Ubuntu – Mate Desktop Environment won’t uninstall from Ubuntu

14.04environmentmatepackage-managementuninstall

I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and decided to install the Mate Desktop Environment to use it instead of Unity. I have installed Mate DE from the following repositories and apt sources:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa  
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/trusty-mate

then the apt source

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-extras

I didn't like the results thought, too basic, so I decided to uninstall and keep using Unity until I feel like trying another desktop environment. So I used the following commands to uninstall Mate:

sudo apt-get purge mate-desktop-environment-core  
sudo apt-get purge mate-desktop-environment-extra  
sudo apt-get autoremove

My question is, why won't Mate uninstall? It keeps showing in the "Select desktop environment" list in the login screen of Ubuntu. Also, apps like MATE terminal and so on keeps showing in Ubuntu launcher. How to uninstall everything Mate related?

Best Answer

If you want to remove MATE Desktop, just run sudo apt-get remove mate-*. This will remove anything relating to the MATE desktop environment. Do not run sudo apt-get remove mate*, as this can break your installation.

Source: http://sourcedigit.com/12228-uninstall-remove-mate-desktop-ubuntu-14-04-lts/

Xubuntu

aptitude search '?and(?and(?and(?reverse-depends(kubuntu),?not(?reverse-depends(xubuntu-desktop))),?automatic), ?not(?or(?priority(required), ?priority(important))))' xubuntu-desktop+

Lubuntu

aptitude search '?and(?and(?and(?reverse-depends(kubuntu),?not(?reverse-depends(lubuntu-desktop))),?automatic), ?not(?or(?priority(required), ?priority(important))))' lubuntu-desktop+

Gnome

aptitude search '?and(?and(?and(?reverse-depends(kubuntu),?not(?reverse-depends(ubuntu-gnome-desktop))),?automatic), ?not(?or(?priority(required), ?priority(important))))' ubuntu-gnome-desktop+

As you can see, only replace the last packages name with the name of your preferred to leave. If you used kde-core or other metapackages you should replace "kubuntu" with the name of the metapackage.

Making sense of aptitude search

To explain exactly which package are selected, lets explain the search command more deeply:

?and(
    ?and(
        ?and(                          // we're searching for packages that are
            ?reverse-depends(kubuntu), // reverse dependencies of kubuntu
            ?not(?reverse-depends(ubuntu-desktop)) // and not of ubuntu-desktop
            ),     // that fulfills the condition above 
        ?automatic // and is automatically installed
        ),
     ?not(                        // and also that are not
         ?or(                     // either required nor important
              ?priority(required),
              ?priority(important)
             )
         )
    )

Ubuntu – Get back the original Ubuntu Desktop after removing Mate

Please try this command to fully remove the desktop

sudo apt-get remove --purge ubuntu-mate-core ubuntu-mate-desktop

If you have both GDM and lightDM installed please

sudo apt-get remove --purge gdm

Then set light dm to default (use the method you said you use before)

Based on mchids comment below this, you need to edit edit this file 50-unity-greeter.conf

Create a 50-unity-greeter.conf

sudo gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

The file this opens should be blank so add this to it

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter

Save it then

sudo chmod +x /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

Then reboot and see if this helps

TO FIX YOUR ICONS

An easy fix for your icons should be install unity tweaktool from software center (dont know package name for apt, maby someone will edit)

Go to icons and just choose different ones