In the previous entry I discussed using LocalePurge to remove extra language information, removing UserGuides, and bundled media. Those were the easiest things to clean up. Next we'll tackle some of the trickier bits.

4. BUNDLED APPS:
The N810 comes with several bundled items which are nice and all, but I quickly replaced them with 3rd-party applications which I like better. Unfortunately, the software repository lists several of these bundled apps as dependencies so you can't just use apt-get to remove them from your system without making things very unhappy and possibly breaking automatic updates.

But, we can easily enough make these bundled items disappear so they're not cluttering up our interface. Several of the items I simply moved to a backup folder so they wouldn't clutter my interface, but if I decided I wanted/needed them back I could just move them back where they came from.

Having pawed about the file system for awhile (and breaking things a few times) I've figured out some of the setup and how easiest to deal with making these changes. Most of the things we'll care about are located in /usr/share/applications/hildon .../hildon-home and .../hildon-control-panel.

4.1 Application Launcher:
/usr/share/applications/hildon contains the definitions for widgets that show up in the application launcher.
So we can go in there and delete the things we don't want hanging around. The first targets are the bundled installers for Rhapsody, Gizmo, and Skype. (First we'll want to be root)
~ $ root
BusyBox v1.6.1 (2008-09-18 09:43:17 EEST) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
Nokia-N810-43-7:~# cd /usr/share/applications/hildon
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# rm skype.desktop rhapsody.desktop gizmo-project.desktop
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon#

The next thing I did was create my backup folders in case I actually wanted any of the next pieces (also helpful in case something turned out to be not what you thought and you want it back). I just put it into the /root directory:
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# mkdir /root/bkp
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# mkdir /root/bkp/hildon
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# mkdir /root/bkp/hildon-home
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# mkdir /root/bkp/hildon-control-panel

Now we're ready to move the application launcher widgets out of the way, since we don't to use those apps or have them clutter our interface. These are the ones I moved out of the way:
chat-ui.desktop -- built-in chat client
modest.desktop -- built-in email client
osso_rss_feed_reader.desktop -- built-in rss reader
voip-ui.desktop -- built-in voip client

Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# mv chat-ui.desktop modest.desktop osso_rss_feed_reader.desktop voip-ui.desktop /root/bkp/hildon/

I still have a widget for "Contacts" showing up, but I can't find which .desktop file it's coming from, so I'm just leaving it alone.

4.2 Home Applets:
Next up are the home applets (the ones you can select from the Home screen: "Home->Select Applets...") This includes things like the search bar and clock. These widget definitions are stored in /usr/share/applications/hildon-home. I only wanted to keep the Search Bar and the Clock. So I removed the following:
promo-plugin.desktop -- Tableteer Info home applet
homeosso_rss_feed_reader.desktop -- RSS Feed home applet
hildon-home-webshortcut.desktop -- Webshortcut home applet
speeddial.desktop -- Contacts home applet
osso-iradio-applet.desktop -- Internet Radio home applet

Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# cd ../hildon-home
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon-home# mv promo-plugin.desktop homeosso_rss_feed_reader.desktop hildon-home-webshortcut.desktop speeddial.desktop osso-iradio-applet.desktop /root/bkp/hildon-home/


4.3 Control Panel Applets:
Control Panel widgets are stored at /usr/share/applications/hildon-control-panel. There was really only one widget I decided to remove from the Control Panel, the Presence widget, since I don't use it.
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# cd ../hildon-control-panel
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon-control-panel# mv presence-applet.desktop /root/bkp/hildon-home/


4.4 etc:
Gizmo, Rhapsody, and Skype left little tendrils in the /etc directory that I tossed out as well. These are directories, so notice the "rm -rf" (BE CAREFUL with that command, "rm -rf" will remove whatever you point it at without prompting you).
Nokia-N810-43-7:/usr/share/applications/hildon# cd /etc
Nokia-N810-43-7:/etc# rm -rf gizmo-intall rhapsody-install skype-install

Now go and reorganize the Applications menu now that you have so many fewer crusty things to worry about finding places for.

Next up will be setting up ad-blocking for the built-in browser, and some more customization tips.

[This Entry]