I was using ubuntu 20.04 a month back and them installed kde-plasma-desktop to switch to kubuntu. Subsequently I upgraded to kubuntu 21.04. Then I uninstalled many gnome related packages one-by-one by taking cues from google knowledge base. The current setting of my laptop are as under.

Operating System: Kubuntu 21.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.21.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.80.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.11.0-37-generic
OS Type: 64-bit
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 4 × Intel® Core™ i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz
Memory: 7.7 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 620

Using apt-mark I find that a lot of packages are shown as manually installed. I understand that some of the packages I have installed are not part of base suystem. However I want to mention Kubuntu-desktop and ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk. Here is the complete list.

Code: Select all

apparmor
apparmor-profiles
bash-completion
bleachbit
code
cpio
cron
dmidecode
dosfstools
ed
eog
file
filelight
firejail
firetools
gedit
google-chrome-stable
hplip
iptables
kubuntu-desktop
libpam-systemd
logrotate
lsof
man-db
manpages
media-types
nano
ntfs-3g
openssh-client
parted
pciutils
pdfarranger
plasma-firewall
plymouth
plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text
psmisc
python3-pip
rsync
simple-scan
simplescreenrecorder
synaptic
time
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk
ufw
update-manager-core
usbutils
uuid-runtime
virtualbox
wget
xpad
xz-utils

Whenever I try to mark kubuntu-desktop or ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk as auto, I am presented with a list of auto-removable packages as shown below.

ajayc@ubuntu2004:~$ sudo apt-mark auto kubuntu-desktop
[sudo] password for ajayc:
kubuntu-desktop set to automatically installed.

ajayc@ubuntu2004:~$ sudo apt autoremove --purge

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Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  acpi-support* acpid* alsa-base* ark* baloo-kf5* bluez-cups* dc* dns-root-data* dnsmasq-base* dolphin* elisa* ffmpegthumbs*
  fonts-kacst* fonts-kacst-one* fonts-noto-color-emoji* fwupd* fwupd-signed* gnustep-base-common* gnustep-base-runtime* gnustep-common*
  haveged* inputattach* kcalc* kde-spectacle* kdegraphics-thumbnailers* kerneloops* kimageformat-plugins* ksystemlog* kubuntu-desktop*
  kubuntu-settings-desktop* laptop-detect* libabsl20200923* libavfilter7* libavif9* libblas3* libbluetooth3* libbs2b0*
  libcanberra-gtk3-0* libcanberra-gtk3-module* libcupsimage2* libdolphinvcs5* libfftw3-double3* libfwupd2* libfwupdplugin1* libgav1-0*
  libgc1* libgcab-1.0-0* libgfortran5* libgl1-mesa-glx* libgnustep-base1.27* libhavege2* libjcat1* libkcolorpicker0*
  libkf5baloowidgets-bin* libkf5baloowidgets-data* libkf5baloowidgets5* libkf5kdcraw5* libkf5kipi-data* libkf5kipi32.0.0*
  libkf5modemmanagerqt6* libkimageannotator-common* libkimageannotator0* libkuserfeedbackwidgets1* liblapack3* liblilv-0-0* libmuffin0*
  libndp0* libnm0* libobjc4* libopenconnect5* libpkcs11-helper1* libpocketsphinx3* libqca-qt5-2* libqca-qt5-2-plugins* libqt5designer5*
  libqt5help5* libraw20* librubberband2* libserd-0-0* libsmbios-c2* libsord-0-0* libsphinxbase3* libsratom-0-0*
  libstartup-notification0* libstoken1* libteamdctl0* libtomcrypt1* libtommath1* libtss2-esys-3.0.2-0* libtss2-mu0* libtss2-sys1*
  libtss2-tcti-cmd0* libtss2-tcti-device0* libtss2-tcti-mssim0* libtss2-tcti-swtpm0* libvidstab1.1* libwnck-3-0* libwnck-3-common*
  libxfce4ui-2-0* libxfce4ui-common* libxfce4util-common* libxfce4util7* libxfconf-0-3* libxmlb1* libxpresent1* linux-sound-base*
  memtest86+* mobile-broadband-provider-info* mscompress* muffin* muffin-common* network-manager* network-manager-openvpn*
  network-manager-pptp* openvpn* p7zip* p7zip-full* pcmciautils* plasma-nm* plasma-workspace-wayland* pocketsphinx-en-us*
  policykit-desktop-privileges* ppp* pptp-linux* printer-driver-brlaser* printer-driver-c2esp* printer-driver-foo2zjs*
  printer-driver-foo2zjs-common* printer-driver-m2300w* printer-driver-min12xxw* printer-driver-pnm2ppa* printer-driver-ptouch*
  printer-driver-pxljr* printer-driver-sag-gdi* printer-driver-splix* python3-pyqt5* python3-pyqt5.sip* python3-software-properties*
  qml-module-qt-labs-platform* rfkill* sddm* sddm-theme-breeze* sddm-theme-debian-maui* sddm-theme-maui* software-properties-common*
  software-properties-qt* spice-vdagent* thunderbird* tpm-udev* ubuntu-release-upgrader-qt* unar* unattended-upgrades* unzip* x11-apps*
  x11-session-utils* xbitmaps* xdg-desktop-portal* xdg-desktop-portal-kde* xfconf* xfwm4* xinit* xorg* zip*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 163 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
After this operation, 442 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.


