my phone is bricked and i have no backup...
I need the contacts and calendar intact.

i tried to read up on the reflash guides.
i cant find a comfirmation if a reflash will automatically also reflash the emmc on the n900. seems to be a little different on n900 and previous devices from what i can see in the guides.
if i download the RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
what i guess is already on my device before, will it also reflash the emmc? I NEED my calendar and phonebook intact. no backup :-(
And from what i understand they are on the emmc and not on the rootfs
The "COMBINED" sounds scary... like its both rootfs and emmc?

there is a note on the download page:

NOTE: Always flash the FIASCO image first, then the eMMC image immediately after that. Never boot up the device between flashing the FIASCO image and the eMMC image!

Sounds disturbing...
And which one is the FIASCO image?

I have a corrupt fstab after playing with removing the autogeneration of fstab at boot.

thanks
Andreas

there're two types of images, the FIASCO just flashes the rootfs not the emmc. You do not need to need to follow the note that says flash fiasco first and then the emmc, and you should just be fine with the fiasco only image.

The combined image is the correct the file to use and flash the device, and use this guide to help you: http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_t...ng_your_device

the one that says VANILLA is for the emmc......

Just for your info a Fiasco image is short for Fractal Image And Sequence Codec which basically means its a compressed file and yes its not clear as to what image is a Fiasco.
Good luck with your flash.

oh and remember to make backups

It's always safer to flash both the OS and EMMC images.. flashing only the OS leaves junk on the EMMC.. and settings.. settings that could cause problems (pointing to applicaitons now only half installed.. stuff like that)

However, even with a bricked device, I believe you should be able to turn off, connect to PC via USB and then access the emmc as USB storage, all without booting the OS..

This will let you back up your content (Everything in /home/user/MyDocs) even if it won't let you back up applications and settings (or conversations or contacts)

Not ideal..

Dont tell me about the backup hehe

thanks for the prompt replies!!
I am lost with a dead mobile :-)

I was looking at the flasher tool and unpacked the bin.
Just searching if there is a way to just recover just my /etc/event.d/rcS-late file or as little as possible around it.

There are a lot of options to the flasher tool.
One says
-n, --initfs=ARG
Location of initfs image

Whats that? Could it help?

otherwise:
To flash just a part of the whole FIASCO image (for example, only rootfs) run
$ flasher-3.5 -F <FIASCO image> --flash-only=rootfs -f

Is the <FIASCO image> in this part the whole downloaded bin file, or just one of the ones you get when u extract its content with ./flasher-3.5 -F RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -u

When i do that i get a list of files:
2nd.bin-RX-51:2101,2102,2103
2nd.bin-RX-51:2104,2105,2106,2107,2108,2109,2110,2111,2112,21 13,2114,2115,2116,2117,2118,2119
2nd.bin-RX-51:2201,2202,2203,2204,2205,2206,2207,2208,2209,22 10,2211,2212,2213,2214,2215,2216
2nd.bin-RX-51:2217,2218,2219,2220,2120
cmt-2nd
cmt-algo
cmt-mcusw
rootfs.jffs2
RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
secondary.bin-RX-51:2101,2102,2103
secondary.bin-RX-51:2104,2105,2106,2107,2108,2109,2110,2111,2112,21 13,2114,2115,2116,2117,2118,2119
secondary.bin-RX-51:2201,2202,2203,2204,2205,2206,2207,2208,2209,22 10,2211,2212,2213,2214,2215,2216
secondary.bin-RX-51:2217,2218,2219,2220,2120
xloader.bin-RX-51:2101,2102,2103
xloader.bin-RX-51:2104,2105,2106,2107,2108,2109,2110,2111,2112,21 13,2114,2115,2116,2117,2118,2119
xloader.bin-RX-51:2201,2202,2203,2204,2205,2206,2207,2208,2209,22 10,2211,2212,2213,2214,2215,2216
xloader.bin-RX-51:2217,2218,2219,2220,2120
zImage


The idea to connect the usb cable to access the emmc i will try first. did not know it was possible with a non booting mobile.
Is not contacts and calendar files located on the emmc? Thats the ones i mostly need to save, even if it would be handy to not have to redo all my trillion of settings and applications too. its just hard work. The calendar and contacts are worse...

I am suprised nobody replied quickly for you but i can tell you the file you need is the -

RX-51_2009SE_3.2010.02-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin

Flash that and leave the emmc alone and you will still have all your contacts etc.
Do you have the complete guide to flash?.

I could reach the emmc thanks to the tip to connect the usb cable. so i could make a copy of all contents there.

But i dont see any files that could be connected to calendar or contacts....

Anyone knows in what files they are stored?
Starting to think they are not on the emmc, or if they are, they are not in the filesystem partition on the emmc...

the emmc has two partitions for data.. one is the large MyDocs partition that you see when using mass storage mode.. its also all the data you see when using the file manager on the phone..

but there is a second partition (2gig) for /home/user and /opt. this holds all your installed packages (that are correctly optified) and all your settings/data like browser cache, email content, conversations database, calendar..

The two are seperate because when the phone is in mass storage mode and connected to the computer it cannot share access with the computer.. it has to disconnect itself from the MyDocs storage..

If your settings and data were on there, things would be bad and you wouldn't be able to use the phone whilst in mass storage mode..

The down side is you can't see this magical partition when using mass storage mode.. though you might be able to mount it if you had a linux pc.. dunno not tried..