Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

[MatthewSchenker]

Hello All,
I installed SeaMonkey a while back, but I want to switch to Firefox and Thunderbird. I want to uninstall SeaMonkey, but it's not in the repositories. So I have to uninstall it manually.

I'm pretty sure "remove" is a basic operation, but I've never done it before. I have a hunch how to do it. I'm hoping someone can confirm that I'm doing the right thing.

SeaMonkey is located in two places on my system...

A folder:
/opt/seamonkey

A shell script:
/usr/bin/seamonkey

Do I have to uninstall both the folder and the shell script separately? Can I use the following command:

sudo rm -r /opt/seamonkey

Thanks!
Matt

[Snowhog]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

The 'safe' approach, is to open a console shell and type:

cd /
sudo apt-get remove --simulate seamonkey

This will 'simulate' the actions that removing the package seamonkey will have on your system. It won't actually do anything. If the output doesn't show any errors, you can then rerun the command without the --simulate option:

sudo apt-get remove seamonkey

[MatthewSchenker]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

Snowhog,
Thanks for the help. I'm slowly but surely picking up a good sense of various commands to use in the command line. The more I learn, the more I like using Konsole!

OK, can you help me interpret the output I got. Here's the Konsole session:

matthew@Main:~$ cd /
matthew@Main:/$ sudo apt-get remove --simulate seamonkey
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package seamonkey
matthew@Main:/$

Thanks,
Matthew

[Snowhog]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

apt-get can't process the command, as it can't find the information about seamonkey. I'm going to guess, that when you did install it, you didn't use Adept Manager, apt-get, or install it 'manually' from a downloaded .deb package? Would that assumption be correct? Do you remember how you acquired SeaMonkey and how you installed it?

[MatthewSchenker]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

Snowhog,
Yes, I installed it with Ubuntuzilla. Sorry, I didn't mean to be mysterious! That's why I originally posted that I wanted to remove it with

sudo rm -r /opt/seamonkey

I had heard that this is what should work with Ubuntuzilla, but it didn't work. That's what drove me to ask the question here.

But with your help I figured it out. I combined your instructions with the Ubuntuzilla instructions. The missing piece was to do the "cd /" command first before issuing "sudo rm -r" in Konsole. The Ubuntuzilla instructions left this part out -- probably because the writer assumed we should know something so obvious!

So, I did this, and it worked:

cd /
sudo rm -r /opt/seamonkey

That removed the SeaMonkey folder from my "opt/" directory.

One last question: is it safe to manually delete the "/usr/bin/seamonkey" file? It doesn't seem to be serving any purpose now that SeaMonkey is gone.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

Matt

[Snowhog]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

You're welcome. You might want to look at this Howto: Native Seamonkey-installer • 1.1 On Ubuntu

Just a bit down the page, you will find:

Not happy with seamonkey and wish to remove it ?
tuxi[~]$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/seamonkey/
tuxi[~]$ sudo rm /usr/local/bin/seamonkey

Keep in mind, that the directories that were used when you installed SeaMonkey are apparently different that those cited above. What is 'key,' is that SeaMonkey, if desired to be removed, (apparently) resides in two directories. So, you may want to use this 'information' and apply it to your system to ensure that you actually do remove all traces.

[MatthewSchenker]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

Snowhog,
OK, thanks for helping me in a few different ways here! I safely deleted both traces of SeaMonkey. I definitely learned a couple of new things about using the Konsole.

Now a stupid question: what's the difference between using the "sudo rm" commands to remove something as opposed to just deleting those things in Dolphin or Konqueror?

Thanks again,
Matt

[Snowhog]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

Dolphin - Avoid using it, as it has problems 'changing' ownership permissions, which can result in access issues. Use Konqueror for file browsing/management.

No 'stupid' questions when one is 'asking' for the purpose of clarification/education. When executing commands 'in a console - the CLI [command line]' - and the action requires the privileges that only 'root' has, you are required to issue the command as root. That's what 'sudo' does when preceding a command. Generally, when a package is installed, it is seldom that it does so with all it's components owned by the user (you). So, removing an installed package requires that root do it.

apt-get is a 'packaged command' that requires execution by root.

[MatthewSchenker]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

Snowhog,
Thanks again. I've got to put together materials on Konsole, so I get familiar with all the basic commands.

Most of the time, I plan to install packages from the repositories. But in those cases when I need to go elsewhere, I want to fully understand the whole installation and (if necessary) removal process.

Sounds like using the command line is a better way to go generally.

Matt

[dibl]

Re: Uninstall SeaMonkey -- Basics of Sudo for Removing Applications?

For packages in the repositories, if you wish to use the console you basically have the choice of apt-get and aptitude. There are pros and cons for both, of course, and you might want to let Mr. Google help you do a little research, especially on the lesser-known but powerful aptitude.

For downloaded deb files, in GUI mode you have the Gdebi installer available with a right-click on the file, and also the Kpackage installer. In console you have dpkg for installing deb files, so you should review

man dpkg

before running it.