Hello there, and a few questions.
 

Hello all. :) I purchased a Nokia 770 about a year back, and have just gotten around to seriously playing around with the thing. I've been doing a lot of reading, and have been having trouble figuring out what I should and shouldn't be doing.

So far, I've managed to set up Python & SSH, as well as install a few apps on the 770. But I'm wary of trying some of the more advanced hacks because of the risks involved...

(1) When someone mentions 'bricking' the device, exactly what do they mean by that? Is it generally hardware or software damage? Most often I hear it used in relation to flashing the device - does that mean it would involve firmware damage?

Most importantly, is there anything I can do to prevent such damage? I remember reading one post where the user mentioned that they had narrowly avoided bricking their device by booting from the memory card.

(2) What are the actual risks involved with using a 9V battery or powered USB hub to get USB mode working? What about getting USB host mode working? (see #1 ;) )

(3) What sort of speed hacks are possible and what are the risks involved? I've heard of swap partitions on the memory card, and that booting from the memory card can make your system 2x faster because the onboard memory uses a compressed filesystem. Are these really worth it?

(4) Is it possible to do a backup of the entire system, which can be loaded in case of a major buggerup? If, as I'm guessing, the boot device selector menu is in firmware, can you make a 'backup' memory card with Maemo+apps and use that in case you tank the filesystem in the onboard memory?

(5) What reasons are there to switch to OS2007He? What are the risks involved?

Re: Hello there, and a few questions.
 

About the bricking part I haven't seen someone having done this so don't worry a lot just don't interrupt important proccesses like flashing (initfs) etc.
It is always a good idea to have a dual boot device.
USB setup is easy its just that it needs 5v and it doesn't mind how you provide them. It can be either with a 9v battery and a 7805 voltage regulator or something else for example I tried 2 9v batteries (after one of them was discharged) on the input of the voltage regulator and its working too ( even 5v from a pc power supply does the job). You should just be very careful with the wiring as reversed polarity will brake something. Enabling host mode is done with linux flasher.
It is worth having a second os on mmc for backup or whatever. About the speed it is faster but not 2x.
As far as I can see the new HE is wonderful and at the moment I'm dual booting between it and 2006.

Re: Hello there, and a few questions.
 

Thanks for the quick reply. :)