Try this before reflashing!
 

I have found a way to "de-brick" a device that does not require reflashing.

If your device is booting up and hung with the second dot lit, like:

* (*) * * *

this may solve your problem.

1) Get the proprietary (gah!) Nokia firmware flashing program.

2) Power off your phone.

3) Hold down "u" on your fone and plug the USB cable into your phone and your GNU/Linux laptop. This will put it in the same mode as you need when you are flashing it.

4) Run this command as root (or preface with "sudo"). It will only take a second or two.

5) Unplug cables and your system will reboot (or poweroff).

6) Boot up your system, it is now in R&D mode. :) It will (possibly?) prompt you to enter time/data again.

7) Now that everything is fine, power off the system normally again. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR SYSTEM IN R&D MODE, as it eats babies.

8) With your phone powered off hold down "u" on the phone, and plug in the USB cables to the phone and your GNU/Linux laptop.

9) Run this command as root (or preface with "sudo"). It will only take a second or two.

10) Unplug cables and your system will reboot (or poweroff).

11) Boot up your system, it is now recovered and NO DATA LOSS! Yippeee.


More info
-----------
Photos of what the hang looks like using a kernel that has the framebuffer console enabled:
http://www.freemoe.org/users/jebba/MALF/


Some bugs, maybe related:
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5450
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6350


If you found this post helpful, please vote for this bug:
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7019


My collection of N900 notes:
http://wiki.maemo.org/User:Jebba


-Jeff

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

this should be sticky

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Any ideas how to do this on Windows XP?

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Use virtual machine to install linux? :)

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

virtualbox is free.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

install flasher for windows and get your command prompt to flasher directory and write:

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

When I do that it keeps saying Suitable USB device not found, waiting

I had this problem too when trying to flash the eMMC tried using every single different usb port on the computer too.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Weird I got it to work, there was the little logo with the wrench and then green text would appear, and it would attempt to startup, then it would make the power off sound, and then restart that process again.

This is what my screen is saying in green letters...it is cycling a reboot process it appears in R&D mode

Kernel Version:
2.6.39-omap1
#1 PREEMPT Wed OCT 28 15:32 55 EET 2009

no initfs \o/

Component versions
product RX-51
hw-build 2101
nolo 1.4.13
boot-mode normal

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

ok got it to work, it started up, I set the date and time, and I powered it off, when I powered it off it never shut completely off, it just did the reboot cycle where the nokia logo shows, then the balloons, then the nokia logo again. During one of these reboots, I held down U put it back in production mode, and it still cycled over and over, the only way to turn off the device is to remove the battery, the second I put the battery back in, it starts the reboot process all over again...at least I got to see the homescreen again... :-/

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

In R&D mode you have to enter the new time and date and locale information, then finish the boot up. Then you should have your regular desktop. THEN power off, via normal powerbutton, etc.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

That's what I did, I set the date and time, and went thru the desktops really briefly, and then powered off. Went back to the restart cycle as it powered down.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Weird I did that again...set the date and the time, and powered it off, it started doing the reboot thing again, and never fully turned off. So I disabled R&D mode and tried to start it up and kept getting the same error I described above. Went back to R&D mode and it started and I could scroll around the desktop, I went to Xterm and hit the sym/ctrl button and the screen powered off on me the keyboard stayed lit, but the screen faded out in a weird way, like slowly where you could see horizontal lines then it would go to black.

I restarted it again, and all my issues started yesterday when I would plug my phone into the charger and it would act as if it was charging but not recieve any actual charge into the battery. I plugged in the charger, and it immediately did the screen fade out thing again...also if at any time in R&D mode if I hit the sym/ctrl key it does the fade out.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Is this procedure safe with small children in the room?

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Just don't leave them unattended with the device for their own safety.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Ok, here's a new recovery method which is easier as it doesn't need the flasher:

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6350#c42

* take battery out
* insert USB cable (to boot device with charging boot reason)
* insert battery & put back cover back
* remove USB cable


-Jeff
http://wiki.maemo.org/User:Jebba

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

How can I reflash it?

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Jebba, could you detail more on the process?

When inserting the USB cable, is the other end of the USB cable connected to a PC?

When putting back battery & back cover, is the USB cable still attached to the PC? (I'm kind of worried about that)

What happens after you do all these steps? Does N900 boot up normally and the boot count is reset? (so we can upgrade firmware normally via OTA/SSU)

Thank you.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Thank you so much for posting this, Jeff. It worked perfectly to unbrick my N900, and it's much simpler than any other method.

Ceefour: you asked for more details. Yes, the other end of the USB cable must be plugged in to a PC (mine was running Fedora Linux, but I doubt it makes any difference). You keep the cable plugged into the PC while inserting the battery and replacing the back cover. And yes, after this process you can boot the device normally, and everything is back to normal.

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

Sorry for bad English
n900 no initfs \o/ fix
comeon guys be smart .
in maemo flasher !
flasher-3.5 --enable-rd-mode -R . this bring the no initfs green white screen with \o/ .
Agian flasher-3.5 --disable-rd-mode -R
so it will move awaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy and never see it agian only if u enable rd mode agian . U have a big help text file when u install maemo flasher ,u will find it on C: for windows devices .Goodluck it will work just inter the commands first and press enter to get a wait for a usb then when u see the wait connect your n900

Re: Try this before reflashing!
 

you can leave R&D mode on all it does is turn off some watch dogs, my device was always in R&D mode and it worked fine...