Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Whilst on holiday I found an N900 in the sea.
My heart skipped a beat until I checked my pocket and found out that it was not mine. Quite a co-incidence!
Anyway, I rinsed it of salt water and dried it thoroughly.
I was very pleased to find that it does boot, I can hear the "NOKIA" jingle, and when I touch the screen I feel the feedback-vibration, so the O/S is running.

The screen, however, is black.
The composite video output does not work, either.

I've disassembled the unit and cleaned the ribbon connectors to the screen with solvent, to no avail. Upon reassembly it was still black.

I have been able to succesfully connect it to a PC and flash it with the factory ROM, so I've no doubt that the operating system is OK in there.

Is there any way I can get some use out of this unit?
If I could get sshd or VNC installed somehow, I could control it as a headless device and perhaps use it as a Wifi audio device or something... but I'm at a loss as to how to install sshd/VNC blind.

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

You can (theoretically) create a new rootfs image using backupmenu and mtd-utils (see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=63975). The eMMC image should also be doable (see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=74121).

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

You could back up your existing N900 with backup menu, and try to blindly restore from that? There's a rescue flash image somewhere related to the backup utility that has the base + backup app installed. With that, you should be able to clone your existing device, which would give you ssh and more. :)

Edit: Crap.. someone beat me to it. :)

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

... and we can assume you took it by the local nick to make sure the original owner wasn't looking for it?

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Holly JESUS!!!

I droped mine in a toilet and flushed it... and here it came out in some neutral waters out...

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

I recently had a similar situation where my screen's ribbon was severed 2/3 through, to the point where I could input touch screen input but no backlight, screen output, indicator light or ear speaker (the small speaker you listen to while on the phone). I eventually purchased a broken N900 off ebay with a broken screen which I swapped into the original, but I was able to issue commands through therminal by hitting SHIFT+CTRL+X for xterm. you may need to run a few commands just to be able to ssh since you restored. I've been able to blindly connect to my wifi and ssh, vnc and the rest from here.
piping output to espeak helped some

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Opening the terminal with SHIFT+CTRL+X is a great idea, although I would need to input my WiFi credentials before I could connect to it, which might be tricky.

The cloning of my working N900, replete with credentials, seems like an easier option.

And in reply to 'demolition': given the number of pirated videos I found on the MMC card before I flashed it, I think I did the owner a favour by not taking it to the nick!

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Did you try to connect it to an external screen/tv? You then could see if touch does any thing at all.

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Yes, I did try connecting a composite video lead and that did not work.
I think the touch functionality does work, though, because I feel the vibrating touch feedback when I press the screen.

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Ok sir, You got VERY lucky..
OT: Why not just get a new screen or clean the insides?

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Did you connect to an NTSC or PAL TV? I think the phone defaults to one or the other, and only switches to the selected one during booting.
My screen broke as well recently, and when starting the TV out wouldn't work, but after blindly pressing 'skip' on the initial settings screen from memory, the OS loaded, and the TV out started working.

Re: Getting use out of screenless N900
 

Want a new screen? I have a new one I bought on ebay, but my N900 has died (EMMC failure) so the screen is of no use to me now... PM me if you're interested, I'm willing to sell at a slight discount.