Reinstalling Maemo on Nokia N900

[Aaghaz]

I have recently purchased Nokia N900. I think there is something wrong with Nokia N900 and i have decided to reinstall Maemo on my phone. I also want to whether I can reinstall Maemo. I don’t have any idea to do so. Hence I am asking to all of you to help me in this particular situation. Please tell me what necessary steps should be taken to solve the issue. Your response will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Ceesar]

Yes you can reinstall Maemo on your Nokia N900. You have to simply format your device and install Maemo on your phone. Well you have to download Flasher for your Nokia N900 and also you need to download latest firmware for your phone from the official website. I don’t have any knowledge about the process I really apologizes for the same. I will let you know if come up with procedure. Thanks for reading.

[Crespin]

Well there are two way to updating the firmware of Nokia N900 using Windows. Well you can use either Nokia Software Updater or Flasher. Well I can let you about the process for the Flasher. First of all you have to launch the Flasher using Start Menu. Now you have to press u key from the keyboard and connect with USB device. Now execute the following command.
Flasher-3.5.exe –F RX-51_ 2009SE_2.2009 .51-1_PR_COMBINED_ MR0_ARM.bin -f –R
Now you should write name of the latest firmware file instead of RX-51_2009SE_2.2009.51-1_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
Now it will take aound 5 minutes to complete the process. Once the process is completed your phone will reboot. Once it is booted you can restore the back up from the phone.

[Kickapoo]

When you are trying to flash content of eMMC you should use eMMC/VANILLA image then use FIASCO/Rootfs image to flash. You should not boot the device between the two process. If you boot between the two process then system will broke down. Well when you flash eMMC it reset the contents of MyDocs folder to factory settings. Well I let you know that users of Nokia N900 would not need to reflash eMMC if they have installed latest firmware on your phone. However it will erase all the information from your mobile phone.

[Iroquois]

Well I don’t about the process of installing a firmware on phone but as far as I know you did not require flashing to reinstall any software on your phone. Well you can use following code to reinstall software on your phone apt-get install --reinstall foo. Well you can reinstall app name ‘foo’. I hope above mentioned about code will help you while reinstalling software on your phone.

[m2n900]

Hello

Thanks a lot for your blog.... your solution has been untill now the closest solution that I tried to fixed my nokia n900 that caught a virus the day before yesterday

I have flashed my n900 before without any trouble, but this time im going trought a really hard time, dont know why?

the cdm keeps telling me that the device us not recognized usb?

i tried like a mention your solution... Repeat every steps a few times already, but in still a little stuck

1.- so... i uninstalled the OVI, PC suit, Software Updater, un case they are making a conflict.
2.- Unistall the cable driver, and run again the cmd, in -i mode to see the conection come up...
3.- with the device manager open, saw a few things: Disk drives show: SD1 Device witch I think is the nokia n900 under flash mode (i think this is the problem)
4.- plug the n900 holding the u, windows new hardware appear, i ignore it as advised.
5.- installed the cable driver that i downloaded from your link, a notice came up from this procedure during install, i ignore it as well, and finished the instalation. all god untill now.
6.- ? Nokia n900 (update mode) appear under network adapter with the question mark... all good untill now. command still in waitting...
7.- i did bought, cancel in one ocacion the windows new hardware windown, and the other time when trought with the offer to find driver... bought times happed the same:
looks for NOKIA USB ROOM DRIVER, BUT DOESNT INSTALLLED IT ANYWHARE, but the 2 drivers that get installed are: Nokia BB5 ADL PARENT, AND LOADER OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT....
8.- for a second the cdm recognizes the device!!!.. and this comes up:
usb devoces found at bus bus-0, device address \\.\libus0-0001--0x0421-0x0105
found device rx-51 hardware revision 2101
nolo version 1-4-14
version of 'sw-release': rx-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2.002_PR_002
Booting device into flash mode
suitable usb device not found

that is all......

JUST AS I WAS FINISHING!!!... damm..... close....

Am I missing a step? making any mistakes?

