Uninstalling a program via synaptic/add-remove does not completely remove configuration files etc.

[omair]

If a messed up installation (messed up config of replication on mysql for example) needs to be reinstalled from scratch, the user might as well reinstall the entire OS since Ubuntu has the annoying habit of retaining configuration files and other data. In such a situation one usually has to drop at the command prompt and do all sorts of 'force' commands and hope that the application uninstalls completely.

Proposed solution: when prompted to uninstall an application, all traces of the application must be removed (or the user should be prompted if they want to retain config files) such that the application must be downloaded in it's entirety once again if the user wants to reinstall.

I'd also like to add that using the completely remove option in synaptic does not remove the installation completely either.

To reproduce the issue:

1. Install any application (I have tried it with mysql and other non-synaptic third party applications)
2. Change configuration files.
3. Remove completely and reinstall.

[David Siegel (djsiegel-deactivatedaccount)]

This is not a trivially fixable usability bug. This involves a lot of work! It's not a paper cut.