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I Can't remove Signal-Desktop (https://signal.org/) in Ubuntu 20.x

The app was originally installed by using Signal official website installation instructions:

Linux (Debian-based) Install Instructions

NOTE: These instructions only work for 64 bit Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Mint etc.

  1. Install our official public software signing key

     wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg
 cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee -a /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null

  2. Add our repository to your list of repositories

     echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main' |\
   sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

  3. Update your package database and install signal

     sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

ISSUE

To remove the signal-desktop I use any of the following:

$ sudo apt-get purge signal-desktop
$ sudo apt remove signal-desktop
$ sudo apt remove signal-desktop

Every time the removal is attempted it gives the following message:

E: Malformed line 3 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list (type)
E: The list of sources could not be read.
E: Malformed line 3 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list (type)
E: The list of sources could not be read.

Using sudoedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

I can open the file that shows

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt>

$ sudo apt-get update also doesn't work as I get the message

E: Malformed line 3 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list (type)
E: The list of sources could not be read.

I am not sure how to remove Signal.

pLumo
  • 27,991
Travel Hunter
  • 31

2 Answers2

3

Your line 3 in the file is wrong:

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt>

should be

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main

(xenial main in the end instead of >).

To fix it, you can edit the file manually or simply run the command from the documentation again, but without -a flag for tee (-a means append, but we want to replace!):

echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main' \
| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

Then you can run sudo apt update again

pLumo
  • 27,991
-1

As per Travel's Hunter diagnose, I find I had lost most of my sudo superpowers. In the terminal: $ sudo nautilus

then in the file browser went to: /etc/apt/sources.list.d

deleted signal-xenial.list and other signal something file

then I had recovered my sudo super powers and simply used the same you tried in the begining: $ sudo apt-get purge signal-desktop

LERD
  • 1