I'd like to know how to remove gnome-software without losing the desktop (gnome-software is a dependency of Zorin OS Desktop and Zorin OS Lite Desktop).
@Aravisian wrote recently that he has removed gnome-software, so it seems to be possible. But I'm not sure if it is because he uses xfce4 desktop and not Zorin lite desktop, and gnome-software isn't set as dependency there, or if you need to repack the Zorin OS desktop package first and remove the dependency for gnome-software. That would be a bit too risky (for me and my knowledge).
For example, I'd like to try out the version of gnome-software that Ubuntu uses to see if it is more flexible in setting up the sort order of .deb, flatpak and snap packages.
Yesterday I was looking at Ubuntu 22 on Distrosea, and there, for the packages, the exact software source - including the repository, as e.g. ubuntu universe - was listed.
I’d like to see if that’s possible in Zorin as well. During one of my recent tests, I accidentally changed a setting, which caused the repositories to be displayed in Zorin as well, but unfortunately, I don’t know how to reproduce that change.
My attempts to download and install the standard gnome-software package from pkgs.org always failed due to dependencies. The gnome-software-common package didn't help either.
Synaptic has a feature that lets you force a package. I tried selecting "Force version" for gnome-software there and choosing the standard Ubuntu package instead of the one from Zorin, but it didn't work. The “Apply” button was grayed out, so I couldn’t click it, and after every attempt to configure it that way, the package manager stopped working and had to be fixed again.
To everyone reading this: Please don't try this on your system without a backup or timeshift.
I'm conducting all these tests in a live session so that nothing on my system gets damaged until I've found a solution that works well. And it is more for interest.
This is exactly it.
I had installed and configured my own desktop well before ZorinGroup released the Zorin OS 18 Lite desktop (I used Core, as 18.0 Core was the only iteration of 18 released at that time.)
I just installed the Xfce4 desktop during a live session of Zorin 17 Core and then removed the Zorin OS desktop and GNOME Software, but that ended up removing quite a few packages that I actually would have liked to keep.
It didn’t matter for my test, though.
Then I downloaded and installed the packages for GNOME software, GNOME software common, and the plugins from pkgs.org. Gdebi refused to install them, but it worked using dpkg in the terminal; however, the snap plugin still required a newer version of a dependency, and when I tried to fix the incompletely installed package and the package manager, the Zorin version of gnome-software was installed again. Annoying.
It seems so deeply integrated that the Zorin version is always given priority. Maybe I’d have to change the pin priority for gnome-software and the associated packages so I can install the Ubuntu versions via the regular package manager. But maybe it’s not even possible. Zorin seems to use newer libraries that don’t allow gnome-software to be downgraded. You’d just end up breaking everything.
In the ubuntu version the schema for the packaging format preferences was set to [''] by default, and I didn't get it working to set the Zorin apt packages at first position.
For beginners, it's less confusing that the repositories aren't displayed, but I actually like it, and I'd like to know how to turn it on and off in Zorin's gnome-software.
I'm not sure if it might help to download the gnome-software version from the proposed Ubuntu repository instead of the one from Ubuntu Universe, and to first remove the Zorin desktop and install the Xfce4 desktop, using && in the same command.
... but this might have been before the latest kernel updates and updates to Zorin but as you all know by now I don't use Zorin anymore other than a VM so it is not critical to me if I screw the system up.
A safer method would be to use Synaptic Package Manager because when you click on a package for removal there are usually a couple of headings of Unchanged and 'to be removed', click on the down arrow against it to see exactly what will be removed including any libraries used by other applications.
In both cases, terminal or synaptic, you can just confirm or reject, but you can't exclude packages you don’t want to remove. Perhaps it makes sense to confirm and copy the entire list and reinstall all the packages, except for the ones you actually want to remove.
Did you remove gnome-software in kde plasma or gnome?
I suspect this is down to the Plugins and APT resolver, more than any Zorin OS pin of the application.
You are trying to downgrade a package that needs to mesh with the upgrader, resolver, and also tack onto it management for Flatpak and Snap.
There is No Way you can try all of that integration, while downgrading the parent package, and avoid a major headache.
Performing this on XFCE can help in removing the dependency chain when removing the software store.
But it won't affect the installation of a different version of Software Store that lists its dependencies, regardless of which D.E. you are using.
To my knowledge, gnome intentionally do not expose this setting in any UI because they're openly anti-user tyrants who always know what's best for you. However, it is a setting you can manipulate via terminal commands.
First, get the current order of preference:
gsettings get org.gnome.software packaging-format-preference
Back on 17.x, using the "Try Zorin" option of the ISO, the default confguration is ['flatpak:flathub', 'flatpak', 'deb', 'snap']
Then rearrange your output and plug it back in using set, probably something like:
gsettings set org.gnome.software packaging-format-preference "['deb', 'flatpak:flathub', 'flatpak', 'snap']"
It is available in the Dconf Editor. I already used it. But unfortunately: On Zorin, this didn't worked in Dconf Editor nor with the Terminal Way. You can change it, yes. But it doesn't affect Gnome Software.