and please quit complaining..

plus, on formatting the memcard,
if u format it from pc, you'll jus get around 1.4gb partition..
you need to go to xterm and type

sudo gainroot
umount /dev/mmcblk1p1
sfdisk /dev/mmcblk1 << EOM
,,C
,,
,,
,,
EOM
sync
mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk1p1

*ignore the error on the umount /dev/mmcblk1p1, its just a precaution*

Forgive my ignorance, but if this is the case, what on earth is the point in using Meego yet?

In case it wasn't already mentioned here, you can reflash the power kernel just by executing the already given command and replacing kernel-flasher with kernel-power-flasher. So the line reads:
apt-get install --reinstall kernel-power-flasher
This works perfectly and no more u-boot stuff on startup. will try next whether I can now reinstall the stock kernel (without u-boot) again.

EDIT: to be on safe side you could also reinstall the kernel itself and its modules in one go:
apt-get install --reinstall kernel-power kernel-power-modules kernel-power-flasher

EDIT2:
WIP: just deinstalled power kernel by using commandline tool kernel-power-deinstall. This worked great and it seems like the original kernel was flashed back again. Just powered down ....

EDIT3
yessss! current kernel: Linux-2.6.28-omap1! No power, no overclocking, no u-boot.
Now I'll get back to power kernel, 600MHz is way too slow ....

In short words: instead of fiddling around with USB and flasher and crude commands you can (simply) install or reinstall powerkernel and then go back to stock kernel.

This is why I want to hurt people on here when they don't read all the available threads on a subject.

Did you guys try reading the already existing other UBoot thread. Did it occur to all of you to read those threads before f'ing around with extras devel software? See, I can understand if you can't read a hundred page thread, and/or have tried but can't understand it. Or if you're only running Extras software - then you can expect **** to just work. But there's almost no threads on UBoot - which means that the two that are available - you can read. It's even more annoying when some of this stuff is answered in this very thread. When a question is answered on page 11 and you're asking on page 24, that's one thing. When it's answered on page 2 and you ask on page 3....

1: You CAN have UBoot with power kernel. You can even have it with PR1.3 patches. Matan already made a kernel like that, and it can easily be downloaded onto the device and flashed with the on-board "flasher" command with almost no effort.

2: You need to do the same thing to get rid of uboot. You download the fiasco image, and run the flasher (as per existing instruction in the other uboot thread and the wiki) - you don't even have to use a computer based one. You can flash kernels from on-device.

3: Multiboot vs. proper bootloader has been discussed. Multiboot rapes your flash chip, because it flashes the kernel every OS switch. Uboot doesn't.

4. You don't need to swap SD cards or take them out to boot maemo. Yeah, booting with keyboard out is easier than taking out SD card. But loading with keyboard out, then selecting OS, vs loading with keyboard out and pressing any key, then typing the command to select OS, is almost the same. And you can do that easily.

In the end it's still more fiddly to install this one than just doing an "apt-get install superduperkernel"

That's really fiddly. Fiasco-image, self-flashing ... one wrong command and you'll end up with a flashed rootfs?

OK but that's no reason for not having a simple, graphical boot menu like grub or similar. Seems like every guy who offers alternative bootsystem or some non-maemo-function ships his own boot command which is completely incompatible to everything else. That's nonsense and doesn't help community in any way. but I see you are not responsible for that and maybe one day we'll get some comfortable boot menu where all developers can plug their stuff in and boot the hell out of the device.

I agree. But it's the least fiddly way to get both uboot (and one where you can chose what boot by default, unlike the one in devel right now) and Power Kernel (and 1.3 patches) right now. To get the same combination currently, I'd have to take my own uboot, compile the Power Kernel with PR1.3 patches, pad the uboot to the right number of bites, and make them one image. Then I still have to onboard-flash or with-computer-flash.

So it's not ideal, but I feel it's good enough given the alternative of either power kernel from repos (without all PR1.3 patches), stock kernel with uboot, or going into hardcore fiddling.

Which means that if you're doing this, you should at least understand the gravity of what you're doing to either be ready to reflash (and if you haven't read flasher documentation, what are you using the same flasher tool onboard the N900 for?), or at the very least very carefully follow the commands and reread them until you're damn sure you did everything right.

Which, for the rereading your commands bit, applies to any time you decide to type "sudo".

I agree, it's fiddly, and it's not without risk. But I am not a fan of humoring people who flock to extras devel for the next latest thing and don't have a willingness to learn the command line, or take responsibility with the stuff they are using.

