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[HELP] N900 totally screwed

So, this is my second [HELP] post in as many days. Yesterday, fapman and HAM was acting up. Today, my complete device seems to be screwed. I'll explain the events chronologically:

1. So, it began while I was listening to songs. The device suddenly stopped responding and I had to switch off and switch on.

2. But then the media player started acting up by showing zero media (songs/video), playlists were still present.

3. I checked gallery and saw that there were zero pics as well.

4. I assumed this was a tracker issue and did tracker-processes --hard-reset

5. This gave no changes in media player/gallery (in retrospect, there were a few errors while running tracker-processes that said something to the effect that some .db files could not be found)

6. I managed with radio until reaching home, but then charged and restarted.

7. Various icons are going missing.
7a. Accounts/Availability menu disappears from status bar menu

8. I removed the battery and tried starting the device after a couple of minutes

9. Now there are no graphical elements; the time/date selection menu in the begining shows image not found with ! marks everywhere

10. No status bars or battery/cell icons, no icons at all

11. Maemo graphical theme is missing, reverted to what I think is GTK theme (all white and buttony, like windows 98)

12. Tried uninstalling the last theme i installed yesterday (Maemeem); no dice. FAPMAN log says uable to write to /var/cache/apt

This is what my current state is. Normally I'd just flash it and hopefully it'd have been fixed. But my laptop is in service (this week's been bad for me, gadget-wise) and I'm using a friends ubuntu laptop with no superuser powers to install anything. Hence would be grateful for any help...

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

Might be a corrupted or read-only optfs partition. Please try to give some meaningful output of commands in X-Terminal

Code:

mount

df

free

uname -a

dpkg -l| grep kernel

ls -al /var/cache/apt

sudo gainroot

sfdisk -l

Do you have any recovery solution installed and are you familiar with its usage, like backupmenu, recovery-console or u-boot? In case an external file system check might be necessary.

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

Code:



~ $ mount 

rootfs on / type rootfs (rw) 

ubi0:rootfs on / type ubifs (rw,bulk_read,no_chk_data_crc) 

proc on /proc type proc (rw) 

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) 

tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,noatime,size=1024k) 

tmpfs on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noatime,size=256k,mode=755) 

none on /dev type tmpfs (rw,noatime,size=10240k,mode=755) 

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) 

tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,size=65536k) 

/dev/mmcblk0p2 on /home type ext3 (defaults) 

/home/opt on /opt type none (bind) 

nodev on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (0) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python2.5 on /usr/lib/python2.5 type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/pyshared on /usr/share/pyshared type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/pyshared on /usr/lib/pyshared type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/python-support on /usr/share/python-support type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python-support on /usr/lib/python-support type bind (bind) 

/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /home/user/MyDocs type vfat (rw,noauto,nodev,exec,nosuid,noatime,nodiratime,utf8,uid=29999,shortname=mixed,dmask=000,fmask=0000,rodir) 

/dev/mmcblk1p1 on /media/mmc1 type vfat (rw,noauto,nodev,exec,nosuid,noatime,nodiratime,utf8,uid=29999,shortname=mixed,dmask=000,fmask=0000,rodir) 

~ $ df 

Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on 

rootfs 233104 160080 68740 70% / 

ubi0:rootfs 233104 160080 68740 70% / 

tmpfs 1024 72 952 7% /tmp 

tmpfs 256 84 172 33% /var/run 

none 10240 80 10160 1% /dev 

tmpfs 65536 100 65436 0% /dev/shm 

/dev/mmcblk0p2 2064208 936296 1023056 48% /home 

/home/opt 2064208 936296 1023056 48% /opt 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python2.5 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/lib/python2.5 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/pyshared 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/share/pyshared 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/pyshared 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/lib/pyshared 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/python-support 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/share/python-support 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python-support 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/lib/python-support 

