[SOLVED] Libreoffice does depend on firefox – how to remove firefox

[Member Girafenaine]

Hello,

I installed antix 19 on an old laptop (Pentium M 1,8 GHz, 512 Mo RAM) and it seems quite useable and nice.

I am trying palemoon and slimjet as light browsers (seem to have same RAM use, and a few more CPU use as far as slimjet is concerned). I would like to get rid off firefox-esr (that cannot really run on this laptop).

But libreoffice package is claimed to depend on firefox-esr (rdepends command to display package depending from firefox). If I try to remove firefox (apt remove firefox-esr), then apt force me to install epiphany, which I don’t want neither. Actually on manjaro libreoffice does NOT depend on firefox or another browser. Why is it the case here on debian / antix, it seems strange.

Is there a way to remove firefox as well as epiphany when on wants to keep libreoffice installed ?

Girafenaine

• This topic was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Girafenaine.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Girafenaine.

Girafenaine
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Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

[Anonymous]

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apt rdepends firefox-esr | grep libreoffice[^-]
The (lack of) output here indicates that “libreoffice” does NOT depend on firefox.

However, the “libreoffice-help” packages
apt rdepends firefox-esr | grep libreoffice-help
do (per the debian package maintainer’s decision; you could file a debian bug ticket to ask why)

To reach your “which I don’t want neither” goal, you can uninstall libreoffice-help-mylocale

or dpkg-query -L firefox-esr and manually delete all the files installed by the unwanted browser package

or create and install a “placeholder” package, then you will be able to purge the
firefox-esr and//or epiphany packages, leaving libreoffice-help-* undisturbed. Howto:

cd /tmp
sudo apt install equivs
touch bogus-browser

place the following content into bogus-browser file

Source: bogus-browser
Section: misc
Priority: optional
Standards-Version: 3.9.2
Package: bogus-browser
Version: 1.0
Maintainer: Your Mom
Provides: firefox, firefox-esr, epiphany
Architecture: all
Description: placeholder yah

equivs-build bogus-browser
sudo dpkg -i bogus-browser_1.0_all.deb
sudo apt purge equivs
sudo apt autoremove

[Member Girafenaine]

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Hello Skidoo,

Thank you very much for your detailed and efficient help.

I have done it with the “equivs” way, and I am proud to know how to do a just-for-dependence-fake-package again if necessary.

Have a good day,

Girafenaine

Girafenaine
----
Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

[Anonymous]

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ok, good to hear you were able to achieve the desired result.
For future use in different scenarios, just keep in mind that a “bogus-whatever” fed to equivs
can contain additional declarative lines instead of (of along with) the “Provides:” line

Conflicts:
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html#conflicting-binary-packages-conflicts

Breaks:
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html#s-breaks

Replaces:
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html#overwriting-files-and-replacing-packages-replaces

[Member Girafenaine]

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Hello Skidoo,

Thanks for the bonus help ! Could be useful in the future.

Girafenaine

Girafenaine
----
Antix 19 - Fluxbox - Live USB stick and frugal / MX 19 - Fluxbox - Dell XPS 7590

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