate it further then, but I suspect it was happening there as well.
I hate not having as much freedom and control of the apps that are installed. I can live with it since Iâm not ready to swim in the Arch waters yet. lol.
We all do it. In a lot of cases (like Brave and Waterfox) there is no choice because the makers do not take the trouble to submit a deb package.
Forget about Arch⌠use Gentoo. The portage package system is superior to any other, in that it gives the user more control over dependency resolution.
Someday Iâll call upon you to do a service for me.
âŚand imagine that spoken on my deepest don-corleone-voice
Just kidding, you donât owe
Itâs corrected, but I did not solve it anyway, just gave a hint for a possible cause.
I wasnât even sure if thatâs the problem, and still had no chance to dig into itâŚ
Itâs more complicated than that. Itâs up to the package maintainer to indicate which packages it depends on. Even if you would install Brave within the package-system (via apt install or suchâŚ), if that package (Brave) is not indicated as a possible dependence, would not solve anything.
Are you aware, you can install Brave as a conventional .deb package? So updating it will be more comfortableâŚ
Correct. I have that issue with .deb printer drivers.
I think what I should have said was
âPackages within the Debian repositary are all carefully checked for interdependencies, so if you can confine your installs to the official repo, dependency issues should be very rareâ
Adding .deb files from other repos is another matter.
We all do it when we have to, but there can be issuesâŚ
I regularly lose my printer and scanner drivers during upgrades.
UpdateâŚI had trouble removing Firefox in LMDE 5 without it trying to substitute it with another browser(i.e. subtraction by addition).
However, I am pleased to report that a recent upgrade to LMDE 6 didnât exhibit the same behavior. It appears that I removed Firefox without it adding another unwanted browser.