/dev/mmcblk0p1 28312128 11587776 16724352 41% /home/user/MyDocs 

/dev/mmcblk1p1 15343104 5266048 10077056 34% /media/mmc1 

~ $ free 

total used free shared buffers 

Mem: 235252 231548 3704 0 4504 

Swap: 786424 26348 760076 

Total: 1021676 257896 763780 



~ $ mount 

rootfs on / type rootfs (rw) 

ubi0:rootfs on / type ubifs (rw,bulk_read,no_chk_data_crc) 

proc on /proc type proc (rw) 

sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) 

tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,noatime,size=1024k) 

tmpfs on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noatime,size=256k,mode=755) 

none on /dev type tmpfs (rw,noatime,size=10240k,mode=755) 

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) 

tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,size=65536k) 

/dev/mmcblk0p2 on /home type ext3 (defaults) 

/home/opt on /opt type none (bind) 

nodev on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (0) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python2.5 on /usr/lib/python2.5 type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/pyshared on /usr/share/pyshared type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/pyshared on /usr/lib/pyshared type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/python-support on /usr/share/python-support type bind (bind) 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python-support on /usr/lib/python-support type bind (bind) 

/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /home/user/MyDocs type vfat (rw,noauto,nodev,exec,nosuid,noatime,nodiratime,utf8,uid=29999,shortname=mixed,dmask=000,fmask=0000,rodir) 

/dev/mmcblk1p1 on /media/mmc1 type vfat (rw,noauto,nodev,exec,nosuid,noatime,nodiratime,utf8,uid=29999,shortname=mixed,dmask=000,fmask=0000,rodir) 

~ $ df 

Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on 

rootfs 233104 160080 68740 70% / 

ubi0:rootfs 233104 160080 68740 70% / 

tmpfs 1024 72 952 7% /tmp 

tmpfs 256 84 172 33% /var/run 

none 10240 80 10160 1% /dev 

tmpfs 65536 100 65436 0% /dev/shm 

/dev/mmcblk0p2 2064208 936296 1023056 48% /home 

/home/opt 2064208 936296 1023056 48% /opt 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python2.5 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/lib/python2.5 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/pyshared 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/share/pyshared 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/pyshared 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/lib/pyshared 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/share/python-support 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/share/python-support 

/opt/pymaemo/usr/lib/python-support 

2064208 936296 1023056 48% /usr/lib/python-support 

/dev/mmcblk0p1 28312128 11587776 16724352 41% /home/user/MyDocs 

/dev/mmcblk1p1 15343104 5266048 10077056 34% /media/mmc1 

~ $ free 

total used free shared buffers 

Mem: 235252 231548 3704 0 4504 

Swap: 786424 26348 760076 

Total: 1021676 257896 763780 

~ $ 

~ $ uname -a 

Linux Nokia-N900 2.6.28.10-power52 #1 PREEMPT Sat Apr 6 11:59:23 UTC 2013 armv7l unknown 

~ $ dpkg -l|grep kernel 

ii kernel 2.6.28-20103103+0m5 Flashable Linux kernel 

ii kernel-flasher 2.6.28-20103103+0m5 Linux kernel updater 

ii kernel-module-cifs 1.55.0-maemo1-ac0 CIFS, Samba, Windows File Share support 

ii kernel-modules 2.6.28-20103103+0m5 Linux kernel modules 

ii kernel-power 1:2.6.28-10power52 Flashable Linux kernel (kernel power 2.6.28. 

ii kernel-power-flasher 1:2.6.28-10power52 Linux kernel updater (kernel power 2.6.28.10 

ii kernel-power-modules 1:2.6.28-10power52 Linux kernel modules (kernel power 2.6.28.10 

ii kernel-power-settings 0.17 Tools for the customization and overclock Li 

ii libdrm2 2.3.1-3 Userspace interface to kernel DRM services - 

ii module-init-tools 3.4-1maemo5+0m5 tools for managing Linux kernel modules 

ii qcpufreq 0.4.4-1 A GUI for the kernel's cpufreq interface 

~ $ ls -al /var/cache/apt 

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Jan 1 2000 /var/cache/apt -> /opt/var/cache/apt 

~ $ sudo gainroot 

Root shell enabled 





BusyBox v1.10.2 (Debian 3:1.10.2.legal-1osso31+0cssu0) built-in shell (ash) 

Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. 



