Partitioning errors
 

Hi'

I feel bad I've messed up my N900, it all started when I tried to install Nitdroid into the internal memory. I was following up from a youtube clip that was showing the steps to follow. I messed up at the point where I was supposed to create a partition using GParted.

After disconnecting my phone, it could not boot, it kept starting (with the vibration) displays the Nokia white screen and then screen fades and over and over again does the same thing.

I have tried connecting it to the same computer and checking from the GParted software but can't see it. Tried mounting it from Terminal but oops, not a trace. Tried using Flasher-3.5 to flash the firmware but cant detect the usb device.

I know this sounds really messed up, but please help me put it back. I won't try this again I promise. I'll stick to maemo. It will be good if i get to my data still intact if possible. I have tried the forum that have been posted relating to this and haven't found a solution from them since this looks different in that I can't get to start the device on itself:mad:

Please, kindly assist.

Freddie

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Try to pull the battery to stop the reboot loop.
Wait a couple of seconds, then reinsert the battery and charge it for some time.

Nevertheless it might be necessary to flash the kernel only to it.
This wiki article explains the procedure http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_t...rt_topic.21.29

Depending on the status of the partitioning, you, may be, will have to start gparted again to correct some things.
Feel free to ask here.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

hi, I have tried removin the battery for some time and connecting to a charger but the loop continues.
I have also tried flashing the kernel only and the firmware separately but the computer can't detect the device.

Please assist.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Please make sure your battery is fully charged, there are cases reported where an empty battery triggers this reboot loop. A corrupted kernel also does.
Try to get it charged in an external charger, may be at a local Nokia Shop or at a friends phone. Some phones have the same battery like the N97, the X1 and some others.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

I have tried with my other battery which is fully charged, when i put it in, then power the phone on, it immediately vibrates and brings the white screen with blue words Nokia. It goes black and after kinda five seconds, it restarts again for another time. It loops twice then stops.


Maybe i cleared the partition that had my OS? Is it possible Michaa. And btw, at some point before it really went bad, it had shown something like 'memory corrupted'.
Also, i remember the point i lost it on the youtube tutorial was that part of changin the format to things like ext2,ext3, fat....is it possible that this could be the reason.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Don't ask us just use rescueOS and check second partition.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

You cannot access the compressed root system from gparted, so i doubt that the system itself is corrupted. But you could corrupt the loaded kernel during a crash. The whole information on putting nitdroid on the N900 is very fragmented all over the net... Which how-to did you try to follow? Did you start gparted from an installed system or from Live-Media like CD, DVD or USB-stick?

Did you try to flash with both your batteries?
Which OS do you use on the PC you are trying to flash from?

Edit:You could have done damage to the second partition,but that would not stop the phone from booting, as far as i know. You just would miss lots of additional applications and your custom settings.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Thanks Elros, but i had not installed nitdroid yet, it was stil on maemo os.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

↲↲↲thanks Michaa,↲↲Its good that the compressed root system can't be accessd, was gettin worried I might have erased the root data.↲the link to the tutorial i was followin is www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q1biPWvKOE and I was running GParted from a Linux PC.↲I have just tried the two batteries one at a time and though fully charged, still couldn't boot or be visible in the PC.↲↲Am currently lookin for another cable and pc, just to try, but in the meantime, any further advice?↲↲am grateful for all your efforts to assist. Thank you,

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Changed the computer, still didn't boot.
I then tried, removing the battery, on terminal I run the firmware flash code and when it showed, "Suitable USB device not found, waiting.", I pressed 'u' (still with my battery off) and then put in my battery and the phone was detected and flashed well and restarted well. but....
When I go to my file manager, and check memory usage, I see, "Device - (memory card corrupted)" and below it, "Memory for installable applications is 78.5 MB available with the progress bar on usage at approx 80%).
When I connect to the PC and select Mass Storage, I get the error, "Unable to connect via USB. Device storage in use". This then means, I can't access it via GParted to try and repartition. Please assist.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Beg to interfere but you can install backup menu and try usb mass-storage option
also if you didn't get success in this then try flashing both emmc and kernel

Re: Partitioning errors
 

I didn't have the backup menu app, and cant install anything, keeps telling me; "operation temporarily disable due to low memory"
Currently downloading the firmware to try and flash the firmware.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

I told you: check your partitions. You get such a message "operation temporarily disable due to low memory" because your swap isn't activate. Put rootsh deb on sd card and use sfdisk.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

I wish I could Elros, my sd slot doesn't function.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

so use rescue os

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Due to the incomplete partitioning your internal card has bad partition table and some broken file systems. Can you surf the net to manually download rootsh here: http://repository.maemo.org/extras/p...sh_1.8_all.deb to the N900 directly and try if tapping it in the file manager will install it?

