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    #46
    Originally posted by Brickfoot View Post
    […]Maybe I'm expecting too much, but will there be a solution for a "newbie" that hates Snap's hold on Kubuntu (or maybe just Firefox)? I'm patient. […]
    Give me one or two more weeks and I hope I can provide you and other people who are interested with three scripts that will hopefully cover all scenarios for Kubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 22.10… :
    1. a script that removes and blocks snapd and Snaps (including the Firefox Snap)
    2. a script that lets you choose to either install Firefox as a binary from Mozilla.org like Debian suggests or install Firefox from the Mozilla Team PPA like KDE neon does
    3. a script that prepares Kubuntu for a release-upgrade to the next version if one has removed and blocked Snaps before (e.g. with script #1)

    To use the scripts one would have to
    • copy and paste the code of the individual script into a blank Kate document
    • save it as e.g. "script_name.sh" to e.g. your home directory
    • make it executable in Dolphin or CLI (in Konsole go to the directory you saved the script to and chmod +x script_name.sh)
    • in Konsole go to the directory you saved the script to and run it with ./script_name.sh
    ​I will also try to provide the scripts for direct download from a GitLab page when I will have time…
    Debian KDE & LXQt • Kubuntu & Lubuntu • openSUSE KDE • Windows • macOS X
    Desktop: Lenovo ThinkCentre M75s • Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 13" • and others

    get rid of Snap scriptreinstall Snap for release-upgrade scriptinstall traditional Firefox script

    Comment


      #47
      Originally posted by Brickfoot View Post
      OK I'm getting very confused. Based on what I'm reading I qualify as a newbie. I'm sure y'all know what you're talking about but it makes me too nervous to try. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but will there be a solution for a "newbie" that hates Snap's hold on Kubuntu (or maybe just Firefox)? I'm patient.
      Very interesting reading, thanks.
      The first page in this thread has a link to instructions on how to de-snap.
      There are many such how-tos
      That is pretty much as newbie-friendly as it can get, really.



      Comment


        #48
        Originally posted by jlittle View Post
        […]
        I suspect that the binary version, installed to /opt and started through /usr/local/bin, will avoid some problems during a release upgrade. Having purged snapd and having no /snap, will a release upgrade reinstall them?
        Well, I have discovered some (minor) problems during a release-upgrade indeed, if the user has installed Firefox from the Mozilla Team PPA​ - due to Ubuntu's Firefox "dummy" packages that install the Snap, .
        I am currently testing several things/scenarios and working around those "problems" in my scripts - my present solution is to automatically remove the Mozilla Team version of Firefox before a release-upgrade and automatically re-install it after the release-upgrade when the user gets rid of Snap again.
        I am not doing this carelessly (is this the correct word?) - 3 to 4 conditions will have to be fulfilled before a user's Firefox from the MT PPA is removed. Let's see if there is another way, but I doubt it. At least the Firefox user data is left untouched…
        Last edited by Schwarzer Kater; Mar 22, 2023, 03:58 PM. Reason: added information about removal conditions
        Debian KDE & LXQt • Kubuntu & Lubuntu • openSUSE KDE • Windows • macOS X
        Desktop: Lenovo ThinkCentre M75s • Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 13" • and others

        get rid of Snap scriptreinstall Snap for release-upgrade scriptinstall traditional Firefox script

        Comment


          #49
          For anybody who might be interested:
          The three scripts are in "release canditate status" and one or two nice people who have the luxury of some spare time are currently reviewing them.
          I think I will be able to post them in this forum during the next two or three days.
          Debian KDE & LXQt • Kubuntu & Lubuntu • openSUSE KDE • Windows • macOS X
          Desktop: Lenovo ThinkCentre M75s • Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 13" • and others

          get rid of Snap scriptreinstall Snap for release-upgrade scriptinstall traditional Firefox script

          Comment


            #50
            With a little help I was able to post the three scripts.

