User:Wirr/N900 Allrounder

Contents

[edit] Introduction

Since the N900 has been released many developments have been made by the community. This page is to provide a quick start guide to assist new users in getting their devices up and running using current community updates and adhering to commonly accepted best practice. Instead of laying out all available options to solve common problems this quick start guide only describes one possible option.

[edit] Prerequisites

To perform the steps described in this guide you need at least the following:

  • A Nokia N900, obviously
  • A MicroSD card > 2GiB
  • Standalone battery charger
  • USB A-A adapter
  • (Linux box)

[edit] Recommended Hardware Modifications

One of the most common issues with the N900 is the surface mounted USB port. If you are not careful with it, the port can be ripped from the PCB. Due to the design of the port if this occurs, it can be very difficult to repair successfully.

To ease the stress on the USB-Port remove the locking pins on all your microUSB cable connectors. This can be done by filing them down carefully with a small file.

If you feel confident in taking your N900 apart to reinforce the port it is highly recommend to reinforce your USB port by soldering the casing of the USB to the PCB. Information on this is covered in great extent in the talk.maemo.org Fixing USB Thread.

[edit] Bringing your Firmware Up to date

[edit] Initial Firmware Setup

So, you have your N900. The first step especially if it's used is to flash the firmware. This can be used to clean off any unstable software and make a clean start.

It's recommended to download the latest Nokia firmware images for your region. The latest versions are highlighted.

Firmware Flashing


Download flasher from the repositories

/* TODO: Use open source flasher */

Download the firmware flasher: Flasher & SDK Downloads

Download the latest official Nokia Firmware Images for your N900: Firmware Image Downloads 

 RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin
 md5sum: 488809ff96a0a05479d692e9f77aeb4f
 RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
 md5sum: b9f8690318a3be61767826d15b8c1784

[edit] Flashing the device

The following flashing procedure has proven the most stable to me:

File:warning.pngAlways use a fully charged battery!

  • Turn your device off, disconnect USB
  • (As root) flash the FIASCO firmware image: 
 flasher-3.5 -F RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f
  • When you get "No suitable USB device found" connect your N900 through USB.
  • Wait for the flashing to finish.

File:warning.png Don't reboot

  • Flash original eMMC image: 
 flasher-3.5 -F RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f
  • Wait for the flashing to finish.
  • Reboot the device by _reinserting_ the battery

[edit] First Login

Upon first login, enter your locale settings (Timezone, local time, etc.).

[edit] Latest Nokia SSU Upgrade

As Nokia no longer maintains their official repositories - the preconfigured download servers ("software repositories") have to be corrected to point to the new community-maintained infrastructure: - Nokia Apps - Nokia SSU - Ovi

/* not really required for CSSU */ Run latest official Nokia SSU (upgrades your device firmware to V1.3.1) by launching App manager / Update from the applications menu.

[edit] Enhanced Kernel

Kernel Power is a community developed Kernel that provides addition features and fixes to the Kernel. Kernel Power also provides the ability to overclock the device with an additional package kernel-power-settings

While overclocking is not recommended and has been known to reduce the lifetime of the device, the [Kernel Power] package on it's own is recommended and will not alter your device from the standard 250Mhz-600Mhz clock speed.

It provided important features like stable Smartreflex which will significantly increase battery life.

More information on this is here Please note Kernel Power page is heavily biased on overclocking and is provided for further reference only.

[edit] Community Upgrades

Congratulations, your N900 now runs the latest Community Firmware! Thanks to many improvements, optimizations and bugfixes your 2009 N900 is now on par with the most 2012 flagship smartphones. For a list of community improvements see /* TODO */

[edit] Recommended Manual fixes

Despite there being no user-friendly nor standardized way to perform the following task they're still highly recommended as they help you to unlock the full potential of your device.

[edit] Mitigating the lack of memory

[edit] Utilise the SD Card

The N900 has a uSD card slot, it's a good to use this as much as possible to reduce flash wear from the devices eMMC.

Many users setup there swap space(s) on the uSD card this frees up the I/O of the device.

There has been much discussion on this and applications written to help with this.

