I've been reading this and various other threads (and wiki entries) trying to figure out the ideal method of setting up my N800 with easy post-OS2008-install maintainability in mind.

Despite being comfortable with Linux, the methods and components people talk about sound somewhat unfamiliar.

I apologize if these questions have been hashed over and over again in various threads, but I just haven't got a cohesive picture yet...

The setup I'd be interested in achieving is:

1) Using the non-user-replacable Flash (mmc?) as a glorified boot manager (like supergrub, perhaps with some useful utilities, like cloning internal SD card to external, fsck etc.).

This "#1 partition" should probably sit on wear-levelling jffs2 to guarantee long life, but in any case writing here should be very limited to protect the precious internal Flash.

2) The internal SD slot, which can be easily backed up or replaced, should contain a larger (and faster) SD card holding one or more partitions with the full OS and apps. One could have e.g. different OS versions on the first/second/third SD partitions, or perhaps different users could have their own personalized versions of OS2008 (multiboot).

The choice of partitition sizes and filesystems would depend on the user's preferences (?), but all formatting and initial install and setup (and backing up) on the (main) internal SD card could also be performed separately on a PC.

A setup wizard or Wiki/Howto explaining various strategies (wrt. intended usage and card size) and providing (semi)automated scripts could take lot of the xterm pain and fear out of this process.

3) User data could either reside on the "OS partitions" themselves (MyDocs), on a shared "data partition" (SharedDocs) on the same internal SD card, or on the external SD card the user could insert when required (automounted).


I don't know if such a setup already exists or whether it is even feasible or desirable, but from my desktop Linux user's point of view it would be more familiar and perhaps more easily maintainable than the current way which I obviously don't completely understand so please be gentle with your criticism.