It was a request for a complete guide on how to do it rather than someone having to navigate through pages trying to find a semi-completed guide.

I'll attempt to install Mer tomorrow and while I'm at it I'll write a tutorial, if I succeed, instructions look easy, very easy.

Yea, easy for someone who knows there way about linux.

Not so true andrew. I successfully completed these steps yesterday (after bout 6 hours) and I just installed linux for my first time last month when I got my N900. I wrote down some steps to try and help you through but I have never written a tutorial so It may seem sketchy. Give me a lil time and I will post it up here for you. A lot of these answers (like how to format a drive in ext3) are common procedures and you can find help with them elsewhere on the internet. So basically I found answers for every little step along the way and put it all together. The one problem with this though is that the standard 0.17v11 version of MER does not include the 3D acceleration so it runs slooooooooooooooooooooower than my dead gradma's dead turtle.

I also tried many times.. No success. I think I'm doing something wrong with partitioning. I've tried with mkfs.ext3, gparted, parted and many other ways :P

Still, no luck. Bookmarking the thread btw

Well same here, it just keeps shutting down when booting up, checked the .item file, enabled R&D mdoe, disabled the watchdog etc.. but it's still shutting down!

I just made it :P

I formatted microSD with gparted (msdos partition table and a partition as ext3). Make sure you close the back cover, N900 wont recognise the card if it's open.. :P

whats the advantage of this over the easy-debian package?

I tried this also put the tutorial wasnt clear at all and i had to reflash my device, just waiting for someone that can put a real good tutorial.

I'm missing why you would have to reflash. And it'll come... soon.