Any Linux (specifically Ubuntu) users here? HELP!

[kellys_eye]

PALE MOON BROWSER

A frustrating problem has cropped up.

I want to remove an application from my system (Pale Moon browser software) but despite trying multiple methods it seems almost impossible to get rid of.

via installed software and the 'remove' button
sudo apt-remove etc

every instance is followed by a restart (just to be sure) but the damned program is still there!

Even visiting the Pale Moon forums and searching therein, there is no reference to how to delete this program from my system. It's worse than Norton Anti-virus (and that's saying something). This lack of removal is worrisome.

Now, don't get me wrong, Pale Moon may just be the best browser in existence but when a developer makes software that is 'impossible' to get rid of I suspect an ulterior motive and for that reason alone I want it off my machine.

Short of deleting the OS I'm now at a loss as to getting shot of it. Anyone got any clues?

 

[KilgoreCemetery]

Are you getting any error messages during the uninstall?

Try updating your system first, then remove it from the repository list just to make sure it's not reinstalling it automatically.

 

[Kabelsalat]

What Ubuntu version (and desktop) have you installed?

Anyway, just use any web search engine and results will come to you:
https://linux.palemoon.org/help/installation/

Also - for Linux specific issues, about any modern distro have their own user forum where the experts are located, in your case https://ubuntuforums.org/ would probably be the right place to ask.

That said: One of my favorite distro is Ubuntu Mate. Kind of more traditional desktop than Ubuntu, but yet not quite like Linux Mint.

 

[kellys_eye]

Nope, no errors. The listing disappears (as does the icon) from the installed software listing but even after a restart you can find it using search and launch it..... and the installed software listing shows it there again!

Any attempt to remove it from the repository gives the warning 'unable to locate package palemoon'

All the examples for removing it via palemoon.org result in 'permission denied'

 

[kellys_eye]

The version of Palemoon is 26.2.2

My Ubuntu is 16.04LTS (all updates installed)

 

[KilgoreCemetery]

Can you view or change the owner of it? Root is a lot different now than it used to be. Sudo doesn't give you the unlimited power that it once did.

 

[kellys_eye]

View? change? I can't even FIND it!

david@DELL9400:~$ sudo apt remove palemoon
[sudo] password for david:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package palemoon

 

[FuZZ1L0G1C]

Does your system also use a registry database, as with Windows?
A few years back, I eventually managed to completely remove a similar problem app
through carefully searching, editing and removing relevant keys and data.

 

[KilgoreCemetery]

View? change? I can't even FIND it!

Then how are you able to confirm that it is still installed? I think I remember you mentioning a search of some kind.

It's quite possible that it didn't just install itself for you, but for every user. Even if you're technically the only one, there's more than one place to put the binary. If we can figure out where it's at, we can figure out what you have to do to remove it.

Does your system also use a registry database, as with Windows?

To the best of my knowledge, Ubuntu doesn't have a registry database. Everything is far more decentralized.

 

[Gryd3]

View? change? I can't even FIND it!

david@DELL9400:~$ sudo apt remove palemoon
[sudo] password for david:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package palemoon

Is that how you have been trying to remove it?
Does the add/remove application show the palemoon browser?

The command line you posted here looks like you spelled the package incorrectly, or that the browser was not installed from any of the repositories you have on your machine.

Programs in linux can be installed with tools like apt, which requires one or more 'repository' to reference to download the software and updates or they can be manually installed.
If an application is manually installed, you will not see it in the add/remove application and will not be able to remove it with apt-get. To remove manually installed software, you should reference the online documents and hope they have a 'remove' section... otherwise you can follow the install instructions in reverse.

If you are lucky, you can just delete a folder or two... if you are unlucky, you may need to change some configs.
Linux can be pretty simplistic... although it can be complicated and hard to understand because of this.

 

[KilgoreCemetery]

Gryd3 raises a good point. Did you install Pale Moon through a package manager or manually. If you used a packager manager you could try:

sudo dpkg -L palemoon

It should give you an idea of where it's installed

 

[bushtech]

Have you tried something like this: sudo apt-get --purge autoremove packagename ?

But you have to get the packagename correct

 

[Externet]

Running only Ubuntu Linux since 05.10, [ now 14.04 ] and never got nerdy enough to understand it... I just run it.

Have you tried
Applications --> System tools --> Ubuntu software center --> Installed --> internet --> highlight --> Remove ?
As in example :

 

[kellys_eye]

Palemoon shows in the list of installed software, disappears when I click the 'remove' button beside it but is back there after a reboot. There is only one user account.

Given that there is a label beside the Palemoon entry stating "3rd party software" I reckon it may well be a non-apt install (TBH I can't remember how/when I loaded it - it's been there ever since the laptop was loaded with Ubuntu on recommendations for 'speedy' internet software).

I can find it in the opt directory but don't have permission to delete it - that's as far as I got.

I'm about to reload Ubuntu anyway - various other issues have been bugging me and sometimes I find a clean install is the easiest way to resolve niggly issues - criminally insane way to fix problems I know but the lapdog doesn't do anything else other than t'internet and emails so nothing to lose as far as backups are concerned. Heck, in the time I've spent messing around with Palemoon I could have re-installed Ubuntu dozens of times over!

 

[bushtech]

If it comes back there is probably an entry for it in the repository that needs to be removed as kilgorecemetery said

 

[kellys_eye]

Took around 10 minutes to reload Ubuntu! Don't know why I let the issue confuse me for so long.

It's not as satisfactory as searching for and finding the correct solution but as much as I like to know how things work etc I'm getting too long in the tooth to spend 'hours' of wasted time when all I use the lapdog for is browsing.....

I remember, back in the old DOS days, being fanatical about the command line use - before Windows reared its ugly head - but there are too many OS's and too many version to bother getting that involved any more.

Thanks to all for the input as it did open up some interesting routes - for a while!

Sorted!

 

[Albertisthebest]

Took around 10 minutes to reload Ubuntu! Don't know why I let the issue confuse me for so long.

It's not as satisfactory as searching for and finding the correct solution but as much as I like to know how things work etc I'm getting too long in the tooth to spend 'hours' of wasted time when all I use the lapdog for is browsing.....

I remember, back in the old DOS days, being fanatical about the command line use - before Windows reared its ugly head - but there are too many OS's and too many versions to bother getting that involved anymore.

Thanks to all for the input as it did open up some interesting routes - for a while!

Sorted!
paper cushion machine