(In reply to Marc Krämer from comment #0)
> I don't know why we have samba as a requirement for drakxtools.

Probably because we want to make things easy for users coming from windows, especially because many of them will still have other windows machines :-)

Many users first use Linux on an old machine that no longer gets windows updates. They'll often have a newer Windows machine. If their printer doesn't have a network card, it'll most likely be attached to the newer Windows machine, so then not only drakxtools but also system-config-printer needs samba-client.

There are hundreds of posts in our forums about samba, it is heavily used.

> I'm not running in a windows environment and never will.
> I just want to get rid of those windows specific tools. Can't we just say
> the are recommended? So they install, but can be uninstalled without saying
> "basesystem will be uninstalled"

What happens when you rebuild drakxtools locally, but remove "Requires: smb-client", install it, make sure you don't have samba-client installed and then start MCC. Can you still start the first tool in this screen http://doc.mageia.org/mcc/6/en/content/mcc-networksharing.html ? 
If samba-client doesn't get installed when you try to start that tool, then "just recommending" will break things. 

The NEEDINFO keyword is set for the above question, but also for feedback from the Mageia tools maintainers about the suggestion to _not_ have tools installed by default, that are meant to interact with windows machines.

But maybe this should be discussed on dev ml and (for the impact on users) on discuss ml.

Assignee: bugsquad => mageiatools
CC: (none) => marja11
Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO

Hello,
I don't know if samba is really a requires.
I know that draksambashare is able to install what it needs if not installed. diskdrake --smb checks if samba-client is present.
For these 2 tools, if think that samba should not be a requires.

CC: (none) => yves.brungard_mageia

(In reply to papoteur from comment #2)
> Hello,
> I don't know if samba is really a requires.
> I know that draksambashare is able to install what it needs if not
> installed. diskdrake --smb checks if samba-client is present.
> For these 2 tools, if think that samba should not be a requires.

and if enduser does not have install media or internet access when he realizes he needs samba-client ???

This is a design decision, not a bug

CC: (none) => tmb

Samba is a file transfer protocol to access windows machines. It should be possible to uninstall this protocol as it is not needed in a full linux based environment.

I'm ok with it to keep it by default (and move it to suggests). But, as it is an optional component, we should be able to uninstall this component (e.g. for server setups). Most desktop file managers will still require samba lib.

(In reply to Marc Krämer from comment #4)
> Samba is a file transfer protocol to access windows machines. It should be
> possible to uninstall this protocol as it is not needed in a full linux
> based environment.

In your opinion that is...

There are several "linux-only" users that use a samba server as file-sharing server too :)
(I dont, but we want to keep it simple for newbies too...)

(In reply to Thomas Backlund from comment #5)
> In your opinion that is...
> 
> There are several "linux-only" users that use a samba server as file-sharing
> server too :)
> (I dont, but we want to keep it simple for newbies too...)

@Thomas: I don't want to argue to remove it, but just to be able to remove the package if it is not needed.

samba-server is not installed by default, nor do we have a dependency not to remove it. But due to the dependency of drakxtools to samba-client, rpm states:

urpme samba-client
Removing the following package will break your system:
  basesystem-6-0.4.mga6.x86_64
   (due to missing kernel)

If drakxtools suggests samba-client, it will be installed anyway, but the user is able to uninstall it, or am I wrong?

Even if it's a design decision, a hard requires when it's not required is not the right way to implement it.  That's part of what meta-task is for (rpmsrate); it helps determine what packages get installed by default, without all of them having to be a hard requires by some package somewhere.  If we want to make sure new installations get the samba client installed, that would be the place to do it.

Hard Requires _is_ the right thing when the design decision was to "ensure its always available", meta-task does not ensure that...

I'm not saying it cant be changed, but take it up with council that has the steering power over how newbie friendly we want to be as a distro...

But even if this should be a hard requirement to the system, this has to be added to basesystem, not to drakxtools.
I assume this was added before mageia had meta-tasks and was never changed.

I don't see mageia to be more userfriendly if this package can't be uninstalled. For newbies the meta-task would do the trick.

(In reply to Marc Krämer from comment #9)
> But even if this should be a hard requirement to the system, this has to be
> added to basesystem, not to drakxtools.

No, drakxtools is correct as that the package using it...

> I assume this was added before mageia had meta-tasks and was never changed.
> 

does not have anything to do with it...


> I don't see mageia to be more userfriendly if this package can't be
> uninstalled.

Once again... your opinion...

> For newbies the meta-task would do the trick.

No it would not, but I wont debate this anymore...

if you want it changed, take it up in next council meeting...

And feature changes are done in Cauldron, not stable releases

Keywords: NEEDINFO => (none)
Version: 6 => Cauldron

i am 100% ok with tmb here.

i don't want users to remove it "by error".

Btw you are still able to force remove it :).

Btw if this is not a require in drakxtools, i will have to add it back in the plasma side.

CC: (none) => mageia

let's discuss it on the next meeting on tuesday, 9th.

i am never available on tuesday.