How do you reset the N900? I mean really reset everything? Seems simple? Maybe not.

I just bought a second-hand N900. Since it did not have the latest maemo release, I just flashed it. Then I installed some software, including firefox.

Something a bit strange: firefox is full of bookmarks.

Since it is not really obvious how to use firefox, I try a few things, click on some symbol... apparently it offers to "synchronize with my laptop". I think to myself, that this can't be true... another click and I am logged in the previous guy e-mail account.

Apparently, the offender here was a firefox plugin called "weave sync".

So what you would say, that person should have reset his N900. The problem is: how do you do that? You can reset firefox, it will not reset weave sync. You need to dig into the plug-in menu and explicitly reset that and uninstall it.

But it's not only firefox: every installed application (and "application" is a broad word) saves some data, which apparently is never reset. For example, the cache of the flash plugin is full with sites I never visited... For more obvious applications, like firefox, you can uninstall them, but it will not erase the configuration files.


I call this a serious security problem. Sure, it is solvable, one just has to format the discs... the problem: it would brick the machine. Or maybe use ls -a and delete each file one by one, just make sure you don't erase anything useful...

Can you expect the average user to do that? Of course not, he or she is likely to try to "reset" the N900 before selling it second hand. Or is there an obvious way to completely reset the N900 which I have overlooked?