Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

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manyroads
Posts: 2603
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:33 pm

Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#1 Post by manyroads »

Because there is a discussion on the MX facebook (FB) site regarding adding or removing apps from MX base installs, I thought I would share a more detailed version of my FB responses. I don't know if this should be considered a tutorial or not... I leave that decision for others. :happy:
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If you want to quickly customize your MX installation and are not a big fan of writing Linux scripts you can create simple cut & paste 'snippets" like the three that follow:

1. sudo apt-get purge application1 application2 application999
2. sudo apt autoremove
3. sudo apt-get install applicationA applicationB applicationZZ

application# represents any application-name (the same goes for those with digits). For the sake of argument, let's say
application1 = featherpad
application2 = xfce4-notes-plugin

applicationA = mousepad
applicationB = chromium

In this simple example then we get item 1 as:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge featherpad xfce4-notes-plugin
Note: you may add as many applications as you like.

For Item 2 we have the following:

Code: Select all

sudo apt autoremove
For item 3, we get:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mousepad chromium
Note: you may add as many applications as you like here, as well.

Copy & paste your commands one at a time into your terminal, wait for each to complete. When they are complete; you are done. Change the application(s) to those you want added or removed. The autoremove step simply cleans up unused leftovers.

N.B.: If you don't know the application names of the preinstalled applications just go to your menu and Right click on the application you want to delete. Generally the first word in the command line is the application name.

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For those who'd like to make this all into a script so you only need run a single command, here we go.
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Open an editor, I generally use mousepad. Once you have your editor open add the following (all from our example above).

#!/bin/bash
sudo apt-get purge featherpad xfce4-notes-plugin
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt-get install mousepad chromium

Save this file as a file you will remember like "application-mods"

Once you have saved the file, make it executable. You can do this from terminal of the file manager. To use terminal enter the following command in the directory where you placed the file "application-mods"

Code: Select all

chmod +x application-mods
And now to execute the script all you need enter in the terminal is:

Code: Select all

./application-mods
Save the script and you can run it on any Debian based machine.

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Enjoy! :bagoverhead:
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - ManyRoads Genealogy -or- eirenicon llc. (geeky stuff)
i3wm, bspwm, hlwm, dwm, spectrwm ~ Linux #449130
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken

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manyroads
Posts: 2603
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:33 pm

Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#2 Post by manyroads »

Here's an example of the script I use:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
sudo apt-get purge gmtp orage featherpad nomacs nomacs-l10n pppoeconf asunder chromium-bsu chromium-bsu-data clipit gmtp gnome-ppp gnome-hearts hexchat hexchat-common lbreakout2 lbreakout2-data mc mc-data xfce4-notes-plugin xfce4-notes peg-e smtube swell-foop xfburn fbreader gscan2pdf dconf feh firefox
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge
sudo apt-get install plank synapse xed keepassx four-in-a-row grsync gnome-disk-utility djview4 djvulibre-plugin gcolor2 agave viewnior fonts-roboto-hinted filezilla clamav clamtk clamassassin chromium gramps grsync zim baobab djview4 ristretto thunar-dropbox-plugin fonts-roboto-hinted
Last edited by manyroads on Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - ManyRoads Genealogy -or- eirenicon llc. (geeky stuff)
i3wm, bspwm, hlwm, dwm, spectrwm ~ Linux #449130
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken

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dphn
Posts: 126
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2018 7:26 am

Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#3 Post by dphn »

Hi manyroads,

when you purge apps it's better you run after this autoremove with the --purge addition. For removing config-files of the deinstalled applications AND their dependencies.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get autoremove --purge
for those with an eye for the finer details...

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manyroads
Posts: 2603
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:33 pm

Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#4 Post by manyroads »

Thank you. The change appears above.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - ManyRoads Genealogy -or- eirenicon llc. (geeky stuff)
i3wm, bspwm, hlwm, dwm, spectrwm ~ Linux #449130
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken

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thomasl
Posts: 414
Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#5 Post by thomasl »

Hm... how about this idea, building on manyroad's script...?

