On my desktop I use Xubuntu 12.04, and today i noticed that this distribution shipped by default the Zeitgeist daemon, a thing that I’m not using at all, for what i know.
From Wikipedia:
Zeitgeist is a service which logs the users’s activities and events, anywhere from files opened to websites visited and conversations. It makes this information readily available for other applications to use in form of timelines and statistics. It is able to establish relationships between items based on similarity and usage patterns by applying data association algorithms such as “Winepi” and “A Priori”
Zeitgeist is the main engine and logic behind GNOME Activity Journal which is currently seen to become one of the main means of viewing and managing activities in GNOME version 3.0
Personally i don’t use any tool that use the Zeitgeist Framework and I’d prefer to open a terminal and use locate or find to search for files than having something that log all my activity and so slow down my system, so I’ve decided to remove this daemon totally from my system, please note that if you use Gnome 3 or Unity you could have some side effect, or perhaps the system will just become more faster, like the author of the article: Removing Zeitgeist Sped Up Unity .
Just remember that the information collected by Zeitgeist are stored for use in various forms in Unity: showing what were the last application you used, what are the applications you use most, which are the files that were used lately, the music you listen, among many other aspects. If you think you can live without these information probably your system will gain a good sped up.
As first step I suggest you just disable logging, you can also blacklist everything or turn off logging altogether.
To check if the daemon is running you can run a ps like this one:
linuxaria@xubuntu-home:~# ps -ef |grep zeit linuxaria 2085 1 0 16:31 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/zeitgeist-daemon linuxaria 2093 1 0 16:31 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-fts root 8372 8300 0 18:48 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto zeit |
Now on a terminal run these commands with your normal user (not root):
linuxaria@xubuntu-home:~/Downloads$ chmod -rw ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite linuxaria@xubuntu-home:~/.local/share/zeitgeist$ zeitgeist-daemon --replace [16:53:46.292663 WARNING] Could not access the database file. Please check the permissions of file /home/linuxaria/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite. |
The first command remove the possibility to read and write to the file ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite to everyone and the second restart zeitgeist, and you’ll get an error, congratulations you have just stopped the zeitgeist daemon while keeping your information.
if you see that is something is wrong and you want to reactivate the daemon just run:
linuxaria@xubuntu-home:~/Downloads$ chmod +rw ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite linuxaria@xubuntu-home:~/.local/share/zeitgeist$ zeitgeist-daemon --replace |
And the daemon will be restarted on your computer.
Remove Zeitgeist from your Ubuntu
As first thing discover which Zeitgeist packages are installed on your system with:
oot@xubuntu-home:/etc# dpkg -l |grep zeit ii libzeitgeist-1.0-1 0.3.18-1ubuntu1 library to access Zeitgeist - shared library ii python-zeitgeist 0.9.0-1ubuntu1 event logging framework - Python bindings ii zeitgeist-core 0.9.0-1ubuntu1 event logging framework - engine |
And once you have the names of the packages (the second column) you can run the command apt-get purge names such as:
root@xubuntu-home:/etc# sudo apt-get purge libzeitgeist-1.0-1 python-zeitgeist zeitgeist-core Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: gedit libzeitgeist-1.0-1 python-zeitgeist zeitgeist-core 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded. After this operation, 3,921 kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y |
Congratulations now Zeitgeist is completely removed from your Ubuntu
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Thanks for another inspiring article. I always disable Zeitgeist, but removing it sounds better. Following works for Linux Mint 13 (based on Ubuntu 12.04), for MATE, Cinnamon and Xfce editions.
I’ve left libzeitgeist-1.0-1 and python-zeitgeist installed, as Gedit and Nautilus depend on the first and Gedit-Plugins depend on the latter. I don’t want to do without Gedit or Nautilus just yet 🙂 These are just libraries, and don’t actually do the activity logging, so no harm in leaving them I think.
In addition I remove activity-log-manager-common and activity-log-manager-control-center, which only serve a purpose with Zeitgeist installed. And instead of keeping the Zeitgeist created files, I remove them from all home directories.
zeitgeist-daemon --quitsudo apt-get --purge autoremove activity-log-manager-common activity-log-manager-control-center zeitgeist zeitgeist-core zeitgeist-datahub
sudo rm -fr {/root,/home/*}/.local/share/zeitgeist
Thanks for the info Vincent !
