Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Hi,

A long time ago I set a password on my phone and used to lock it but it got annoying so I stopped doing it. Unfortunately I never reset the password. Today I accidentally hit the lock screen button and my phone locked itself. I can't for the life of me remember the password. I've read that I should take it to some nokia center somewhere but I'm in a village in the middle of nowhere for the next week and I'm sure there's no nokia center around and i really need my phone. Is there any way to get the phone functional again without flashing it and deleting all my data? I have the USB cable and a mac laptop (no windows but I do have linux installed). Any help would be much appreciated.

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Friend,

You're talking about the Lock Code, right? Actually, flashing your N900 won't help either (the lock code won't go back to the default of 12345). There is a thread here which talks about the steps needed to extract an "encrypted" version of your lock code from your N900, and then using a decrypter application available in Linux (such as John the Ripper), so that you can recovery your lock code.

Here's the thread, hope this helps: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=37808&page=33

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

go to the 1st post of the thread, download the a.out file & follow instructions

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

I think to extract the "encrypted" code you need access to your N900 so flashing will help as it lets you use your phone again, and then go through the steps in the links to recover the code. I know this because exactly the same thing happened to me. When you flash though, all your personal details (coversations, address book etc will still be there)

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Um...I specifically meant that flashing will not help as far as resetting the lock code. Definitely flashing will help making the phone still useable.

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Yep, got that sorry, I edited my post. :D

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Thanks for the responses. This really sucks! Am I correct in understanding that there's pretty much no way to get into the phone without frying my data? I feel like a complete idiot saying this but I don't have much of it backed up and there's tons of stuff on there -- photos, notes, etc... Is there anyway to get the data off? Even sending it to Nokia?

many thanks..

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Sorry I posted before seeing these last few posts. I don't care about getting the code because I don't really use it...its a much longer term problem. But I'd like to go hiking now and need a phone in case I have an emergency or something. And I absolutely do not want to fry my data (contacts are not a huge deal as i sync them but photos, tomboy notes, etc.. are). So is there a way I can flash the phone and make it useable without losing the data? is there a way to do this from OS X or linux? I would really appreciate a link with some details if so. Many thanks!

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Just to check: you can still navigate through menus, etc.? How about being able to access X Terminal?

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Hi,

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. I have no access to my phone or the menus or anything? When I boot up the phone it asks for the lock code which I don't know and I'm pretty much stuck there. I'm not running an ssh server so I guess my only option is to flash right?

From here:

http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_t..._does_it_do.3F

I looks like flashing rootfs will preserve my data such as photos and conboy notes (the main stuff i really need). Is this correct? And will flashing to rootfs be enough to get my access to my phone again. I don't care if it doesn't reset the password for now...I'll sort that out later.

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

It's possible, but still as a general rule you really need to back up your important files, because flashing the N900 (in a simplified analogy) is like re-formatting a computer hard drive (i.e. wiping out all the contents) and re-installing the "Operating System".

By the way, flashing is a good way of fixing, but the reason why I'm going the route of recovering the lock code is to see if we can still do away with having to flash your N900.

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Hi topet2k12001,

Thanks for the info but is there a way to get in without flashing? As I said I have no access to anything since the code locks me out. I tried but can't seem to remember the code.

I'm thinking of trying just flashing the rootfs. Do you think this will resolve the problem while keeping my data or do you have a better recommendation?

thanks!

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Sorry i think i was being confusing. I want to reflash my device not just the rootfs but the whole FIASCO but not the emmc. I've downloaded flasher 3.5 and plan to use the command:

sudo /usr/bin/flasher-3.5 -F RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

My understanding is that this preserves my data and will let me get into the system. Is this correct? If not please let me know as I plan to do this asap!

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

Ok, so for the sake of people who have a similar problem this worked!

I was able to flash my phone with the latest PR1.3 firmware using a USB connection and it rebooted, let me in without a lock code and still has all my data. My applications were lost but i guess there's even a way to recover them from an old backup right?

I downloaded the firmware image:

RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin

from the website (you need a serial num found on the back of your phone under the battery):

http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N900.php

and i downloaded flasher-3.5 from:

http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/maemo-d...-downloads.php

and used the command:

sudo /usr/bin/flasher-3.5 -F RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

I'm on a mac. The instructions for windows will be different. You can find more details here:

http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/...usage_examples
http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_t..._does_it_do.3F

Let me emphasize that this did get me in to my locked phone without deleting my data (at least as far as i can tell). From what I've been told it did not reset the password but i can deal with that later.

Incidentally I did lose some apps I'd installed. I think it might be possible to flash only the bootloader and avoid flashing your rootfs and that might avoid any app issues. In my case I was running a non-standard kernel (poweruser kernel) so I think I had to do everything -- loader, kernel and rootfs.

Any quick ideas how to restore applications? i do have an oldish backup which should have most of them listed.

Actually looks like a lost a few more things. Will list them here (and try to update):

- Email configuration (not a big deal I use imap so can reset up).
- Applications.

Note quite sure why flashing to pr1.3 would fry my email but I can live with it. Anyone have any tips to restore stuff I'd appreciate it.

Re: Accidentally locked my phone -- need help!!
 

the steps you list to re-flash the N900 without losing your data are the correct ones, indeed
(... -F ... -f -R )

you can indeed recover apps included in a backup simply by restoring it
(start BACKUP, click on the backup (directory name, in fact) and click on RESTORE.

UNCHECK EVERYTHING except applications, as you will otherwise reset you conversations, settings & all to the state prior of the backup, which is definitely NOT what we want.
maybe a good idea to make a FRESH backup of the DATAs (settings, convos aso.) prior to restore, just in case...

after the restore completes it will restart the N900 & a pop-up will appear, offering to restore the applications as well.