Boot Issue N900
 

Using Windows 10 x64

Flashed my N900 with the following commands:

flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f

flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

both those commands finish successfully with no errors

the issue I am having is when the N900 starts its boot and clears the nokia screen says "boot mode: normal"
From there it does the 5dot loading screen.....


This 5 dot loading screen just keeps going and going I have let it go overnight and no change.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

You got the command line opin the wrong way around. You need to use -R with the COMBINED , not VANILLA. Flash COMBINED again.

See also: http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_t...irmware#N900_2

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Thank you for your response.

Issue is still the same.

I'll try using a linux OS maybe windows is messing something up

EDIT: Ubuntu x32 OS flashing eMMC and rootfs complets no errors and no change device sits at 5 dot loading screen

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

It would help to give the logs of what you are doing (with no errors!).

Most probably just the wrong way round?
wiki.maemo.org holds all info to flash.

First eMMC and then Combined. Otherwise you wipe the OS directly again.


--
another question: you used plain Win10 64? Without any other drivers/libusb? That would surprise me.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

I have even read some suggestion somewhere here that it should be Combined, Vanilla, Combined ;)
But the point is Combined last. With no reboot after Vanilla (aka eMMC).

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Hi

My N900 is rebooting in a endless loop after CSSU update. I think i must flash it, but i really don't know which files have to use.

I don't know what version is my phone. If someone knows i have this info:

Type: RX-51
Code: 0580952
FCC ID: LJPRX-51
IC: 661E-RX51


Thanks in advance.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Did you have CSSU-devel repo enabled?

Just take the files listed in OP. You will find them on e.g. Archive.org or elsewhere (deeper links and checksums here on TMO).
The firmware is model independent and eMMC is only different in some deprecated map data.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

I am using libusb-win32-bin-1.2.6.0 with the windows x64 workaround provided by maemo wiki

I just flashed as suggested by pichlo

Combined > eMMC > Combined then reboot flag after last combined

My N900 still is stuck on the loading dots

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

I cannot see anything wrong. Did you unplug the USB cable after the last flash? The last thing I would try is take out the battery and SD card if there is one, wait at least 30 minutes, put the battery back in (but not the SD card) and try booting again. If that still fails, then I give up :(

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

isn't it normal for it to 'hang' at dots for a long time on first boot? how long did you wait? (I haven't flashed since 2011 .. so I might have forgotten by now)

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Yep, a few minutes would be normal. (also no idea 'how' long, last flash around 2013?)

Nothing wrong in the log.
So pichlo's advice, once again, is worth a try (pull battery, wait, push in again; that cured a few weird quirks for me already).
But I am afraid this time it may not help and it could be some HW fault. Possibly open it, clean from dust and check connections/cables?

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

As peterleinchen says, the first boot takes a few minutes. I don't remember how long exactly, could be 10 minutes or more. But the OP said overnight. That is not normal.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

I have no idea about CSSU-devel.


i left the phone all night without battery, then started this morning, boots, appear nokia logo, five dots animation, nokia handshake, locale settings, five dots animation again, and finally the desktop, then reboots forever


Flasing that files for a global version, will fix it?

Thanks

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

I will give that a try and report back.

Is there any way to flash backups now.. I cant find the recovery screen? I have a few backups from long ago when I used this device for a daily driver now I just use it for fun.. as you all know this is one of the best devices for hacking / packet injection with little to no configuration needed for it to work.

Before I starting all this flashing I did try to restore a backup and It failed I forget the errors so then I just decided to start fresh and flash with new images (combined/eMMC)
How is recovery accessed or reflashed?

I dont think this is an issue but I did a battery bypass by soldering +/- wires to the phone where the battery connects so its get power by a usb cable. Assuming the eMMC doesn't need power to keep storage.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

I DO think so :eek:

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Sorry, you did what? I am not 100% sure I understand. Do you mean you soldered the USB power directly to the battery terminals? That would be a sure way of frying your phone (the battery voltage is about 4.2V max; USB gives 5V). I hope this is not what you meant.