I will really APPRECIATE YOUR HELP!!!!... i live in a litthe town in Ecuador, Ibarra... very charming, but TECH FREE ZONE!!.. so I have to fixed this myself!!!!...

Thanks a lot for your time and help...

M2.

Well there are two way to updating the firmware of Nokia N900 using Windows. Well you can use either Nokia Software Updater or Flasher. Well I can let you about the process for the Flasher. First of all you have to launch the Flasher using Start Menu. Now you have to press u key from the keyboard and connect with USB device. Now execute the following command.
Flasher-3.5.exe –F RX-51_ 2009SE_2.2009 .51-1_PR_COMBINED_ MR0_ARM.bin -f –R
Now you should write name of the latest firmware file instead of RX-51_2009SE_2.2009.51-1_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
Now it will take aound 5 minutes to complete the process. Once the process is completed your phone will reboot. Once it is booted you can restore the back up from the phone.

[Dinsh]

Hi m2n900,

I dont understand why would you want to reinstall maemo on nokia n900 by following the flashing method? Why dont you directly install the nokia software updater and connect your phone in your computer and launch the nokia software updater to automatcally flash the nokia n900. Normally it will download the packages from its support site and flash and install your mobile phone with the latest software version that is released for the nokia n900.

[m2n900]

Hi....
thanks a lot for your responce....
Even if the phone doest start?.... mi problem this time is that the phone wont even star??!!!.... i think i got infected by a virus when i downloaded a program from the extras librarys, h-e-n usb something.... I think that was what infected my phone....
Now it WONT even start.... it just shows the nokia logo for about 7 seconds, and it fades with some horizontal black lines.... and goes off.....
When i push the U key, and plug it to the pc, then i do get to the USB mode, and the usb logo appears on the top right corner of the phone, and the phone does stay on.... SO IN THIS STATE WILL I DO THE SOFTWARE UPDATE?

I will appreciate your comments... in the meanwhile, I will try it right now....

[m2n900]

Hi Dinsh...

I tried it... but nothing....! the software updater doesnt recognize the phone... probably becasue it doest load to the OS... i tried it 2 different ways.... one time holding down the u, and the other time just pluggin it in to the pc while turning it on... but in bought ocacion, nothing!...

I did get 2 drivers loaded when i plugged in the phone:
Nokia BB5 ADL PHONE PARENT
Nokia BB5 ADL USB GENERIC
But a third driver is not loaded?... NOKIA USB ROOM ... is in search for it, but it doest loaded for some reason?... it just said: searching preconfigured drivers folder... and it seems like is on the look for the driver, but nothing happends...

that's everything has happened so far...

I will appreciate any advise... thanks a lot.

[Dinsh]

Hi m2n900,

You could try to re-flash the firmware of your mobile phone by using the Flasher software. To flash from the Windows (XP, Vista, or 7) command line:

1.Download and install the latest version of the Flasher from here.

2.Download the latest firmware (.bin) file for your region and save it to %ProgramFiles%\maemo\flasher-3.5\ (the default path), or wherever you installed the Flasher from here.

3.Ensure the battery is at least half full.

4.Unplug USB cable if present, and switch off the device.

5.Run the Flasher from the Start menu

6.This is an alternate to step 5, if you have already opened the Flasher, ignore this step. Open the Command Prompt (Start then Run or Windows Logo key + R) and type cmd then press Enter. Change the directory to where you installed the Flasher (TIP: Use the TAB key to auto-complete commands and file-names)

cd "%ProgramFiles%\maemo\flasher-3.5"

7.Hold the u key on the device keyboard and connect the USB cable at the same time. (TIP: Hold the u key until Windows has successfully installed the driver.)

8.Run the following command (TIP: Do not include '-R' if you are flashing EMMC as well, see below):

flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-51_2009SE_2.2009.51-1_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

Replace RX-51_2009SE_2.2009.51-1_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin with the firmware you wish to update. (Make sure you have downloaded the actual corresponding file.

The flash will take approximately 2-5 minutes after which the N900 will reboot and display the Welcome Screen with Regional settings. After booting, you may use the backup utility to restore your settings.

Source here - Meamo