I've tried to upgrade pulseaudio to modified one with LXDE desktop running, but results were the same. Maybe it's dependent on updates during dist-upgrade, so I'll try with fresh image.

I also noticed, that keyboard functionality regression is even bigger that I supposed - even when connected to N900 via VNC, keystrokes for "-" and other special symbols aren't recognized properly (while, obviously, in Maemo they're working without problem). So, it seems, that after copying whole layout folder, my keyboard settings are messed totally

/Estel

// Edit

Just to let ya know - I've downloaded fresh image again (just in case), mounted (-o loop) it from linux machine, copied to dedicated ext4 partition on N900 (cp -a), and performing upgrade to squeeze. This time I'm trying with LXDE opened (which normally, would be not quite sane idea), will report how it turns out.

// edit 2

Just to help in debugging (I don't think it's important, but with so strange things, better to write everything) - because my dedicated ED partition is 3GB (I've used it on last try to dist-upgrade), I haven't used steps with creating temporary place for downloading archives.

Also, as I use swap on microSD with tweaked settings, I don't use -nice 19 at all - I don't have any reboot (or even unresponsiveness ) problems during upgrade.