I have checked all similar questions. None of them offer a working solution in my case. This is not a duplicate. Here are the details of my unique situation:
$ acroread
This causes Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 to open and run.
$ lsb_release -a
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
I am running Kubuntu
$ which acroread
/usr/bin/acroread
$ ls -la /usr/bin/acroread
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 May 15 2013 /usr/bin/acroread -> /opt/Adobe/Reader9/bin/acroread
/opt/Adobe/Reader9$ find . -iname UNINSTALL
/opt/Adobe/Reader9$
$ sudo apt-get remove acroread
Package acroread is not installed, so not removed
$ dpkg -s acroread
Package: acroread
Status: deinstall ok config-files
Priority: extra
Section: partner/text
Installed-Size: 65
Maintainer: Brian Thomason <brian.thomason@canonical.com>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 9.5.5-1precise1
Config-Version: 9.5.5-1precise1
Depends: debconf (>= 0.5) | debconf-2.0, acroread-bin, nspluginwrapper
Description: Adobe Reader
Adobe Reader allows you to view navigate and print PDF files. This version
adds advanced forms support (save), better integration with Adobe Acrobat
workflows, customizable toolbars and better overall performance.
.
This package provides the English version of Adobe Reader 9.
sudo dpkg --purge acroread
dpkg: warning: there's no installed package matching acroread
sudo dpkg -r acroread
dpkg: warning: there's no installed package matching acroread
$ sudo locate adobereader
(no results returned)
$ sudo locate acroread
/etc/bash_completion.d/acroread.sh
/home/me/.kde/share/icons/NITRUX-KDE/apps/scalable/acroread.svg
/var_cache_apt_archives/acroread_9.2-1jaunty1_amd64.deb
/opt/Adobe/Reader9/Reader/intellinux/bin/acroread
/opt/Adobe/Reader9/Resource/Shell/acroread.1.gz
/opt/Adobe/Reader9/Resource/Shell/acroread_tab
/opt/Adobe/Reader9/bin/acroread
/usr/bin/acroread
/usr/share/applications/acroread.desktop
/usr/share/doc/acroread-bin
/usr/share/doc/acroread-bin/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/acroread-bin/copyright
/usr/share/icons/mono/scalable/apps/acroread.svgz
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/128x128/apps/acroread.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/16x16/apps/acroread.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/22x22/apps/acroread.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/32x32/apps/acroread.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/48x48/apps/acroread.png
/usr/share/icons/oxygen/64x64/apps/acroread.png
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/acroread-bin
/usr/share/man/man1/acroread.1.gz
/usr/share/scribus/icons/acroread16.png
/usr/share/scribus/icons/acroread22.png
/usr/share/scribus/icons/acroread32.png
/var/cache/apt/archives/acroread-bin_9.5.5-1precise1_i386.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/acroread_9.5.5-1precise1_amd64.deb
/var/lib/dpkg/info/acroread-bin.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/acroread-bin.md5sums
/var/lib/dpkg/info/acroread.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/acroread.postrm
$ sudo apt-get remove --purge acroread*
after running this last command, acroread is still installed and typing acroread at any prompt still causes it to open and run.
