ProxMenux/web/messages/en/docs/post-install/uninstall.json

{
  "meta": {
    "title": "Uninstall Optimizations | ProxMenux Documentation",
    "description": "Restore reversible post-install configuration changes applied by ProxMenux. Registered tools use dedicated uninstallers that preserve the pre-existing host state where possible."
  },
  "header": {
    "title": "Uninstall Optimizations",
    "description": "Restore reversible changes made by the Automated or Customizable post-install scripts. ProxMenux registers each supported optimization with its dedicated restoration function; package upgrades are intentionally excluded.",
    "section": "Settings post-install Proxmox"
  },
  "intro": {
    "title": "Why this exists",
    "body": "Every supported reversible tweak is <strong>tracked</strong> in <code>/usr/local/share/proxmenux/installed_tools.json</code>. That registry powers the uninstall flow: it lists the active optimizations and dispatches the matching restoration function. Actions without a safe rollback, such as a full package upgrade, are not added."
  },
  "openMenu": {
    "heading": "How to open it",
    "body": "From ProxMenux's main menu, <strong>Settings post-install Proxmox → Uninstall optimizations</strong>. You will see a checklist of <em>currently applied</em> optimizations — items you have not applied don't show up.",
    "imageAlt": "Uninstall Optimizations checklist showing items currently applied on the host, with checkboxes to select which to revert"
  },
  "howWorks": {
    "heading": "How the reversal works",
    "steps": [
      {
        "title": "Registry and auto-detection",
        "body1": "On first run, ProxMenux walks the host looking for fingerprint files (e.g. <code>/etc/sysctl.d/99-memory.conf</code>, <code>/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-force-ipv4</code>, <code>haveged</code> package installed, Log2RAM service active…). Anything found is added to the registry as reversible, even if it was applied by an older ProxMenux version that predates the registry.",
        "body2": "This migration only runs once. After that, every apply/revert updates the registry directly."
      },
      {
        "title": "Pick what to revert",
        "body1": "The checklist shows a human-readable label per item (e.g. <em>Memory Settings Optimization</em>, <em>IOMMU/VFIO PCI Passthrough</em>, <em>Log2RAM (SSD Protection)</em>). Tick the ones you want to reverse. Nothing you don't tick will be touched."
      },
      {
        "title": "Reversal runs",
        "body1": "For each selected item, ProxMenux calls its matching uninstall function. Most reversals follow one of three patterns:",
        "items": [
          "<strong>Backup-based</strong> — restore a <code>.bak</code> captured at apply time (bashrc, logrotate.conf, journald.conf, GRUB/kernel cmdline).",
          "<strong>Delete-the-config</strong> — remove ProxMenux's <code>/etc/sysctl.d/99-*.conf</code>, <code>/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-*</code>, or systemd unit, then reload.",
          "<strong>Package reinstall</strong> — for UI changes like the subscription banner, reinstall the upstream packages with <code>--force-confnew</code> to restore shipped configuration."
        ],
        "body2": "Each reversal logs its progress. Items that require a reboot (VFIO, persistent interface names) set a flag that triggers the reboot prompt at the end."
      },
      {
        "title": "Reboot prompt at the end",
        "body1": "After the reversal finishes the menu shows a reboot prompt. Items that changed kernel parameters, kernel modules or network naming (VFIO, persistent interface names) do need the reboot to take effect; other items do not, and the prompt is a safety default rather than a per-item check."
      }
    ]
  },
  "reversible": {
    "heading": "What is reversible",
    "intro": "Registered reversible optimizations and their matching uninstallers are grouped here by area:",
    "groups": [
      {
        "title": "Repositories & APT",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "Subscription Banner Removal",
            "restores": "First tries to restore the UI files from ProxMenux's own backups (/usr/local/share/proxmenux/backups/proxmoxlib.js.backup.* and, when the mobile UI is patched, index.html.tpl.backup.*). Only if a backup is missing or corrupt, falls back to reinstalling pve-manager, proxmox-widget-toolkit, libjs-extjs and libpve-http-server-perl with force-confnew. Also clears cached .js / .gz copies."
          },
          {
            "tool": "APT Language Skip",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-disable-translations. APT will download language packages again."
          },
          {
            "tool": "APT IPv4 Force",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-force-ipv4."
          },
          {
            "tool": "System Utilities",
            "restores": "Purges only the selected utility packages that ProxMenux recorded as newly installed. Packages already present before the action are never added to this list and are left untouched."
