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I've got a VPS server, on which I surprisingly find packages like bluez or thunderbird-gnome-support or firefox or libqt4.

Do I have to list all the packages like in "How to delete all desktop environments except Unity?"?

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Victor Sergienko
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  • That one doesn't include `ubuntu-desktop`, and doesn't relate to desktop-universal desktop-only packages like `firefox`. – Victor Sergienko Jun 17 '14 at 06:31
  • [Remove packages to tranform ubuntu Desktop to Server?](http://askubuntu.com/questions/73219/remove-packages-to-tranform-ubuntu-desktop-to-server) – bain Jun 17 '14 at 08:52

2 Answers2

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To remove x11 and everything that uses it:

apt-get purge libx11.* libqt.*
bain
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    Take care with this and review the dependent packages that will be removed carefully because even on server installation, some program may need X11 libraries. I think mainly to image manipulation toolkit like ImageMagick used by many Web Gallery sites. Also, this REGEX will remove not only **libx11** related libraries but also **libxml** libraries that may definetly needed on a server. So for me `apt-get purge libx11*` would a better proposal. – Benoit Jun 17 '14 at 09:19
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You can use Tasksel It is a a tool that install/removes packages as per the type of system you require.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Tasksel

StallionSA
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    `tasksel -t remove ubuntu-desktop` shows that it does not remove Firefox, xorg, etc. – bain Jun 17 '14 at 10:18
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    Yes you can also do it from the command line with `sudo tasksel remove ubuntu-desktop`. But if you do `dpkg -l libx11-6` or `dpkg -l firefox` afterwards you will see that those packages are still installed, so tasksel is not removing all of the desktop packages. – bain Jun 17 '14 at 10:37
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    To get from ubuntu 14.04 desktop to server I ran `sudo tasksel` then select from the available options **Basic Ubuntu Server** I unselected the **Ubuntu Desktop** then **tab** to ok. It removed all of my std desktop and only installed/left me with a server installation. I have not used the `tasksel -t remove` before only the terminal gui. I think that you are left with xorg etc.. as removing the ubuntu destop and not selecting the server option does not remove the x-windows system leaving only server cli. x-windows system requires xorg and firefox can be run from the x-windows system. – StallionSA Jun 17 '14 at 10:40
  • I just tested this, selecting *Basic Ubuntu Server* and deselecting *Ubuntu desktop* exactly as you described, and it did not remove firefox or the x11 libraries. – bain Jun 17 '14 at 12:11