Can't remove all browsers, APT will forcibly install at least one

[gqpolo]

I want all of the browsers off of my LMDE (i.e. Iceape, firefox, etc) and just have chrome. When I attempt to do this for some reason another browser keeps getting installed!! When I mark all other browsers for complete removal I lose chrome too.
Always happens

[randomizer (randomizer)]

If you attempt to remove Firefox, APT will install Iceweasel. If you then remove Iceweasel, APT will install Firefox again. If you install both browser and the try and remove both together, APT will install Iceape. Attempting to remove all three will cause APT to try and install Epiphany. I assume that the pattern will continue, however I have no intention of installing every browser in the Debian repos to see what happens when I install and remove them all at once. I have a download cap :)

A web browser should not be mandatory.

[Lukas Press (lukaspress)]

Try in aptitude, it offers various solutions. I chose the first one presented and it worked fine.
(I always suspected aptitude was better then apt-get!;)

peony spoovy # aptitude purge firefox
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  firefox{p}
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 29.3MB will be freed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  sun-java6-plugin: Depends: firefox but it is not going to be installed. or
                             firefox-2 which is a virtual package. or
                             iceweasel but it is not going to be installed. or
                             mozilla-firefox which is a virtual package. or
                             iceape-browser but it is not going to be installed. or
                             mozilla-browser which is a virtual package. or
                             epiphany-gecko but it is not going to be installed. or
                             epiphany-webkit but it is not going to be installed. or
                             epiphany-browser but it is not going to be installed. or
                             galeon but it is not going to be installed. or
                             midbrowser which is a virtual package. or
                             moblin-web-browser which is a virtual package. or
                             xulrunner but it is not going to be installed. or
                             xulrunner-1.9 which is a virtual package. or
                             konqueror but it is not going to be installed. or
                             chromium-browser which is a virtual package. or
                             midori but it is not going to be installed.
  mint-search-addon: Depends: firefox but it is not going to be installed. or
                              firefox-3.0 which is a virtual package. or
                              firefox-2 which is a virtual package. or
                              abrowser which is a virtual package. or
                              flock which is a virtual package. or
                              songbird which is a virtual package. or
                              iceweasel but it is not going to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Remove the following packages:
1) mint-search-addon
2) sun-java6-plugin

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Install the following packages:
1) iceweasel [3.5.12-2 (testing)]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Install the following packages:
1) firefox-mozilla-build [3.6.10-0ubuntu1 (stable)]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Remove the following packages:
1) mint-search-addon

     Install the following packages:
2) midori [0.2.4-3 (testing)]

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Remove the following packages:
1) mint-se...

[Lukas Press (lukaspress)]

IMPORTANT

If you have been using apt-get and switch to aptitude you should run

# aptitude keep-all

first, or it might remove some packages you'd rather it didn't as well.

[Justin Krehel (jkrehel)]

Tested this attempting the aptitude command, and then went back and worked it to do with apt-get.

Long story short - remove the mint-search-addon first (which will also remove mint-meta-debian), and then remove firefox.

Commandset:

1) apt-get remove mint-search-addon
2) apt-get remove firefox

This should then link x-www-browser to Chromium if it is installed.

See attached log for my attempt and success. Can see in the beginning it gave me conflict for Firefox / Iceweasel, but once mint-search-addon was removed, all went smoothly.

[Justin Krehel (jkrehel)]

Addendum: Went to remove Chromium and tried to install Firefox again. Going to attempt to work out a solution to go full browserless. Consider the above a (temporary) "solution" if you want Chromium installed.

[Justin Krehel (jkrehel)]

Did this from a fresh install with no updates and tested paths for successful removal.

First I removed sun-java6-plugin and gecko-mediaplayer, and then removed firefox. If firefox still insists on installing iceweasel, you may need to remove mint-search-addon.

After that point, was not prompted to install iceweasel or others and www-browser was linked to w3m in update-alternatives.

Was then able to install chromium (I used the sid repos) but where you get the package from is your own decision.

[Justin Krehel (jkrehel)]

Also, keep in mind removing these packages may cause issues down the road with media and Java support in browsers. This is being construed as dependency issues, proceed with caution if this is your decision to remove all other browsers for Chromium.

However, we must decline this as a bug and attribute it as package dependencies being intertwined.

I hope this is sufficient for all parties involved and that this resolution is suitable.

Thank you

[jojo (lovejames)]

I have a similar issue. I tried removing Firefox and Thunderbird as I don't use them. But Firefox won't go at all. I already have Chromium which is marked as default browser. Still firefox won't go. I tried multiple times but it always stays in my system.