How to completely uninstall LXDE (12.04)?

Question

I'm trying to remove LXDE from my 12.04 system.
I've tried running the following commands (as root from a terminal):

apt-get remove lxde
apt-get purge lxde
apt-get autoremove

I've also tried a rather lengthy command that was linked to from another question.

However, when I log in, LXDE is still presented as an environment choice, and it still functions perfectly well, as if I've done nothing.

I ran the above commands again, but got the following message:

package . . . is not installed, so not removed.

So, where do I go from here, short of re-installing Ubuntu and all my programs?

Solution 1

I don't know if you got this solved by now or not, but I think your problem is lxde-core is itself a meta package. To reverse

apt-get install lxde

you need to

apt-get remove lxde gpicview leafpad lxappearance lxde-core lxde-common lxinput lxmusic lxpanel lxsession lxsession-edit lxshortcut lxterminal openbox-themes openbox pcmanfm xarchiver xscreensaver
apt-get autoremove

Solution 2

What you can do is, to first, check the dependency of the lxde.
You can do this using the apt-cache command.

sudo apt-cache show lxde

This enables you to remove dependency packages.
So far, this has worked for me!

Comments

[Anwar]

LXDE is a metapackage and you need to know the name of packages installed during first installation to remove them. take a look to this similar question

[mikewhatever]

Can you post the output of the "lengthy command", perhaps something didn't work there. Have you installed lxde or lubuntu-desktop?