Attempting to remove vlc from KDEneon results in removal of entire plasma desktop. I drilled down and found the problematic package is "phonon4qt5-backend-vlc" which takes everything else with it.

If, prior to removing vlc, you first install "phonon4qt5-backend-gtreamer" then you can remove vlc and it's depends successfully.

This requirement to have either phonon4qt5-backend-vlc or -gstreamer is not present in Kubuntu 16.04. Either the dependencies are incorrect or at a minimum, the gstreamer package should be installed as fall-back if one wants to remove vlc.

# The dependencies are:

i A --\ phonon4qt5 4:4.9.1-0neon+ 4:4.9.1-0neon+…
Description: multimedia framework from KDE using Qt 5 - metapackage
--\ Depends (3)
--- debconf (>= 0.5) | debconf-2.0
--- libphonon4qt5-4 (>= 4:4.9.1-0neon+16.04+build18)
--- phonon4qt5-backend-vlc | phonon4qt5-backend

#
We see:

You could use any 'phonon4qt5-backend', too.
For example the 'null' backend.

(As far as I can see.)

Did You try it (if that's what You wanted…)?

What's the goal/purpose of Your actions?

My goal is to report this as a bug since the same condition (false dependencies of phonon4qt5-backend-*) does not appear to exist elsewhere (outside KDEneon) when using Plasma 5 DE. This, to me, appears as a simple packaging error. I do not think the intent of the KDEneon developers is to "force" the users to keep phonon4qt5-backend-*. Aren't there users and/or system that don't require or desire audio?

As I stated, Kubuntu 16.04 which shares a base with KDEneon, does not have this same situation. One is free to remove phonon4qt5-backend-* if desired. Further, since Kubuntu does not have VLC and it's depends installed by default, it has phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer installed. So when using Kubuntu, you are free to install and remove VLC at your discretion. With KDEneon you are not because of the added dependencies on the phonon4qt5-backend-* package. Additionally, when using Kubuntu, you are also free to remove phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer even if you don't have phonon4qt5-backend-vlc installed - no false dependencies on either package.

To further flog this pony: If one were to do a fresh KDEneon install and attempt to remove VLC, you will easily see that 80 packages will be removed (most or all of Plasma 5) along with VLC. However, if you install phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer prior to attempt removal of VLC, only three packages that are actually related to VLC are removed. I just confirmed this in a VM to repeat the results.

It appears that a design decision was made to include VLC, a non-KDE application, in the KDEneon ISO. That's fine and dandy as a lot of people use VLC, myself included. However, unless one knows of this unusual dependency situation, one cannot remove VLC from a KDEneon install without breaking it. This should be prevented as not all users are experienced enough to understand why this happens. An uninitiated user ends up with a desire to remove VLC but unable to do so.

I see two possible causal situations and resolutions:

#1: The KDEneon developers have decided to require phonon4qt5-backend-* be installed as part of KDEneon for whatever reason. If so, then either both phonon4qt5-backend-vlc and -gstreamer should be in the ISO, or the package removal process to remove phonon4qt5-backend-vlc should include having phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer installed as a fall-back to avoid the removal of Plasma 5 altogether - or possibly both.

#2: The KDEneon developers did not intend to require phonon4qt5-backend-* be installed as part of KDEneon. In that case, this dependency situation needs to be addressed.

I discovered this situation when several other KDEneon users wanted to remove VLC from their systems and were unable to do so. Possibly, I am just not knowledgeable enough to correctly describe the cause of this issue. However, as a 20+ year Linux user this unnecessarily extended set of dependencies is either a packaging error or a philosophical one. In either case, I felt it warranted attention.

I am running a fully updated Neon User Edition.
As Oshunluver says:

:~$ apt-cache depends phonon4qt5-backend-vlc
phonon4qt5-backend-vlc
Depends: vlc
Depends: libc6
Depends: libphonon4qt5-4
Depends: libqt5core5a
Depends: libqt5gui5
Depends: libqt5widgets5
Depends: libstdc++6
Depends: libvlc5
Depends: libvlccore8
Depends: phonon4qt5

:~$ apt-cache rdepends phonon4qt5
phonon4qt5
Reverse Depends:
plasma-workspace
plasma-desktop
phonon4qt5-backend-vlc
phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer
okular
marble-plugins
libphonon4qt5-dev
libokular5core7
libmarblewidget-qt5-27
libkf5notifyconfig5
libkf5notifications5
libkf5mailcommon5
libkf5khtml5
libkf5compactdisc5
kwordquiz
ktuberling
korganizer
konversation
konversation
konversation
klettres
kio-extras
kalarm
gwenview
dragonplayer
dolphin
calligrastage
calligrastage
calligra-libs
calligra-libs
blinken
libphonon4qt5-dev

And there goes the desktop.

I think, the solution should be:

If:
deinstall 'vlc'

Then:
Packages Resolve Dependencies

--\ Remove the following packages:

phonon-backend-vlc [0.9.1-0neon+16.04+build6 (now, xenial)]
phonon4qt5-backend-vlc [0.9.1-0neon+16.04+build6 (now, xenial)]

--\ Leave the following recommendations unresolved:

neon-desktop recommends phonon-backend-vlc
neon-desktop recommends phonon4qt5-backend-vlc
neon-desktop recommends vlc

And the original poster seems right:

# 'phonon4qt5-backend':
Virtual package provided by:
* phonon4qt5-backend-vlc (0.9.1-0neon+16.04+build6)
* phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer (4:4.9.0-1+16.04+build4)
* phonon4qt5-backend-vlc (0.8.2-1ubuntu3)
* phonon4qt5-backend-null (4:4.8.3-0ubuntu3)

Probably, it should be configured for at least one of those four/three to be
always installed.

Short Test:

# Step 1/3:
$ apt list '*phonon*backend-*' | grep installed

phonon-backend-gstreamer/xenial,now 4:4.9.0-1+16.04+build4 amd64 [installed]
phonon-backend-gstreamer-common/xenial,now 4:4.9.0-1+16.04+build4 amd64 [installed]
phonon-backend-vlc/xenial,now 0.9.1-0neon+16.04+build6 amd64 [installed,automatic]
phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer/xenial,now 4:4.9.0-1+16.04+build4 amd64 [installed]
phonon4qt5-backend-vlc/xenial,now 0.9.1-0neon+16.04+build6 amd64 [installed,automatic]

# Step 2/3:
$ apt-get -s remove vlc 2>&1 | grep 'to remove and'
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

# Step 3/3:
$ apt-get -s remove vlc phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer 2>&1 | grep 'to remove and'
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 324 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

# Goodbye, Desktop. Confirmed.

oshunluvr wrote:My goal is to report this as a bug ..

KDE Bug reports: https://bugs.kde.org
--> Marked as Neon bugs: https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?bug_st ... oduct=neon