Such a stupid mistake! I accidentally did "rm /usr/share/icons" as root and now the system is all messed up! Can someone help? Do I have to reflash (and would that solve the problem)? Can someone give me an icons folder?

Why would you do that? I am afraid a reflash is in order. /usr/share/icons/ is different for everyone.

I don't know why I did it... I was going to delete just one of the icons in there and halfway through writing its path I hit return... I have never reflashed before, do I lose all applications? I guess I have to in order to recover their icons as well, right?

I will help you in any way I can. However I still think that a reflash is inevitable. Anyway I will give you a link to my icons folder via PM. I do not feel comfortable posting it here in the open. I have a lot of apps, so maybe it will prove useful.

Here is a wiki on how to reflash. Remember to backup!!!

http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_tablet_firmware

Thanks! I am already downloading PR1.2 and the Flasher to do the reflash. But do you think I should try to put in the icons folder first to see if it works? The N900 is so unstable right now I'm not even sure how to do it.

First backup. Then try the icons folder. Reboot. If it fails..reflash.

Edit: FYI With a backup, your list of applications is saved. After the backup is done, everything will install automatically. Pretty neat.

How do I do the backup from x terminal (which is the only thing I can access right now)?

Edit: Nevermind, I managed to copy the icons folder and the tablet is usable again. There are several icons still missing though, so I think I might reflash anyway.

If there are only a few icons missing, why not just uninstall and reinstall those apps?

P.S. You might want to check that icons folder. I think you have many extra icons.

I'm doing a backup now anyway just in case. I think I might be missing a lot of icons so I am not sure if reinstalling every app one by one is feasible. Now that you told me that after the reflash I can just restore them easily I feel a lot more comfortable going through with that.

Do the contents of the MyDocs folder get erased during the reflash? The wiki is a bit unclear, it seems to suggest there are different kinds of reflash and I need the one that removes the apps.

If you reflash with a FIASCO image, you won't erase MyDocs. To erase MyDocs you need to flash with eMMC too.

It is quite easy to reinstall apps. It will take time, because they will need to be redownloaded and installed. Might take an hour or two but everything automatically. However you might have to click a couple of times. Some apps bring up a window with terms of agreement and whatnot, and you will have to accept. Other than that, it does it by itself. I suggest you start the process while watching TV, and every few minutes check that the process wasn't stopped by some popup.