Risks to removing udev-hwdb

I have generated an image and have enabled build history. One interesting file I get from this is the installed-package-sizes.txt. It lists all packages installed along with their size in KiB. By far the largest is udev-hwdb.

This can easily be removed by adding BAD_RECOMMENDATIONS += "udev-hwdb" to a bb file.

What are the risks to removing this package?

Hi @MichaelBMiner ,

If you won’t use udev for anything it shouldn’t be a problem to remove the udev-hwdb.

Since this package is a database of devices, the non-existence of this package won’t prevent the detection of USB devices or drivers loading, but if you use udev on your system you will probably need to use some basic configuration like USB’s ID.

Best regards,
Daniel Morais

I am still struggling with this. My device will still detect USB devices, allow a serial port connection. What is the benefit of keeping udev-hwdb? Is there a benefit?

Hi @MichaelBMiner ,

Did you face any issues after removing this package?

Yes, there are benefits regarding using the udev-hwdb, as explained here, the udev-hwdb is used primarily by udev to add the relevant properties to matching devices, if you want to further learn about it, this blogpost might help.

Best regards,
Daniel Morais