@elros34: Do you mind switching to a more verbose state and elaborate on the usage of rescue os to give some help, please? Personally never touched it...:o

Re: Partitioning errors
 

michaaa, he can't install rootsh via manager due to problem with swap. Freddi, flash your emmc if you don't have any important data or you can enable rd mode and then using sfdisk repair/check second and third partition: sfdisk -l, fsck.. or without enabling rd mode boot rescueos and do the same.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Hi Elros and Michaa,
I managed to flash my emmc but still my memory shows as corrupted. I also enabled rd mode via flasher on Linux PC but still can't run almost all commands I see on forums. See attached some images, with the hope it helps evaluate the best solution.
I downloaded rescue os but am having issues installin it, will advice once am successful on installing it.

Attachments added

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Make sure that you flash your emmc in correct way: so download emmc image
flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin -f
If everything goes well, flash once again firmware and enjoy.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

To make things clear: You lost all of your data and settings through this mess!

Now in rd mode:
You have to correct the partition table. These are three commands:
#1 sudo ... to gain the rights you might drop this in rd-mode
#2 echo ... over those 5 lines to create a file containing the informations for the partition table
#3 sfdisk ... dumps the file's content to the partition table part of the MBR.
This will create a 23GB MyDocs partition, a 8GB partition for installable applications (and plenty of space for nitdroid ;) ) and a 750MB swap space.

Then reboot to check if the partition table is written correctly.

After the reboot check the partition tableIf the values are correct, make the partitions active and apply file systemsNow you are set to flash the firmware and use your partitions

Re: Partitioning errors
 

I tried the codes first before flashing my emmc; and on the steps to ammend the table, all went well with no errors, but on restarting and querying the table, its the same as I had sent via my second last post.
I ignored the fact that there is no change and went on with the code;
sfdisk -c /dev/mmcblk0 1 c - g - gave this, "mkfs.vfat 3.0.1 (23 Nov 2008)
/dev/mmcblk0p1: No such file or directory"
This mkfs.ext3 -L optfs /dev/mmcblk0p2 gave "could not stat /dev/mmcblk0p2 --- no such file or directory.
The device apparently does not exist; did you specify it correctly?"

This is my output....

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Looks bad.

The second block of commands from the earlier post does notwork at all if the first is not applied successfully.
Would you, please, try the code again and post output file with you answer via screenshotsThen reboot and run

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Hey,

Gone to worse now, when I restarted again, the phone takes a long time to boot and then when its done, I select the menu, and it shows the menu first, but when I select an application, the phone does not do anything for a really long time - over 30 minutes. The backlight goes off and when I awake it, the highlight is still at the application I tapped on....:confused:

Am now downloading the two files as Elros had suggested I try to flash both vanilla and emmc....

Any advice will be greatly appreciated and thanks for helping me this far.

Regards,

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Well the delay could be the system checking the non-existing=damaged file systems, nevertheless a full flash is what is the way to go. Could be that this will fix that partitioning scheme.

I intended to make the second partition larger for you, to skip this part while installing nitdroid. Here is the wiki article about flashing: http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_tablet_firmware

Feel free to ask, if you are having difficulties with the article or the flashing procedure. Everyone is willing to help you succeed.:cool:

Re: Partitioning errors
 

Hi guys, went dead silent for some time and here i am now with my phone fixed.
Yes indeed I lost all my data, important actually and for now am stuck thinking how to get my data back. There seemed to be a problem with the extension of the partition I did on GParted and the phone kept referring to it as unrecognized. I hence formatted my emmc and still it read as unrecognized. I then tried flashing the vanilla, which kept exiting with an error about 'raw data mismatch'. After several tries and fails, I changed to windows xp, tried using the NSU, which could detect the phone but could not analyze the phone data to determine if update is required.
I tried again on Linux to format the emmc and,...it went through but my mass memory was read only. I tried to format it but it was still read only (couldnt save, copy, delete etc anything from the drive)

I took this to the computer, formatted the mass memory and used NSU again, which now detected my device and updated the firmware to PR1.3 which am using for like 7 hours so far and this is great combined with the cssu update.

Michaa & Elros, if I could request, I'd like to run Kubuntu and Nitdroid and unfortunately can't use my mem card slot as it is not working, is it possible to partition to three partitions where I have enough workspace to run the three os's. Am not worried about storage as I am able to use OTG to an external hard disk.

Thank you guys, am glad am back up and going. GBU.

Re: Partitioning errors
 

For partitioning: Well it is back to post #20 http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=20 and use all the code. Or back to gparted...

For Nitdroid: The above procedure would be sufficient to have enough space on the optfs partition.

For Kubuntu: The default Kubuntu setup is designated for an external card, but there are some workarounds somewhere in the dedicated thread http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=87002