This post describes the steps to remove or uninstall software packages From Ubuntu. There are multiple ways to remove the software from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and another version of Ubuntu. You can remove some of the software from Ubuntu via GUI and some of the software via the command line interface (CLI).
How To Remove Software In Ubuntu
GUI method:
You can use Ubuntu Software to remove software in Ubuntu.
First, you need to click the Ubuntu Software icon in the Dock or search for Software in the Activities search bar.
After launching Ubuntu Software, search for an application that you want to remove from Ubuntu. In Ubuntu Software, you will see the three tabes, Explore, Installed, and Updates tab. The installed tab includes all installed software and the Updates tab shows a list of software that has updates available.
In the Ubuntu Software app, click the Installed button at the top and Find the application that you want to remove from Ubuntu.
Click Uninstall or Click the delete button to remove the software from Ubuntu.
You might need to provide the password for the confirmation.
Via command line console
Run the commands below to list all installed Debian packages.
sudo apt list --installed
Run the following command with the package name to remove the software from Ubuntu.
sudo apt remove package_name
If you want to remove multiple software or package at once then run the following command:
sudo apt remove package-name-1 package-name-2
Run the following command to completely remove packages and their configuration settings files:
sudo apt purge package-name
For the Snap package, run the following command to list out the installed software or package.
snap list
Run the following command to remove Snap packages using the commands below:
Converseen image converter announced 0.9.10.0 release few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.
Converseen is a free and open-source tool for converting or resizing a large quantity of photo images to another format with a few mouse clicks.
The new 0.9.10.0 release redesigned the Images Settings dialog. Previously, it automatically removes the metadata (information including date & time, device, and even location you capture the photo image) in output images, and replaces with only modified date and other non-sensitive data.
Now, it provides a “Remove image’s metadata” check-box. So, user can manually choose to either to remove the metadata information about the photo images in output files.
As you can see in the screenshot above, it now supports configuring the compression level and image quality for WebP images. As well, it fixes a bug that inhibits the overwrite feature when the Rename option is checked.
How to install the new Converseen 0.9.10.0 in Ubuntu
The image converter is available to install in different package formats: AppImage, Snap, and Deb. Choose either one that you prefer.
1. AppImage
The software website provides the universal AppImage for downloading via the link button below:
It’s a non-install package. Just grab it, right-click and go to ‘Properties’ dialog to add executable permission. Finally, click run the AppImage will launch the tool.
2. Snap
For Ubuntu 20.04+, the snap package is the easiest way to get converseen, though it runs in sandbox. Just open Ubuntu Software, search for and install the package marked as ‘Snap Store (snap)’.
3. Ubuntu PPA (.deb)
For those who prefer the classic .deb package format, there’s unofficial PPA that contains the package for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 22.10.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, install the software package by running command:
sudo apt install converseen
Linux Mint user may have to run sudo apt update first to update cache.
Uninstall:
The PPA also contains some other software packages, so you may remove it immediately after installed Liferea.
To do so, either run the command below in terminal, or remove the source line under “Other Software” tab in Software & Updates tool.
Tutorial To Add Or Remove Ubuntu Linux Folder On File Explorer Navigation Pane In Windows 11
In this Ubuntu tutorial post, we will show you the methods to add or remove the Ubuntu Linux folder on the file explorer navigation pane in Windows 11. This one is useful if you are using dual boot on your Laptop or desktop. The Ubuntu folder is automatically added to the navigation pane in the File Explorer navigation pane by default when you enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux and installed Ubuntu.
How To Add Or Remove Ubuntu Linux Folder On File Explorer Navigation Pane In Windows 11
This is quite an easy process to add or remove the Ubuntu Linux folder on the file explorer navigation pane in Windows 11. Go through the following steps to configure it:
Open File Explorer by clicking on the folder icon in the taskbar or by pressing the Windows key + E.
Click on the “View” tab in the ribbon at the top of the window.
In the “Layout” group, click on the “Navigation pane” button.
In the navigation pane options menu, select or deselect the “Show libraries” option. If you want to show the Ubuntu Linux folder, make sure the option is selected. If you want to hide the Ubuntu Linux folder, make sure the option is deselected.
Close the navigation pane options menu by clicking on the “X” in the top right corner of the menu or by clicking outside of the menu.
Note: If you do not see the “View” tab or the “Navigation pane” button, you may need to enable the ribbon in File Explorer. To do this, click on the “File” tab in the ribbon and then click on the “Options” button in the “General” group. In the “Folder Options” window, go to the “View” tab and under “Advanced settings”, check the box next to “Show the ribbon”. Click “OK” to save the changes.
Let us know if this step works for you or not and don’t forget to share our blog post to your friend who is in need of this tutorial.
For Ubuntu 22.10 and other Linux with GNOME 43, it’s now easy to add Media Control, Notifications, or Volume Mixer to the top-right corner system status menu (aka Quick Settings), or remove useless buttons.
It’s ‘Quick Settings Tweaker‘, an extension for the new GNOME desktop. With it, your system menu can be configured to look like:
New items can be enabled or disabled separately and moved to top or bottom. And, it removes the corresponding items from date & time menu, so it will look like:
No media control & notifications in date time menu
As well, it allows to remove any button from the system menu that you don’t use via ON/OFF toggles. Differently, turn on a toggle will remove the corresponding button, while turn it off to leave it unchanged.
Remove useless buttons from top-right sy stem menu
Step 1: Install ‘Quick Settings Tweaker’
For Ubuntu 22.10, firstly search for and install ‘Extension Manager’ tool from Ubuntu Software.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+
Then, search for and open the tool from ‘Activities’ overview screen.