I followed your recommendation and left the libzeitgeist-1.0-1 and python-zeitgeist. I have no side effects so far on my Ubuntu-precise+Gnome classic after removing zeitgeist.
I do notice speed improvements on start-up time on lot of things.
Thanks Vincent!.
I had it disabled but for some reason tried to remove it… My ubuntu boot now does nothing but log-in loop and if I grab my home folder and reinstall the new install also has the log-in loop. So, indeed, if you use Gnome 3 or Unity, you could have a “side effect”. Or if you’ve only been using linux for 3 months and shouldn’t be messing with this stuff. 🙂
If you go into your home directory and delete everything which name starts with a dot, the looping on login should go away.
This will have the effect of resetting all your preferences and zapping stuff like you email and Firefox prefs. So you probably want to leave some stuff like .mozilla, .bash*, whereever your email is stored.
Wow! I was surprised to find this on LXer, and happy too. I also dislike Zeitgeist and after removing it observed no decrease in performance. What bothers me is that it is being weeded in (in some distros) with dependencies so as to make it difficult to remove. I really wish unnecessary crap would not get entangled with necessary things, but some seem to think Linux users no longer want control of their systems. I remember encountering similar difficulties removing geo-location crap from KDE, so I nixed it and installed xfce. Anyway, thanks for taking your time to offer this — it’s appreciated.
Thanks. A lot of people are not aware Ubuntu did activate Zeitgeist since some Distros ago.
what are really nice speed increase! thanks for sharing…. 🙂 Now I just need to remember this the next time I install a *buntu based system…
Thanks for an interesting article.
I had Zeitgeist installed on my computer. But there was not file for in in …/.local/share.
That is strange. Is your Xubuntu 12.04 a separate fresh install, or just an installation of Xfce on top of Unity?
In my case, it was an upgrade from Xubuntu 11.10 to 12.04, without any involvement of Unity of GNOME3 along the route.
The attempt to uninstall the Zeitgeist also took very important application for me: gedit.
It means I cannot uninstall Zeitgeist without side-effects. 8-( I had to install it back.
I always use Xubuntu (not ubuntu + xfce) i think that at the moment this is an update of xubuntu11.10, like your.
Please note that the path is:
~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqliteThat the best way if you want to keep
gedit😉There is no directory zeitgeist in ~/.local/share/ for me.
I wonder how you could get GNOME3-related stuff in pure Xfce installation. 😕
Probably I’ve enabled compatibility with Gnome service, i say probably because i don’t remember this, just re installed Zeitgeist and yes I’ve a directory there
Thanks for the warning.
The apt-get purge takes out gedit and nautilus!
apt-get install gedit
brings back all the zeit sheit
I tested in a sandbox partition with a install not an upgrade – the local file was there.
So safest in Ubuntu 12.04 is just chmod and stop it from running
Would you please back up your speed improvement assertion with some numbers?
I’ve not done test, but in general if i don’t use a thing i prefer to keep it turned off 😉
I cannot log in my Ubuntu after follow this steps. The options Ubuntu and Ubuntu 2d are disappear
That’s really weird.
Once you are in the login page press
ctrl + f1this will open a terminal, log in there and reinstall zeitgeistI have the same problem. After removing zeitgeist according to your instruction I cannot login again. The graphical login does not let me in. In text mode login works. I installed zeitgeist again but it does not help. I still cannot login to ubuntu 12.04 in graphical mode. 🙁
I cannot login through graphical login screen. No user (including Guest user) works. It happened after I removed zeitgeist using your instructions.
Here are details.
Some last lines from .xsession-errors file of user 1:
gnome-session[2154]: WARNING: Unable to load desktop file ‘/usr/bin/kuiserver.desktop’: Nie ma takiego pliku ani katalogu
gnome-session[2154]: WARNING: Unable to find desktop file ‘kuiserver.desktop’: Nie można odnaleźć prawidłowego pliku klucza w przeszukiwanych katalogach
gnome-session[2154]: WARNING: Unable to find desktop file ‘gnome-/usr/bin/kuiserver.desktop’: Nie można odnaleźć prawidłowego pliku klucza w przeszukiwanych katalogach
(gnome-settings-daemon:2222): print-notifications-plugin-CRITICAL **: gsd_print_notifications_plugin_finalize: assertion `plugin->priv != NULL’ failed
(gnome-settings-daemon:2222): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
(gnome-settings-daemon:2222): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
QClipboard: Unable to receive an event from the clipboard manager in a reasonable time
(indicator-multiload:2250): Gdk-WARNING **: indicator-multiload: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
(gnome-fallback-mount-helper:2258): Gdk-WARNING **: gnome-fallback-mount-helper: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
(nautilus:2261): Gdk-WARNING **: nautilus: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
(gdu-notification-daemon:2356): Gdk-WARNING **: gdu-notification-daemon: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
gtk-window-decorator: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.0.
