[SOLVED] Farewell, snapd?

[Schwarzer Kater]

After reading a lot about snaps / snapd in this forum and people's experience and opinions about them, I decided to get rid of snapd for good.

E.g. in:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...5715-OMG-snaps
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...pact-on-Ubuntu
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...ed-about-snaps
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...ts-or-services

Fortunately the developers of Kubuntu 20.04 were so kind not to install any snaps by default (unlike in Ubuntu 20.04),
so: sudo purge snapd !

And YES, I want to get rid of plasma-discover-backend-snap*, plasma-discover-snap-backend* and snapd* !

before:

kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$ systemctl list-unit-files | grep snapd
snapd.apparmor.service                                                    enabled         enabled      
snapd.autoimport.service                                                  enabled         enabled      
snapd.core-fixup.service                                                  enabled         enabled      
snapd.failure.service                                                     static          enabled      
snapd.recovery-chooser-trigger.service                                    enabled         enabled      
snapd.seeded.service                                                      enabled         enabled      
snapd.service                                                             enabled         enabled      
snapd.snap-repair.service                                                 static          enabled      
snapd.system-shutdown.service                                             enabled         enabled      
snapd.socket                                                              enabled         enabled      
snapd.snap-repair.timer                                                   enabled         enabled
kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$

and after:

kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$ systemctl list-unit-files | grep snapd
kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$

before:

kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$ which snap
/usr/bin/snap
kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$

and after:

kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$ which snap
kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$

But was it really gone? I asked Dolphin about it and searched for snapd, and this is what it has found:



apt told me:

libsnapd-glib1/focal,now 1.57-0ubuntu3 amd64  [Installiert,automatisch]
GLib snapd library

and rdepends showed:

kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$ apt rdepends libsnapd-glib1
libsnapd-glib1
Reverse Depends:
Hängt ab von: pulseaudio (>= 0.1)
Hängt ab von: [COLOR=#ff0000][B]pulseaudio[/B][/COLOR] (>= 1.49)
Hängt ab von: snapd-glib-tests (>= 1.57)
Hängt ab von: libsnapd-qt1 (>= 1.57)
Hängt ab von: libgoa-backend-1.0-1 (>= 1.26)
Hängt ab von: libsnapd-glib-dev (= 1.57-0ubuntu3)
Hängt ab von: gnome-software (>= 1.55)
Hängt ab von: gnome-software-plugin-snap (>= 1.57)
Hängt ab von: gnome-control-center (>= 1.57)
Hängt ab von: gnome-initial-setup (>= 1.42)
Hängt ab von: gir1.2-snapd-1 (= 1.57-0ubuntu3)
kater@PC-Kubuntu2004:~$

Why hasn't it been removed by purge snapd ?

And is it save to purge libsnapd-glib1 now to get rid of the last remains of snapd ?
Probably not, because of pulseaudio - the only one of the reverse dependents listed above that is actually installed on my system?

Otherwise all seems to have gone well, and my Kubuntu does feel much lighter and less Canonical now! ;-)

[Don B. Cilly]

It looks good enough to me. They really shouldn't give you any more problems.

Thing is (as I've said) the idea of snaps isn't bad, the implementation is horrible, verging on the absurd.
Hopefully the developers will reconsider, and find a less donkeyish way to do it.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Thanks for your feedback, Mr. Cilly.
And give my best to your Déesse… :-)

[kyonides]

~$ apt-cache rdepends libsnapd-glib1
libsnapd-glib1
Reverse Depends:
pulseaudio
pulseaudio
snapd-glib-tests
libsnapd-qt1
libgoa-backend-1.0-1
libsnapd-glib-dev
gnome-software
gnome-software-plugin-snap
gnome-control-center
gnome-initial-setup
libsnapd-glib1-dbgsym
gir1.2-snapd-1

~$ sudo apt-get remove libsnapd*
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'libsnapd-glib1-dbgsym' for glob 'libsnapd*'
Note, selecting 'libsnapd-qt-dev' for glob 'libsnapd*'
Note, selecting 'libsnapd-qt1-dbgsym' for glob 'libsnapd*'
Note, selecting 'libsnapd-qt1' for glob 'libsnapd*'
Note, selecting 'libsnapd-glib-dev' for glob 'libsnapd*'
Note, selecting 'libsnapd-glib1' for glob 'libsnapd*'
Package 'libsnapd-glib1-dbgsym' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'libsnapd-qt1-dbgsym' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'libsnapd-glib-dev' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'libsnapd-qt-dev' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'libsnapd-qt1' is not installed, so not removed
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
apt-config-icons-hidpi apt-config-icons-large apt-config-icons-large-hidpi libpulsedsp libsbc1 libwebrtc-audio-processing1 pavucontrol-qt-l10n
pulseaudio-utils
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
[B][COLOR=#ff0000]kubuntu-desktop[/COLOR][/B] libcanberra-pulse libsnapd-glib1 pavucontrol-qt plasma-pa pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-bluetooth
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 7 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 6 867 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Sadly, I can't remove that snap library without affecting kubuntu... :s

[claydoh]

kubuntu-desktop is a meta-package that only is used to define the set of defualt applications Kubuntu uses by default. it is safe to remove, and does NOT remove your desktop.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Thank you, kyonides and claydoh.

Would be nice to keep pulseaudio, though, wouln't it?

[claydoh]

Naw, who needs sound? lol kidding

But really, libsnapd-glib1 is a library, and is not code or a service or executable that runs itself, so it is just using some kb of disk space.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Thanks for pointing this out.

So now I will dare to repeat this time-consuming procedure (well, typing sudo apt purge snapd [return] y [return]) on the production systems I am responsible for.