I want to uninstall apps, but when I open PureOS Store, and hit the trash icon next to the app (“2048” for example), I get “Unable to remove 2048: no packages to remove”.
Is there an easy way to get rid of the “native” apps I don’t want on my phone?
try sudo apt remove app-name
Only use lower case letters. I think the store sends misspelled app names every now and then.
If you want to find out the exact names of apps use dpkg -l for a (long) list.
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Thanks @wimdows!
The hardest part is actually to find the name of the app… 
Anyway, I managed to remove “2048” (“gnome-2048”!) thanks to you; I was a bit confused when I noticed 2048 was still listed as an installed app on PureOS Store (with a weird icon, though), but it vanished with a reboot…
Maybe there is an easier way to find the app than generating the dpkg list. But it works for me. Specially once you know what to look for, like same name without the capital letter, or the app name with gnome stuck in front of it, or a hyphenated version of the name, etcetera.
Even if it takes some doing, sometimes, it is great to have these kind of options.
ls /usr/share/applications to list apps installed from the repo(s)
ls /home/purism/.local/share/applications to list apps you’ve created
flatpak list to show installed flatpaks
I’ve just tried to get rid of “Advanced Network Configuration”, but the following part of the reply scared me:
“The following packages will be REMOVED:
librem5-gnome librem5-gnome-base
librem5-gnome-phone”
Am I doing a mistake by deleting all those packages?
I would strongly recommend not removing packages like that.
If you just want to remove the icon from your app drawer/homescreen, there is a better way.
To hide any package icon, you just need to add NoDisplay=true to the bottom of the .desktop file for that package.
For the Advanced Network Configuration package, do this:
-
Copy
nm-connection-editor.desktopfrom/usr/share/applications/to~/.local/share/applications/using a file manager or using this command:cp /usr/share/applications/nm-connection-editor.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/ -
Open
nm-connection-editor.desktopin a text editor like gedit, and addNoDisplay=trueto the bottom of the file, or run this command:echo 'NoDisplay=true' >> ~/.local/share/applications/nm-connection-editor.desktop
You can do this to hide any package icon. The only thing you need to do is find the name of the .desktop file.
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If you sudo nano the file you want to edit, you don’t need to copy it.
These commands don’t give you the right spelling for apps you aim to remove. Handy no less, of course.
I have pretty much abandoned the store and do everything with command line now. That never fails…unless of course the mirrors are unreachable for some reason.
If you do that, updates for the packages you hide will overwite and undo your edits, and you will have to hide them again. Doing it the way I described is a permanent solution to hide packages.
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Thanks for your tip, but that’s not exactly what I want to do…
Actually, I’d like to uninstall apps I don’t use. As I use “Settings” to manage my network connections, I don’t need “Advanced Network Configuration” (plus, this app is tagged as a “non mobile friendly app”).
On the other hand, removing a package with a name as “wide” as “librem5-gnome-phone” sounds pretty scary for a newbie like me, and could lead to bugs I will not be able to fix…
I guess I will try your advice if there’s an app needed for my phone to run properly, but I don’t want to see the icon on my homescreen.
Advanced Network Connections comes in handy for setting up a VPN connection for providers whose graphical clients don’t work, or don’t fit well, on the L5.
Also, it’s still possible to make the app fit better, just by adjusting the scale, either in the main Settings app or in phosh-mobile-settings.
But if you’re not concerned about running a VPN, disregard.
Indeed! I think you have answered your own question. The benefit of removing random unused packages is outweighed by the risk, in this case.
That said, there is some merit in learning how to use Jumpdrive to image your entire eMMC drive so that if you create a situation that you are not able to fix (i.e. you break something irreversibly) then you can just restore the image.
Just hiding the app is safer.
From a security point of view it is better to uninstall unused software but …
Ah, yeah, sure. Hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.
I find it weird not to have the possibility of removing an app without removing packages which names sound like being essential to the phone…
You’ve convinced me. Any link/advice so I can get to learn how to use Jumpdrive?
High level overview …
Pre-requisite: You’ll need an x86 (host) computer running a Linux distro.
The basic idea is that you boot Jumpdrive on your phone by having the phone download Jumpdrive via USB from a host computer.
Jumpdrive then exposes the phone’s internal eMMC drive as a USB device on the host (and if you have a uSD card inserted in the phone then Jumpdrive exposes the uSD card as a USB device on the host). You can then image those USB devices on your host computer to a file on your host computer (e.g. using dd or probably Gnome Disks or other utilities).
Tip: If you are going to image a device on the host then make sure that the device is not mounted on the host. If the device mounted automatically or it mounted because of something that you did then you should umount any relevant file systems before proceeding to image the device. Note that the internal eMMC drive will typically have two partitions and may therefore have two mounted file systems.
On the host computer you will need the uuu command. That will either a) already exist, or b) be able to be installed with sudo apt install uuu or c) need to be built from source. So your starting point is which uuu to see whether the command is already available. If you need to build from source: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Building-uuu-and-Jumpdrive
You will need to download Jumpdrive (location given in the following linked post).
This and the rest of the procedure are ably covered at: Updated today , now phone won't turn on/start up (but ignore the context in which Joao was posting those instructions).
Jumpdrive can be used in a number of emergency situations. In some cases it may be possible to repair the damage that you have caused without having to restore a disk image. Restoring a disk image should usually be the last resort.
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It’s pretty clear, thanks!
Now the only thing I need is some time to give it a try!
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