(telepathy-indicator:2477): Gdk-WARNING **: telepathy-indicator: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
(gnome-screensaver:2511): Gdk-WARNING **: gnome-screensaver: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
(update-notifier:2899): Gdk-WARNING **: update-notifier: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
kdeinit4: Fatal IO error: client killed
klauncher: Exiting on signal 15
kdeinit4: Fatal IO error: client killed
(bluetooth-applet:2255): Gdk-WARNING **: bluetooth-applet: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
kdeinit4: kded4 [kdeinit]: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
(nm-applet:2247): Gdk-WARNING **: nm-applet: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :0.
** (zeitgeist-datahub:2510): WARNING **: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:227: Unable to get name “org.gnome.zeitgeist.datahub” on the bus!
Some last lines from .xsession-errors file of user 2:
(evolution-alarm-notify:28144): evolution-alarm-notify-WARNING **: alarm.c:260: Requested removal of nonexistent alarm!
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: nie można otworzyć pliku obiektu dzielonego: Nie ma takiego pliku ani katalogu
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: nie można otworzyć pliku obiektu dzielonego: Nie ma takiego pliku ani katalogu
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: nie można otworzyć pliku obiektu dzielonego: Nie ma takiego pliku ani katalogu
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: nie można otworzyć pliku obiektu dzielonego: Nie ma takiego pliku ani katalogu
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: nie można otworzyć pliku obiektu dzielonego: Nie ma takiego pliku ani katalogu
(gnome-settings-daemon:27758): print-notifications-plugin-CRITICAL **: gsd_print_notifications_plugin_finalize: assertion `plugin->priv != NULL’ failed
(gnome-settings-daemon:27758): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
(gnome-settings-daemon:27758): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)’ failed
gnome-session[27676]: WARNING: Unable to stop system: Authorization is required
(nm-applet:27799): Gdk-WARNING **: nm-applet: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :1.
** (zeitgeist-datahub:28068): WARNING **: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:227: Unable to get name “org.gnome.zeitgeist.datahub” on the bus!
(evolution-alarm-notify:28144): GConf-WARNING **: Got Disconnected from DBus.
(deja-dup-monitor:28818): GVFS-RemoteVolumeMonitor-WARNING **: Owner :1.36 of volume monitor org.gtk.Private.GduVolumeMonitor disconnected from the bus; removing drives/volumes/mounts
gtk-window-decorator: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :1.0.
Terminated
(evolution:11980): Gdk-WARNING **: evolution: Fatal IO error 11 (Zasoby chwilowo niedostępne) on X server :1.
Terminated
When I type zeitgeist-daemon I get:
[31m[22:05:08.828020 WARNING][0m zeitgeist-daemon.vala:473: Command line `dbus-launch –autolaunch=5a53bd517538c275adfb79244b7da195 –binary-syntax –close-stderr’ exited with non-zero exit status 1: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed.\n
When I type zeitgeist-datahub I get:
** (zeitgeist-datahub:2873): WARNING **: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:227: Unable to get name “org.gnome.zeitgeist.datahub” on the bus!
Could you help please?
You can get more info on what’s wrong in Zeitgeist with:
sudo zeitgeist-daemon –replace –log-file zg.log –log-level=debug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/961974
This work arround has been really usefull, I have a small and old PC and this poast help to make a lot faster the desktop functionality. Like a colateral damage i found some other applications take a few seconds for once on start but later works fine. Thnak you a lot for this.
So a gorilla walks into a bar, approaches the bartender and says,
~/Downloads$ chmod -rw ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite"The bartender looks him up and down for a moment, twists his moustache and replies,
bash: /home/christopher/Downloads$: No such file or directoryI literally copied and pasted the first command into the terminal.
The
pswent this way… (names have been changed to protect the innocent)user@home:/$ sudo ps -ef |grep zeit
1000 1766 1584 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 zeitgeist-datahub
1000 1772 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/zeitgeist-daemon
1000 1778 1 0 09:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-fts
1000 5184 1996 0 10:45 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto zeit
I also see a zeitgeist-core (something like that) directory in my /usr/share/doc directory.