The devs could build a simple MX app, say MX App Remover, which has a database (big word, basically just a list) of all installed apps that might be candidates for an uninstall (ie no system relevant stuff, no drivers etc).

This list is presented (perhaps in a similar layout and style as the list of installable apps in MX Package Installer, ie in a tree with groupings) to the user. The user happily clicks around until all apps s/he doesn't like/want/need are selected. Then that tool creates a script along the lines of manyroad's which then can either be saved or is executed.

Just thinking aloud...
Frugal installs on Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Ryzen 5 4650U/24GB * HP Pavilion Ryzen 3 3300U/16GB * Toshiba R950 i5-3340M/12GB
I have a reservation... What do you mean it's not in the COMPUTER!

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manyroads
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Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#6 Post by manyroads »

Daß ist ok bei mir @thomasl --- ok with me!
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - ManyRoads Genealogy -or- eirenicon llc. (geeky stuff)
i3wm, bspwm, hlwm, dwm, spectrwm ~ Linux #449130
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken

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Redacted
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Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#7 Post by Redacted »

The devs could build a simple MX app, say MX App Remover, which has a database (big word, basically just a list) of all installed apps that might be candidates for an uninstall (ie no system relevant stuff, no drivers etc).
Wouldn't that be an incredibly subjective list?
Just looking at the thread about what programs we use most, I can see a huge difference in people's "necessary" programs.

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manyroads
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Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#8 Post by manyroads »

@Redacted I think the thing that can be done pretty readily is provide a list of "do not remove" apps (or the system will crash). But given my learning style (tactile) I'm happy enough finding those on my own and rebuilding. What's a systems crash or two among friends, eh?
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - ManyRoads Genealogy -or- eirenicon llc. (geeky stuff)
i3wm, bspwm, hlwm, dwm, spectrwm ~ Linux #449130
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken

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Redacted
Posts: 294
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:53 am

Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#9 Post by Redacted »

manyroads wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 3:40 pm What's a systems crash or two among friends, eh?
We must be pretty good buddies :happy:

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thomasl
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Re: Easy application portfolio 'alteration' (tweaks)

#10 Post by thomasl »

Redacted wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 3:35 pm
The devs could build a simple MX app, say MX App Remover, which has a database (big word, basically just a list) of all installed apps that might be candidates for an uninstall (ie no system relevant stuff, no drivers etc).
Wouldn't that be an incredibly subjective list?
Just looking at the thread about what programs we use most, I can see a huge difference in people's "necessary" programs.
I think you completely misunderstood what I was/am proposing, perhaps I was just not very clear.

Immediately after booting into a just downloaded MX ISO/live USB (ie before installing anything), a user can start "MX AppRemover" and is presented with a list of "removable apps" (ie no system apps, no drivers etc) that are *currently* included in the system. This list is finite because the MX ISOs only come with a finite list of installed apps. The user simply inspects this list and decides that s/he wants to get rid of ThisPlayer and ThatOffice and then clicks Remove. That stuff plus dependencies and all configuration files are then removed. Afterwards the user continues with other tweaking and then finally installs the system (or saves into persistence). Of course the "MX AppRemover" can also be used later, on an installed system, but it will ever only remove stuff that was originally in the ISO.

The point here is that many people (me included) want to get rid of a lot of included stuff they never intend to use. Everything I install myself afterwards is of course my sole responsibility and can be removed via MX Package Installer anyway. (Yes, I do know that all these apps can also be removed with MXPI as well, but this presents so many apps that it is probably overwhelming for someone a) new to MX and b) just interested in getting rid of apps.)

Hopefully that is clearer than my original suggestion.
Frugal installs on Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Ryzen 5 4650U/24GB * HP Pavilion Ryzen 3 3300U/16GB * Toshiba R950 i5-3340M/12GB
I have a reservation... What do you mean it's not in the COMPUTER!

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