How to remove a package not builtin or user-installed?

[JASpup]

Instructions read to click on them, but doing so tries to install them again.



https://postimg.cc/crYBJH3P

Slacko Puppy 5.5

[mikeslr]

If they weren't builtin, and you didn't install them, how did they become part of your system? What instructions are you referring to?

My suspicion is that at some point you did install them, tried to uninstall them, but the 'uninstall' failed in one of two ways. When you install an application, a file is written to /root/.packages. Note the dot (.). It's a hidden file. Using rox, you can left-click the 'eye' on rox's tool bar to 'show hidden files'. Other file-managers may have a menu entry. Builtin files are also noted in a folder named 'builtin_files' within /.packages. The files noting an application's inclusion on your system are plain text files. You can open them in a tex-editor. Their text shows each of the files which the package installed contained and where those files currently reside on your system. I don't have any firefox installed on my system. But a partial listing of the palemoon file --the full listing takes 59 lines-- shows:
/opt/palemoon/libnssdbm3.so
/opt/palemoon/libnssutil3.so
...
/usr/bin/palemoon
/usr/share/applications/palemoon.desktop
/usr/share/icons/mozicon128.png

Puppy package manager writes them when you install an application and reads them when you select "Uninstall" in order to know what files to uninstall. Menu>Setup>Remove Builtin Packages reads the files in the "builtin_files" folder. If you do a remaster, that process should delete entries from .packages after copying them to /.packages/builtin_files.

The module which generates menu entries does not examine that folder. Rather, it only looks for "desktop" files, most of which are in /usr/share/applications.

Problems like you experienced sometimes happen during a remaster, especially if you took the opportunity to edit /root in the 'build folder'. Further complications may arise if you install one version of an application --such as firefox 19-- over another version such as firefox 15 then uninstall one. The files of the second install will over-write the files installed by the first; and the unnstall will remove the only copy of that file.

Regardless of how the problem arose, what it is comes down to is two possibilities: (a) The applications are, in fact, not on your system but Puppy Package Manager sees files in .packages which tell it that they are. This is the easiest problem to solve. Ordinarily, I would tell you to just delete the files in .packages named mozilla-firefox-15.0.1, mozilla-firefox-19.0, and mozilla-firefox-17.0.3esr and any "desktop" file in /usr/share/applications referring to them. But this is firefox and if you have another version of firefox on you system, you want to be careful not to delete references to it.

The second possibility (b) is that the (or some) files from the firefox 15, 19 and 17esr pets are, in fact, on your system, but the files in /.packages referencing them were already deleted. If you do want to have some version of firefox on your system, then I would suggest you download that application but don't install it yet. Rather, run Menu>Filesystem>pfind and enter 'firefox' into the search box. Then file-browse to any file it 'finds' and delete it. Also, delete the hidden /root/.mozilla/firefox and /root/.cache/mozilla/firefox folders. Then install the version of firefox you downloaded. Obviously, if you don't want a working version of firefox, don't bother downloading it.

Or maybe I've just misread your post. The graphic you posted seems to be entries generated by typing firefox into Puppy Package Manager's Search box. What entries do you get if you click "Uninstall" on Puppy Package Manager's Menu?

[JASpup]

@mikeslr try it yourself.

All I have installed is the XFCE4 app finder and its dependencies.

This is a live session without a pupsave so there's no lingering setup.

Firefox is neither installed nor builtin. I'm typing in a newer Firefox on a separate medium standalone (none of these old versions would support the forum without a certificate hack).

The average Windows app has an uninstall utility in the app directory.

Other than a Puppy tool that can get at these old Firefox versions, I would look there if I knew their storage location.

The Firefox in /usr/share/applications is a unitary 2631 byte file.

It's possible I could have a remaster, but it's probably Puppy official: http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-5.5/

I know the latest old install, Firefox 19, is on the system. Not sure if the two older are bad entries or available. Either way I still cannot uninstall Firefox 19.0.

If removal is just a matter of deleting files I'll do it, but it seems like something cleaner should be available.

Thanks for the lesson.

[mikeslr]

"mikeslr try it yourself." Doing that would have involved too much work -- setting up a folder and adding it to the grub4dos menu.lst, then booting into it. But, curious as to what you've experienced I downloaded one of the two ISOs, Right-Clicked it to mount it and copied its files into a /temp folder on /mnt/home. [You didn't specify which ISO. One was pae, the other nopae. Figured except for the use of different kernels they would be pretty much alike]. Puppy_slacko_5.5.sfs would contain both the application files and the /root/.packages folder. So I (right-clicked) mounted it also.

