Removing Plugins ... Worthwhile or Not ??

[exitguy]

T2 running 19.3 20190718 (USB updated)
Have a number of plugins that we never use showing in the plugin list i.e. IceTV, YouTube etc. etc.
Is there any benefit to performance to remove those we do not use or are not interested in ??

[MrQuade]

Is there any benefit to performance to remove those we do not use or are not interested in ??

There is no performance benefit in doing so.
There is also the possibility of breaking things if you remove any of the pre-installed plugins. Some people do remove them, and are ok, but I don't know exactly what the "rule" is for which ones are safe.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I think there's value to leaving the IceTV plugin installed - if you end up with crappy data in the EPG cache (occasionally happens), enabling & disabling IceTV will nuke the EPG.

[Paul_oz53]

... Some people do remove them, and are ok, but I don't know exactly what the "rule" is for which ones are safe.

I used to do that to declutter the menus, particularly bloat that didn't really do anything. In recent years the need for it has pretty much disappeared. I never had a problem when I did but you never know.

Do not remove Shoutcast - you will almost certainly break the Menu navigation as it doesn't like an empty column.

I use IceTV, so was annoyed when it was made an option a time ago and removed from the firmware. But, the corollary is you can probably uninstall it now that it is back and it is unlikely anything will break. YouTube is pretty innocuous too so probably not an issue to remove it. If you have YouTube TV listed you may want to remove it too but I have never tried that. Whatever, take it slowly and try one at a time.

Suck it and see if anything goes amiss, but, if something does break, make sure you have taken backups and are ready to reflash from USB.

[adoxa]

Is there any benefit to performance to remove those we do not use or are not interested in ??

There is no performance benefit in doing so.

If you do not need network access there is a definite startup performance benefit from disabling OpenSSL (not sure how to do it properly, I just renamed the site directory) and removing OpenWebif (which won't work without OpenSSL, anyway). Disable the ethernet adapter for a quicker reboot time, too.

Do not remove Shoutcast - you will almost certainly break the Menu navigation as it doesn't like an empty column.

I fixed that ages ago (merged 27 July, 2018).

[Paul_oz53]

Paul_oz53 wrote: ↑Do not remove Shoutcast - you will almost certainly break the Menu navigation as it doesn't like an empty column

I fixed that ages ago (merged 27 July, 2018).

Genius knows no bounds!

[prl]

If you do not need network access there is a definite startup performance benefit from disabling OpenSSL (not sure how to do it properly,

To disable it across boots:
update-rc.d -f sshd remove

To re-enable it:
update-rc.d sshd defaults

Add -n to either to see what it will do without doing it.

The state of it being disabled isn't, and can't be, backed up in a settings backup, and being disabled can be reversed by an online update.

[adoxa]

If you do not need network access there is a definite startup performance benefit from disabling OpenSSL (not sure how to do it properly,

To disable it across boots:
update-rc.d -f sshd remove

Sorry, I mean Python's OpenSSL. IIRC on the T2 Twisted takes about 9s to load, about 6s of which is OpenSSL.

[prl]

For that, I know no better way.

[exitguy]

Got rid of most of what is not required, took MrQuade advice and left ShoutCast so as not to cause any problems. All seems to be working OK.

Youtube Settings and OperaBrowser are still showing in the plugin list, cannot find them in any section to remove - can anybody point me in the right direction.

[prl]

If you don't use the Beyonwiz as a DLNA server, disabling DLNA in MENU>Setup>Network>DLNA server can save a bit of time at startup.

This setting can't be backed up effectively, and DLNA will be re-enabled by a USB firmware update, and may be re-enabled by online firmware updates.

[Paul_oz53]

...

Youtube Settings and OperaBrowser are still showing in the plugin list, cannot find them in any section to remove - can anybody point me in the right direction.

Not sure about YouTube Settings since I don't see that on mine. However, Opera Browser is part of the base firmware AFAIK so it's not intended to be removed except by experts. How to is above my pay grade!

[peteru]

If you don't use the Beyonwiz as a DLNA server, disabling DLNA in MENU>Setup>Network>DLNA server can save a bit of time at startup.

This setting can't be backed up effectively, and DLNA will be re-enabled by a USB firmware update, and may be re-enabled by online firmware updates.

As I posted elsewhere, if you want to permanently prevent miniDLNA from consuming too many resources, the best option is to change the configuration to stop exporting the default path. Once you change the configuration to export nothing, the setting will be part of the backup and when miniDLNA starts it will not rebuild the database.