How to completely remove ubuntu-restricted-extras

Question

I recently installed ubuntu-restricted-extras but it is causing bugs in Google Chrome, and I want want to remove it. However, when I do it using sudo apt-get autoremove or sudo apt-get purge it doesn't seem to be completely removed because when I was installing it, a lot of packages got removed and others got installed.
My question is: How do I make things just like they was before installing ubuntu-restricted-extras?

Thanks.

Solution 1

You can use synaptic. If you don't have it installed, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command(s) below:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

Once done, open synaptic, by typing it in dash, and once it opens search for ubuntu-restricted-extras, right click, and choose Mark for Complete Removal, and then click on Apply.

Solution 2

The issue you are having is that the ubuntu-restricted-* metapackages use recommendations instead of dependencies. If you want to completely remove the packages recommended by either of these, a safe way is to do it manually (tested on Ubuntu 14.04.3):

• apt-cache show ubuntu-restricted-extras
• apt-cache show ubuntu-restricted-addons
• Take note of all the "Recommends:" packages.
• apt-get remove ubuntu-restricted-extras ubuntu-restricted-addons
• apt-get remove for all the recommended packages
• apt-get autoremove to get rid of the installed dependencies for the recommended packages.

Then if you want you can do a clean reinstall:

• apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras to get everything back

Note that apt-get install --reinstall for all of the recommended packages would not be thorough enough as it would not get rid of the installed dependencies for the recommended packages.

Comments

[Admin]

That package should not cause "bugs" in Google Chrome. Quite a few of us have the restricted extras installed and Google Chrome works perfectly. Perhaps you'd like to explain what exactly are the bugs? Maybe there's another cause for them?

[Mohamed]

I think that restricted extras is causing the bug because Chrome was working fine before installing it. But now, when I try to publish something on Twitter, start from the beginning even though I put it at the end.

[Mohamed]

Thank you. But is this going to reinstall the packages that were removed during the ubuntu-restricted-extras installation?

[Mitch]

No. Packages removed probably are not needed anymore. Any package in particular you're concerned about?