I’m trying to remove zeitgeist because, while the developers probably don’t plan on doing anything with or making available to people like google any of the data they’re totally wholesale cataloging in a central database on my system (?!?) for profit or anything, I’m still a little uncomfortable with its potential. :T
So what am I doing wrong?
The only “weird” thing that i see is that your $HOME is
/home/christopher/Downloadsinstead of/home/christopher.Try to do a :
chmod -rw /home/christoper/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlitelet me know if this works.
Best Regards
Riccardo
Thanks so much for your quick feedback; I wasn’t expecting it.
I’m re-installing and as soon as I’ve given it another shot I’ll let you know if I have any problems.
Thanks for your informative post!
Interesting article. Thanks a lot for the tutorial.
Anyhow I am on of the Zeitgeist devs and I do understand people who don’t trust Zeitgeist.
The performance issue you were seeing is due to U1 telling Zeitgeist when it synced stuff (it does not sync your history but only tells zeitgeist if a file in an U1 folder has been modified) so it can appear in your dash. (I myself have disabled this feature)
But back to business.
Zeitgeist does not crawl around looking for history. If apps want to send it history it takes it in. The only thing Zeitgeist crawls for itself is the Gtk.RecentManager. So we dont log your online activity unless you add a plugin in chrome for it to do so.
All Zeitgeist data is stored locally and is not going transumted anywhere…. The funny thing is these logs exist already on your system. You can find the firefox history under:
~/.mozilla/firefox/*/formhistory.sqlite
~/.mozilla/firefox/*/downloads.sqlite
~/.mozilla/firefox/*/search.sqlite
~/.mozilla/firefox/*/places.sqlite
Chrome is similar.
Telepathy is ~/.local/share/TpLogger/logs/
You can find you gtk.recent manager history under ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel (which is gedit/totem/etc…)
So basically the info is already there, we just store them properly to make sense of them.
If someone attacks he will easily find all the stuff he needs and there is no central and easy way to control your logs.
Not only that but actually apps should stop storing their logs in their own directories and just push to zeitgeist, because we allow real control over the logs (see privacy manager)
For power users who have a structred work flow zeitgeist is not really useful unless you want control of your log.
So now I will discuss why zeitgeist is useful: Search
search results need to be sorted, and to do that you need to rank them and to rank them you need to know how many times they were used in a timeframe.
So as much as Zeitgeist can be considered harmful it is also considered good for security. The efforts have been praised by the EFF https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/ubuntu-1204-will-bring-os-level-privacy-options
We are also looking into encrypting the DB. If GNOME/Ubuntu adopts it as its primary log for user activities it will allow more control to the user on what should and should not be logged.
And last but not least.
If you are that paranoid and you got hacked, I am pretty sure the hacker will go for something more interesting like some ssh keys and your pidgin passwords (which are stored as plain text) 😛
I hope this did not come up as a rant. I am very happy with the worried feedback and hope that me and my team can make Zeitgeist more secure than before.
Hello Seif,
As first thing, thanks to taking the time for a so detailed explanation.
As second thing, personally I removed Zeitgeist because I don’t use it, and i prefer to have installed only things that i use, so in my point of view is an Ubuntu flaw to put automatically a daemon that I don’t use into my Linux box, but again I’ve nothing against the project and I’m sure a lot of people is happy to use it.
Keep up your good work in the open source community, and if you want I’ll be more than happy to post an article regarding Zeitgeist internals so people know both side of the story.
Best Regards
I’ve removed zeitgeist and apt-get automatically removed unity-lens. Win-win 🙂
I lovingly recall redhat linux 6.10 with gnome interface.
Since then, perhaps with the exception of KDE, we have been on a downward spiral.
It was simple with no useless daemons “autoconfiguring” a bunch of services you never use.
Even setting a picture on your desktop was a programming challenge for which you had to have a PhD from Stanford……
After upgrading to Ubuntu with Unity, it took me almost 3 weeks to work out my network did not work because the network manager was “autoconfiguring” my network interface with a dhcp server. Even windoze millenium *shurely the worst ever windowns release* used to come up with garbled messages like “autoconfiguting network with DHCP” as it wrecked your system.
Most of us “humans” only use a PC for word processing , a browser and e-mail. I think software would get a lot better if developers took on board the motto “Keep it simple, stupid”.
