Q4OS Forum

nathanjhill

Member

Registered: 2024-12-11

Posts: 20

Frustrating Bug With Desktop Profiler

So far, having moved from the beta to the full release, things are working just fine.

One bug that I think deserves to be looked at:

I set the Full Desktop Profile during installation. After install, I went about setting up the wireless driver on this Intel MacBook Air, but when I went to install Firefox using the Q4OS Software Centre, it asked me to select a Desktop Profiler again. I again chose the Full Desktop, and as it installed further software (for some reason), I also noticed it uninstalled the broadcom-dkms packaged needed for wifi to work! Not cool.

I chose not to reboot (as prompted), reinstalled the broadcom drivers first, and then proceeded. Just a small annoyance.

This is surely an edge case, but I can imagine it will lead to others who have a particular setup in place some frustration if the profiler system does unintended things.

In addition, the Q4OS Software Centre would be vastly improved if I allowed uninstalling of packages as well. Not a fan of Chromium as a default install, for example.

Last edited by nathanjhill (2025-09-15 17:21)

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,107

Website

Re: Frustrating Bug With Desktop Profiler

... it asked me to select a Desktop Profiler again

That shows the profile hasn't been applied upon installation, the reason could be missing or unstable Internet connection for example. Since a profile must be applied for OS to work properly, it asks you to do so. It's all right. We could add some notification dialog in such cases to make things more clear.

I again chose the Full Desktop, and as it installed further software (for some reason)...

See the explaination above, the profile just hasn't been applied completely upon installation. If you would provide logfile "qreport.tar.gz" according to instructions https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3502 , we will try to examine why and post back.

... I also noticed it uninstalled the broadcom-dkms packaged

Yes, it's correct too as these packages are not part of the selected profile. You only need to untick "Remove superfluous packages" checkbox, to tell Desktop profiler not to remove superfluous packages, please see https://www.q4os.org/dqa016.html#instl :

In order to apply a Profile properly, Desktop profiler would like to uninstall all the packages that don't match the selected Profile. So there is an option available to decide, whether let Desktop profiler to remove such superfluous packages, or keep them all untouched and installed safely. Keep in mind, if you let the checkbox "Remove superfluous packages" marked on, a bunch of packages that don't belong to the selected Profile will be removed. On the contrary, if you uncheck this checkbox, Desktop profiler safely installs the selected Profile, but doesn't uninstall any packages, even if they don't match the Profile selected.

... I can imagine it will lead to others who have a particular setup in place some frustration if the profiler system does unintended things.

We don't think the Desktop profiler does unintended things, however we can make that better adding some more notification dialogs for specific cases like this.

In addition, the Q4OS Software Centre would be vastly improved if I allowed uninstalling of packages as well. Not a fan of Chromium as a default install, for example.

It does that. If you double click on Chromium once installed, a confirmation dialog appears to uninstall the app.

Thanks for the report

nathanjhill

Member

Registered: 2024-12-11

Posts: 20

Re: Frustrating Bug With Desktop Profiler

Really helpful information. Thanks.

Yes, an extra dialogue box would be a solid step. Removing superfluous packages is small and likely not clear. My instant read of that is it will clean up old packages/caches/etc - i.e. the time I installed some python3 packages that I didn't end up using. But my wifi drivers are never superfluous.

Because the wifi card does not work when booting from the USB flash drive, there is no internet during install. That explains the desktop profiler issue.

The uninstall option could be highlighted - nice to know it is there. I expected to see a button next to Install Application. Or for that button to change to Uninstall Application when an installed app is selected. I also tried right clicking to see if uninstall came up as an option.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,107

Website

Re: Frustrating Bug With Desktop Profiler

Removing superfluous packages is small and likely not clear. My instant read of that is it will clean up old packages/caches/etc - i.e. the time I installed some python3 packages that I didn't end up using. But my wifi drivers are never superfluous.

Superfluous is meant in relation to the selected profile. But we understand that it's confusing. So here is the space for us to make things better

nathanjhill

Member

Registered: 2024-12-11

Posts: 20

Re: Frustrating Bug With Desktop Profiler

Removing superfluous packages is small and likely not clear. My instant read of that is it will clean up old packages/caches/etc - i.e. the time I installed some python3 packages that I didn't end up using. But my wifi drivers are never superfluous.

Superfluous is meant in relation to the selected profile. But we understand that it's confusing. So here is the space for us to make things better

I am actually stoked that I got to write superfluous at least three times today.

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 788

Re: Frustrating Bug With Desktop Profiler

Superfluous is meant in relation to the selected profile. But we understand that it's confusing. So here is the space for us to make things better

I understand that this checkbox is checked by default since it would not make much sense to have and keep it unchecked while downgrading from "Full" to "Basic" profile.

But beside that, packages installed with the command line from repositories or from downloaded .deb files (and maybe from Software Centre too) would also be removed, which is not a good idea in my sense.

My preference would be:
- automatic removal (no checkbox at all, maybe just a warning) of packages present in the active profile and not present in the new profile,
- a checkbox to choose to remove also packages installed outside of the profile.

Example:
- I choose the "Basic" profile, which doesn't include sqlite3 nor qview,
- I install sqlite3 from repositories (sudo apt install sqlite3),
- I install qview from a downloaded .deb (sudo apt install ./qview_6.1-1-focal_amd64.deb)
- Then I chose the "Full" profile which also doesn't include sqlite3 nor qview.
=> sqlite3 and qview should be uninstalled ONLY if I enable a checkbox "[ ] Also remove manually installed packages" (unchecked by default). A warning "Are you sure you want to uninstall also (list of packages)?" would be welcome too if possible.

Edit:
Not sure, but I think that programs installed with commands like `sudo tar xf <program>.tgz -C /opt` or `sudo make install` are not affected.

Last edited by hchiper (2025-09-16 09:04)

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Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,107

Website

Re: Frustrating Bug With Desktop Profiler

@hchiper
Yes, that's a good idea and makes a sense as it would make Desktop profiler quite a safer tool. We will consider this one and possible consequences of course. In anyway a profile should be applied as immediately as possible, upon the OS installation.

Not sure, but I think that programs installed with commands like `sudo tar xf <program>.tgz -C /opt` or `sudo make install` are not affected.

Yes, they are not affected at the moment. Desktop profiler has two active plugins, Apt and Flatpak plugin. Any profile defines Apt packages, repositories and Flatpak applications. They are installed on the "Apply profile" command. Superfluous are now removed, or not removed, depending on the checkbox status. We would like to add another plugins, for example Plasma configuration, etc ... so a plugin for manually installed software is possible too in a future.