Feedback about post-removal Brave Browser issues

Hi to everyone. When I came back to Zorin OS recently, I uninstalled Brave Browser (and installed Vivaldi Browser in its place). I discovered that uninstallation of Brave did not remove its repositories in Zorin. (The Software Updater app kept throwing an error message about a repository not working; it did not take long to figure out it had to be Brave.) I had to go into the sources list and remove the repository listings for Brave. Now everything works fine. So, the Zorin Group may want to refine the post-uninstall process a bit there. When I uninstall other apps, their repositories are automatically removed, but not so with Brave. Thanks.

P.S.: Not sure if others had the same experience, but if you did, feel free to share.

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I installed 17.1 and updated to 17.3 that way. Removed Firefox and installed App Image of zen browser.

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Can you provide examples of applications that autoremove their repository?

Uninstalling on app on Zorin OS or other derivatives does not also automatically remove its repository too. Nor would it make any sense to do so.

The End User decides if they still need the repository or not. Can you imagine if applications took it upon themselves to remove repositories? That would lead to a lot of confusion and packages not being upgraded. Moreover, you can have multiple applications assigned to one repository.

Removing a repository is done with a different command in terminal and not through apt.

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I hear that the first Time. Normally, You have to remove the Repo extra. When You make a sudo apt remove/purge only a Program should be uninstalled and not a whole Repo with it removed.

Was it a Warning Message about Architecture?

Hi, Aravisian. As best as I can remember, Vivaldi and Chrome are two such examples. In reading your post, I realize I may have misspoken. Maybe we're talking about the same thing, but in different ways? I don't know. Let me describe to you what my experience was, at least, and we can go from there. When I uninstalled Brave via the Software Center (GNOME Software), I kept getting error windows via Software Updater whenever I'd check for system updates. At the time, I had installed (and removed) a bunch of apps while customizing my Zorin OS installation. I eventually figured it had to be Brave. I checked the Software Updater, and didn't see a repository for Brave. I then remembered about how one could remove a repository via the terminal with the sources.list file in the file manager.

This is what I entered in the terminal:

  1. ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

  2. sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

  3. sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list.save

This resolved my issue. The Software Updater was able to complete its run without any error messages. (I also removed the remaining folder for Brave in the .config folder, as well.) Does this explanation help at all? At the very least, my goal in sharing about this was to alert the Zorin Group as to the issue I had when I uninstalled Brave (the Software Updater reporting that the update for Brave couldn't be completed; this was fixed when I edited the source list). Maybe they can automate a more thorough uninstallation with a system script? Don't know.

Again, only sharing. Hope it helps the Zorin Group (and Zorin OS) somehow.

See my response to Aravisian. Hope it helps.

You have forgot to delete the Key for the Repo, but that isn't important so much now. You write from an Error Message. Do you know what Message that was?

I know, that there can be an Error because of the Brave Repo. In theri Description how to add the Repo is a little ... Issue with a missing Value.

It could be. As long as we end up on the same page in the end, all is well.

I have used Chrome and Vivaldi both extensively and removing using purge will not remove the repository.
However... it will remove the apt configuration files - which in a verbose terminal reading could look like it says that it removed the repository cache - I can see how that might give the wrong impression.

Correct and does the trick.
@Ponce-De-Leon also points out that the GPG key remains. This is sized in kilobytes, and it has zero effect on updater or anything else... So you can choose to remove it or leave it.
It depends on your viewpoint about clutter.

sudo apt purge brave-browser brave-keyring

Yes, it and other chromium based browsers like to complain about missing 32bit..
Which is laughable since it does not support 32bit architecture anymore.

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That's right. True. Looks like that's what happened in my case.

I think I'll go ahead and remove it. Thanks; I appreciate the input.

I forgot the exact wording, but it popped up while I was updating the system via Software Updater. Said something about not being able to download from a repository. Didn't say which one. After I dismissed the message, the updater went ahead and finished the remaining repository checks. Thanks for asking.

Update:

I typed in "sudo apt purge brave-browser brave-keyring."

The terminal returned the following output:

E: Unable to locate package brave-browser
E: Unable to locate package brave-keyring

So I guess I'm good to go. Thanks, everyone.

The Brave GPG Keyring Files are under /usr/share/keyrings/

I don't see them. Nothing. Just Ubuntu keyrings. Not gonna mess with these.

Should be this:

But when they gone, okay.

Yup. Don't see nothin' like that. They GONE. :slightly_smiling_face:

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It is the one area that is an issue with GNU/Linux where there are separate repositories that aren't part of the base system. I remember a slightly different issue in respect of Browser updates. This occurred with updates to Opera and Vivaldi because they are separate from system repositories. In terms of repo management, Stacer is ideal for this scenario. I like how PCLOS Debian includes browsers via Synaptic. I installed Zen and I get updates directly via PCLOS Debian repositories.

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