How about a RH 6.10 revival edition for us luddites who are still trying to avoid Ubuntu Unity ?
It took you three weeks to get your network to function correctly in Ubuntu? Three weeks to find the button at the the top of your screen called “Network”, click on it, and select the menu item “Edit Connections…”?
Or was the three weeks spent in the edit connections dialog finding the Method button and changing it from “Automatic (DHCP)” to “Manual”? Seriously…can they make it any easier?
I just ran across this article after doing some homework on the Amazon unity-lens-shopping software. I’ve done a few fresh Xubuntu installs in the past few days and haven’t seen this software installed by default. Does it install itself when you install gnome components (e.g. gedit)?
Thank You !
it works perfectly, i also preformed what vincent recommend so Thank you Vincent !
I am new to linux, only 5 month of use…after 5 times! of reinstalling Ubuntu because it hangs and crashed time after time, (my hardware is Asusu EeePc 1015p netbook with Intel Atom n450 + 2gb ram), I found the right way (for now…) to run realy much faster and rock stable Ubuntu 12.10 OS.
so that what i have done and maybe it will help some new linux users with relatively low resources hardware :
after installing ubuntu 12.10 and updating it, I have installed Cinnamon Desktop, Install GDM instead of lightDM, logout and log into my new Cinnamon desktop.
then remove zeitgeist as recommended here (no side effects on my system !).
after that, i have **uninstalled Unity completely** (not before reading that link ): “http://blogs.operationaldynamics.com/paul/opensource/not-unifed-in-12-10-the-quickening”.
download and install some “tweak tools” to disable some unwanted services and startup aplications, with the help of that recommended link :
“http://ubuntuarena.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/11-tips-to-speed-up-computers-running-ubuntu-12-1012-04linux-mint-13-maya/”
Installing my favorite apps, and checking that system for about 3 month now, i must say that this is the first time i have realized that more than 20 years as Windows user, has come to an and !
I feel like i have now the best OS in the world, but take all the above as a limited liability, as i say, I am linux NOOB 🙂
(and sorry for that english)
I was a bit to quick following this tutorial, because among the apps that depend on zeitgeist is apparently the app that displays your programs in the launcher. I can’t find any of my programs anymore, and I have reinstalled gedit and unity. I had already closed the terminal window so I didn’t see everything that got deleted, can any of you tell me which program I need to install to see my app-shortcuts back in my dash?
cheers!
i began to remove zeitgeist components as instructed until i got to this point in terminal:
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
apturl-common libgtksourceview-3.0-0 gir1.2-gtksource-3.0 gedit-common
activity-log-manager-common libgtksourceview-3.0-common apturl
Use ‘apt-get autoremove’ to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
activity-log-manager-control-center* cairo-dock* cairo-dock-plug-ins*
cairo-dock-plug-ins-dbus-interface-python* gedit* gnome-session*
libzeitgeist-1.0-1* nautilus* nautilus-sendto* nautilus-share*
python-zeitgeist* totem-plugins* ubuntu-desktop* unity-lens-applications*
unity-lens-files* unity-lens-video* unity-scope-video-remote* zeitgeist*
zeitgeist-core* zeitgeist-datahub*
i cancelled and learned not to blindly follow others’ so-called solutions.
I also dont like the idea that everything I do is logged and collected somewhere, and therefore I also made the mistake to uninstall zeitgeist without giving attention to what was also to be uninstalled.
After awhile I realized nautilus had gone, so I re-installed it, and that gave me most of zeitgeist back. Next time I booted the system I realized I couldn’t log in graphically any more (as described above). It took me awhile until I realized I had to re-install gnome-session, then that problem was also gone.
Even later I realized gedit was gone, and I re-installed it. I understand gedit wishes to use zeitgeist to supply the user with a list of recently used files. This means gedit is in a way dependent on zeitgeist, however it does not mean gedit can do nothing if zeitgeist isn’t there. gedit had better decide not to show a recent files list if zeitgeist isn’t there than being uninstalled when zeitgeist is.
Now there is still one problem: the dashboard is empty; if I type something, it shows me a couple of music files I listened to long ago (I dont in principle use the computer for music).I understand the dashboard heavily relies on zeitgeist to show me the most recently used applications, files, downloads, etc. Regarding files and downloads I am quite happy without them – I woldnt want someone who looks over my shoulder to see thumbnail pictures of what I looked at before … . As for recently used applications, I can do without them if I must. However, the dashboard also used to show me all available applications to select and run one from. Since this works no more, my question: how can I find and invoke an application? if I know the exact name, I can do it from a terminal, but what if I dont?
