[ale] My yum broke again and I can't fix it this time

Wed Mar 20 10:48:30 EDT 2013

Did you replace the default gnome environment? It still looks like someone
screwed the dependencies of the group. Those packages require a desktop
environment. Unless the mate overwrote all the crap in the rpmdb (smack the
package maintainer for a screwup of colossal proportions) it should just
uninstall with the groupremove as you tried.

try just removing the desktop manager application of mate using yum remove
foo instead of groupremove. You can add a few --exclude=<package-to-keep>
exceptions to prevent total calamity.

OR - try a yum groupinstall GNOME (or whatever it's called) then
groupremove mate. Basically try and rewrite the deps tree so mate is
disconnected.

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 8:43 AM, Michael B. Trausch <mbt at naunetcorp.com>wrote:

> I've been running Fedora now for a little while... since about F17,
> anyway.  I've managed to fix things most of the time when these bloody
> package management utilities break, but now I'm kind of stuck.
>
> I recently decided to experiment with MATE.  I then (nearly immediately)
> decided it was worthless, so I decided to try Cinnamon, since I'm
> running F18 and it wasn't functional in F17.  (Good news, it actually
> seems to work in F18, one relatively major bug notwithstanding.)
>
> Anyway, I decided that I wanted to remove MATE, because it pulls in a
> bunch of GTK2 stuff, including a bunch of duplicate programs.  But, when
> I tried to do so...
>
> Well, let's back up a second.  To install MATE, I simply did:
>
>  # yum -y groupinstall 'MATE Desktop'
>
> Which, of course, did as I wanted.
>
> However, when I do this:
>
>  # yum groupremove 'MATE Desktop'
>
> I get... well, I get a *lot* of output, but here is the stderr:
>
> [root at aloe ~]# cat remove-mate.stderr
> No group named MATE Desktop exists
> Skipping the running kernel: kernel-3.8.1-201.fc18.x86_64
> Skipping the running kernel: kernel-3.8.1-201.fc18.x86_64
> Skipping the running kernel: kernel-3.8.1-201.fc18.x86_64
> Skipping the running kernel: kernel-3.8.1-201.fc18.x86_64
> Skipping the running kernel: kernel-3.8.1-201.fc18.x86_64
> Skipping the running kernel: kernel-3.8.1-201.fc18.x86_64
> Skipping the running kernel: kernel-3.8.1-201.fc18.x86_64
> Error: Trying to remove "systemd", which is protected
> Error: Trying to remove "yum", which is protected
>
> Now the confusing thing is that MATE Desktop installed just fine using
> that group name, and that's the name that appears in the output of "yum
> grouplist".  Go figure.
>
> And I can't attach the uncompressed output of stdout, so I've simply
> attached it as an .xz file for anyone who wants to read the whole thing.
>  But here is the first few lines:
>
> Loaded plugins: auto-update-debuginfo, langpacks, presto,
> refresh-packagekit
> Resolving Dependencies
> --> Running transaction check
> ---> Package ConsoleKit-x11.x86_64 0:0.4.5-3.fc18 will be erased
> ---> Package ModemManager.x86_64 0:0.6.0.0-3.fc18 will be erased
> ---> Package NetworkManager.x86_64 1:0.9.8.0-1.fc18 will be erased
> --> Processing Dependency: NetworkManager >= 1:0.7.1-3.git20090414 for
> package: anaconda-18.37.11-1.fc18.x86_64
> ---> Package NetworkManager-openconnect.x86_64
> 0:0.9.7.0-1.git20120918.fc18 will be erased
> ---> Package NetworkManager-openvpn.x86_64 1:0.9.3.997-3.fc18 will be
> erased
> ---> Package NetworkManager-pptp.x86_64 1:0.9.3.997-3.fc18 will be erased
> ---> Package NetworkManager-vpnc.x86_64 1:0.9.3.997-3.fc18 will be erased
> ---> Package PackageKit-gstreamer-plugin.x86_64 0:0.8.7-1.fc18 will be
> erased
> ---> Package PackageKit-yum-plugin.x86_64 0:0.8.7-1.fc18 will be erased
> ---> Package a2ps.x86_64 0:4.14-16.fc18 will be erased
> ---> Package abattis-cantarell-fonts.noarch 0:0.0.10.1-1.fc18 will be
> erased
>
> And there is _miles_ of this!
>
> Ultimately yum stops, saying that yum and systemd are protected and so
> it aborts.  Well, that's good, I don't really want the stupid thing to
> remove all my packages, just the ones for the damned desktop I don't
> want lingering on my hard drive.
>
> Is there a way to make the groupremove command work to reverse the
> effect of the groupinstall command, or do I have to figure out the
> dependency tree for the group by hand and remove the packages myself?
>
>         --- Mike
>
> --
> Michael B. Trausch, President
> Naunet Corporation
>
> Telephone: (678) 287-0693 x130
> Toll-free: (888) 494-5810 x130
> FAX: (678) 287-0693
>
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