Took me awhile to find firefox in /usr/share/applications. That's because the file name there is mozilla-firefox.desktop. Of course, you kept referring to it by that name. But, I hadn't had my second cup of coffee yet and to see that desktop file I had to scroll down. It didn't occur to me to do that until pfind told me it was there. Although the file name is mozilla-firefox.desktop, examining that in at text-editor revealed Name=firefox. That's the argument Puppies use for displaying an application's name on the menu.

pfind also revealed that --as your last post mentioned-- the only firefox you have on your system is mozilla-firefox-19. See attached screenshot. firefox-19 is a Builtin file. After deleting the other files relating to mozilla-firefox, you can open /root/packages/builtin_files/ and delete the listing for mozilla-firefox. You could delete all files relating to firefox &/or mozilla-firefox. But the only significant ones are the entire /usr/lib/firefox folder and /usr/bin/firefox. I'd just delete those.

As your OP noted, pfind also revealed:
mozilla-firefox-15.0.1 is listed in the /.packages /slackware 14.0-official
mozilla-firefox-17.0.3esr is listed in /.packages /slackware 14.0-salix
mozilla-firefox-19.0 is listed in /.packages/slackware-14.0-patches

I don't know if there's another way to get pfind to do it easier. But this is how I obtained the above: file-browsed to the folder I was interested in (.packages); Right-Clicked an empty space and selected "Windows>terminal here" and typed pfind into the terminal. That's the only way I know to choose "current directory". Then clicked "Advanced" in order to "check" the "Search Text in file" box.

I'm not sure why all three are showing up as "installed". mozilla-firefox-19.0 should be. Because the Slackware Official and Slackware-salix repositories were available, the others should have shown up as available, but not installed. My first guess was maybe a mistake crept into Puppy Package Manager. But, noting that "19" is from the "patches" repository, now my best guess is that "19" was constructed by installing the patches to "17", which had previously been installed over "15".

At any rate, 17 and 15 don't really exist on your system except to whatever extent their files in /usr/lib/firefox --and maybe elsewhere-- were not overwritten by 19's files. To get rid of the references to 15 and 17, open /.packages /slackware 14.0-official and /.packages/slackware 14.0-salix in a text editor and delete the lines referring to mozilla-firefox. Then save the changes.

[bigpup]

Instructions read to click on them, but doing so tries to install them again.

If you are doing this in the Puppy Package Manager (PPM).
You are probably looking at the install list.

Do not know what version of PPM you have.
But it should have an uninstall button or a uninstall selection that will bring up a list of installed stuff.
Click on a listed item to highlight it.
Click on remove or uninstall to uninstall it.

[JASpup]

Do not know what version of PPM you have.
But it should have an uninstall button or a uninstall selection that will bring up a list of installed stuff.
Click on a listed item to highlight it.
Click on remove or uninstall to uninstall it.

@bigpup I've yet to boot a Puppy old enough to not have uninstall in the PPM, and the premise of this post is there's no Firefox there because it's not recognized as installed. That PPM listing with the three Firefox versions is from the Slacko 5.5 .iso, probably the 4G PAE version (even though it's not needed on the machine).

The oldest Puppy I've successfully booted is Lucid.

[JASpup]

Curious about the launchers, if there are multiple versions present, they seem to have a way of choosing the version they prefer, not necessarily the one you think is going to run.

I'm in Xenial right now, but if it were still Wary I'd post a screen shot of the Setup > Remove builtin packages package listing. In alphabetical order there is no Firefox.

I guess we might call "builtin" present on first run, but not formally builtin.

That's what I meant by clean removal.

We've got a hack and that will work.

[bigpup]

That image in the first post is from the install list in PPM, not the uninstall list.

Instructions read to click on them, but doing so tries to install them again.

This is why it is hard to help you!
Instructions in what?
Looking at what?

I think what you are seeing in the install list of PPM, is it sees that a version of Firefox (built in) is in Slacko 5.5.
So when it sees Firefox in one of the repositories, it is flagging it as already installed.
That is kind of a bug in the older versions of PPM.
Not sure it is even totally fixed in the latest PPM.
The original idea was it would flag the program as already installed, but not specifically identify which version.

Also, because PPM is accessing several different software repositories.
It will have multiple install listings of a specific program or file.
Usually, also different versions.

In the latest version of PPM.
You can still click on a listed item and install it, even if the already installed flag is set.

I do it all the time to install a newer version of a file or program.

Kind of a confusing bug in PPM.