For those who removed everything blindly and encountered the problem of login loop. Here is the solution:
Press Alt+F1 and login to a command line interface. Then perform this command
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop –fix-missing
Be careful with removing programs blindly )))
Ubuntu claims that “Zeitgeist is not a spyware” but attempting to remove it will destroy your Desktop, removing “nautilus” and “ubuntu-desktop”:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
apt-get remove libzeitgeist-1.0-1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
The following packages will be REMOVED:
activity-log-manager-control-center gedit gedit-plugins gnome-session libzeitgeist-1.0-1 nautilus nautilus-sendto nautilus-share totem-plugins ubuntu-desktop
unity-lens-applications unity-lens-files zeitgeist-datahub
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 13 to remove and 8 not upgraded.
After this operation, 12.4 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Clearly, the goal is to have eveyone using this spyware which is “conveniently” collecting all your activty in a centralized place for “third-party applications”.
All this means finally: GNOME IS SPYWARE !
congratualtions to the blueeyed “free”ware-scene ! 😉
they have you checked !
time to change the direction of development and getting more sensitive against moles an sabotage !
if I damage my system when I remove zeitgeist, then Im not free anymore!
then linux isn’t freeware anymore, but bullsh***
lets found a group “linux protecting group against sabotage and spy-attacks” or so …
we arent living in paradise and I imaging, some big players give very silent a LOT of money for destroying the free software-community …
zeitgeist is only the beginning!
You can remove zeitgeist completely and safely w/ out damaging anything. I remove the following after every upgrade. The listing below is after it was already removed on my utopic 14.10. Check the first comment response by Vincent for more details.
arul@cheetah:~/bin$ sudo apt-get –purge autoremove activity-log-manager-common activity-log-manager-control-center zeitgeist zeitgeist-core zeitgeist-datahub
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package ‘activity-log-manager-common’ is not installed, so not removed
Package ‘zeitgeist’ is not installed, so not removed
Package ‘zeitgeist-core’ is not installed, so not removed
Package ‘zeitgeist-datahub’ is not installed, so not removed
Package ‘activity-log-manager-control-center’ is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
if you have time lets talk more. I am a newbie (but otherwise pretty dam old), and yes I am replying to a 3 yr old post, but well, what you wrote resonates, and I am working on bigger things and do need help ..
It is used in computer forensics to organize your information for retrieval.
http://www.champlain.edu/Documents/LCDI/Zeitgeist_Forensics.pdf
NEVER do it this way on Ubuntu 12.04! I did and I’ve got into the neverending login loop. Removal of dot-starting directories and files didn’t help, I had to re-install Unity according to the tutorial from:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/95458/how-do-i-reinstall-unity
If you want to turn off the freaking Zeitgeist, ALWAYS do it this way, described here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/45548/disabling-zeitgeist
sudo zeitgeist-daemon –quit
cd /usr/bin
mv zeitgeist-daemon zeitgeist-daemon.bak
mv zeitgeist-datahub zeitgeist-datahub.bak
DO NOT DISABLE ZEITGEIST OR YOUR UNITY LAUNCHER WILL BE STUCK
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http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2242816
http://askubuntu.com/questions/327882/cant-remove-libreoffice-writer-from-launcher
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Why?
Here’s why: http://askubuntu.com/questions/496368/unlock-from-launcher-option-not-working
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Sorry for the aggressive caps…It’s just that bug that annoyed me for months until I figured it out.
The following worked safely for me with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS if you want to remove Zeitgeist:
zeitgeist-daemon –quit
sudo apt-get –purge autoremove zeitgeist-core
sudo rm -fr {/root,/home/*}/.local/share/zeitgeist
According to post 1, solution given by <> it is working properly in Kylin or Ubuntu 17.04.
From post # 1 (Vincent 20120804)
$ zeitgeist-daemon –quit
$ sudo apt-get –purge autoremove activity-log-manager-common activity-log-manager-control-center zeitgeist zeitgeist-core zeitgeist-datahub
$ sudo rm -fr {/root,/home/*}/.local/share/zeitgeist
Works fine in Unity of Zesty Zapus with no side effects. It is more suitable to keep gedit in Ubuntu 17.04