Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

Hi,
My N900 has been working fine with PR 1.1 (UK). I decided to flash with PR 1.1.1 earlier today. I flashed from linux, had no errors and the process was quick/smooth.

I used the usual incantation with no eMMC flash, and I also backed up a) eMMC via USB copy b) using internal backup app. The most important data on device is probably contacts, which I have elsewhere, but the merging etc just saves time.

When I initially rebooted after flash the device came up, I could see my RSS feeds, some of my desktop icons, even my old theme was intact but the phone was running impossibly slowly - perhaps a minute to swipe the screen. I ended up shutting down after about 20 mins. In fact the shutdown did''t complete after several more minutes - it had mostly gone down, but the led was still flashing yellow. I ended up pulling the battery

The phone now boots up, but the desktop has defaulted back to the old blue maemo background, and there are no desktop icons other than task management/clock/battery/signal in the status area

I have very few apps installed now (unlike before) and "contacts" doesn't even launch. I'm now thinking perhaps the phone was "restoring" when I powered down (but 20 minutes???)

Recommend next steps?
* Restore a backup using the backup app with no flash? (doing this now)
* if that doesn't help Re-flash as before
* Do a "fuller" flash (add the parm to erase eMMC -- anything more?)

No big deal, nothing I'm worried about, just trying to understand process and save time

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

Step 1 seems logical.

I've restored my phone with the backup and everything was fine.
Although my contacts were not restored with the backup facility. Anyone know why the built-in backup doesnt save contacts?

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

I ended up going for the full flash, and still have problems...

In particular there are issues with "settings".

I can't connect to lan, and if I go into Settings->Internet connections->Search interval & save .. I get:

Internal error. Application "settings" closed

Also all settings are listed under "extras".

I can only guess that one of the applications I was previously using, and that was restored is causing this issue. I've already repeated the full restore (inc. eMMC) without "settings" included. None of the apps were from extras-dev, and all were in use before update.


Now going to repeat again and install applications in smaller "sets"

Sigh, I thought this would be relatively easy....

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

I had enorm issues after I flashed my Device to the 3.x firmware with Flasher 3.5 (could not use OTA or NSU (WIN7)). It was even worse then you descriping due mine was restarting all the time.
But got the hint here in the forum to also reflash emmc using flasher.
Worked like charm and after installing Backup phone runs like it should again.
If you run e,,c save all needed data from the device.
Connect with USB flashing mode (tunr off and hold U and connect) and make sure Battery is full.

And have fun only takes some minutes.

Hope get running again.

BR

Wolfpac

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

Hi,
I have fully flashed with both eMMC and firmware quite a few times now.

On the last attempt I restored email/bookmarks only -- no restored apps, no settings.

However each time what I've found is:
* I can initially use the phone fine, connect to network etc.
* "settings" works fine
* can do basic ops with built in apps ie browse, setup photo sharing using built in plugins

After FIRST reboot I find
* Rather than "settings being categorized" all settings are now in "Extras", and things such as network connections don't work properly.

Checking "installed applications", there is nothing extra installed

This is not good. I may have a "loose" contacts & try not restoring anything.

It's possible it could be related to changing from UK fw to generic global, but I'd be somewhat surprised.

No-one else getting similar issues?

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

Ok, so this time I ran (from linux)
... enter usb mode
* ./flasher-3.5 -F ../RX-51_2009SE_1.2009.41-1.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R
... wait for power down, re-enter usb mode
* ../flasher-3.5 -F ../RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

The flash step throws no errors, looks nice and clean and responsive.

* Go into Applications->settings. Observe settings are in categories ie "Personalization", "Connectivity" etc
* reboot
* Go into Applications->settings. Observe settings momentarily display categories as above, but within 1-2s changes to a single list under extras

Note that I did NOT other stuff with applications, there's no network configuation, so something is quite wrong.

The categorization change is just one symptom. Basically things are broken -- the desktop for example is unresponsive and cannot be scrolled left/right (although once in apps it works ok)

Possibilities?
* My flash was wrong?
* The "gold" eMMC image isn't compatable with the global firmware image
* The global firmware isn't compatable with a UK handset

Possible actions
* Install eMMC + older firmware, check works THEN apply upgrade
* As above, but with UK firmware

Any ideas? This is very strange.

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

Ok, seem to have made progress.

Flashing the new PR 1.1.1 firmware together with the original eMMC flash does not work & results in this issue.

However flashing the ORIGINAL firmware together with eMMC, then updating step/step via application manage gets to a working configuration.

Following that a "restore" appears to work - have not done the apps yet, but successfully restored contacts, bookmarks, email, settings etc.

So watch out with that eMMC file if doing a full restore...

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

So it sounds like the PR1.1.1 firmware file is the issue :(

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

Yes you're right, does look like it since it failed originally before I'd even used the eMMC file


This is what *did not* work for me

sh-4.0# sum RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
55826 166998
sh-4.0# ls -la RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
-rw-------. 1 jonesn jonesn 171005621 2010-02-19 10:55 RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin


ie the global PR 1.1.1 file from http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N900.php

Re: Unhappy N900 afte fw flash - blank desktop etc
 

Have you checked the md5sum to see whether it matches that in the MD5SUMS file?