Sorry I have less time and I want to know these things asap as I don't want to brick my device.

1.Should I update PR 1.3,as it is giving problems to many users.which update is better and how to check my current version?

2.What's that 'Extras'? what should I do to enable it and is there any option/alternative for it?

3..install files when run in N900 it starts downloading that software and then installs,how can I directly transfer downloaded 'setup file' to N900.like for example firefox.install downloads 14mb file and then installs.can I have that 14mb file somewhere on internet?

BTW its a awesome device!
but I need help to make it better,as I am threatened by this line in X-terminal.

"enable RD mode If you want to break your device"

do you mean you want the setup file for applications installed? why?

i think you can do it by downloading the files on a laptop and then tranfer them to your n900, but im sure theres a way to do it thats much easier and can be done from the n900 alone.

extras is a catalogue for your application manager to find programs for the n900. enable this. anything in extras is tested thoroughly.

extras-testing and extras-devel, though, are not as polished and done. but contains really top notch stuff.

and update to pr 1.3.


edit: download rootsh or whatever its called, lets you in as root in x-term. which is useful.

Extras is extremely useful; you'll want to take a look at what it offers.

extras-testing is moderately useful, but with some caveats as it's essentially the "beta software" repository - many will be just fine, some will occasionally explode.

extras-devel is highly contraindicated as that's the developer testing area; use it only if you're very familiar with Linux systems and how to recover broken ones in case of Bad Mojo.

PR 1.3 is a good update to install ASAP. 99% of folks having problems with it had such because of existing installed stuff from extras-testing and extras-devel (or their own customizations) messing up the upgrade process. So do that early.

Also, root access is something to be very, very careful with. It's possible to make things go boom with same. Only use root if you already know what you're doing or if you have clear instructions as to what to do while there.

Hope this helps!

Always update to the latest firmware

Install rootsh from extras to get root access (RDmode)

You news to enter the repo details in the app manager to get extras and extras devel
Lots of people say don't enable them but as long as your sensible and realise that not everything in here is ready for the end user you'll be ok

Google how to enable extras devel n900
And get the details from there

Install faster application manager and learn to use it as hildon app Mgr is painfully slow

And yes you can download and install .deb files and transfer them to device
they are the installer files for apps

• You should definitely update to PR 1.3. There are no safety issues with that as this is an update from Nokia. The only negative effect is that some older unmaintained applications could possibly not work after the update. This very unlikely in this community as most apps here are open source and if ppl are still using something someone will jump in and fix it.
• As the parent said extras is a catalogue maintained by the community (ovi is the one maintained by Nokia). Extras is very safe and in my opinion if you are not using your phone for very critical tasks extras testing is also safe
• I'm assuming you're using the default browser (MicroB). If that is the case you can save any file to disk by holding your finger on the link and then selecting the proper option (holding your finger in general is like a right mouse click it will give you some options. This is true in other cases as well and not just with links)

By the way welcome to the community. You should enjoy it here.