Remove packages, dependency problems

[Martux]

Hi!
I just installed Sabayon successfully on my gf's machine and am very satisfied. The similarities to my gentoo-machine make it pretty straightforward for me to configure.
Anyways, I am having some issues, one of them is howto safely remove packages I don't need.
They always seem to pull in (or better out) dependencies, which I don't want to uninstall.
For example, I replaced the grub-1.99 with the older grub-0.97. When I now want to uninstall grub-1.99, it also wants to remove several other packages, including the kernel sabayon-3.2-r13.
Is there anything I could do?
I am very well aware of the package.mask and unmask stuff, working pretty much the same as in gentoo, but I also cannot make use of it. For example if I try to remove the annoying kdebugdialog package (because it prevents the proper shutdown sometimes) and put it in package.provided (so the system still sees it as installed), it also pulls in kdelibs for deinstallation.
So I really hope someone could help me a bit, thanks.

Marcus

[Fitzcarraldo]

Code: Select all

equo remove --nodeps --ask <package_name>

[Martux]

Thanks for your reply. That indeed removes the package I don't want.
But after I run a

Code: Select all

equo deptest --ask


it will still insist on pulling in for example >=grub-1.9.8
So far I tried to mask it in /etc/entropy/packages/package.mask like this

Code: Select all

>=sys-boot/grub-1.9.8
or
sys-boot/grub-1.9.8


but it doesn't work. Also putting it into /etc/entropy/packages/package.satisfied doesn't work.
Any idea on how to overcome this?

[Fitzcarraldo]

If you want to keep GRUB Legacy then you'd want a mask along the lines of:

Code: Select all

echo ">sys-boot/grub-0.97-r22" >> /etc/entropy/packages/package.mask

[Martux]

@Fitzcarraldo: Thanks for your input.
However, equo deptest is still giving me some headaches.
/etc/entropy/packages/package.satisfied:

Code: Select all

kde-base/kdebugdialog
kde-base/drkonqi
>=sys-boot/grub-1.98


/etc/entropy/packages/package.mask:

Code: Select all

>sys-boot/grub-0.97-r22


Output of equo deptest:

Code: Select all

>>  @@ Running dependency test ...
>>  @@ These are the dependencies not found:
>>    # >=kde-base/kdebugdialog-4.8.1:4[-aqua]
>>       # Needed by:
>>       # kde-base/kdebase-runtime-meta-4.8.1
>>    # >=kde-base/drkonqi-4.8.1:4[-aqua]
>>       # Needed by:
>>       # kde-base/kdebase-runtime-meta-4.8.1
>>    # >=sys-boot/grub-1.98
>>       # Needed by:
>>       # sys-kernel/linux-sabayon-3.2-r13


How could I get rid of those messages?

Also a related question, how can I uninstall all unneeded video-drivers?

[Fitzcarraldo]

I don't know about Entropy's package.satisfied as I've never used it, but I recall seeing a discussion about it not working in the SL developers' mailing list last December (I'm not a developer, but I have a look in there sometimes to see what they're getting up to). It could be that it's been fixed since then; you'll have to hope an expert Entropy user sees this thread and chips in.


Regarding the dependencies in your last message, if the binary packages in question were built with those dependencies then you need them. You mentioned that you are a Gentoo user. Well, in Gentoo if you were to merge app1-6.0.0 that depends on app2-5.0.0 then you can't downgrade app2 to app2-4.0.0 and keep app1-6.0.0 working; you'd need to rebuild app1. SL's Entropy packages are essentially pre-built Gentoo packages, so the same applies in SL. If you want to get rid of those messages then I expect you'd need to use Portage to rebuild kdebase-runtime-meta-4.8.1 and linux-sabayon-3.2-r13.

I don't think you can do what you want without some rebuilding locally. Anyway, as I am no Entropy expert, here's some backgorund reading for you:

Entropy

entropy in gentoo

HOWTO: Safely mix Entropy and Portage

Masking and Unmasking Packages in Entropy

Preventing entropy from downgrading portage packages

Advantages of combining Portage and Entropy


If you have unneeded video drivers, then just uninstall them. For example, let's say you are using ati-drivers-12.1-r1#2.6.38-sabayon and you also have ati-drivers-12.1-r1#2.6.36-sabayon installed. You'd just uninstall the one you don't use:

Code: Select all

equo remove ati-drivers-12.1-r1#2.6.36-sabayon