Remove VLC media player?

Is it possible to remove the VLC media player?

Using
pacman -R vlc

yields this:

> Checking dependencies...
> error: could not prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
> :: removal of vlc breaks dependency 'vlc' needed by phonon-qt5-vlc

Using:
> Pacman -Rs vlc

Yields the exact same error.

Tried:
`

pacman -Rs -d phonon-qt5-vlc vlc

`

Yields this:

> Error: could not prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
> :: Removal of phonon-qt5-vlc breaks dependency 'phonon-qt5-backend' needed by phonon-qt5

I think removal of VLC should be possible. What am i doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Try sudo pacman -Rsn vlc and then remove any packages that are listed as needed before removing vlc. Sometimes it can take a few moves but it is possible to remove vlc. I remove it from all my installs because I don’t like it. I prefer smplayer but that is just my own preference.

1 Like

What does
sudo pacman -Rs phonon-qt5
say?

It replies with a breakage of kio-extras. Trying removal of kio-extras then reports a breakage of plasma workspace.

Edit: I don’t think it is ‘safe’ to remove plasma-workspace.

phonon-qt5 is a dependency of a number of packages. One of its requirements (dependencies) is a phonon-qt5-backend - this can be either phonon-qt5-vlc or phonon-qt5-gstreamer.

Install phonon-qt5-gstreamer. Then remove VLC.

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/phonon-qt5/

7 Likes

Then there is more involved than I thought. Not being a KDE Plasma user, I should better withdraw and let the ones in the know to chime in.

Got it sorted now.

Tried Stagger_Lee’s suggestion and that got it.

Thanks to everyone.

2 Likes

Why does Vlc depend on phonon-qt5*?

 pacman -Si vlc                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1 ↵
Repository      : extra
Name            : vlc
Version         : 3.0.16-5
Description     : Multi-platform MPEG, VCD/DVD, and DivX player
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Licenses        : LGPL2.1  GPL2
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : a52dec  libdvbpsi  libxpm  libdca  libproxy  lua52  libidn  libmatroska  taglib  libmpcdec  ffmpeg  faad2  libmad  libmpeg2  xcb-util-keysyms  libtar  libxinerama  libsecret  libupnp  libixml.so=11-64
                  libupnp.so=17-64  libarchive  qt5-base  qt5-x11extras  qt5-svg  freetype2  fribidi  harfbuzz  fontconfig  libxml2  gnutls  libplacebo  wayland-protocols

Or does it only depend on that package with Plasma?

Yeah, I forgot about that one. It’s worth bookmarking for those who don’t want VLC. Then you can use other media players without relying on VLC. I think that’s a rather invasive dependency IMHO.

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