seancross
June 16, 2025, 1:26pm
1
I use Synergy 3 for controlling multiple systems with one keyboard and mouse. It’s a fork of an earlier open source package.
They distribute it as an rpm, and it works well. However, I keep finding that it keeps getting uninstalled! It seems like sometimes when I reboot the package has gone missing and need to double-click on the rpm to reinstall it. I haven’t been able to determine exactly what causes it, though.
How can I prevent this package from getting uninstalled? What’s causing it to be removed?
Nothing in Fedora will do that to your system.
You could look in dnf history to see if there is an entry there show synergy being removed.
seancross
June 16, 2025, 3:18pm
3
This is my own system.
Looking at dnf history list, the last item I see is dnf upgrade --refresh. And in fact, if I run that command I see:
❯ sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
[sudo] password for sean:
Updating and loading repositories:
Copr repo for PyCharm owned by phracek 100% | 1.5 KiB/s | 2.1 KiB | 00m01s
Copr repo for xivlauncher owned by rankyn 100% | 6.2 KiB/s | 1.5 KiB | 00m00s
Fedora 42 - x86_64 - Updates 100% | 7.2 KiB/s | 9.1 KiB | 00m01s
Fedora 42 openh264 (From Cisco) - x86_64 100% | 33.3 KiB/s | 989.0 B | 00m00s
Fedora 42 - x86_64 100% | 281.4 KiB/s | 8.2 KiB | 00m00s
Copr repo for kicad-stable owned by @kicad 100% | 6.4 KiB/s | 1.5 KiB | 00m00s
google-chrome 100% | 45.7 KiB/s | 1.3 KiB | 00m00s
RPM Fusion for Fedora 42 - Nonfree - NVIDIA Driver 100% | 11.8 KiB/s | 16.3 KiB | 00m01s
RPM Fusion for Fedora 42 - Nonfree - Steam 100% | 15.6 KiB/s | 15.6 KiB | 00m01s
Visual Studio Code 100% | 31.9 KiB/s | 1.5 KiB | 00m00s
Repositories loaded.
Package Arch Version Repository Size
Installing:
deskflow x86_64 1.21.2-1.fc42 updates 3.2 MiB
replacing synergy x86_64 3.3.1-1 <unknown> 426.7 MiB
Transaction Summary:
Installing: 1 package
Replacing: 1 package
Total size of inbound packages is 1 MiB. Need to download 1 MiB.
After this operation, 424 MiB will be freed (install 3 MiB, remove 427 MiB).
Is this ok [y/N]:
So dnf upgrade --refresh is uninstalling it. How can I stop that from happening?
Hi, I can provide some hints. deskflow provides synergy, that is why it will be replacing the existing synergy install. (see deskflow - Fedora Packages , and deskflow-1.22.0-1.fc42 - Fedora Packages under “Provides:”)
The question is why a regular dnf update wants to install deskflow. Did you have this installed? How did you uninstall it?
You may need to fix your rpm database by running rpm --rebuilddb
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It seems that deskflow is the upgrade of synergy.
$ rpm -qP deskflow
application()
application(org.deskflow.deskflow.desktop)
deskflow = 1.21.2-1.fc42
deskflow(aarch-64) = 1.21.2-1.fc42
metainfo()
metainfo(org.deskflow.deskflow.metainfo.xml)
synergy = 1:1.21.2-1.fc42
Here is the deskflow project on github GitHub - deskflow/deskflow: Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers.
1 Like
seancross
June 16, 2025, 4:03pm
7
Deskflow isn’t an upgrade for Synergy 3, though. That page notes:
Note: Only Synergy 1 is compatible with Deskflow (Synergy 3 is not yet compatible).
I’m using Synergy 3, and the package identifies itself as version 3:
$ rpm -qp synergy-3.3.1-linux-noble-x64.rpm
synergy-3.3.1-1.x86_64
$
I’ve not installed deskflow. I just installed the default KDE desktop.
deskflow is replacing synergy explicitly.
1 Like
You can configure dnf to ignore packages.
I think adding a line like this in /etc/dnf/dnf.conf may fix the issue
[main]
excludepkgs=desktop
1 Like
seancross
June 16, 2025, 4:08pm
11
How do I remove deskflow, then? If I click the garbage can in Discover on the Deskflow page then it briefly flashes a “Remove” screen and goes back to the garbage can image.
seancross
June 16, 2025, 4:10pm
12
I did do this:
[main]
excludepkgs=deskflow
and that seems to solve sudo dnf upgrade --refresh from removing synergy.
How did it get into this state, and how can I prevent that from happening in the future? Why is deskflow not possible to remove?
Try sudo sudo dnf remove deskflow.
seancross
June 16, 2025, 4:30pm
14
I see. So I installed synergy-3, which marked it as being installed. And deskflow-1 has a higher package version than synergy-3, so when everything got upgraded it decided to uninstall my package and install the previous version of deskflow.
The workaround then is to mark it as a package to ignore, which will prevent it from downgrading it automatically.
Thanks for helping me get to the bottom of that.
1 Like