How do I tell apt not to install X11 & gnome dependencies cause I will use X11 forwarding?

Question

I want to run virt-manager from the server itself (so that I can use the interface management feature which is not available over ssh connection).

However, I plan to launch virt-manager over an ssh connection forwarding X11 to my laptop where I run a full Ubuntu 12.04 desktop setup.

When I run "apt-get install virt-manager" on the ubuntu 12.04 server it of course wants to add X11 server, gnome libraries, etc... but I don´t want any of those on my server.

Is there a way to tell apt never to install graphical environment related packages because I will always forward X11 to a remote client?

Answer 1

apt-get --nodeps install PACKAGENAME

However...

In order to use ForwardX11 yes in your /etc/ssh/sshd_config, you must have X11 installed on both the remote and local machine.

Just like you must have an ssh client and an ssh daemon/server, you must have an X11 client and X11 server.

I hope that this helps clarify things.

Answer 2

If you're installing an application which uses certain libraries, then those libraries must be installed for the application to run. It doesn't matter if you're going to run the application remotely or not.

While most of the Xorg server packages probably aren't needed, and you can remove them, you will also likely need to have at least one installed. Also, just because it is installed, doesn't mean you have to run an X session/server on your server system.