How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

Dear Maemo community,

I noticed that there are a lot of zombie files on my N900 which are useless and eating performance / space. It are for example temporary files and files which were used by applications which dont exist anymore.

This issue appeared when I had to use the "restore applications" function after I installed the new 3.2010.02-8 firmware because some applications are invalid or not available anymore. It seems that there are also some dead widget links on the screen?!?

It would be generally useful to get some commands how I can remove all this zombie files, delete the temporary files and get some extra performance. I also can't get the "restore applications" button away anymore after I used the backup function, it tries to download Google Translator but the installer is damaged.

Thank you in advance for your replies!

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

Temporary/outdated files on the disk will have zero impact on performance and, other than the rootfs, are unlikely to cause any space issues. Are there any files in particular you're concerned about?

I've no idea what you mean by "dead widget links" - if a widget is not installed then it can't appear on the desktop, and if it is installed then it should appear as normal. Can you provide a screenshot of this?

Finally, no, the "restore applications" button doesn't disappear again. Is this really an issue though?

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

just reflash the firmware and start from scratch if those zombie files worry you.

http://wiki.maemo.org/reflash

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

Well as long as it doesn't takes influence on the performance I dont care much about it. I was only a bit surprised when I saw all that zombie files and that bug that the "restore applications" button didn't disappear anymore.

Is there a possibility by the way to prevent that a firmware update deletes all applications? It really took a while to reinstall them even with the "restore function", I did it with the PC software.

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

Crogge if you do the over the air update (update via wifi) you do not loose any applications - you loose nothing

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

I guess I better use that next time, thanks :)

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

I have same concerns or maybe i think thats same if i understand Crogge correctly . But heres the thing i deleted some programs but still see files related to those programs. When i run "storage usage" i can see it. So i guess i sould use comand line for that but dont know. Theres a picture and "toMotko" file that i want to delete.

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

Yes that is exactly what I meant, I saw similar files on my N900. I miss a kind of "cleanup" function :)

You may understand the SQL language better -> "DELETE FROM applications_folder WHERE installed=0;" :P

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

That seems like 'dot files', these are files stored on the 26GB parittion and contain your settings for various applications.

If you uninstall this application again it means you will NOT lose any settings, hence why they are not deleted (same happens in Linux - which means I can re-install the whole OS and re-install the applications and all my settings are saved!). If you want to delete it just remove it using the command line, like this:

Re: How can I cleanup the N900? (For example after a update)
 

You don't want the "cd MyDocs" there - dot files/directories are stored in the /home/user directory.