No, that is definitely not OK

Do you have your SFOS partition mounted to /sailfish/, as that could also look like there'd be no files?

Do "mount | grep mmcblk0p4", and if there is nothing shown, then you do not have it mounted.

If it is not mounted, do "mount /dev/mmcblk0p4 /sailfish" as root.
Then do "ls -la /sailfish/" to see if you now can access the files.
If the above command shows files&directories, then do "ls -la /sailfish/boot/" to see that you have the correct kernel setup.

ok logged in as devel-su and here are my steps and outcomes identical in terminal screen

~ # mount | grep mmcblk0p4
~ # mount /dev/mmcblk0p4 /sailfish
~ # "ls -la /sailfish/
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Apr27 22:18
drwxrwxr-x 27 root root 4096 Jan1 1970
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 Jan1 1970 lost+found
drwxrwxr-x 600 1000 1000 20480 Apr27 23:11 sailfish-1.1.1.27-oss
~ # ls -la /sailfish/boot/
ls: /sailfish/boot/: No such file or directory

One thing that I have noticed is that the folders in sailfish-1.1.1.27-oss directory is so different to the folders in the sailfish-1.0.2.5/vgrade version on araya.su website.

Here is the folder structure for the sailfish-1.0.2.5/vgrade
bin
boot
dev
etc
home
lib
media
mnt
opt
proc
root
run
sbin
srv
sys
tmp
usr
var


This has a boot folder but why so different? Does that mean that the version directly from sailfish website can not be loaded on nokia n9 because it does not have the correct folder structure?

OMG.

Now I get it. You are trying to run sailfish with the extracted sources!
Of course this is not going to work.
Take the tar from araya and extract that one to /dev/mmcblk0p4

Exactly. You need a "filesystem snapshot" of SFOS, which means fully populated directories containing the binaries, scripts, settings and everything else, with correct permissions and users.

Oh ok.
The reason I am using the file directly from Sailfish is because the tar from araya seems to be an older version which when I installed previously was very buggy. Hence why I am trying to upgrade to latest version of SFOS.

Is it possible to install the araya one and update the SFOS through the phone?
or
Is it possible to create a 'filesystem snapshot' of SFOS using the latest tar from SF.

I'm just trying to understand...how do others install the latest SFOS(2.0) on a Nexus 5 phone for example?
Cheers

I think those snapshots are the latest available for N9. (cannot remember though what is the latest vesion numer)


The filesystem snapshots for N9 cannot really be updated same way (over-the-air, like SSU) as the Jolla phone can. This is because the HW adaptation (the part which is closest to the device hardware) is different. Individual higher-level packages can be updated, though, but it is a touch-and-go-operation because there are lots of interdependencies.


Well, that's easy, same way I have next-to-the-latest SFOS on my Nexus7 device
You need to compile and build the filesystem image yourself on your computer from sources first using the HD development guide.
However, that document details only how the system is built for a device having the HW adaptation ripped from CyanogenMod. For N9 you have to base the HW adaptation on Nemo; this means you have to pretty much build it by yourself

Thanks everybody for your input.
Obviously I am resigned to the fact that I will not be able to use the latest sailfish on my N9 and will have to wait until Jolla comes to Australia.
Cheers