on a linux pc : plug your n900 in via usb , select mass storage mode ,using gparted create your partition , mount the volume , using file-roller extract the .tar.bz2 onto your sdcard partition 3 . you can do the following on the phone , but it will take some time... open x-terminal and do the following apt-get install bzip2 cd /home/user/MyDocs/ bzip2 -d debian-m5-v3b-rootfs.tar.bz2 assuming , you have already created and formatted partition 3 on your sdcard , for use by easydebian cd / mkdir /easydebian mount /dev/mmcblk1p3 /easydebian cd /easydebian tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/debian-m5-v3b-rootfs.tar i hope this is what you needed..