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    [RESOLVED] Removing Fontconfig Broke My System

    Greetings to all! I’m brand new here and pretty new to Linux although I have used Linux Mint on an old HP and now I’m running Kubuntu 22.4.2 LTS & KDE Plasma 5.24.7. I just bought a new Linux certified computer just so it works great. It was certified with Ubuntu but I liked Kubuntu better and have had very few issues.

    I thought I would remove fontconfig, and after reading what it was, I thought I wouldn’t have any issues. This is what was said about fontconfig on their website: “Fontconfig is a library for configuring and customizing font access.”

    I was wrong and there was no warning. I forgot if I used the command line or the muon package manager but it was not good and I couldn’t even create a text file. Noticing what a big mistake it was I used the Muon Package Manager to reinstall it and then I re-booted my system without any further errors. I understand that you should never remove something that you are not sure about but I really thought this was optional library for customizing fonts?

    There are many more people who have made this mistake and have bricked their operating system. I googled “removing fontconfig broke my system” and read the horror stories. I guess I got lucky. Don’t remove fontconfig.







    #2
    Welcome.

    Don't just remove packages of your initial installation unless you know exactly what your are doing and what the consequences are. This applies to any operating system.
    Only removing (graphical) user applications like e.g. LibreOffice or KMines normally involves no chance to bork your system.

    To see what fontconfig is and some of the programs/components that depend on it you can e.g. enter the following commands in the Konsole terminal emulator:

    apt show fontconfig
    apt rdepends fontconfig
    Last edited by Schwarzer Kater; Jul 18, 2023, 01:17 PM.
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      #3
      Greetings,

      I find it interesting when I use the command:

      apt show fontconfig
      apt rdepends fontconfig

      The message I get in Konsole is: Priority: optional​

      I thought it was optional when I removed it.

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        #4
        Priority: optional basically means just that it isn't required for a "minimal" CLI system.
        https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-po...tml#priorities

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