Finally, use Extension Manager to search and install the extension under ‘Browse’ tab.
For other Linux with GNOME 43, go to extension website and install via on/off toggle.
Step 2: Configure Your Gnome System Menu
After installation, either switch back ‘Installed’ tab in Extension Manager, or install and use ‘Gnome Extensions’ app to open the configuration dialog.
And here are the screenshots of the ‘Quick Settings Tweaker’ configuration pages:
Most images contain Exif (Exchangeable image file format) data which includes some crucial data such as the date and time of capturing an image, device, place, and so on.
While this can be useful in various scenarios, it also has privacy threats and through this guide, I’ll show you how to remove Exif data from images using the Linux command line.
Method 1: Using ExifTool
So if you are looking for a way by which you can have various options to remove your Exif data that does not apply any image compression, then this should be your first preference.
So let’s start with the installation of various distros:
For Debian derivatives:
sudo apt install libimage-exiftool-perl
For RHEL-based distros:
sudo dnf install perl-Image-ExifTool
For Arch-based distros:
sudo pacman -S perl-image-exiftool
If you are on other platforms, such as Gentoo, you can build ExifTool from scratch here.
ExifTool can also be used to view metadata related to the image. To list all the details, you have to use the given command syntax:
exiftool <image.jpg>
Exif data of an image
Removing Metadata from Image
There is a difference between metadata of image and exif data. Metadata includes details such as the creator of the file, the purpose of the file, and comments, if any.
Where exif data only includes details about the digital image such as size, location, software used to create/modification, etc.
Removing metadata from an image will also remove exif data.
To remove metadata, you have to use -the all option. It will create a copy of the image with no metadata, and the original file will be renamed with “_original” appended to the end of the file.
exiftool -all= <image.jpg>
A new image file with no metadata and an old file renamed for backup
Let’s use the exif command again to list the exif data of our new file.
Getting exif data of a specific image
As you can see, I’ve managed to remove exif data from my image and there is no reduction in size as there’s no compression involved.
What if you want to remove the metadata of an image without creating a new copy and want to modify the original image? Use -overwrite_original option.
exiftool -overwrite_original -all= <image.jpg>
Applying changes only to the original file
Removing Metadata from Entire Directory
This command will come in handy if you want to remove the metadata of an entire directory containing images. Let me show you how.
To remove metadata from an entire directory, you have to use -recurse option, which will instruct ExifTool to traverse subdirectories.
It makes a copy of the original file and removes metadata from the copied file and the original file will be renamed with “_original” appended at the end of it.
exiftool -recurse -all= <path of directory>
Removing metadata of each image present in the directory
Removing Exif Data Only
So if you are looking for a way by which you can only remove exif data, you only have to follow a slight change in command and that’s it.
To remove exif data only, you have to use the -EXIF option as follows:
exiftool -EXIF= <image.jpg>
Now, let me show you what you are left with when you only remove exif data:
Remaining info after removing exif data
Method 2: Using ImageMagick
Unlike the exif tool which was created to remove metadata and exif data, ImageMagick is not meant only to extract image data, so you won’t get as many options as I have shown above.
Less option does not affect its functionality and does its job quite well and this is the perfect option for those who just want to remove exif data in the simplest manner possible.
So let’s jump to the installation of ImageMagick.
For Debian-derivatives:
sudo apt-get install imagemagick
For RHEL-based distros:
sudo dnf install imagemagick
For Arch-based distros:
sudo pacman -S imagemagick
Once you are done with the installation, let’s have a look at how you can list image details from ImageMagick.
To list exif data, you have to follow the given command syntax:
identify -format '%[EXIF:*]' <image.jpeg>
Using ImageMagick to get exif data of the image
To remove exif data, you have to use -strip option with mogrify as shown below:
mogrify -strip <image.jpeg>
Once you remove exif data, I’ll run the previous command to cross-check whether I have successfully removed exif data or not.
identify -format '%[EXIF:*]' <image.jpeg>
No exif data left on the image
It won’t show any output, as there are no data related to exif.
Similarly, you can also use this command on an entire directory. Unlike the first method, you can’t just assign the path to the directory, it must be your current working directory.
Then you have to apply the given command:
mogrify -strip *
Final Words
Both methods work fine first is bundled with various options, while the second method is one of the promising features of ImageMagick.
But in both cases, they work fine and can be used without any issues.
For those want to unlock / decrypt PDF files, there’s now a stupid simple graphical tool to do the job in Linux.
It’s easy to encrypt you PDF files in Ubuntu Linux since the built-in LibreOffice office suite has the option on ‘Export as PDF’ dialog. However, there seems no easy way to remove password for PDF file, other than using qpdf command:
unlockR is a new GTK4 application that use Libadwaita to provide a modern simple user interface to decrypt your PDF files.
It’s so simple that you just need to click ‘Open a File‘ to select your PDF, then type the password, and finally hit ‘Decrypt’. It doesn’t change the original file, but generates a new PDF without password protect.
As the picture shows, it has both light and dark mode that switches automatically according your system color scheme.
NOTE: This app is NOT about to crack password on a PDF file. You need the password to be able to decrypt it.
How to Install unlockR
It is a free open-software software works on both Linux and Windows. For Windows package, just grab the zip from github releases page:
For Linux, it offers the binary package via universal Flatpak. Ubuntu user need to first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to install the Flatpak daemon:
