Can't remove VLC

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3

if “elisa” - whatever that is - requires vlc
and you can’t remove vlc because of that dependency
then: remove “elisa”

or:
properly update your system first - perhaps you have installed stuff without being up to date

2 Likes
4

Preferences → Video → Output modules:
Select another module (not automatic) and test each until VLC no longer crashes; you probably don’t need to lose this fine player.

Otherwise, SMPlayer (which includes MPV) would be worth your attention.

However, if you really must lose VLC:

sudo pacman -R elisa
sudo pacman -R vlc
sudo pacman -Syu elisa

Note that the VLC dependency for Elisa may possibly be optional.

3 Likes
5

According to both Octopi and PkgBrowser it’s listed as a required dependency.

6

One more reason to remove it along with vlc.

7

Some apps like elisa, kaffeine, deepin-music, kasts, phonon-qt*… require libvlc library to play various media, but Arch Linux maintainers decided to not provide libvlc by splitting vlc package like how it’s done in other distros like Debian, so they linked the whole vlc as required dependency for those apps.

The same is happening with those Qt devs tools (Qt Creator, Designer, Assistant…) being shipped by default in Manjaro KDE, because Arch maintainers don’t care about providing standalone qdbus package.

8

So, the final resolve is to not uninstall VLC at all; simply don’t use it; and go right ahead and install/use another player of your choice.

Choice is one of the major, err… selling-points… of Linux, afterall. :slight_smile:

Cheers.

9

nahh - the topic and question was exactly this:
how to remove the thing :wink:

… I can watch videos just fine - and I don’t have vlc …

I use mpv - “successor” of mplayer

10

Then, considering it’s only elisa preventing the removal my previous answer stands, however, without re-installing elisa:

I use SMPlayer, or MPV (both in same package); it depends on the mood. The default theme is an acquired taste, but there are extra options.

1 Like
11

No, don’t remove it. Simply hide the vlc player entry in Launcher and consider it as an installed library.

Plasma 6 desktop and its KDE apps (okular, gwenview, dolphin…) require phonon-qt6 which requires phonon-qt6-backend, and for Qt6 it seems the unmaintained Gstreamer was dropped and phonon-qt6-vlc is currently the only provider for phonon-qt6-backend.

13

and that in turn requires vlc - it can’t be installed without also having vlc?
mkay

14

If you don’t have vlc, you will need to install libvlc and many media plugins, not much difference in size, the first just appears on Launcher and the other one is hidden.

So simply hide it in Launcher and consider it as an installed library and be happy

Screenshot_20240320_143807
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15

Correct.

vlc

Required By
elisa phonon-qt6-vlc

phonon-qt6-vlc

Required By
phonon-qt6

phonon-qt6

Required By
dolphin gwenview juk kio-extras libkcompactdisc okular phonon-qt6-vlc plasma-workspace

1 Like
16

Wow had no idea this was to be such a popular topic.

Anyways, seems like i have two options. Uninstall both elisa and vlc or just keep vlc well hidden.
I really do appreciate all the tips and answers. I’ll definitely fiddle around a bit to see what feels best :slightly_smiling_face:.

17

Your options are: leave VLC the way it is (just ignore it), hide VLC, or switch DE, because if you want to continue with KDE then you cannot uninstall VLC.

18

… if he is committed to keeping elisa
If elisa can go - so can vlc

use a different music player and vlc is not needed

19

Until Plasma 6 arrives in stable and then there is no choice. So might as well suck it up now.

20

… I would not know, nor care - I don’t use Plasma

looks like a lot of choice left to the user :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

21

At least there is a solution for this:

install phonon-qt6-mpv-git (AUR)

then uninstall phonon-qt6-vlc (incl. VLC)

22

By default, KDE recommends to use vlc backend with Plasma desktop, because that beast plays no matter what you throw at it from old and unknown media to newer ones, and it has a quite big users base around the world on multiple platforms (downloaded by 5 billion users including desktop and mobile)

Non-Plasma packages

  • phonon-vlc (this is the only maintained and supported Phonon backend for KDE apps that use Phonon for their multimedia needs; the alternative phonon-gstreamer has been unmaintained since 2013 and should not be shipped by default, or at all, ideally)
23

Statistics have to be taken with one grain of salt - or more than that.

There are ~ 8 Billion people alive today.
and more than half of those use vlc? :grimacing: