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I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and decided to install the Mate Desktop Environment to use it instead of Unity. I have installed Mate DE from the following repositories and apt sources:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa  
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/trusty-mate

then the apt source 

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-extras

I didn't like the results thought, too basic, so I decided to uninstall and keep using Unity until I feel like trying another desktop environment. So I used the following commands to uninstall Mate:

sudo apt-get purge mate-desktop-environment-core  
sudo apt-get purge mate-desktop-environment-extra  
sudo apt-get autoremove

My question is, why won't Mate uninstall? It keeps showing in the "Select desktop environment" list in the login screen of Ubuntu. Also, apps like MATE terminal and so on keeps showing in Ubuntu launcher. How to uninstall everything Mate related?

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  • First question: Why do you think, Mate is still installed? And yes: You installed some other package you removed. Therefore, the dependencies might will still be there.
    – frlan
    Oct 3, 2015 at 20:11
  • ...because the meta-packages do not pull down their dependencies. You must explicitly uninstall the mate-related packages you don't want.
    – mikewhatever
    Oct 3, 2015 at 20:23
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    According to this website you need to run sudo apt-get remove mate-* to remove any packages that have mate- in them. DO NOT JUST RUN sudo apt-get remove mate* AS THIS CAN BREAK YOUR INSTALLATION
    – TheWanderer
    Oct 3, 2015 at 20:44
  • @Zacharee1 I have finally solved it by following the instructions given in the link you posted. Thank you so much! PD: How to select best answer?
    – José Villarroel
    Oct 4, 2015 at 16:17
  • I have to post it first, which I will do.
    – TheWanderer
    Oct 4, 2015 at 16:18

1 Answer 1

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If you want to remove MATE Desktop, just run sudo apt-get remove mate-*. This will remove anything relating to the MATE desktop environment. Do not run sudo apt-get remove mate*, as this can break your installation.

Source: http://sourcedigit.com/12228-uninstall-remove-mate-desktop-ubuntu-14-04-lts/

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  • if running on zsh shell add '\ ' before * run: sudo apt-get remove mate-\*
    – dina
    Oct 23, 2017 at 11:34

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