putting them here in case they help someone else

Background/Disclaimer:
Newish Mac user, Started with Maemo at the summit, dabbled with Unix for 15 years.

Yes, it has been a while since Quim posted that we should update (http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/11/1...-and-firmware/) but experience has taught me to put aside PLENTY of time to do upgrades (well actually the time is for the recovery if something goes wrong).
In this case it all went really smoothly, appart from not saving SMS&IM conversations (see below)
I read, and then re-read the wiki page http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_firmware before starting this.

my notes below
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* backup the device using backup tool

• copy files to Mac
• enable viewing of all files, soyou can get any files you have created (search term i used http://www.google.com/search?client=...utf-8&oe=utf-8)
• copy contents of .documents (these are the files you have created to your Mac

* download files as told by http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_firmware

* unpack the flasher tools
It will be installed to /usr/bin/flasher-3.5 (the reference on the wiki page to /Applications/Utilities is to get the terminal app up)

* flash the eMMC (I followed the Console flasher instructions)
When entering the command line I entered full paths (copy paste comes in useful here)
the device makes some buzzes, and the screen shows the "row of dots" and the Nokia text.
Also you will probably get a "unsafe device removal" dialog
I test booted the device at this point , came up ok (couple of Icons were missing)

* flash the device
Again, i used full path names for everything.
long stream of file names and sizes scolls by (lines start with Image), and the prompt again says "device not found, waiting"
At this point, power on the device
Again you will probably get a "unsafe device removal" dialog
Another long list of things goes past (slower this time, with sending and 100% being the result)
"CMT flashed successfully" message appears, the device boots, and you get the "joy" of re-configuring your device.

* copy data back
contacts seem to be held in the "communications & Calendar" part of backup, but the stuff from communications (SMS & IM) does not seem to get backed up
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They specifically told us not to use our backups with the new reflash.

did they? I must have missed that

What was the suggested plan for gettign the data out and back in again after flashing?
I am not going to go through every calender entry & contact and export to a text file!

There wasn't one.

Sync with Google :-)

Is there no SSU for the new stuff?

there should be SSU from now on, but the Summit handsets were on an internal/beta build, and it apparently does not work with that.

BTW i was wrong the SMS and IM stuff appeared again (not sure if it was a reboot or recieving an SMS that made them magically appear.

Have to say that there is some amazing engineering gone into this device and the software that powers it.

Um, you probably will be safe with a contact backup only.