un-installing

[branoo]

I am running Linux mint 7 and the other day i went along to the official Songbird Media Player site and downloaded the latest version of Songbird 1.2. It came in the form of a tar.gz file. But after a little help i managed to install it and it was working great.

But i can't find an entry for it in the Synaptic Package Manager or the Software Manager. It was not even listed in the main menu.

So, could someone tell me how i might go about un-installing this software please.

Big thanks

[techieMoe]

I am running Linux mint 7 and the other day i went along to the official Songbird Media Player site and downloaded the latest version of Songbird 1.2. It came in the form of a tar.gz file. But after a little help i managed to install it and it was working great.

But i can't find an entry for it in the Synaptic Package Manager or the Software Manager. It was not even listed in the main menu.

So, could someone tell me how i might go about un-installing this software please.

Big thanks

If you install something using a TAR.GZ file you're essentially compiling it by yourself. These kinds of installs happen without the knowledge of the package management system and will not show up in Synaptic. To uninstall these kinds of compiles you'll need to either use an uninstall script included with the program (some have this, others don't) or manually go in and delete all the references it made in your system, which is a very dangerous prospect if you don't know what you're doing.

In the future, I very highly recommend always installing using either the Ubuntu repositories in Add/Remove Programs or Synaptic, or by downloading a .DEB automated installation file. That way you can be assured the package will be registered with Apt and you can easily uninstall it.

[Rubberman]

As techieMoe said, installing a program this way bypasses the package manager(s) altogether. Usually the Makefile that was generated during the installation process will have either a "remove" or "uninstall" target that you can access with the command "make uninstall" or "make remove". Sometimes a shell script will be provided as mentioned by techieMoe. Sometimes, none of these options are available and you will have to remove the program and components manually - not a good idea unless you are VERY certain of what you are doing.

[reed9]

All that said, Songbird is a bit of a special case. The tar ball download from the Songbird site is a ready to run binary. I just tested it, and it ran directly from the extracted folder in my home directory.

I imagine though that the installation help you got had you moving the binary into somewhere like /opt or /usr/local/bin or something? If so, Techiemoe's comments stand, in that you'll have to figure out where you moved any files and manually remove them.

Last thing, if you do actually compile something from source, there is a program called checkinstall that will allow your package manager to track it.

For Mint, Songbird is available via their software portal.
Software Portal - Linux Mint

[branoo]

I'll know better from now on. Thanks for the replies all

[lugoteehalt]

At least try going into the directory of the thing and doing 'make uninstall' - that's the usual thing isn't it? Or is it just 'uninstall'. Usually works.