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Kernel, memory and system limits",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "Memory Settings",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/sysctl.d/99-memory.conf and reloads sysctl."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Kernel Panic Configuration",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/sysctl.d/99-kernelpanic.conf."
          },
          {
            "tool": "System Limits Increase",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/sysctl.d/99-maxwatches.conf, 99-maxkeys.conf, 99-swap.conf, 99-fs.conf and /etc/security/limits.d/99-limits.conf. Reverts PAM limits and systemd DefaultLimitNOFILE, and strips the ulimit -n 256000 line from /root/.profile."
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Networking",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "Network Optimizations",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/sysctl.d/99-network.conf, 97-proxmenux-fwbr.conf and 98-proxmenux-rpf.conf together with the proxmenux-fwbr-tune.service unit, the /usr/local/sbin/proxmenux-fwbr-tune helper and the /etc/udev/rules.d/99-zz-proxmenux-fwbr-tune.rules udev rule. Also strips the source /etc/network/interfaces.d/* line from /etc/network/interfaces. Reloads sysctl, systemd and the udev ruleset."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Open vSwitch",
            "restores": "Runs apt purge on openvswitch-switch and openvswitch-common. Migrate any OVS bridges back to Linux bridges before running this uninstall — otherwise the VMs on those bridges lose networking on next boot."
          },
          {
            "tool": "TCP BBR + TCP Fast Open",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/sysctl.d/99-tcp-bbr.conf and 99-tcp-fastopen.conf and reloads sysctl so the kernel returns to the cubic congestion control and to tcp_fastopen=1."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Persistent Interface Names",
            "restores": "Removes only the 10-proxmenux-*.link files carrying the ProxMenux header from /etc/systemd/network/. Any .link file provided by another package or written by the user is left in place. Interface names return to systemd's default behaviour on next reboot."
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Logging",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "Journald Optimization",
            "restores": "Rewrites /etc/systemd/journald.conf with vanilla defaults and restarts systemd-journald."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Logrotate Optimization",
            "restores": "Restores /etc/logrotate.conf from the .bak file captured before the change."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Log2RAM",
            "restores": "Stops and disables the service and timer. Purges cron jobs, systemd units, binaries, config files and the /var/log.hdd directory. Also uninstalls the apt package if it was installed that way."
          },
          {
            "tool": "ZFS autotrim",
            "restores": "Reads /usr/local/share/proxmenux/zfs_autotrim_pools (the list of pools ProxMenux actually changed) and runs zpool set autotrim=off on each one. Pools you set autotrim on manually before ProxMenux ran are not touched."
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Shell & appearance",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "Bashrc Customization",
            "restores": "Restores /root/.bashrc from the .bak backup. If no backup exists, removes the PMX_CORE_BASHRC block by markers."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Custom MOTD Banner",
            "restores": "Restores the exact original /etc/motd content kept under /usr/local/share/proxmenux, removes the file when it did not exist before, or safely removes the legacy marker when migrating an older installation."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Fastfetch",
            "restores": "Removes the binary, config directory, update-motd hook and the fenced BEGIN FASTFETCH / END FASTFETCH block from /root/.bashrc, ~/.profile, /etc/profile and /etc/profile.d/fastfetch.sh. Purges the apt package if installed."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Figurine",
            "restores": "Removes the binary, profile.d entry and the alias block in bashrc/profile."
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Hardware & virtualization",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "IOMMU / VFIO",
            "restores": "Removes vfio modules from /etc/modules, the nouveau / radeon / nvidia blacklist entries, and intel_iommu=on / amd_iommu=on / iommu=pt / pcie_acs_override parameters from /etc/kernel/cmdline (ZFS) or GRUB. Rebuilds initramfs."
          },
          {
            "tool": "AMD CPU fixes (Ryzen/EPYC)",
            "restores": "Removes idle=nomwait from kernel cmdline (ZFS) or GRUB, and the ignore_msrs / report_ignored_msrs options from /etc/modprobe.d/kvm.conf."
          },
          {
            "tool": "QEMU Guest Agent (templates)",
            "restores": "Reads /usr/local/share/proxmenux/guest_agent.pkg (recorded at install time) and apt purges whichever package was installed (qemu-guest-agent for standard hosts, spice-vdagent when Spice mode is used)."
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Storage",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "ZFS ARC sizing",
            "restores": "Removes /etc/modprobe.d/99-zfsarc.conf, restores any conflicting external *.conf that was staged aside in /usr/local/share/proxmenux/backups/zfs_arc/, rebuilds initramfs and runs proxmox-boot-tool refresh on systemd-boot hosts."
