I really don’t know.
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Run pactree -r phonon-qt6
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Here’s what I get…
❯ pactree -r phonon-qt6
phonon-qt6
├─ktorrent
├─libkcompactdisc
│ └─audiocd-kio
├─okular
└─phonon-qt6-vlc
└─phonon-qt6
❯
You still have packages that need phonon-qt6-vlc. This one has vlc-plugin-base as dependency. So I assume you still have some vlc-plugin-* in your system.
pacman -Q | grep vlc
❯ pacman -Q | grep vlc
libvlc 3.0.21-29
phonon-qt6-vlc 0.12.0-5
vlc-cli 3.0.21-29
vlc-gui-ncurses 3.0.21-29
vlc-gui-qt 3.0.21-29
vlc-gui-skins2 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-a52dec 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-alsa 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-archive 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-dav1d 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-dbus 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-dbus-screensaver 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-faad2 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-ffmpeg 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-flac 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-gnutls 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-inflate 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-journal 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-jpeg 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-lua 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-mpg123 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-ogg 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-opus 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-png 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-pulse 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-shout 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-speex 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-tag 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-theora 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-twolame 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-vorbis 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-vpx 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugin-xml 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugins-base 3.0.21-29
vlc-plugins-video-output 3.0.21-29
❯
In the above output, ALL the letters vlc are in red.
That’s not important. The thing is that you have still packages which in a chain of dependency, still depend on some vlc-stuff even though you have uninstalled the player itself.
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So even though I removed vlc-plugins-all, I still have those plugins installed?
Yes. They come from vlc-plugins-base.
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Okular depends on phonon-qt6, which depends on phonon-qt6-vlc, which depends on vlc-plugins-base. So to get rid of all that, you would have to start by uninstalling Okular.
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phonon-qt6 is also a dependency of ktorrent and calligra, if you use them…you’d have to uninstall them, too.
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As it relates to software, a “monolith” or monolithic application is a piece of software where all the elements are combined into a single unit or application. It doesn’t need to be “big”.
So VLC was being delivered as a monolithic package and now is being delivered as separate modular packages.
To be clear, something being monolithic isn’t bad. Lots of applications are monolithic.
There is nothing objectively wrong with either packaging approach. However, I can certainly see how some people would prefer one approach over the other as it relates to VLC.
9 Likes
Thanks, just ran it and..
pactree -r phonon-qt6
phonon-qt6
├─ktorrent
├─okular
└─phonon-qt6-vlc
└─phonon-qt6
So all is good, I use these apps regularly, thanks for the info. 
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Thanks for that. I use Master PDF Editor so I can remove Okular and thus the VLC plugins. Was wondering why I was still getting updates for them without VLC installed.
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Finally sanity. 
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I have it installed but rarely even use vlc. 
Yes it does have a lot more packages if installing the plugins too.
Edit: Maybe because of the splitting of packages it just looks like more? 
The vlc PKBGUILD now has 2022 lines. This is probably the biggest PKGBUILD I have ever seen. And many module packages contain just one or two files with just a few kB.
Here is the explanation of the change:
Interesting: This commit is already from Oktober 2024 but it was included only recently in release 3.0.21-25 from July 2025.
And the commit references this vlc issue:
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I’ll drop VLC once MPV/Haruna play DVD’s (with menus) from the GUI. Until then, I’m sticking with VLC. Despite the dependency-hell, it plays EVERYTHING.
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AWESOME. Thanks for this.
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Awesome. Didn’t know about that!
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