            You can find them here: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...ding-scripting
            or
            here on GitLab: https://gitlab.com/scripts94
            Debian KDE & LXQt • Kubuntu & Lubuntu • openSUSE KDE • Windows • macOS X
            Desktop: Lenovo ThinkCentre M75s • Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 13" • and others

            get rid of Snap scriptreinstall Snap for release-upgrade scriptinstall traditional Firefox script

            Comment


              #51
              Thanks, I've read the tutorial but the continued thread here gives me the impression that I should wait for y'all to come to some final solution. I'll check in again soon.

              Comment


                #52
                I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no (and very probably will never be a) "final" solution for Ubuntu and its Flavors until Ubuntu "changes course".

                Ubuntu decided to force Snap on the users (which can be useful for servers in many cases -AppArmor aside -, but is not a good decision for desktop installations in my opinion).
                Therefore all Flavors (like Kubuntu) have to follow this decision too, and
                either
                1. one can live with it
                or
                2. one can remove Snap manually or with a script (this is Linux after all!)
                or
                3. one can "jump ship" and use openSUSE KDE, TUXEDO OS,​ MXLinux KDE, Fedora KDE, KDE neon (which however has snapd but no Snaps installed), Debian, Arch, Slackware, … instead.
                Last edited by Schwarzer Kater; Apr 03, 2023, 05:13 AM.
                Debian KDE & LXQt • Kubuntu & Lubuntu • openSUSE KDE • Windows • macOS X
                Desktop: Lenovo ThinkCentre M75s • Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 13" • and others

                get rid of Snap scriptreinstall Snap for release-upgrade scriptinstall traditional Firefox script

                Comment


                  #53
                  I found this discussion while searching in frustration how to get rid of Snap on my Kubuntu system. So I now have used Schwarzer Kater script on 2 systems; one a fresh install and the other running for more than a year. So far so good. But I am bothered by the fact that to upgrade to a new release of Kubuntu I have to reinstall Snap and then upgrade.

                  So I'm looking at what I want to do.

                  If I really want to stay on KDE, hate Snaps, require BTRFS, and need a little stability, then what do I do? Well

                  I can stay with Kubuntu and fight with snap every release. BTRFS subvolumes meet minimum requirements for me in Kubuntu.
                  I can install Debian 12 ( the release candidates are out) with the KDE DE which is 5.27 just like Kubuntu. But over the next year it will fall behind. BTRFS install here is a real pain.
                  I can install Fedora 38 but in a test install I found issue that shouldn't be happening. gnome-mahjongg even fails to run on Fedora, not that it's a critical app. BTRFS here is default.
                  I can install Endeavour OS with KDE. It's a great solution for staying current, but you better be doing btrfs snapshots a lot to recover from bad updates. BTRFS here is an easy install choice.

                  I'm sure there are other solutions, but I have not found an ideal one for me. I keep half a dozen VMs with things I'm testing running all the time.


                  Comment


                    #54
                    Originally posted by jfabernathy View Post
                    […]
                    So far so good. But I am bothered by the fact that to upgrade to a new release of Kubuntu I have to reinstall Snap and then upgrade.

                    So I'm looking at what I want to do.
                    […]
                    Glad the scripts were of use to you.

                    If you use the scripts there should be no problem at all when the time for a release-upgrade comes.
                    Sure: you will have to reinstall Snap before the release-upgrade and then remove it again after the relase-upgrade. But the scripts make this endeavour quite painless.
                    So far I have tested release-upgrading with the scripts from Kubuntu 20.04 up to 23.04 several dozen times without any problems, both in virtual machines and on physical hardware. And not only for myself, but also for friends and (some) customers who use Kubuntu (on ext4 not btrfs to be precise).

                    I will keep using Kubuntu (LTS) until Canonical makes it impossible to remove Snap.

