Updating the firmware

Contents

Before flashing

Beware that flashing a new image on the Nokia 770, N800 or N810 will remove all user changes to the system, including preferences, bookmarks, news feeds, user installed applications... Everything not on the memory card will be gone and the device will behave as if just purchased with the single exception that any previously-set lock code will be kept and not reset to the factory-default of "12345" (even the code is not preserved on some images).

Note that Nokia's Backup tool only backs up stuff like bookmarks and documents inside /home/user/MyDocs -- It will probably be worthwhile experimenting a bit with the backup/restore utility before flashing :-)

Flashing your Nokia tablet

If you want to re-flash your Nokia tablet, follow the steps below:

  1. Download the flasher for your platform and tablet model from Nokia's Tablet Dev site
  2. In the same directory download the latest firmware image (currently OS 2008 Software Edition for Nokia N810 and N800, and OS 2006 Software Edition for Nokia 770)
  3. Make sure the battery of your tablet is fully charged.
  4. Unplug charger and switch off the tablet. Connect the tablet to your computer via USB without turning it on

Flashing on Linux

  • Execute as root (or as a normal user with rights to use the USB port): 
N810/N800: ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-44_2008SE_1.2007.42-18_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R
770: ./flasher-2.0 -F SU-18_2006SE_3.2006.49-2_PR_F5_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R
  • "Suitable USB device not found, waiting" is displayed on the console. Now switch on your tablet while holding the Home-button
  • Watch the messages on your console as the image loads to the N810 after which it reboots automatically -- you're done!

Flashing on Mac OS X

  • Drag the .bin file onto the flasher .app file
  • Follow the on-screen prompts
  • Watch the messages as the image loads to the 770/N800/N810 after which it reboots automatically
  • Done!

Troubleshooting

  • If you get a "Permission denied" error then chmod +x flasher-2.0 or chmod +x flasher-3.0 to make the flasher tool executable. You may also need root permissions, run command with sudo or su to root.
  • It may help, if you connect the 770 or the N800 directly to your computer by USB, instead of a USB hub. Also, avoid the USB ports on laptop docking stations.
  • If you need to flash your Nokia 770 with an image from 2005 then use the older flasher called "flasher" with no number in the name
  • On some distributions the usb filesystem is not loaded mount -t usbfs usbfs /proc/bus/usb
  • (From mailing list): If you are running a newer kernel and you get "Suitable USB device not found, waiting" but nothing happens when you switch on the 770 as instructed above, try to patch the flasher: perl -pi -e 's-/proc/bus/usb-/dev/bus/usb\000-;' -i.backup, where `` is the location of your flasher 2.0 linux binary. This applies also for flasher-3.0 (tested with Debian 4.0 and an N800).
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