All,

It seems that a few people have mentioned getting the n800 into an endless reboot loop where the White Screen with blue Nokia logo appears (no hand shake) and then every 30 seconds of so the screen goes black and then the white screen and blue nokia logo appear.

I have experienced this a few times since getting my n800 and it requires the n800 to be reflashed. I have found the most efficient way of recovering is to pop the battery out, plug in the power, the the usb cable, then the battery while holding down the home key. Then I load the nokia update software (on windows) and reflash the n800.

Some observations that might help others and/or get the cause and solution of the problem resolved:

1. Happens consistently when the n800 is switched off when running on battery and switched on after being plugged in. Doesn't happen if the charging icon appears.
2. Has not happened for me prior to additional software being installed. I have installed RDesktop, Slypheen and xterm. (Others have mentioned xterm as being a possible cause of the problem)


Does anyone know of any centralised support thread of bug reference for this problem? I would like to track it.

Thanks
Damian

I opened Bugzilla #957 for exactly this problem (and #958 for some inexplained reason...). Happened to me twice in a week:-
https://maemo.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=957

Clive Thanks. I will track it.

Clive,

I noticed we both have osso xterm installed. I haven't managed to recreate this without xterm installed. Do you think it could be related.

Damian

I've heard updating busybox can do it. Older versions of maemo-mapper, and mweather. The RSS reader can also do it. It can get stuck in a loop trying to download updates to certain software on bootup (before it has a network connection)

I have installed *just* mediastreamer (1.2-11) off the Nokia repository. I've left osso-xterm off this time, and will see if it crashes again without it. I can confirm osso-xterm 0.13 was installed both times it exhibited the looping reboot syndrome.

Qu. Is it possible that an installed app that is not running can cause issues with ability to boot up? Put another way, can installing osso-xterm replace system files that subsequently cause the boot failure we see?

Let me through my 2 cents in.

I mentioned this in another thread concerning meamo-mapper.

It happened after I installed maemo-mapper - however - I also had xterm installed and was using it to use apt-get.

If anyone needs help tracking down anything - I am willing to help.

BTW - just so you all know - I took my original n800 back after I could not get it out of the reboot cycle - even with after several flashes. I am nervous that this might happen again - but still willing to help.

Also - I have found that my device also reboots sometimes when I am transferring files around. This does not yet cause the reboot cycle.

j

who knew linux could be so flakey eh? If you have access to a linux or os x box, you can use the command line flash program to turn off the failsafe thing that causes the reboots. This let me boot up my n800 after flashing it twice with no luck.

did you run an apt-get upgrade? This would install the new version of busybox, which might hose the device.

I don't know how to run 'apt-get upgrade'! I have just installed maemo-mapper v1.3.4, leaving osso-xterm off the n800 for now. No problems yet...Sounds like i need a linux box to support the n800!!!

I guess it is possible that and install either changes a system setting or replaces a file that causes the reboot loop. I have found that removing the battery, inserting the power and usb cable then inserting the battery with home key allows me to reflash using windows xp without trouble.

I have also left xterm of and not had any reboots. I plan to leave it another day and then load:

RDesktop
Slypheen
Minimo

one at a time over a period of time to see if they introduce the error, if not I will then add xterm.