Frankly, if you're using extras-devel, as far as I am concerned it is your duty to make yourself okay with fiddling, at least minimal fiddling. And certainly to educate yourself on what you're doing. If the documentation isn't there, or it requires arcane bootloader or kernel knowledge that isn't easy to find, that's one thing. But if it's on the wiki or forum or easily accessible through a search engine with intuitive-for-the-layman search terms, then it's another matter.

So while I'm happy to try to help people who seem lost or having difficulty, and can understand that it's annoying sometimes to have to fiddle, there's a reason why extras, testing, and devel are the way they are. And I refuse to ignore the underlying expectations of using those repositories just because people can't resist every new thing they get.

Agreed. At least, in that what I wrote under "4" in my above post is not a reason for not having a different bootloader. And I sorta agree. However, uboot is actually very versatile, and while I am not sure why grub or whatever wasn't picked instead, I suspect that the people working on these things had technical reasons for making these choices. Based on what I read about uboot, it is specifically the versatility - at this stage, it is very easy to compile a slightly different version with the features and preset variables you need. So you can have one with commands like "run noloboot", "run android" "run meego" and whatever builtin. But this is out of my field of expertise, so I don't know what about uboot makes it better/worse than grub or whatever.

I'd disagree on the doesn't help the community in 'any' way. Because while I might not necessarily know exactly how to use uboot, and while I might prefer a different set of commands, right now it's basically usable in it's basic form, if you read the documentation and take the time to learn how uboot works, to multiboot any number of OSs. (And I am very strongly of the opinion that the slightly less 'graphical' nature of the bootloader is almost no cost at all in comparison to the benefit of not wearing down the NAND.)

Of course, this, what we have now, is not really for the community at large - it's here to help developers test MeeGo builds on the fly with that many less steps. I suspect that, like you said, one day we will see a much more user friendly option. I suspect it will still be uboot, but it would be filled with a couple more intuitive commands, and maybe someone will even figure out how to package power kernel, NITDroid, and MeeGo installs in with it. (Ideally, one that has a built-in upgrade path for pulling upgraded versions of NITDroid and MeeGo without too much full rewriting.)

So yeah, I would love to have something like that. And if I had the technical knowledge to put something like that together, I would. It shouldn't be too hard... Just, flash NAND with uboot+powerkernel, throw a bunch of partitions onto the EMMC (or SD card - ideally it would give you the option of either) and write the right stuff to the right partitions. Throw a nice happy warning label on it saying "This can erase a bunch of your ****. Backup everything in MyDocs and your SD card before doing this."

But given the early stage of development for this, and it's confinement to extras devel, at this stage, I think it's already non-fiddly enough, for what it is.

On the side though, I do appreciate you discovering that installing Kernel Power with apt-get cleaned out uboot. This is certainly easier than my method with the onboard flasher.

Wow, impressive long statement! I'm actually short in time and just can reply a short answer.

First of all: thanks to all you guys who ARE developing stuff for maemo, meego and everything in between. I know that it is hard work and I really want to show the respect you deserve. But seeing so many different, incompatible ways to boot different systems or kernels makes me wonder where this will lead to. Moving developers in early stage of developing to a versatile and usable bootloader might be easier than trying to rebuild a huge toolchain to which people are used to. And by the way, I see no reason in dongling the bootloader to a kernel like uboot seems to do. The advantage of independent bootloaders is the fact that you can change every kernel and might even add news devices on the fly without having to worry about the loader.

Last point: Meego is kind of a killer app for N900 and everybody wants to run it or at least wants to try it out. There is no line like here-are-developers and there-are-users. When something like this easy-to-flash image and a loader like uboot is out, people are using it!

Hi all

some feedback:
1, I've maemo PR1.3 with kernel power40
2 a Toshiba 4Go Micro SDHC class4 card

I read and apply this tutorial and now i can boot to Meego and it's very slow. But on windows i see my card with 1.96Go of free space, i can't create a new volume , i tried later with ubuntu

First i want to boot to meego, i don't no why but uboot said memory card not supported, and go to maemo (kernel power40 with OC at 805).

I shutdown the phone and I plug usb, resart the phone and finally he goes to Meego i don't no why.

Now on Meego:
-No phone, you know !!
-Wifi supported and firefox go to internet with no problem.
-Xterm are in strange windows

How can i change keyboard layout to AZERTY (French) and set the time ?
Settings - Time & Language do nothing.

Now every boot i can go to Meego .

________________________
Sorry for my english.

I thought the phone was working in Meego now at least for basic making of a call

Mine is n00b friendly... in wiki NOT!