Q4OS Forum

davisf

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 7

remove Noto, not lookswitcher

Greetings!

I am seeking a way to remove the Noto family of fonts. synaptic and apt-get threaten to remove 'lookswitcher' also. that is ok with me in principle but

(a) is there a way to remove Noto without removing lookswitcher?

(b) are there terrible consequences from removing lookswitcher?

(c) can it be reinstalled without pulling Noto fonts back in?

thank you for guidance.

f.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

The simple way of removing Noto fonts is to just delete the font files themselves.

/usr/share/fonts/noto is where they live. I have to go in and delete all the non-english fonts on any new installation just to keep the fonts lists tolerable.

This way the package manager/synaptic is not aware of what has been done and so other dependencies or recommended packages are not involved.

If you decide to go the long way round you should be able to re-install lookswitcher using

sudo apt --no-install-recommends install (package-name)

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

After removing the fonts you might also need to update the font cache, with the following command

fc-cache -fv

I don't know if this is required for removing fonts but I always use it when adding them to keep them updated.

davisf

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 7

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

thanking both 'bin' and Dai_trying!

I did delete some by hand but am encouraged to nuke them all. I am inclined however to stay within the 'rules' of
the package manager, so 'apt-get remove' and then reinstall 'lookswitcher'. too late in my time zone to experiment
but will check back.

can't help wondering why this is this close association between Lookswitcher and Noto.

again, thank you for the helpful tips.

f.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

thanking both 'bin' and Dai_trying!
can't help wondering why this is this close association between Lookswitcher and Noto.
f.

You're welcome. The bit to keep in mind is that Lookswitcher is going to pull in a predefined 'Look' which contains Noto Sans as a part of the look. Indeed Noto Sans is the default font in TDE. It's probably just a recommended package, but one way you can tell is a reverse dependency check.

sudo apt-cache rdepends --installed fonts-noto

which will tell you if noto is depended on by any other packages.

davisf

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 7

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

more good information, bin. here is what I get:

sudo apt-cache rdepends --installed fonts-noto
fonts-noto
Reverse Depends:
  fonts-noto-core
  fonts-noto-ui-core
  fonts-noto-ui-core
  fonts-noto-core

so it looks like I can clear these things out.

I haven't yet done the deed of removing Noto but I've been wondering about 'lookswitcher'. to address a different issue I ended up installing lzappearance. it seems to me it does much of what 'lookswitcher' does. unless there's some counter-reason, I am inclined to nuke Noto and Lookswitcher.

f.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

OK - I'm not entirely sure what particular itch you're trying to scratch with Lookswitcher so it's hard to comment. I think you meant lxappearance - which is an LXDE tool so I guess you're not running TDE or Plasma???

davisf

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 7

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

I'm definitely running TDE. I do have other stuff installed including LXDE. this set-up has a bit of a history.

yes, I meant 'lxappearance'; I installed it while addressing an unrelated problem. didn't realize it was LXDE.

I guess this in a way answers my question. 'lookswitcher' does for Q4OS what lxappearance does for LXDE and is not
essential.

I am not a fan of Lookswitcher but that's a different issue; it's not something that needs 'fixing'.

today I'll remove Noto (along with Lookswitcher) and report back the results. 

sorry for causing consternation!

f.

franky44

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 28

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

I did this in the terminal.
cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto
Once in the directory type sudo chmod 766 *.ttf
Then type sudo rm *.ttf

That worked for me. All the Noto fonts are gone.

davisf

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 7

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

I did the same and probably overkill but I also removed lookswitcher. I may re-install lookswitcher and then just delete the font files as you did. (I'm pretty happy
without Lookswitcher though.)

I find my problem, or the aspect of it which bothered me in the first place, was the appearance of all the fonts in OpenOffice. I'm not sure how to remove them
from OpenOffice but will get to it.

problem is I'm a bit pressed for time right now; I need to apologize to everyone for disappearing after receiving such good and friendly advice! again, right now
I am a bit pressed.

May as well ask, anyone using OpenOffice?

franky44

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 28

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

I use LibreOffice. I like it better than OpenOffice. Nothing wrong with OpenOffice, I just like LibreOffice better.

davisf

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 7

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

I used LibreOffice for a while but, among other reasons, I found it too "dynamic", that is, updates were too frequent, new features I generally had no use for. maybe I had a mistaken impression or would find that an advantage now but I'm pretty content with OpenOffice.

back to the topic: since LO and OO are very similar, perhaps font management is similar; how do you remove fonts in LO? (I confess I haven't begun my own research yet; thought I'd take advantage of you and ask.)

franky44

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 28

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto
Once in the directory type sudo chmod 766 *.ttf
Then type sudo rm *.ttf

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

I get the feeling that part of the problem you are seeing with Noto is because of all the extra language fonts that are installed. They drive me round the twist, but as I use Noto for my UI I found it simpler to just get rid of the ones I don't use.

In the end I just listed them and run rm -f to get rid of them leaving just the English noto fonts

See attached text file, just navigate to noto as @franky44 shows. Then copy and paste the contents of the file and hit return.

It's crude but it works.

---

Attachments:
trim noto fonts.txt, Size: 6.18 KiB, Downloads: 499

davisf

Member

Registered: 2020-05-30

Posts: 7

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher

I thought I had removed all those buggers but you caused me to look again and in my case there were culprits under //usr/local/share/fonts/truetype/noto which I just removed.

I think that has restored some sanity to OpenOffice.

Thank you.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: remove Noto, not lookswitcher