From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 11 23:41:01 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E43A316A4D5 for ; Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:40:59 +0000 (GMT) Received: from lariat.org (lariat.org [63.229.157.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 99FC343D2D for ; Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:40:58 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from runaround.lariat.org (IDENT:ppp1000.lariat.org@lariat.org [63.229.157.2]) by lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA01869 for ; Sat, 11 Dec 2004 16:40:54 -0700 (MST) X-message-flag: Warning! Use of Microsoft Outlook renders your system susceptible to Internet worms. Message-Id: <6.2.0.14.2.20041211162451.05b17c98@localhost> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.0.14 Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 16:40:02 -0700 To: questions@freebsd.org From: Brett Glass Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Subject: Un-GNOME-ing a FreeBSD box X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:41:02 -0000 A client of mine has a headless FreeBSD server which is intended just to be a Web and mail server. It has no need for a GUI and it wouldn't be a good idea to run one on it. But this week, a friend of his (who too much and too little at the same time) told him, "I hear you have a FreeBSD machine. Have you tried GNOME? Why don't you install it?" And so, the client went to the /usr/ports/x11 directory on his FreeBSD box, found a directory for GNOME, and typed "make install". He didn't know what he was letting himself in for. Between GNOME itself and the many ports on which it depended, there was so much software to build that the process took overnight to finish. And when it was done, it had consumed 25% of the space on the machine's hard drive. The "pkg_info" utility produced a list of installed ports that was many screens long. And after all that, he couldn't even use GNOME, because the machine was headless and he didn't have another machine that was running an X server (not that it's a good idea to run a GUI desktop remotely anyway). He went to the directory from which he thought he had installed GNOME, and typed "make deinstall". This removed GNOME, but none of the ports on which it depended. His hard disk was still glutted with useless junk. So, he called me up and asked me to set things right. Trouble is, I am not sure how to get the system to remove not only the remainder of the GNOME desktop but all of the ports it brought in as dependencies -- while at the same time not removing the ports upon which other packages on the server depend. (He's running Apache with PHP and MySQL, as well as some ISC network utilities such as ISC-dhcpd.) What's the best way to un-GNOME his system automatically? Or would it be simpler to tell him to save his configuration files and reinstall the OS from scratch -- as if his hard drive had crashed? --Brett Glass