[DISCUSSION] Attempted to Purged Wine on Mint and now...

Winterland has a support thread going of the same title. I find the topic interesting, in particular the typo theory suggested by AI1000, which I have some comments on. Rather than clog up Winterland's support thread, I thought I'd start a parallel discussion thread, to further discuss some of the things being mentioned, without detracting from those helping Winterland get his system back to normal.

 

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Winterland says the RM command he ran deleted non-Wine things from his home folder, and triggered a permission error.

 

when I tried to run the next line, I received a message that read, "you don't have permissions for that" so I [...] skipped ahead to the "sudo apt-get remove -purge wine"

nothing appeared to happen...until I closed my browser and then noticed my desktop was missing. Checked my files and *poof* everything is gone. Photos, Music, Videos, Downloads, Documents.

-REF:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/641669/attempted-to-purged-wine-on-mint-and-now/#entry4196430

rm -rf $HOME/.wine

-REF:http://sourcedigit.com/14942-completely-remove-wine-linux-ubuntu-systems/

 

AI1000 suggested a typo might be the cause.

 

The problem with rm commands is that typing just one incorrect character has the potential to do a lot of damage

-REF:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/641669/attempted-to-purged-wine-on-mint-and-now/#entry4196535

I agree a typo could be a valid cause. In particular, a space between "$HOME/" and ".wine". This would result in ".wine" being dropped from the command. Instead, the command would attempt to delete the user's entire home folder, recursively. A few items (eg: the "Desktop" folder, and "." and ".." links) would fail to delete, as well as the user's home folder itself, which would trigger a permission error stating that you cannot delete it, but everything else, including personal files, and program config files, would be gone.

 

 

 

 

Brilliant thinking hollowface.....establishing a separate discussion topic, instead of having an obvious Support topic clogged up...

 

I am so glad that someone has had the fortitude and good sense to realise the value of doing this, and set about implementing it.

 

If only you were moderating.....

 

 

I too have encountered  a similar, if not the same situation as Winterland.

 

Upon installing wine, I found it did not perform as I thought it would/expected it to......so I then sought to remove it.

 

Without studying Winterlands topic thoroughly....I get the feeling he and I may have read from the same page when it came to looking for "removal instructions". !!

 

My end result was just as you have predicted...""everything else, including personal files, and program config files, would be gone. ""

 

The walls here turned blue......I was not impressed......however, I did learn from the experience.

 

A complete reinstall of the OS later and a tedious time setting back up every little thing that I had on my Linux mint 17.....and all was good again

 

.....with an oath sworn in scotch whisky to never use wine again.

 

 

I am quite certain that without actually guiding anyone through the install/uninstall of wine here, a great deal will be learned from the frank discussion which will ensue.

 

Again...well done on your approach.

 

Brian

I am inclined to agree with Brian.

 

And I note that Winterland, whom appears to be a devoted BC follower, has followed good advice insofar as Brian had eminent success with one of the articles linked to, instruction-wise. No blame on his part, quite the contrary.

 

The use of the -f option or switch concerns me, with "rm", as it forces the option, and at the same time does not provide verbose output, nor prompts, to help the user steer clear of disaster. Simply put, it just nukes things, and tough luck on any collateral damage.

 

Reading

man rm

at Terminal. it includes

 

 

 

 -f, --force
              ignore nonexistent files and arguments, never prompt

 

... but a person new to Linux is not expected to know that precaution. And some verbose manuals can be about as exciting as watching the paint dry.

 

 

 

 -i     prompt before every removal

 

is possibly safer, but a PITA if there are large numbers involved.

 

I hope Winterland's backup strategy has served him well, and all can be fixed.

 

Wizard

Interesting you should say about this, Chris.

 

I recall from my time on the Ubuntu Forums, that they used to have a permanent 'sticky' banner at the top of the Beginner's Forum main page referring specifically to a short forum article that one of the Admin staff had put together, which explained, in detail, about certain terminal commands that should not just be copy/pasted, willy-nilly, from web page articles/blogs, etc.

 

One of these was the 'rm' command. Another, of course, was the 'dd' command.....

 

'Nuff said.