Further reading

Swap on microSD wiki talk.maemo.org DISCUSS SDCard Swap

[edit] Swappolube

Swappolube is a package to modify memory management. Most users tweak this to suit their device and usage. If your unsure where to start, the proposed settings are a good base.

More information can be found here

[edit] USB OTG

[edit] Purging Unnecessary Software

[edit] Cherry

With the PR 1.2 update Nokia introduced "My Nokia" an SMS subscription service on which you receive periodic texts from Nokia. This was automatically installed/subscribed on devices and was known to cause issues with devices sending and receiving unwanted SMS messages.

This package is one of the first to be removed by members of the community, for obvious reasons. It can be removed by:- 

apt-get remove --purge cherry

[edit] Additional Unnecessary Software

The following is deemed safe use run in a Terminal as Root to remove unnecessary software provided with the Nokia firmware. 

apt-get remove --purge hildon-theme-beta osso-chess-ui gnuchess osso-graphics-game-chess osso-lmarbles osso-graphics-game-lmarbles osso-sounds-game-chess maemoblocks ap-installer amazon-installer foreca-installer facebook-installer skype-installer dtg-installer tutorial-home-applet osso-tutorial-l10n-engb osso-tutorial-l10n-ptpt osso-tutorial-l10n-frca osso-tutorial-l10n-nlnl osso-tutorial-l10n-cscz osso-tutorial-l10n-itit osso-tutorial-l10n-eses osso-tutorial-l10n-svse osso-tutorial-l10n-frfr osso-tutorial-l10n-dede osso-tutorial-l10n-fifi osso-tutorial-l10n-nono osso-tutorial-l10n-esmx osso-tutorial-l10n-enus osso-tutorial-l10n-ruru osso-tutorial-l10n-mr0 osso-tutorial-l10n-plpl osso-systemui-splashscreen sharing-service-flickr sharing-service-ovi chinese-font google-search-widget tutorial-home-applet osso-mahjong osso-graphics-game-mahjong osso-sounds-game-mahjong ovi-promotion-widget

talk.maemo.org Safe to remove?

[edit] Settings

[edit] Synchronization

  • Contacts
  • Email
  • Calendar

[edit] Web access

[edit] Faking Flash Player 12 for MicroB

Post on talk.maemo.org 

apt-get remove --purge adobe-flashplayer
apt-get install hexedit
dpkg -i adobe-flashplayer-10.deb
hexedit /usr/lib/browser/plugins/libflashplayer.so
  • Once in Hexedit, press CTRL+S and type in 31302e31 and press enter, the string you've just found need to be changed to 31322e31
  • Now, press CTRL+S, type "y" and search for 31302c31 and change it to 31322c31
  • Press CTRL+S then "y" again.
  • Close terminal and enjoy new faked v12.1.98.88 flash player

[edit] Media

[edit] Watch 720p movies

720p Thread - talk.maemo.org


[edit] GSM

SMS, MMS, Telephony

[edit] VoIP

  • SIP
  • Skype

[edit] Social Networking

  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

[edit] Camera

[edit] Games

[edit] Navigation

[edit] Network Positioning

Due to Nokia's supl servers seem to be broken sometimes, your device may be slow at getting a GPS fix.

To fix this the google server can be used.

Navigate to

Settings > Location > Network Positioning

then edit the Location server from

supl.nokia.com

to

supl.google.com

Check this first if you have any GPS issues. It has been known to revert back to the Nokia server.

[edit] Customizing Maemo

Customizing the appearance of Maemo

wiki.maemo.org

[edit] Backup

  • Backup Application
  • BackupMenu

[edit] Appendix

[edit] Hardware Accessories

Information on all recommended hardware accessories is here.

[edit] Hardware Specifications

Information on the specs can be found here

[edit] Additional information

[edit] Credits

My thanks go to jebba, titan, pali, NIN101, MentalistTraceur, sixwheeledbeast, DocScrutinizer05, sEKI, kerio, freemangordon, qwazix, ShadowJK and everyone on #maemo

[edit] Wiki Update Info

Last Updated - sixwheeledbeast - 31 Jan 2013 21:41 UTC

Huge rewrite to be generic and beginner friendly original page is in Discussion (talk page) Page still under development

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