Help with choosing which orphaned files to remove

[Randomname123]

Hello, I have these orphaned packages on my system but i’m hesitant to remove any of them as the last time I tried that (which was a while back) it really messed up my system.

Looking for advice on what’s good to remove, output of pamac list -o below:

Failed to read AUR data from /var/lib/pacman/sync/packages-meta-ext-v1.json.gz : Error opening file /var/lib/pacman/sync/packages-meta-ext-v1.json.gz: No such file or directory
adobe-source-sans-fonts     3.052-2              extra     8.6 MB
appstream-glib              0.8.3-2              extra     3.9 MB
asciidoc                    10.2.1-2             extra     2.5 MB
audiofile                   0.3.6-9              extra     384.3 kB
autoconf                    2.72-1               core      2.3 MB
automake                    1.17-1               core      1.7 MB
bison                       3.8.2-8              core      2.6 MB
bluez-qt5                   5.116.0-1            extra     2.3 MB
box2d                       3.0.0-1              extra     466.9 kB
breath2-wallpaper           1.0.18-5                       532.2 kB
cjson                       1.7.18-1             extra     89.9 kB
cython                      3.0.11-2             extra     19.2 MB
db                          6.2.32-1             core      7.5 MB
debugedit                   5.1-1                core      109.8 kB
electron                    1:34-1               extra     
electron12                  12.2.3-4                       171.3 MB
electron28                  28.3.3-3                       237.5 MB
electron30                  30.5.1-3             extra     239.4 MB
electron31                  31.7.7-1             extra     245.6 MB
electron32                  32.3.0-1             extra     250.6 MB
electron33                  33.3.2-1             extra     256.8 MB
elfutils                    0.192-2              core      3.7 MB
extra-cmake-modules         6.10.0-1             extra     2.1 MB
flex                        2.6.4-5              core      978.6 kB
game-devices-udev           0.23-1               extra     17.2 kB
gcab                        1.6-2                extra     412.1 kB
geocode-glib                3.26.4-4             extra     824.4 kB
gptfdisk                    1.0.10-1             extra     723.6 kB
grantlee                    5.3.1-2              extra     5.1 MB
gsl                         2.8-1                extra     4.7 MB
gtk-theme-breath            5.9.0-1                        860.2 kB
http-parser                 2.9.4-2              extra     59.2 kB
icon-naming-utils           0.8.90-6             extra     39.3 kB
intltool                    0.51.0-6             extra     153.1 kB
js78                        78.15.0-4                      65.3 MB
kactivities-stats5          5.116.0-1            extra     590.7 kB
kdesu5                      5.116.0-1            extra     553.5 kB
kdnssd5                     5.116.0-1            extra     620.1 kB
kdsoap-qt5                  2.2.0-1              extra     1.3 MB
kfilemetadata5              5.116.0-2                      1.6 MB
kgamma                      6.2.5-1              extra     386.8 kB
kholidays5                  1:5.116.0-1          extra     1.2 MB
khtml                       5.115.0-1                      10.9 MB
kidletime5                  5.116.0-1            extra     347.3 kB
kimageannotator-qt5         0.7.1-3              extra     1.6 MB
kimageformats5              5.116.0-3            extra     785.5 kB
kinit                       5.116.0-1            extra     509.4 kB
kirigami-addons5            0.11.0-7             extra     858.4 kB
knotifyconfig5              5.116.0-1            extra     552.9 kB
kpeoplevcard                0.1-2                          52.5 kB
kquickcharts5               5.115.0-1                      431.8 kB
krunner5                    5.115.0-1                      875.2 kB
ktexteditor5                5.116.0-1            extra     14.9 MB
ldns                        1.8.4-1              core      2.0 MB
lib32-libunwind             1.8.1-1              multilib  197.7 kB
lib32-libxss                1.2.4-2              multilib  13.9 kB
lib32-nss                   3.107-1              multilib  3.2 MB
lib32-readline              8.2.013-1            multilib  350.1 kB
libcroco                    0.6.13-2                       1.2 MB
libgit2                     1:1.9.0-2            extra     3.2 MB
libgssglue                  0.9-1                extra     77.5 kB
libibus                     1.5.31-2             extra     3.7 MB
libical                     3.0.19-1             extra     7.4 MB
libindicator-gtk3           12.10.1-10           extra     99.6 kB
libkcddb5                   24.05.2-1                      306.3 kB
libkdcraw5                  24.12.1-1            extra     138.5 kB
libksane5                   24.08.3-1                      280.6 kB
liblouis                    3.32.0-2             extra     13.8 MB
libofa                      0.9.3-10             extra     164.8 kB
libomxil-bellagio           0.9.3-5              extra     612.3 kB
libopenaptx                 0.2.0-1                        61.3 kB
libqaccessibilityclient-qt5 0.6.0-1              extra     246.8 kB
libsidplay                  1.36.59-10                     273.9 kB
libsigc++-3.0               3.6.0-1              extra     265.4 kB
libsmbios                   2.4.3-8              extra     1.2 MB
