Canonical released the Snap packages in Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus. They promised us the gold and the Moor, but four years later they are not measuring up. I am confident that Canonical will make them worthwhile in the future ... more or less, but the truth is that they are losing the battle against their rival, the Flatpak. As if that were not enough, the company intends to force us to use them in Ubuntu 20.04, which is causing even more rejection among users. We can do something?
Yes, we can. In Linux we can change practically everything and, as we explained recently, a first step could be back to GNOME Software. But changing the store may be insufficient and in this article we are going to show you how to completely get rid of snap packs in Ubuntu, although before starting I have to confess that these are not changes that I would make to an operating system because I do not like to tweak them so much and I would prefer to find another distribution. With this explained, below are the steps to follow.
Steps to follow to get rid of the Snap in Ubuntu 20.04
- We delete the installed Snaps:
- We open a terminal and write "snap list" without quotes.
- We remove the Snaps with the command "sudo snap remove package-name", also without the quotes. We probably can't remove the core, but we'll do it next.
- We unmount the "snap core" service with the command "sudo unmount / snap / core / xxx", without the quotes and where "xxx" is the number that your "core" includes. In my case "core18". Now we delete it.
- We remove and purge the package snapD with the command "sudo apt purge snapd".
- Finally, we remove the directories related to the Snap packages with these commands:
rm -rf ~/snap sudo rm -rf /snap sudo rm -rf /var/snap sudo rm -rf /var/lib/snapd
And how do I install the software?
Well, very simple: as before. When I started in Linux, I installed everything via terminal (APT) or with Synaptics, to which you can now add Discover, GNOMEsoftware or whatever store is available. If you just want to take a step back, the package to install is "gnome-software", store compatible with Flatpak packages if you ask activate support.
As I have mentioned, I personally do not like to make changes like these to any operating system, so I would recommend to any user interested in doing this cleaning that first install Ubuntu 20.04 on a virtual machine, do the cleaning, check for himself that everything works perfectly (it does, but just in case) and then follow this tutorial on a native installation.
It is a simple process that many users who they lived better before the arrival of the Snaps. Are you one of them?
Good thing I'm on Linux Mint, where for now I don't have these pseudo existential problems….
Seriously, it is for both, I can sleep peacefully anyway ... and if I wish I ignore the snaps and continue installing flatpak or by apt command line ...
It's not the end of the world.
And there is always life beyond Ubuntu, with raising your head and looking, nothing is lost
okay, you caught me.
What is my core or how do I find out?
thank you!
How much noise for a simple package manager. Let everyone use the one they want and with whom they fit in, in the end that is why Linux is as it is, free. Instead of grounding the Snaps, better make an article about what exists and how to use it.
I don't use the gnome-software because it contains obsolete packages, but everyone has their own taste.
I tried Mint, and there I stay. What a marvel of a system.
There is also Pop_OS! 20.04, the vision of Ubuntu 20.04 from the guys at System76. Distro that I currently use and that I recommend.
Mmmm I used mint. Ubuntu. And now like 5 years ago fedora, and the truth is that I never used flatpak, only once did I see a bit of snap. But I don't know if I'll be older or what, but it's hard for me to get out of a dnd, yum, rpm or the classic dpkg -i hahaha. But "Bue. Today I was thinking of a virtual girl to make the snap cream…. We will see thanks for the data !!!!
I started with Ubuntu 8 but it was too much for a newbie and I better switch to Opensuse, with Yast and Discover it is enough for me that I recently had problems with the VLC codecs and I ended up installing it by Snap and so far I have not had problems
"... before starting I have to confess that these are not changes that I would make to an operating system because I do not like to tweak them so much and I would prefer to find another distribution."
It is exactly THAT. I shot out of the Snap. Towards Manjaro and I couldn't be more satisfied with the change.
The other day I was discussing it with another who commented, who told me that the Snap were not forced in Ubuntu, that it was like a "popular legend" that Canonical wants to force you to use them. But the reality is that you install chromiun from apt ... And the damn Snap is installed.
And for those who have an i7 I don't know, but on a modest PC the difference between a Snap and a conventional package is quite large. It takes much longer to start, they fail more, etc.
this store i found is an all-in-one from all other stores and installs with .deb. For me it is enough to replace any other
https://app-outlet.github.io/
With its problems and all, I think that snap and flatpack are a great opportunity to grow linux, attracting new applications and developers. Pissing off either of you or assuming rivalry between you is a bad idea. Good for snap and good for flatpack that everyone installs what they want and that each developer concentrates on the format that best suits their needs and tastes.
I have had some difficulties to disassemble snapd, that is step 2.
To solve this before step 2 (it would be like a step 1.3), you would have to stop the snapd service with the command:
sudo umount / snap / core / XxXx (where XxXx is the version found on the system)
In addition, I suggest as a last step to prevent snap from being installed again by any application (such as chromium), using the command:
sudo apt-mark hold snapd
Excuse me, I correct, step 1.3:
sudo systemctl stop snapd
«Sudo apt install chromium-browser
Reading package list ... Done
Creating dependency tree
Reading the status information ... Done
Do not can instal some pack. This may mean that
you asked for an impossible situation or, if you are using the distribution
unstable, that some required packages have not yet been created or are
They have taken from "Incoming."
The following information can help resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
chromium-browser: PreDepends: snapd but will not install
E: Problems could not be corrected, you have retained broken packages. "
It will be time to download the .deb jajajaj snap or death
(and what bothers is that they force you to use it)
Thank you very much
I have used elementary OS the last year, I decided to try Manjaro (gnome) and it was a failure, a lot of repair to use simple applications, I switched to ubuntu and the slowness is unbearable, I will see how it goes if I do not go back to elementary which although I have never had a problem now I recognize that it is a large distribution.
Because I do periodic backups (backs-ups? 0 to DVD media, the snaps were borking my limited disk space.
Using 20.04 I removed all snaps and related files and directories.
Problem solved.
Using Google found an alternate source (Debian repository) for Chromium.
happy camper 🙂