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ajayc@ubuntu2004:~$ sudo apt-mark manual kubuntu-desktop
kubuntu-desktop set to manually installed.
ajayc@ubuntu2004:~$ sudo apt-mark auto ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk set to automatically installed.
ajayc@ubuntu2004:~$ sudo apt autoremove --purge
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  aptdaemon* aptdaemon-data* gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-4.0* gir1.2-snapd-1* gir1.2-soup-2.4* gir1.2-vte-2.91* gir1.2-webkit2-4.0*
  libappindicator3-1* policykit-1-gnome* python3-aptdaemon* python3-aptdaemon.gtk3widgets* python3-debconf* python3-debian*
  python3-defer* python3-yaml* ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk* update-manager* update-notifier* update-notifier-common*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 19 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
After this operation, 6,043 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

ajayc@ubuntu2004:~$ sudo apt-mark manual ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk
ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk set to manually installed.

I am not able to understand why I am asked to remove many packages with also includes SDDM, the desktop manager among other when my system is Kubuntu 21.04. I am not a linux expert so seeking advice from senior members for the possible reasons for this.

I moved your post to another subforum, as this is distribution specific, not related to Plasma or KDE .

ajayc wrote:ajayc@ubuntu2004:~$ sudo apt-mark auto kubuntu-desktop
[sudo] password for ajayc:
kubuntu-desktop set to automatically installed.

Why are you doing that?

Setting that to auto will make autoremove want to remove it, and as kubuntu-desktop is the main dependency meta package for kubuntu, a lot of the 'extra' things kubuntu has beside the plain plasma desktop will become autoreovable as well.

Thanks.
My query is since my system is Kubuntu 21.04 and as I understand Kubuntu-desktop is one of the main package of Kubuntu OS, why marking it auto leads to this situation.
Will it not lead to an issue since sddm is also getting removed? I don't have any other desktop manager installed. I agree I moved from ubuntu 20.04 to kubuntu 20.04 and later upgraded to kubuntu 21.04. Will it be same if I were to do fresh install of Kubuntu 21.04? Apologies for my ignorance.

I don't any issues with keeping it a manually installed.

kubuntu-desktop is manually installed in a default installation, and that keeps all its dependencies that may be auto themselves untouched by autoremove. if you want to remove it, you will need to fix the things that then want to be autoremoved.

Thanks for your prompt response.