          },
          {
            "tool": "ZFS auto-snapshot",
            "restores": "Removes the cron entries the script wrote and offers to apt purge zfs-auto-snapshot. Existing snapshot datasets on the pools are left intact — remove them separately if you want them gone."
          },
          {
            "tool": "vzdump speed limits",
            "restores": "Restores /etc/vzdump.conf from the .bak the install created, bringing back bwlimit and ionice to their pre-ProxMenux values."
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "Services & extras",
        "items": [
          {
            "tool": "Time Synchronization",
            "restores": "Sets timezone back to UTC (safe default) via timedatectl."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Entropy Generation (haveged)",
            "restores": "Stops, disables and purges the haveged package."
          },
          {
            "tool": "kexec (fast reboots)",
            "restores": "Disables kexec-pve.service, removes the unit file and the reboot-quick alias from /root/.bash_profile, purges kexec-tools."
          },
          {
            "tool": "RPC / rpcbind Disable",
            "restores": "Restores rpcbind.service and rpcbind.socket independently to the enabled/disabled and active/inactive states recorded before ProxMenux changed them."
          },
          {
            "tool": "pigz (parallel gzip)",
            "restores": "Puts /bin/gzip.original back in place, removes the /bin/pigzwrapper, reverts the pigz and bwlimit lines in /etc/vzdump.conf and apt purges pigz."
          },
          {
            "tool": "High Availability services",
            "restores": "Stops and disables pve-ha-lrm, pve-ha-crm and corosync. Existing HA groups and resource definitions are not deleted — remove them from the web UI if you no longer need them."
          },
          {
            "tool": "Ceph repository",
            "restores": "Purges the Ceph packages installed by this option, removes the deb822 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ceph.sources on PVE 9 (or the legacy Ceph list on PVE 8), and refreshes the APT cache."
          },
          {
            "tool": "OVH RTM (monitoring)",
            "restores": "apt purges any ovh-* packages the RTM installer added and deletes the puppet manifests it dropped under /etc/puppet/. On non-OVH hosts nothing was ever installed, so nothing is removed."
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "edge": {
    "heading": "Edge cases and caveats",
    "packageTitle": "Package reinstall touches live Proxmox packages",
    "packageBody": "Reverting <strong>Subscription Banner Removal</strong> reinstalls <code>pve-manager</code>, <code>proxmox-widget-toolkit</code>, <code>libjs-extjs</code> and <code>libpve-http-server-perl</code> with <code>--force-confnew</code>. This is generally safe but does touch the running web UI — refresh your browser afterwards, and expect a few seconds of reconnection. Don't run this in the middle of a migration or clone operation.",
    "rebootTitle": "Persistent names and VFIO need a reboot",
    "rebootBody": "Removing ProxMenux's <code>10-proxmenux-*.link</code> files (<em>Persistent Interface Names</em>) and reverting <em>IOMMU/VFIO</em> do not affect the running system — they only matter after a reboot. ProxMenux sets the reboot flag automatically for these.",
    "perItemTitle": "You can revert one thing and keep the rest",
    "perItemBody": "The uninstaller operates per-item. If you only want to remove Log2RAM but keep the network tuning and bashrc changes, tick only <em>Log2RAM</em>. Nothing else is touched, and the registry is updated accordingly."
  },
  "inspect": {
    "heading": "Inspecting the registry manually",
    "intro": "If you want to see what's tracked without opening the menu:",
    "outro": "Each <code>\"tool\": true</code> entry corresponds to something ProxMenux applied and can reverse. Removing an entry manually is not recommended — always use the menu, which also runs the reversal function instead of just forgetting the change.",
    "reinstallTitle": "Reinstall after uninstall",
    "reinstallBody": "Reverting an optimization doesn't prevent you from re-applying it later. Open <link>the Post-Install menu</link> again and run either Automated or Customizable — the registry will track the new state."
  },
  "related": {
    "heading": "Related",
    "items": [
      {
        "label": "Automated Post-Install",
        "href": "/docs/post-install/automated",
        "tail": " — re-apply the sane-defaults baseline."
      },
      {
        "label": "Customizable Post-Install",
        "href": "/docs/post-install/customizable",
        "tail": " — pick a different subset."
      },
      {
        "label": "Uninstall ProxMenux",
        "href": "/docs/settings/uninstall-proxmenux",
        "tail": " — different operation: removes ProxMenux itself, not its applied optimizations."
      },
      {
        "label": "Post-Install overview",
        "href": "/docs/post-install",
        "tail": "."
      }
    ]
  }
}