How can I remove Unity web apps?

Question

I recently installed Ubuntu and all has been great, except for the web apps feature.

I've tried adding a few web apps, but it's very buggy and not a very good experience. I'm also tired of being asked to add a website as an web app. How can I remove web apps from Ubuntu entirely? I use both Chromium and Firefox.

Solution 1

Ubuntu 13.10 and 14.04

To avoid being asked for webapp integration you can use the following command, open a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t) and type:

gsettings set com.canonical.unity.webapps integration-allowed false

Tested on both releases with Firefox/Chromium + Launchpad, Facebook and Youtube. No popup asking for a webapp integration.

Removing existing webapps

We can't just remove all packages beginning with unity-webapps- as some of them are runtime dependencies of Unity or other packages (like the Ubuntu SDK which requires unity-webapps-qml)

A safe way is to remove such installed packages not belonging to the gnome section:

sudo apt-get remove $(dpkg-query -W -f='${db:Status-Abbrev} ${binary:Package} ${Section}\n' unity-webapps-* | awk '{if ($1 == "ii" && $3 != "gnome") {print $2}}')

Solution 2

If what you want is removing them, you can do it in two ways.

Manual

With this method you should copy and paste the packages names.

apt-cache search unity-webapps

This will give you a list of all your webapps. Just remove the ones that you don't like with sudo apt-get remove packages.

Automatic

This will remove any package that its name starts with unity-webapps:

sudo aptitude remove '?and(?name(^unity-webapps), ?not(?or(?name(^unity-webapps-common), ?or(?name(^unity-webapps-qml), ?name(^unity-webapps-service$)))))'

This archive the same, just that more fancy:

sudo aptitude remove '?depends(unity-webapps-common)'

You should have installed aptitude by now with sudo apt-get install aptitude.

The wrong way

All webapps depends on the same package, unity-webapps-common, so if you remove it it should remove all those packages:

sudo apt-get remove unity-webapps-common

This will remove the ubuntu-desktop package and unity-asset-pool which may be undesirable.

Solution 3

Though the Command Line (quicker)

First open a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t) and these commands:

Remove all of the web apps

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 sudo apt-get remove $(dpkg-query -W -f='${db:Status-Abbrev} ${binary:Package} ${Section}\n' unity-webapps-* | awk '{if ($1 == "ii" && $3 != "gnome" && $2 != "unity-webapps-service" && $2 != "unity-webapps-common") {print $2}}')
 sudo apt-get remove xul-ext-unity unity-chromium-extension

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Remove some of the web apps

apt-cache search unity-webapps

This will list all of your packages that began with unity-webapps Most of them will be webapps but not all (8). Do not remove the ones that it is not webapps this includes (libunity-webapps-dev, libunity-webapps-doc, libunity-webapps0, unity-webapps-common, unity-webapps-qml, unity-webapps-qml-doc unity-webapps-qml-examples, and the last one unity-webapps-service.) remove the ones that you what by sudo apt-get remove webapp1 webapp2... replace webappx with the name of the webapp that you want to get rad of. Note you can list them. DO NOT REMOVE unity-webapps-common, and unity-webapps-service IT WILL REMOVE UNITY!

Disable notifications from web apps (optional)

 gsettings set com.canonical.unity.webapps integration-allowed false
 gsettings set com.canonical.unity.webapps allowed-domains []

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Do it Graphically

Remove some or all of the web apps

Open Synaptic Package Manager if you don't have it install fellow this instructions. After that search for unity-webapps- by hitting on the button that says "search"

You will get a window like this. Just type in unity-webapps- into the text box. Than hit the button that says "search" Just hit the button that says "Mark" and keep doing it if it is necessary.

After that Right click on any package that is green box next to it. The green box means it is installed. Select remove package to remove the webapp that you what to get rad of. If you want to get raid of all of them. Than research for xul-ext-unity, and unity-chromium-extension. DO NOT REMOVE unity-webapps-common, and unity-webapps-service IT WILL REMOVE UNITY!

After that, hit the button that says "Apply" And you will get a window like this, and just hit the button that says "Apply", too.

Disable notifications from web apps (optional)

First open to Dconf Editor, and if you don't have it install fellow this instructions, than go to com > cononical > unity > webapps. After that unchecked the check box integration-allowed

Clear every thing in the string allowed domains by double clicking on it and it should change it from a text field to a textbox.

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Sources

• http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2012/10/how-to-remove-webapps-in-ubuntu-1210.html (For Disable notifications)

• http://www.gaggl.com/2013/06/remove-ubuntu-webapps-integration-features/ (For removing the option in Firefox and Chromium.)

• https://askubuntu.com/a/458004/48372 (For the command sudo apt-get remove $(dpkg-query -W -f='${db:Status-Abbrev} ${binary:Package} ${Section}\n' unity-webapps-* | awk '{if ($1 == "ii" && $3 != "gnome" && $2 != "unity-webapps-service" && $2 != "unity-webapps-common") {print $2}}') I just modified it so it wounldn't remove "unity-webapps-service or unity-webapps-common Thanks to Sylvain Pineau for proving the original command)

Comments

[Sylvain Pineau]

Both methods won't work as unity-webapps-common depends on unity-webapps-service. So removing unity-webapps-service will also remove unity-webapps-common AND Unity (See pastebin.ubuntu.com/7371559)

[Sylvain Pineau]

I'd not suggest this solution as it leaves the system in a very bad state if you’re developing Touch apps as it breaks several dependencies on 14.04 (See pastebin.ubuntu.com/7371611)

[Sylvain Pineau]

now the first command does nothing (No packages will be installed, upgraded or removed).

[Sylvain Pineau]

pastebin.ubuntu.com/7372664 and pastebin.ubuntu.com/7372667

[Braiam]

@SylvainPineau it doesn't do anything because there's nothing to do. All packages except unity-webapps-launchpad are removed. That's why it does nothing.

[Sylvain Pineau]

Thanks for the confirmation but I'm still puzzled by the command filtering by package namse as you can't be 100% sure to match all corner cases.

[Braiam]

@SylvainPineau sadly, that's the only way to go. Other possible matches has many more packages than just this and are more difficult to maintain. You can try sudo aptitude search '?depends(unity-webapps-common)' which is a bit more restrictive, but I'm not sure if you add the webapps development packages to the mix. BTW, you can always replace remove for search to verify what will be done.

[Sylvain Pineau]

I've updated my answer with a filter using the debian Section of those packages.

[Sylvain Pineau]

This is the second time that you copy my own answer, I don't appreciate this type of behavior. I downvoted your answer simply because I does not work and I explained why. Please revert your vote or at least explain where I 'm wrong. I'll let moderator decide what to do with plagiator behaviour.

[Sch-Tomi]

@SylvainPineau I wasn't paying attention to other answers, I got it from a blog. and Than I showed how to do it.

[Sylvain Pineau]

First of all thanks for referencing your sources. My apt command didn't come from a blog though as I created it yesterday per Jorge's request. Anyway you don't need to explicitly filter unity-webapps-service and unity-webapps-common as both belong to the gnome section.