libvisual                   0.4.2-2                        567.5 kB
libxres                     1.2.2-2              extra     20.6 kB
lua52                       5.2.4-7              extra     1.0 MB
mbedtls2                    2.28.9-1             extra     3.1 MB
metis                       5.1.0.p11-1                    444.4 kB
modemmanager-qt5            5.116.0-1                      1.3 MB
ndctl                       79-1                 extra     987.5 kB
networkmanager-qt5          5.116.0-1            extra     3.8 MB
nodejs                      23.4.0-1             extra     65.8 MB
noto-fonts-compat           20151217-1                     157.7 kB
nxproxy                     3.5.99.26-1                    18.7 kB
oxygen-sounds               6.2.5-1              extra     2.2 MB
patch                       2.7.6-10             core      190.4 kB
perl-mozilla-ca             20240924-1           extra     2.9 kB
perl-parse-yapp             1.21-8               extra     103.0 kB
pkgconf                     2.3.0-1              core      169.0 kB
pkgfile                     22-1                 extra     210.5 kB
purpose5                    5.116.0-1            extra     1.5 MB
python-appdirs              1.4.4-11             extra     91.9 kB
python-cachecontrol         1:0.14.1-2           extra     176.5 kB
python-certifi              2024.12.14-1         extra     18.0 kB
python-colorama             0.4.6-5              extra     261.9 kB
python-commonmark           0.9.1-12             extra     682.3 kB
python-distlib              0.3.9-2              extra     1.4 MB
python-future               1.0.0-1                        5.0 MB
python-importlib-metadata   7.2.1-4              extra     224.6 kB
python-nspektr              0.5.0-3              extra     26.5 kB
python-ordered-set          4.1.0-7              extra     64.4 kB
python-pep517               0.13.0-1                       139.5 kB
python-ply                  3.11-14              extra     412.0 kB
python-progress             1.6-6                          44.3 kB
python-pycurl               7.45.3-2             extra     407.7 kB
python-pydantic             2.10.6-1             extra     5.3 MB
python-pyopenssl            24.3.0-1             extra     711.6 kB
python-pyparsing            3.1.2-3              extra     1.3 MB
python-resolvelib           1.1.0-2              extra     168.9 kB
python-retrying             1.3.4-4              extra     57.2 kB
python-rich                 13.9.4-3             extra     3.3 MB
python-systemd              235-4                extra     367.9 kB
python-tenacity             9.0.0-2              extra     278.6 kB
python-toml                 0.10.2-12            extra     192.9 kB
python-uc-micro-py          1.0.3-3              extra     18.4 kB
python-validate-pyproject   0.23-1               extra     359.5 kB
qgpgme-qt5                  1.23.2-1                       1.1 MB
qqc2-desktop-style5         5.116.1-1            extra     358.2 kB
qt5-script                  5.15.18-4            extra     3.6 MB
qt5-webengine               5.15.18-5            extra     162.8 MB
qt5-webkit                  5.212.0alpha4-18               49.6 MB
quazip-qt5                  1.4-1                extra     373.8 kB
rest                        0.8.1+r4+ge5ee6ef-1            875.3 kB
rnnoise                     1:0.2-1              extra     1.5 MB
sof-firmware                2024.09.2-1          extra     33.7 MB
telepathy-glib              0.24.2-4             extra     21.5 MB
v86d                        0.1.10-8                       125.7 kB
wayland-protocols           1.39-1               extra     828.1 kB
webkit2gtk                  2.46.5-1             extra     120.6 MB
webrtc-audio-processing     0.3.1-5              extra     850.1 kB
wpebackend-fdo              1.14.3-1             extra     131.3 kB
xorg-server-xephyr          21.1.15-1            extra     2.3 MB
yelp                        42.2-2               extra     2.5 MB
yubikey-personalization     1.20.0-4             extra     208.1 kB
zita-alsa-pcmi              0.6.1-2              extra     80.6 kB
zita-convolver              4.0.3-4              extra     48.3 kB
zita-resampler              1.11.2-2             extra     71.6 kB

Or maybe it’s easier to list what to keep?

[straycat]

If you have a way to backup your system then make a backup remove the orphans and if no issues your good if not reboot to the backup and go from there.

[cscs]

@Randomname123

Or maybe it’s easier to list what to keep?

Only you can really say.

Orphans are by definition not needed.

There is nothing in your list that is required for a functioning system.

And quite a few that should not be installed on a current system at all.

And even some that are ‘super aliens’ - they do not exist in the repositories or the AUR.

If there is something you want then it should be marked as explicitly installed.

[Randomname123]

I am trying to avoid that since I would consider it as the “worst case scenario” and even if I did that I wouldn’t be able to zero in on which orphans are needed or not.

[Randomname123]

Hi
I think what happened the last time I tried it was that I removed the listed orphans and then when I ran the command again, new orphans appeared and then I removed those and then things started to get REALLY wonky and I had to Timeshift back to a working system. That’s why i’m slightly apprehensive about the whole affair.