As discussed during the "Preparation" phase, the following are the key steps in flashing the Nokia N900:

Step 1: Flash the Operating System (rootfs) first
Step 2: Flash the eMMC (the 32GB internal storage)
Step 3: Flash the Operating System again (VERY IMPORTANT)

In this post, we will focus on Step 1. We are going to flash the Operating System first. During this step, the firmware file that we need is the one that has the word "COMBINED" in the file name. DO NOT USE THE FILE THAT HAS THE WORD "VANILLA" OR "EMMC" ON IT. That file is for Step 2.

Open Terminal in Linux (for Windows, run the Command Line or "cmd"). Go to the directory where you have saved the firmware files. Here is an example. Since I saved my firmware files in my "Downloads" folder, I would type this from the Terminal and then press Enter:



Windows: For Windows you just have to run the Flasher.exe and the Command Prompt will already open. For Windows also, make sure to move or copy/paste your firmware files in the same location where you have installed the Flasher Application (usually it's at c:\Program Files\Maemo\Flasher-3.5 so you may need to copy-paste the firmware files here).



Next is to run the Flasher application. Type or copy-paste this command.

For Debian-based Linux OS (like Ubuntu), type or copy-paste this and then press Enter:

...where <firmware-image> is the filename of the image file.

For non Debian-based (like Fedora), type or copy-paste this and then press Enter:

For Windows, type or copy-paste this and then press Enter:

...where <firmware-image> is the filename of the image file. So if the filename of the image file is "RX-51_2009SE_2.2009.51-1_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin", then the command will look like this:

Linux:



Windows:



Terminal (for Linux) or DOS/Command Prompt (for Windows) will show you a lot of outputs and will say something like this at the end:

Here is an example.

Linux



Windows



Now, it's time to attach your Nokia N900 to your computer via USB.

1. Turn off the phone first.
2. Make sure to press and hold the "U" key on your phone's keyboard.
3. While pressing and holding the "U" key, attach the N900 to your PC via USB.
4. Wait until you see a dim screen on your N900 with a Nokia logo in the middle of your screen with an USB icon in the top right corner, and once you see the USB icon you may now release the "U" key.

The Flasher application will automatically start flashing your phone. You're done with Step 1. IMPORTANT: DO NOT RESET OR RESTART THE PHONE YET! ALSO DO NOT REMOVE THE USB CABLE YET; WE STILL HAVE TO DO STEP 2.

Linux







Windows