Whoops! That was meant for InfinityDevil. Didn't want any misinformation to be put out there so quickly.

Yes, you need to be root to do this. The easiest way is to install Becomeroot package and then type in xterm 'sudo gainroot'.

I rewrote this guide now when I packed all the necessary files into one zip file and also cleaned up the scripts a little... so here it goes:

The attached zip file contains four files: host.desktop, otg.desktop, Host.sh and Otg.sh. Before continuing make sure you have Becomeroot package installed.

Here are step by step instructions to install the files:

1) Copy Host.sh and Otg.sh to /home/user/MyDocs
2) Cd into the aforementioned directory and change the files executable by applying commands:
- chmod +x Host.sh
- chmod +x Otg.sh
3) Become root (sudo gainroot) and copy otg.desktop and host.desktop to /usr/share/applications/hildon

Thats it! Now you have two "applications" in your Extras that you can change the USB port mode into Host and Otg mode as you wish.

There are alternative methods to enable host mode as well. Please see the wiki page.

And if anyone finds better way to do this, please feel free to modify the scripts. (I did find the idea how to make entries to Extras and how to write the scripts from someone's post here... don't remember who was it... . If you "someone" find the scripts very familiar now you know who did "stole" them... )

Nooo sweat

I put up links to Mara's scripts in the Wiki.

I know this is getting tiring - as I seem to be the only one not to get this to work - ironic as I started this, but I gainroot, then run the command to be host mode as noted earlier, and then plug in the USB HD. I get USB device attached, and that's about it.

I can run file manager but it doesn't show the drive, it doesn't show the two SD cards so that gives me the impression that it DOES think/know there's an USB device attached.

Any ideas?

Maybe you should start testing with something simpler? Like a thumb drive. That way, you can have an easier time narrowing down whether the problem is the HD/ media or the N800.

My thought exactly - got to put together a coupa'la cables.

This does work. The hard drive had to be reformatted away from NTFS. I used FAT32 and the N800 file manager sees the files and folders on the external drive.

My little OTG (pigtail) adapter in the second photo won't do the chore for a hard drive because the ext. hdd needs more power than the N800 will source, so the powered Hub in the first picture is for HDD and the little adapter pigtail adapter is for low power stuff like flash drives and keyboards. Both the pigtail and the powered hub automatically throw the N800 into host mode when inserted (no need to gainroot or run scripts).

I was unsuccessful in getting my SanDisk Ultra II with USB (not in the photos) to read even though it was formatted FAT. The SanDisk Ultra II plus USB are probably Windows only devices.

Thanks for yor works!
But my usb hard drive can't work on my N800, the flash disk and usb keyboard works fine! My usb hard disk is 30G which two partitions, on is 10G, another is 20G. The two partitions are FAT32 system. A message "can not connect , no file system available" popped up. I also used a usb hub with separate power suplly.

Can you help me? Thanks!

if you have one or both partitions FAT32 it should work even though the error message pops up. Connect it all up and wait a period of time. Ignore all error messages. The file manager on the N800 should launch, if it doesn't your partitions might not be FAT32 as you believe (or there is something else not correct). I trust you have verified that the hard drive is spinning....