Hi all,

A while back I was having trouble with my N900. Kept asking me to enter the date/time/some initial settings. I know I installed and uninstalled a bunch of stuff, but I don't remember what. Then I dropped it and it got stuck in a boot loop: (with or without the back cover on)

Vibrates --> dim NOKIA logo --> light up NOKIA logo* --> the LED flashes (white if on battery, orange if plugged in) --> dim NOKIA logo --> screen shuts off ---> process starts again.
*sometimes it'll have the "Malfunction! Rebooting in 10s" error in green letters, but not always

After arguing for a while with the store I purchased it from (also got their warranty), they finally agreed to give my money back for it, but I have to return it.

I want my data off the eMMC.

I was able to charge it for a bit. I can get it into USB mode, and I can get it into rd mode, but even in rd mode, it won't boot. It just does this: (with or without the back cover on)

Orange LED flashes --> light up NOKIA logo + rdmode logo beneath it + USB symbol** --> USB goes away --> Kernel version... blah blah blah component versions etc text in green above and below the NOKIA logo --> screen dims with above stuff still on it --> device turns off and process starts again
**USB symbol only shows if I have it plugged into the wall charger or computer, doesn't appear if just on battery

None of my computers (I have tried on Win 7, Ubuntu) recognize it in any mode as a mass storage device. On another Win XP box, the mass storage will flash and then disappear at some point in the loop when the screen is lit.

I don't want to totally flash the device because I don't want it working when I return it (they'll just say I was lying haha).

Any suggestions on how I can get my data off the device while preserving it in its "bricked" state?


quick edit: I don't have another compatible device to charge this battery on. I left it on the wall charger all night. Not sure if this is relevant, but on the wall charger in USB mode, the phone stays at the NOKIA lit screen, and the LED is orange, but after about an hour, it totally shuts off and I have to put it back in USB mode.

Can't say i've had much experience with getting data off the emmc, but see if this thread helps at all
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=47316

http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900/Using_Rescue_Initrd

The USB storage mode on that ought to work just fine, assuming you have enough battery power and the device isn't so b0rked that it won't boot that way either. I've used it myself once when I was stuck in a reboot loop.

Viqsi,

Thanks for the tip. Best one so far!
But now I have a bit of a problem. lol

I was able to get it to rescue-boot. yay! I get the list of commands, but at the bottom of it (immediately, before I type anything), I get "USB NETWORKING: 0 - USB STORAGE: 0" no matter what I type, it doesn't "take" and about every 30 seconds, a new line of "USB NETWORKING: 0 - USB STORAGE: 0" pops up.

I get this with both the latest version and a slightly older version of the initrd and kernel images found in the repo.

I looked on the wiki and searched these forms, (googling the whole internet mostly returned results from talk.maemo) but I can't seem to find something dedicated to trouble shooting rescue initrd.

Do you have any more magical links in your arsenal?

Thanks again.

Never mind. I got it working with an older version of the kernel and initrd in the archives. w00t!

Thanks for your help

I just did this same process in the last few days (including needing to find old meego rescue initrd in the archives). I made dd images of all my eMMC partitions and the rootfs ubi image as well.

To get the rootfs image boot into meego or nitdroid and copy /dev/mtd5 to a file on your SD card.

You can flash it back to your N900 later, or on your linux computer you can mount it and get your files out:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=403015&postcount=3

with rootfs + emmc you should be safe to completely reflash your device for mailing, and then restore it back to the same state later (if it's a hardware problem).