Fedora 4 Needed / Unneeded packages

[Randall J. Berry]

	Hello,

I've been messing about with Fedora Core 4 for a few months now. On my
first install I just clicked 'everything' and let it roll. Now I've
gotten to know which packages I need and which I don't need. I'm
contemplating doing a wipe and reload based on these findings. I've
noticed one thing tho. There seems to be some packages that are not
removable from the install options and a ton of packages that to the
best of my knowledge I never use. Yet I seem to be stuck installing
them anyway due to the endless loop of dependencies or simply no
option to turn them off at install. Even after install when trying to
remove packages I don't need I seem to get stuck in the same infinite
dependency loop. Typical examples are Evolution, and the Mozilla suite
I never use. I use F~bird and T~Bird instead. Yet I can't seem get rid
of them! These are just a few examples there are many more.

I'm trying to set up a typical graphical/multimedia Gnome Desktop with
the full suite of developmental packages such as GCC, Automake,
gnome-devel and the like. Server Admin and a limited amount server
requirements. HTTPd, MySQL, POP/IMAP, SMTP, SPAMd, ClamAV and FTPd. As
well as Webmin and an IRCd with Services. (added after install)

The Server features are used strictly for local development before
sending them to remote servers for public access. Yet I'm stuck
installing tons of other packages like PostgreSQL, is just one example
of those that seem to be dead weight.

I know I'm stepping out on a limb here but is there any easy way to
install what I need and get rid of what I don't need? An install
method that does not require constant babysitting to install each
package manually. Can this be done?

TIA

On Sun, Oct 02, 2005 at 06:29:28AM -0400, Randall J. Berry wrote:
>  	Hello,
>  
>  I've been messing about with Fedora Core 4 for a few months now. On my
>  first install I just clicked 'everything' and let it roll. Now I've
>  gotten to know which packages I need and which I don't need. I'm
>  contemplating doing a wipe and reload based on these findings. I've
>  noticed one thing tho. There seems to be some packages that are not
>  removable from the install options and a ton of packages that to the
>  best of my knowledge I never use. Yet I seem to be stuck installing
>  them anyway due to the endless loop of dependencies or simply no
>  option to turn them off at install. Even after install when trying to
>  remove packages I don't need I seem to get stuck in the same infinite
>  dependency loop. Typical examples are Evolution, and the Mozilla suite
>  I never use. I use F~bird and T~Bird instead. Yet I can't seem get rid
>  of them! These are just a few examples there are many more.
>  
>  I'm trying to set up a typical graphical/multimedia Gnome Desktop with
>  the full suite of developmental packages such as GCC, Automake,
>  gnome-devel and the like. Server Admin and a limited amount server
>  requirements. HTTPd, MySQL, POP/IMAP, SMTP, SPAMd, ClamAV and FTPd. As
>  well as Webmin and an IRCd with Services. (added after install)
>  
>  The Server features are used strictly for local development before
>  sending them to remote servers for public access. Yet I'm stuck
>  installing tons of other packages like PostgreSQL, is just one example
>  of those that seem to be dead weight.
>  
>  I know I'm stepping out on a limb here but is there any easy way to
>  install what I need and get rid of what I don't need? An install
>  method that does not require constant babysitting to install each
>  package manually. Can this be done?
>  
>  TIA
>   
It seems easy to do what you want to do .
Combine rpm -qa |grep evolution
with rpm -e
or yum remove
-- 

=======================================================================
People who take cold baths never have rheumatism, but they have cold baths.
-------------------------------------------
Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
telephone: [phone]

[Michael A. Peters]

On Sun, 2005-10-02 at 06:29 -0400, Randall J. Berry wrote:

>  dependency loop. Typical examples are Evolution, and the Mozilla
> suite
>  I never use. I use F~bird and T~Bird instead. Yet I can't seem get rid
>  of them! These are just a few examples there are many more. 
Mozilla provides a library that I believe yelp uses.
imho yelp should be ported to use something distributed as a library and
not as a web browser (or the library from mozilla should be distributed
as a library)

With respect to evolution, I've done plenty of installs without it - but
there are some apps that I think use components of evolution that will
pull it in if you select it.

[Robin Laing]

Randall J. Berry wrote:
>  	Hello,
>  
>  I've been messing about with Fedora Core 4 for a few months now. On my
>  first install I just clicked 'everything' and let it roll. Now I've
>  gotten to know which packages I need and which I don't need. I'm
>  contemplating doing a wipe and reload based on these findings. I've
>  noticed one thing tho. There seems to be some packages that are not
>  removable from the install options and a ton of packages that to the
>  best of my knowledge I never use. Yet I seem to be stuck installing
>  them anyway due to the endless loop of dependencies or simply no
>  option to turn them off at install. Even after install when trying to
>  remove packages I don't need I seem to get stuck in the same infinite
>  dependency loop. Typical examples are Evolution, and the Mozilla suite
>  I never use. I use F~bird and T~Bird instead. Yet I can't seem get rid
>  of them! These are just a few examples there are many more.
>  
>  I'm trying to set up a typical graphical/multimedia Gnome Desktop with
>  the full suite of developmental packages such as GCC, Automake,
>  gnome-devel and the like. Server Admin and a limited amount server
>  requirements. HTTPd, MySQL, POP/IMAP, SMTP, SPAMd, ClamAV and FTPd. As
>  well as Webmin and an IRCd with Services. (added after install)
>  
>  The Server features are used strictly for local development before
>  sending them to remote servers for public access. Yet I'm stuck
>  installing tons of other packages like PostgreSQL, is just one example
>  of those that seem to be dead weight.
>  
>  I know I'm stepping out on a limb here but is there any easy way to
>  install what I need and get rid of what I don't need? An install
>  method that does not require constant babysitting to install each
>  package manually. Can this be done?
>  
>  TIA
>   
Use Yumex if you are not comfortable with rpm.  That is what I do and I 
am happy with it.

For packages that are required by other packages, then I take the time 
to learn why they are dependent.  I ran into a nightmare using a repo 
once that lead me to this.

-- 
Robin Laing