Last week, I bought my N9 in Argentina. My provider is Claro and, believe it or not, the phone came with no traces of Skype, Google Talk and WiFi Hotspot. Maybe there are many other features missing but so far these are the ones I wanted and I had to enable by myself.

In case someone else suffers the illogical restrictions of cellphone operators, this is a brief guide to regain these basic services for a 'smartphone'.

*** WARNING***
Do not try it if you do not have last firmware version. For instance, if Nokia released PR1.3 and you still have PR1.2, do not try it or you will end with a mixed system, probably working bad.
*** WARNING***


Install Skype, Google Talk and other voice services:

1) Enable Developer Mode

2) Open Terminal

3) Type:
and insert password "rootme".

4) Edit repositories. Type:

and in "deb https://qa9recEP:Pat2UGuP@downloads..../harmattan/420 ./", replace "420" by "001". Typing 'i' you enter 'insert mode'.

Press "Esc" and "Z" twice to save the file.

5) Update the cache of applications and install all packages of accounts and its language files:

6) Close Terminal.


Install Youtube:

The previous instructions installs modules of Youtube. But there are some missing elements. You can add them by:

1) Enter Terminal with devel privileges.

2) Type:


Install WiFi Hotspot:

1) Enter Terminal with devel privileges.

2) Type:


Install NFC:

1) Enter Terminal with devel privileges.

2) Type:

3) Restart your phone.


Install Track & Protect:

1) Enter Terminal with devel privileges.

2) Type:

Added to the guide, at the bottom of the how-to's section:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1.../edit?hl=en_GB

On Argentina seems that we also have NFC disabled. Do you know what packages we have to download to enable it?

No idea.

What would you use NFC in Argentina for?

For now just testing purpose only. It might be possible to use it as a SUBE card

Probably you can install NFC packages with:

but I do not know.

You can see all N9's packages in:
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Commu...attan_Packages

There are 10 with NFC in its name.

can we install this repo on the N900 and attempt to install maps and what not? since if there written in Qt we have a shot at them working?

ah thats not exactly a repo lol

Hi! My carrier is Personal, and my N9 came with neither Skype nor WiFi Hotspot. Just yesterday I’ve been able to update the firmware (currently running PR1.1 20.2011.40-4.324.2_PR_324) but this didn’t allow me to download missing applications, so I found this post and it has been very helpful! Only difference for me was that in the first edited line ("deb https://qa9recEP:Pat2UGuP@downloads..../harmattan/001 ./") I found a “324”, not “420”. After that, I followed every instruction and everything worked out fine!

About nfc… I was really disappointed when I read that this feature was disabled here since my nokia bh-505 supports this technology. I’ve tried:

and it quickly installed, but the feature was still missing. Then I tried with:

and nfc became visible in device settings! But when I turned it on, an error message warned me that nfc could not be activated.
the last thing I tried was:

…a few more packages were installed and I turned off my phone. When I turned it back on, nfc was running and detected my headset immediately!



Sorry if it looks kind of mess up, but I’m no expert. I only hope that this can help someone else like the previous posts did helped me (I really wasn’t too fond of changing product code or reflashing my phone just in order to have skype )

about WiFi Hotspot: i tried to install it, but it says: couldn't find joiku* packet. what did it go wrong??

Yes. The 420 was for a mexican carrier. Argentinian Claro's is 406. The whole point was to change any regional repository to 001.

Thanks for the solution to the lack of NFC.