Delete not installed (residual config)

Support & Help Requests
1

Can I un-install all entries here?

2

you can use the sudo apt remove --purge command which removes the residual config files, I mostly do not worry about it, but…

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3

When you simply remove a package (“remove” option of APT or “select for removal” in Synaptic − the option that turns the selected package orange), it’ll remove the binaries and data but keep the configuration files so that you still have them if you reinstall the package in the future. When you purge a package (“remove --purge” option of APT or “select for complete removal” in Synaptic − it’ll turn the package red instead of orange), it’ll remove everything including the config files.

The “installed (residual config)” section of Synaptic lists package that have been removed but not purged. If you don’t plan to use them anymore or don’t care about the config files, you can remove them. It’s up to you.

There’s also an option in Synaptic that lists useless packages (don’t remember the exact name, especially as mine is in french); these are dependancies that were installed by a package that’s been removed and can be safely removed too. The same options are available: to remove them (keep config) or to purge them (delete config). The equivalent commands for APT are:

sudo apt-get autoremove

to remove them and keep the configs; and:

sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

to purge them.

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4

Thanks gentlemen for the info.