so i got the kernel patch to finally go, and with a reboot and reformat of the removable card, i was able to write to it to my hearts content. i shut it off and put it on the charger for the night. now the card is not even recognized, not mounted and not available.

any ideas if this is a card issue or a kernel issue? i would guess the latter, since i have repeatedly gotten the functionality of the card back.

They did a bit, but then I'm sensitive to and try to avoid confrontation . Even if my comments were misguided, I was just trying to be helpful and prevent other users from suffering the same fate of a corrupt card.

However, AFAIC, thats the end of the matter and we go forward.

--------Line in Sand --------

I need some help figuring out whether I've messed up my new N800.

When it arrived yesterday, I immediately installed the latest version of the OS. Then, I set about to install Phil Langdale's modified kernel. I followed the instructions in the wiki article "How to flash the SDHC kernel w/out connecting to a computer," but I stupidly followed them literally and installed the sdhc-kernel-3.2007.10.bin kernel. Surprisingly, the N800 seemed to work fine.

Within minutes, I realized that I should have installed mcc-kernel-4.2007.26.bin. I did so. The N800 still seems to work fine. I have two questions:

1. Does mcc-kernel-4.2007.26.bin completely replace the pre-existing kernel, so that I can be confident that I have an intact, non-botched kernel now in place?

2. How, exactly, does one "reboot" the N800? I've assumed that this is done by holding down the on/off key long enough to shut down the machine, then starting it up again. Is this right?

Thanks to all for the wonderful help and guidance you provide in these forums.

1. Yes, it's a complete replacement for the kernel

2. Holding down the power button (with the AC adapter disconnected) is one option, however the ultimate reboot is achieved by removing the battery for a few (5-10) seconds then re-inserting and powering up (again with the AC adapter disconnected).

I'm confused on how to reboot! I thought I read somewhere in this forum that reboot results when you power up with the "home" button held down. Did I dream this up??

That's how you enable the firmware update mode of the N800...

Removing battery when the device is on may cause data loss if done in wrong moment (i.e. relatively often), it is not good to do it unless device hangs and is unresponsive for few minutes.

The long power key press calls system shutdown and powers off most of the device. Same can be done by pressing power key shortly and selecting power off. When device seems to be off you can remove battery to power off the rest but this is not needed in normal situations.

To do reboot quickly without powering off, you can run 'reboot' command as root. This can be done even if charger is connected. You can also enable reboot item in power key menu by editing /etc/systemui/systemui.xml.

Thanks. When things are complex people often treat it as magic. I was trying to prevent people to learn rituals that (in my opinion) do not help at all but make things yet more confusing.

As for completely dead cards the real reason why it happens is currently unknown so we can have only bold (and most probably wrong) theories. From user reports it looks to me like it may (or may not) be related to

- using card in external slot; bold theory is that the slot is capable of more fine grained voltage control so card in that slot runs at different/lower voltage than in internal one so maybe some cards don't like it sometimes, but maybe the simpler explanation is that people remove cards from external slot more often so the chance of corruption is higher

- copying/downloading data from network directly to the card (using maemo mapper to download maps, downloading big files via wget or scp), bold theory is that (especially long lasting) wi-fi transfer may produce high power drain and (with the combination of lower voltage in external slot) may cause the card to be momentarily 'underpowered' when doing the write operation and fail

So because I don't understand it too, my rituals would be
- avoid using external slot and prefer the internal one
- avoid doing long lasting data transfers from wi-fi to card

But I admit I may be completely wrong so in fact you may learn rituals that do not help at all but make things yet more confusing :-)

Well I had high hopes that this might solve my missing internal memory issue (cf. many other threads), but alas not. The good news is that I was able, using the instructions on the wiki, to reflash my N800 with the new kernel in a matter of ten minutes and it worked without a problem. Except...of course, it didn't 'restore' my internal memory (and I'd happily sacrifice any color chicken to get it back. Now, it may have sped up the transfer rate from the external memory (1G ScanDisk) card, but I really can't tell...yet...more tests later.

Forgive the dumb question, (especially after I've already done, yes, but is that what the point of this patch is? Or is it stability? Or a bit of both?

In any case, thanks to all who posted the patch and the thread and instructions for installing. This sort of support makes the forums clearly superior to the (dreaded) official Nokia support system. I am ever hopeful that the solution will emerge here before I have to send my baby back

ps I've not had any trouble with damaged cards...just the internal memory slot.

This patch offers improved performance (Nokia throttled performance in the official firmware) and possibly improved stability (Nokia made other changes in the official firmware which may have induced some unwanted side effects with certain cards). I think most of the reasons for creating this unnoficial patch are explained in the authors blog that is linked in the first post...