Granted, it's possible debian doesn't handle it correctly. I have to admit I have always used Ubuntu for connecting to my device in rescue mode since my laptop runs 12.04. I do have several pure Debian 6.0.6 installations but they are run on machines I use just remontely.

Indeed, I tried to read the whole device with sfdisk (cannot read device) and testdisk (device does not show up at all). And after some time, the device even vanished out of /dev. I think that is connected to the kernel message: "[ 208.476565] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, device number 5"

I think I'll give that a try... can't get worse Is the serial console enabled with MALF and MOSLO kernel or even with NOKIA kernel? I stumbled over a R&D flag in flasher: I suppose that flag must be set? Apart from that, can you direct me to some link... okay, searching TMO helps. I found your post (http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...39&postcount=2) giving the essentials

I really hope that that's the case, and the flash memory is still fine!

Fine, I used Debian and Gentoo kernels, but no one from Ubuntu. I'll try that first. Unfortunately I have no other device I can test with, but thanks for the explicit Ubuntu version number!

There serial console can also be activated on the default Harmattan kernel. The tricky part is the physical connection. When you remove the sim tray you can see the contacts on the PCB edge. The levels are 3v3 TTL, so you need a level shifter (or 3 volt TTL <-> USB serial) adapter between the device and your computer.

So, only 33 month later I can report the outcome of my efforts with my bricked N9/16GB.

Perhaps for future visitors which are interested in this topic (more and more unlikely as time goes by), but mainly to give the guys an update who helped a lot (hopefully you are still subscribed to this thread).

Cut a long story short: I was able to rescue my phone and also my data

But much less spectacular than you might think:

After digging through the schematic and the layout to find the serial rx/tx port (my thought-so last resort), I though it would be a good idea to fresh up my memory how the phone behaves when booted via the flasher. So, I tried to boot the bare mainboard via the flasher (under Debiab GNU/Linux 8.2 (jessie)):

(This could be, but must not be the command I used before, because I didn't documented it back then)

And, just by accident the volumes of my phone popped up after some time! Just for a few seconds, but reproducible after a reboot, so that was enough to rescue the important files I was after and to fix the issue with ~/.profile.

I put the mainboard back in its case and my thought-dead N9/16GB was back to life again. No problems what-so-ever! Either it was some self-healing over the years (that's my favorite guess ), I did something wrong with the flasher back then because I had blinders on or some kernel update on my computer helped. I don't know.

So, the lesson is clear:

- the MALF kernel works also on the Nokia N9 with only 16GB
- and most important: Don't ever mess with the .profile file!

Thanks to those who answerd my questions patiently, especially juiceme

Excellent, I am so happy you managed to finally do it
And incidentally, this probably is the longest duration a fix took, indeed 2-and-3/4-years!