ubuntu-desktop (meta) package

[Duncan Lithgow]

ubuntu-desktop returns nothing in yelp, this is a bit of a pain becasue
of the common problem people have when they try to trim down the amount
of installed packages and get warned about uninstalling the
ubuntu-desktop (meta) package.

Can docs do anything about this, or do we need to think of some other
solution to this common confusion?

The latest email from ubuntu-users about this is below.

Duncan

-------------------------------

Beartooth wrote:
> I recently installed Ubuntu 5.10, and then started to remove things I
knew
> I wouldn't ever use -- such as games, and chat, and OpenOffice. (I
don't
> do the first two; AbiWord is plenty for what little word processing I
do,
> and a lot faster.)
> 
> It wouldn't let me remove some of them, or else warned me, that IF I
> removed them, I would also lose the ubuntu desktop. I'm very
surprised,
> because RH/FC (which ubuntu resembles quite a bit, despite its
debianity)
> have never made any difficulty.

This is a case of a misleading name. ubuntu-desktop is a meta-package
which is
used to ensure a group of software packages can be installed together
but
uninstalling it will not remove any extra software - you will still have
your
Ubuntu desktop.

The description in aptitude or synaptic says:

 It is safe to remove this package if some of the desktop system
packages are
not desired.  However, it is recommended that you keep it installed,
because it
is used to carry out certain upgrade
 transitions (such as adding new packages to the system).

> I don't find these questions on this forum, not in the beginner's
guide;
> my apologies if I've just missed them somehow.

Not your fault. The website doesn't make it easy to find relevant
documentation,
but <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MetaPackages> says "their job is depending
on other
packages to be installed".  If you're psychic and also know the details
of how
apt-get works, you just might be able to figure out this means you can
uninstall
it safely.