The N900 needs the battery to boot. It can be replaced with a dummy circuitry but it is not as simple as just the +/- wires, even with the correct voltage. The middle terminal is also important. The phone uses it to check the battery capacity.

The eMMC is non-volatile and does not need a power backup any more than any other flash storage.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

the name "Diehardn900" just got real.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

I have set voltage for the correct amount needed by the phone to power. This is not the issue

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

And the middle pin?

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Connect thru a 110k resistor to GND ;)

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Hi everybody,

I post here since I am having boot issues too. I reflashed the N900, installed u-boot and was trying to get NITDroid work, but messed up something and now I can only access u-boot terminal. I cannot reflash the phone since when connected to a computer it is not recognised.

I am trying to create a bootable SD card and boot from there, but I don't know how to unpack the RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin file to get the kernel.

Another option would be to directly flash from the SD card.

Any help?

UPDATE: I have been able to unpack the .bin file by issuing

flasher-3.5 -F ....bin -u

So now I have the kernel. I have extracted the zImage and converted it to uImage by mkimage (utility part of the u-boot suite). I have written a short script for starting the kernel and made it into image. Copied all to sd card (single partition). Boots, but hangs and reboots.

At this point I need some advice on how to pass correct parameters to the kernel in order to gain access to the file system.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Hi
Maemo on sd would be very nice to have,
there is information at various places but no images yet.

did you try
http://kicherer.org/joomla/index.php...from-a-sd-card

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Following suggestions by Pali, I am looking at rescue OS:

https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=75369

The files are at:

https://n900.quitesimple.org/rescueOS/rescueOS-1.3/

What I have done up to now:
- downloaded the kernel zImage
- used mkimage to convert it to uImage, with mounting address 86008000 and starting address the same
- with reference to Kicherer's blog, made a script for loading the uImage to memory and booting it. Simply
setenv bootcmd 'fatload mmc 0:1 86008000 uImage; bootm 86008000'
- converted the script into image boot.scr, address 0
- placed uImage and boot.scr in sd card (single partition)
- if I insert the sd card and boot from there, rescue OS starts

The problem is that it doesn't see any file system (I think); it gives an error saying the root is not valid and goes to kernel panic.

Now I contacted again Pali and also NIN101. What I have understood:
- the remainder of the OS is in the file rescueOS-1.3.img, same link as above for the kernel
- this file is to be converted to uImage with mkimage. Did this with name uRam:
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 82008000 -e 82008000 -n ramdisk -d rescueOS-1.3.img uRam
(the address 82008000 is a guess. I think I understand that addresses should be multiples of some quantity, otherwise the kernel says we are unaligned)
- copied uRam to sd card
- loaded uRam to memory by fatload (address 82008000)
- added to boot.scr the line:
setenv bootargs 'initrd=82008000,8M'

This does not work. Clearly I did not expect it to, since I am just trying and trying, understanding step by step as I make errors.

I have posted all this in the hope that somebody may correct my errors and suggest what I should do now.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

As wrote you should use same cmdline bootargs as via USB flasher.

Look at existing U-Boot settings and helper sub-scripts for N900:
http://git.denx.de/?p=u-boot.git;a=b...0;hb=HEAD#l239

So boot script should look like this:
uImage should be generated as:
and uInitrd as:
(not tested)

Look also how is generated Bootmenu script in eMMC from /etc/bootmenu.d files:
https://github.com/pali/u-boot-maemo...pdate-bootmenu

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Pali, you're great. I followed literally what you indicated and now the N900 boots into shell. I will charge the battery and then go further.

I don't know how to thank you.

Re: Boot Issue N900
 

Ok, battery's up.

Now? The device enters flashing mode (hold u and connect usb), but my old spare Windows Vista pc doesn't install drivers, so flasher-3.5.exe won't work. I tried on my MacBook Pro with El Capitan, went into command line, and issued No signs of the device.

So how could I do in order to reflash it? It seems to me strange that it be not possible to reflash from the sd card.

Maybe as an intermediate step it would be interesting to complete Maemo boot from the sd card: up to now I have been able to boot rescueOS; I have Maemo's kernel; what I miss is the initrd.