/home/user # sfdisk -l 



Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 479728 cylinders, 4 heads, 16 sectors/track 

Warning: The partition table looks like it was made 

for C/H/S=*/255/63 (instead of 479728/4/16). 

For this listing I'll assume that geometry. 

Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 



Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System 

/dev/mmcblk1p1 0+ 1911- 1911- 15347200 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 

/dev/mmcblk1p2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty 

/dev/mmcblk1p3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty 

/dev/mmcblk1p4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty 



Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 977024 cylinders, 4 heads, 16 sectors/track 

Units = cylinders of 32768 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 



Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System 

/dev/mmcblk0p1 1 884864 884864 28315648 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 

/dev/mmcblk0p2 884865 950400 65536 2097152 83 Linux 

/dev/mmcblk0p3 950401 974976 24576 786432 82 Linux swap / Solaris 

/dev/mmcblk0p4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty

And, no, no recovery solution installed.

As a last resort, I'm going to try to flash the device from a friend's pc

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

There is absolutely no indication that any file system is corrupted. This looks like one healthy phone.

Did you do the

Code:

tracker-processes -r

command as user, as it should be run, and waited a couple of minutes for the tracker to start? Or root (Not working on the right database)?

Nevertheless you could try to check the MyDocs partition.

Code:

sudo gainroot

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1

fsck -af /dev/mmcblk0p1

fsck -af /dev/mmcblk0p1

Yes, twice!
Then reboot to start fresh

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

Still no luck, same old status after reboot...

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

What did fsck say?

It sounds like a corrupt /home partition though which would be /dev/mmcblk0p2, not p1. Unfortunately you can't umount and fsck it just like that since it is in use. Ideally you would check it through a recovery console or, better still, export as mass storage and check from a Linux machine but you say you don't have any recovery solutions installed so that option is off.

How versed are you in Linux? What I would do is dump your /home partition to a file using dd, copy the file to a Linux box and run fsck on it. It is not entirely foolproof since you are running dd of a live partition but you don't really have many options, do you?

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

fsck results:

Code:

fsck 1.41.3.maemo0 (12-Oc-2008)

dosfsck 3.0.12, 29 Oct 2011, FAT32, LFN

/dev/mmcblk0p1: 12847 files, 181059/442377 clusters

I am not that well versed with Linux, but am extremely adventurous. But FYi, the ubuntu laptop that i am using does not have sudo access.

If it is indeed a curropt /home partition, a simple rootfs flash wont suffice? Will I have to do an emmc flash as well?

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

/home is eMMC I'm afraid.

I don't think Ubuntu believes in sudo. There should be a shortcut for something like "root terminal", but I can't tell you where since I ditched Ubuntu in 2012 when they switched to Unity. You will need to find it yourself.

If you are adventurous, try this on your N900:

Code:

sudo gainroot

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p2 of=/media/mmc1/home.img

That's assuming you have an SD card inserted, of course. It is preferable to copy to an SD card to reduce writing to eMMC to a minimum. If you don't have an SD card, replace /media/mmc1 with /home/MyDocs.

Next, copy home.img (it should be 2GB in size) to your Linux computer and run in a root terminal:

Code:

fsck -t ext3 -afy home.img

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

So, finally I flashed rootfs (no emmc) and things are back to normal (hopefully for good).

As all this started since installing thumb, I'm a bit apprehensive about installing it again. What would y'all suggest?

And thanks for all the help!

Re: [HELP] N900 totally screwed

Wait, spoke to soon. No media in media player/gallery, cant access HAM repositories, install stuff, etc

But atleast the device is usable for now. I will manage with this untill i can do an emmc+rootfs flash