                    I don't want you to quit using Kubuntu, but another alternative for you could be openSUSE Tumbleweed.
                    Quirky at times and other "special" things than on Kubuntu one has to take care of (e.g. blocking the PIM suite during installation and blocking the akonadi server stuff if one does not want to use this part of KDE, or enabling the Packman (Essentials) repository to get multimedia codecs - to name just two).
                    If you like rolling releases and want to be "leading" edge (not "bleeding" edge like Arch) openSUSE Tumbleweed is the best KDE Plasma experience out there IMHO. For me it has been the most stable rolling release I have used in the last decade (sometimes I had an issue with the proprietary Nvidia drivers and a kernel update, but I could roll back due to btrfs and snapper snapshots and they always fixed the problem within 2-5 days).
                    Many of SUSE's employees work on kernel and KDE upstream stuff and openSUSE does benefit from this (btw: SUSE has more than double the number of Canonical's employees).
                    Last edited by Schwarzer Kater; May 05, 2023, 03:49 PM.
                    Debian KDE & LXQt • Kubuntu & Lubuntu • openSUSE KDE • Windows • macOS X
                    Desktop: Lenovo ThinkCentre M75s • Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 13" • and others

                    get rid of Snap scriptreinstall Snap for release-upgrade scriptinstall traditional Firefox script

                    Comment


                      #55
                      Schwarzer Kater thanks for the information on Tumbleweed. Sounds like it's worth a look so I'll spin up a VM. Another direction I'm toying with is Linux Mint. I have it on my wife's desktop PC and our laptop. She likes the Cinnamon desktop and since she either uses the desktop PC at home or laptop when traveling, it helps that the interface is the same. It's also a plus that the Linux Mint team owns Cinnamon and now Timeshift. Since it's based on Ubuntu, but no snapd, I can use all the same PPA's I use now. I also like that they have a fallback position using just Debian with the Linux Mint Debian Edition. I can't really tell which I'm on until I list the version numbers.

                      Lots of things to test out. My internal alarm clock goes off every six months to say "Time to change the Distro"

                      Comment


                        #56
                        I have de-snapped my new installation of 22.04, the main reason being I wanted to continue using my existing Firefox configuration with many tabs organised by Power tabs.
                        Normally I would copy a backup of .mozilla back to the new /home and be done. (as I do with .thunderbird)
                        But I found snap stores Firefox somewhere else and I didn't bother to search for it.
                        Later I found a trace /~.snap/firefox and I wonder if this would be the new 'home' for a snapped Firefox, I also wonder if I could, like before, just copy the old .mozilla directory here to keep the setting?

                        Comment


                          #57
                          • K, so I'm here by happenstance due to other issues having caused me to notice (after a long absence from the web) what I believe to be Firefox being loaded during the boot sequence and having "Discovered" the Snap folder containg Firefox...
                          • fwiw I long ago abandoned mozilla due to their interest in studying my online presence (and the enforced persistance thereof by various means.. about:config I do not have the time) only to now find this?
                          What can one expect from a repo with a shopping bag for an icon.
                          "Consume everything" so says Lubuntu
                          I, for one, am not buying it.
                          in fact this evermore so is an exercise in excising the marketing dept.

                          Comment


                            #58
                            Originally posted by maximus View Post
                            fwiw I long ago abandoned mozilla due to their interest in studying my online presence...
                            Surely the alternatives are worse? (Except for browsers like librefox that are based on firefox.)

                            Regards, John Little

                            Comment


                              #59
                              Absolute privacy (in our modern world) is a myth, unless you want to completely remove oneself from the world. No electronic devices. Don't reside anywhere even remotely near people. Never come in contact with people. Forever.

                              We live in society. Certain standards of privacy are expected/respected (or should be). But absolute privacy, again, is a myth. Just my opinion.
                              Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007
                              "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes

                              Comment


                                #60
                                De-Snapping is relatively painless, and it works. At least it works until one installs a new version of *buntu. Even then, de-Snapping is still relatively painless.

                                As long as Canonical insists on pushing Snap with each new version, it will ever be thus. I just follow the original de-Snap instructions, and then install the Mozilla PPA, and all is well.

                                Should Canonical start to push more Snap software on an install, then reconsidering *buntu may be a decision, and a painful one. For now, it's only an every two year pain point - so no big deal.
                                The next brick house on the left
                                Intel i7 11th Gen | 16GB | 1TB | KDE Plasma 5.24.7 | Kubuntu 22.04.4 | 6.5.0-18-generic

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