 

 

Mike. 

I agree a typo could be a valid cause. In particular, a space between "$HOME/" and ".wine". This would result in ".wine" being dropped from the command. Instead, the command would attempt to delete the user's entire home folder, recursively. A few items (eg: the "Desktop" folder, and "." and ".." links) would fail to delete, as well as the user's home folder itself, which would trigger a permission error stating that you cannot delete it, but everything else, including personal files, and program config files, would be gone.

I hadn't even thought through what the specific error might have been, or what exactly might have been deleted, but I agree this seems what would be likely to have happened.

I recall from my time on the Ubuntu Forums, that they used to have a permanent 'sticky' banner at the top of the Beginner's Forum main page referring specifically to a short forum article that one of the Admin staff had put together, which explained, in detail, about certain terminal commands that should not just be copy/pasted, willy-nilly, from web page articles/blogs, etc.

I remember that, and just checked to see that it has now indeed gone.

I've always thought it better to just not mention these command in the first place. It would be like putting a sign at an electric socket saying "don't stick your fingers in here;" someone is bound to read it and do what it says not to do, out of curiosity.

Edited by Al1000, 10 March 2017 - 04:58 PM.

 

I recall from my time on the Ubuntu Forums, that they used to have a permanent 'sticky' banner at the top of the Beginner's Forum main page referring specifically to a short forum article that one of the Admin staff had put together, which explained, in detail, about certain terminal commands that should not just be copy/pasted, willy-nilly, from web page articles/blogs, etc.

I remember that, and just checked to see that it has now indeed gone.

I've always thought it better to just not mention these command in the first place. It would be like putting a sign at an electric socket saying "don't stick your fingers in here;" someone is bound to read it and do what it says not to do, out of curiosity.

 

Mm. If I'm honest, I kinda thought along those same lines myself.....an invitation for trouble. 'Donkeys' and 'thistles' spring to mind there..!   

 

 

Mike. 

Edited by Mike_Walsh, 10 March 2017 - 05:34 PM.

Using terminal commands without complete understanding of exactly what the command does is no different than using Bleach Bit without understanding what each checked feature does.

 

Both if used HAPHAZARDLY can do IRREVERSIBLE HARM.

 

Based on my own personal experience.

+1 .... ""Based on my own personal experience."'

 

looks like its not just you and I and Winterland who have hit the enter key, only to find/have happen........Disaster.......omg what have I done !!!!! (then various expletives (unable to mention here )

 

 

I can laugh.....now.

+1 .... ""Based on my own personal experience."'

 

looks like its not just you and I and Winterland who have hit the enter key, only to find/have happen........Disaster.......omg what have I done !!!!! (then various expletives (unable to mention here )

 

 

I can laugh.....now.

This is all part of learning and it will only be remembered by doing.

 

"Tuition For The Price Of An Education".

@Condobloke

I get the feeling he and I may have read from the same page

-REF:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/641728/discussion-attempted-to-purged-wine-on-mint-and-now/#entry4197056

It wouldn't surprise me. Searching "uninstall wine linux mint" brings that article up on the first page of Google.

@wizardfromoz

-i prompt before every removal

is possibly safer, but a PITA if there are large numbers involved.

-REF:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/641728/discussion-attempted-to-purged-wine-on-mint-and-now/#entry4197062

Yeah, "-i" can be a life saver. There is a "-I" option for when deleting large numbers of files, but it just says something like "rm: remove # arguments?", which I don't find helpful.

@Mike_Walsh

Ubuntu Forums [...] used to have a permanent 'sticky' [...] which explained [...] about certain terminal commands that should not just be copy/pasted, willy-nilly, from web page articles/blogs, etc.

-REF:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/641728/discussion-attempted-to-purged-wine-on-mint-and-now/#entry4197502

Aside from the dangers of using a command without fully understanding it, rozzer posted an interesting link a while back about the potential dangers of where one is copy/pasting from.

@Condobloke

looks like its not just you and I and Winterland who have hit the enter key, only to find/have happen........Disaster

-REF:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/641728/discussion-attempted-to-purged-wine-on-mint-and-now/#entry4197575

Add me to that list .