Hello, Maemo 5 community.

This will be the thread for updates to removebloat.sh.
Current version: 0.01a

For now this is designed as a "proof-of-concept" script that I am working on that plans to remove as much bloatware or unnecessary software, especially proprietary software, from the Maemo 5 OS as much as possible without causing the N900 to "brick".

The CSSU does no justice in removing this software. So I plan to help with this. And others can join. Read more.

Backup your Maemo 5 device before using this! There is no guarantee that your device will function properly afterwards!

If you think you may have "bricked" your device, try accessing backupmenu. If you can't, then re-flash. Instructions for such things are out of the relevance of this topic.

You need to have already done the following before using this script:

• Upgrade to at least PR 1.3 and install the Community CSSU.

• Have NOT ALREADY removed some osso software. You'll need to Have a fresh device, or may have to comment out packages that Have already been removed in the script.

• Backed up with backupmenu (not required, but HIGHLY recommended!)

• Have decided that you actually want to do this. You may want to install some more software after this.

Some software that can be replaced:

hildon-application-manager can be replaced with aptitude.
osso-camera can be replaced with FCamera.
osso-browser can be replaced with Fennec, Dillo, Midori, etc...
osso-filemanager can be replaced with mc, GPE File Manager...
osso-pdfviewer can be replaced with epdfviewer.

If you attempt your best to use and bathe in free software like I am doing. You get the idea.

Problems:
hildon-application-manager cannot be removed because CSSU depends on it.
osso-browser cannot be removed because hildon-home and others depend on it.
osso-settings cannot be removed because there is no replacement.
osso-xterm cannot be removed, just because...
Cannot force apt-get to continue removing packages, even if some are missing.

What you can do to help:
Most importantly, report ANY problems you have with this script!
Suggest unnecessary software to be removed. I'm only a little bit familiar with Maemo 5. There's so many packages I don't know about, and some of which are proprietary software. Please let me know what CAN be removed.
List other files (not software) that can be removed. Or follow up on Freeing RootFS Space, because that can help too.
Finally, please list any replacement or alternative software for the osso packages people may have missed.

I also plan to put this script on my Maemo user page and on Pastebin. You can find copies there if you cannot download the attachment.

http://wiki.maemo.org/User:mrrhq
Pastebin link will come soon after a stable release.

This script is released with Zero Copyright, and without any warranty or disclaimer of any kind. I only ask that you keep authorship of my script, but it is not required. I think I may need to give credit to someone else for another small part of the script that influenced this one, but I forgot your name (sorry). Use at your own risk.

Thanks are absolutely not necessary, but always appreciated.

@mrrhq
hi. i really appreciate your little work but do you own Nokia N900 ? and tried this script by yourself ?.

im not an expert but should not the script start with #! /bin/sh or #! /bin/bash

and i guess this is a little similar to Tanner's script (moveroot.sh)

i dont recommend someone to use this script it is totally wrong and not as he said !?!

Seems legit.

then try it

Mmkay.

10 chars.

Oh, interesting. I was able to execute it without that line, but I'll add the shebang.

It works out for me, but I would take a look at what packages are being removed, firstly. For example, most of the hildon-status* packages are safe to remove, but some others are not.

I'll have a look at Tanner's script and add any credits.

As much as removing thing like amazon-installer, ap-installer etc... will may be speed up a bit the process of removing unwanted parts after reflashing, removing things like the browser engine will for sure breaks things (conversation relies on it for the rendering), removing hildon-games-wrapper0 will not save a lot place, and will break some emulators that relies on it for their GUI.

But I like the idea of making a list of package which 99.99% of users will for sure remove, may be for a more finished version, make the script autoremove this useless stuff, then ask the user if he wants to remove the other packages, by prompting him for each package with a short description of what the removing of theses packages implies exactly.

this is our friend script, strange ?

exactly this is what im trying to reach there is some files should not be removed

At least as much proprietary software as possible should be removed (sorry if I sound too much like RMS).

I'm just trying to find out if the osso- stuff is really closed source, unnecessary, and if it can be replaced.

This whole script is an experiment, and I'm sorry if it came off negatively that way.

Also, just because it shouldn't be removed doesn't mean it can't. And software always can be replaced by something generally better. I usually don't enjoy having the notification area spammed up and having messages pop-up saying if I want to use mass-storage or PC Suite, which I will never use anyway.

And I will get more familiar with Maemo as I start using it.