i chmod'ed /etc/sudoers so now sudo gainroot doesn't. tells me that the mode is 0740 should be 0440. if i flash the r&d image can i get back in to change it?

You can reflash any image - it'll overwrite /etc/sudoers back to the default.

yeah, just enabling r&d mode didn't work. i should be able to just reflash the image and the extrootfs will remain intact right? do i understand that correctly? you guys are the best!

Correct: the MMC card isn't touched by the flasher.

I think you will need to re-install the extrootfs package and run the script so it can set up the links again.

Good point.

well, you were both right. i reflashed the OS, enabled r&d mode to modify gainroot, and then disabled r&d mode. after running the extrootfs script again my system has been restored EXACTLY as it was previously, with the exception of the chmod'ed /etc/sudoers file. i can now safely get in and add the entry in sudoers for the swapfile menu item in the new load_plugin_aw that is now available on maemo.org. it is REALLYnice to be able to get things right back the way they were with so little effort. thanks for your help! goodtimes indeed for this linux novice. my new issue is i accidentally popped out the usb cable from my ibook before all this nonsense with /etc/sudoers, but under Control Panel>Memory it says my usb cable is attached. i tried mount and umount, but to no avail. regardless i have access to both partitions, which is where i saved my vim-tiny, extrootfs, and all other installation files. i'll have to figure that one out later.

Greetings, and let me add to the chorus of thank you's to Wolfram and others who are making the 770 even more functional. This reminds me of the early days of the Palm Pilot, except the 770 is just a bit more powerful.

I did the partition (1GB Sandisk), using 64mb as ext2 and the rest for ext3. I moved the swapfile and altered the start/stop scripts to have swap-on always on.

This worked great, but this morning I tried to save a note to the documents file, and I kept getting "file is read only". I was able to save to the mmc. I then checked the home directory via a USB cable, and changed all the permissions to give total access. I rebooted and was then able to save to the documents folder.

However, for some reason this blitzed by news reader, erased the connection settings, web home page, bookmarks and URL history. I will have to go to backup to restore those, but it is disturbing this happened. Was it because I used the USB to access the 770 file system? I do have a card reader, but the USB cable is the easiest.

Any clue as to what has happened? The 770 is SO much better the the efs!

One other question - I am debating whether to keep the swap file on ext3. As mentioned, I have altered the start/stop scripts. I am a Linux rookie, how do I return those scripts back to the original state to stop using the swap transfer?

I have seen some questions arouse here that seem to still go unaswered.

First, I believe the best mode to transfer large files to the N770 is using NFS, since there is no need to install anything. At maemo wiki there is a howto explaining how to setup an NFS server in Windows machines as well, since the N770 can't do SMB. NFS is quite transparent and much easier to do than scp or taking off the RSMMC card. IMHO, of course.

Next, the "2x your RAM" thumb rule was valid for a specific platform at an specif time. Suppose you have 4GB of RAM in your desktop. Are you really setting up an 8GB swap file?

And last, command 'free' display real RAM (and swap if set up), whereas the GUI memory manager display (flash)ROM where the apps and OS is located, and henceforth also displays space available in the sym-linked RSMMC partition.

I encountered the same problem with a new 1GB Kingston mmc-rs card. Just add the -z switch to the cfdisk command to counter this, thus:

./cfdisk /dev/mmcblk0 -z

You'll get a blank partition table to start with and after creating the partitions, can write it to your card. Then proceed as described in the wiki.

Further: I also decided in favour of ext2 instead of ext3, since I see no value in having journaling enabled, while it does create extra write actions to the card (for updating the journal). Anyone more knowledgeable able to comment on it?

Not that I am that worried about the memory card, it only cost E 36,85 (Netherlands) and comes with lifetime warranty.

To conclude: a big thank you to Wolfram and all the others for enabling this hack, it makes the 770 a lot more usable! 64M is just too little, the 24M swap makes all the difference.