Maemo Mapper has bricked my 770!

[nspeer]

Can anyone please HELP!

I am running OS 2006 (Scirocco, not Gregale) and Maemo Mapper v1.35 on my n770. I have a Holux 240 GPS. Everything has been working splendidly until today when I was riding down I-95 in Florida following a route I had downloaded using my bluetooth cellphone. MaemoMapper suddenly shut itself down. When I tried to re-open it, it would start to load, then the "loading" dialog box disappeared without loading MM. When I tried to load it again, it loaded, then shut down suddenly again while trying to download the route again. This occured two or three times. Ultimately, I was unable to ever get MM to load again. What is worse, other apps fail to load now too. The n770 locks up and then either reboots itself or I have to put the cover on it to get it to shut down as the hard button won't cause it to shut down. Application manager won't load, and causes a reboot. Also, File Manager and Web browsing won't load and cause a reboot. I am really unhappy as my tablet is now pretty much useless! What to do??

thanks,
Neil

[nspeer]

More info as regards my earlier post:

I just tried to uninstall Maemo Mapper using the Application Manager. The App. Manager loads but immediately begins to "update". The update dialog box then freezes, and I get a reboot. When I tried clicked the installed apps box, it said that no apps are installed, which is of course incorrect.

Is a reflash my only option now?

[mwiktowy]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame mapper. It seems like it was open when your system decided to have a meltdown.

When the loading message comes up but the app doesn't start, you should try starting the app from a terrminal as some more illuminating messages are shown.

It sure sounds like you need to reflash.

[NokNok770]

Why don't you do a reflash of the OS. That's what I would do at this point.

[jurop88]

Memory problems due to too many maps downloaded?

[THX1138]

I'm not an expert and own a N800 rather than a N770, but I wouldn't say your unit is bricked and I wouldn't blame it on Maemo Mapper if it has been working fine for awhile. Bricking to me means it doesn't run at all and you cannot flash the device back to a factory fresh install. It sounds more like something in the OS has been corrupted and needs to be reflashed. Just download a Linux live cd like Knoppix, Ubuntu, or Slax and reflash your device. I'm a Linux n00b, but I have successfully flashed my N800 twice now without any problems at all. Just download the firmware version you want from maemo.org and follow the instructions from the wiki, http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HOWTO_FlashLatestNokiaImageWithLinux.

I haven't purchased my GPS unit yet to use with Maemo Mapper, but even without it seems like a incredibly useful piece of software and I'm grateful that Gnuite keeps releasing new and improved versions. Maemo Mapper is in fact one of the reasons I was willing to fork out the money for my N800 as I figured it would be cheaper than a PDA smartphone + standalone GPS. Plus it was a good excuse to learn some Linux. So far I haven't been disappointed.

[bac522]

There are 8 gazillion of us using Maemo Mapper, you'd think at this point if it was responsible for bricking units you would have heard it by now.

[TA-t3]

As for the terminology, as THX1138 says: Bricked means that the unit is dead, can't be powered up, or made to react in any way, can't be reflashed. Fortunately this doesn't sound to be the case with your unit, which means that you should be able to get it up and running again with reflashing.

[nspeer]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame mapper. It seems like it was open when your system decided to have a meltdown.

When the loading message comes up but the app doesn't start, you should try starting the app from a terrminal as some more illuminating messages are shown.

It sure sounds like you need to reflash.

Thank you for your reply. What is the command line for starting MM from the terminal (Linux NooB here)?

Neil

[nspeer]

There are 8 gazillion of us using Maemo Mapper, you'd think at this point if it was responsible for bricking units you would have heard it by now.


Agreed. I guess I have chosen the wrong terminology. Sorry about that. I especially apologize to Gnuite, if he's reading this. MM is a fantastic program and he is to be applauded for it.

[nspeer]

I'm not an expert and own a N800 rather than a N770, but I wouldn't say your unit is bricked and I wouldn't blame it on Maemo Mapper if it has been working fine for awhile. Bricking to me means it doesn't run at all and you cannot flash the device back to a factory fresh install. It sounds more like something in the OS has been corrupted and needs to be reflashed. Just download a Linux live cd like Knoppix, Ubuntu, or Slax and reflash your device. I'm a Linux n00b, but I have successfully flashed my N800 twice now without any problems at all. Just download the firmware version you want from maemo.org and follow the instructions from the wiki, http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HOWTO_FlashLatestNokiaImageWithLinux.

I haven't purchased my GPS unit yet to use with Maemo Mapper, but even without it seems like a incredibly useful piece of software and I'm grateful that Gnuite keeps releasing new and improved versions. Maemo Mapper is in fact one of the reasons I was willing to fork out the money for my N800 as I figured it would be cheaper than a PDA smartphone + standalone GPS. Plus it was a good excuse to learn some Linux. So far I haven't been disappointed.

Thanks. Is reflashing the same as upgrading the OS? Can I just use the Nokia upgrade wizard? Do you think doing an upgrade to Gregale would be the same as a "flash"?

[brendan]

Thank you for your reply. What is the command line for starting MM from the terminal (Linux NooB here)?

Neil

i believe its maemo-mapper

[THX1138]

Yeah, Upgrading the OS would be the same as reflashing. Think of it as reformatting/reinstalling Windows on a PC. If there is a backup function on your N770 I would at least backup your settings, and bookmarks. It made my reflash much easier as I didn't have to re-enter the 20 repositories for applications I have, and I didn't have to enter 30 bookmarks for Opera again. You will have to reinstall the applications you previously installed again.

I don't know anything about the different versions of Maemo for the N770. I think I read somewhere though that the latest version of Maemo Mapper required the latest OS version for the N770 to work. I would double check with someone more knowledgable though.

[nspeer]

One thing I have noticed. I was able to get Control Panel > Memory up. It show device memory used as 31% at times and other times when I open Memory it shows 55%. Curious. before my problems started, device memory was at 3%.

So, what is hogging all my memory?

[THX1138]

There is probably a command to show how much RAM each process is using in terminal, but I don't know it. I would install the load-applet program (http://downloads.maemo.org/product/load-applet/) which will give you a couple nice new icons in the status bar for CPU usage and memory. If you click on the CPU icon you can use the list processes function and figure what's hogging RAM/cpu from your 770.

EDIT: The device memory tool in the control panel displays how memory (as in hard drive space) your device is using rather than RAM usage. Have you installed a lot of programs or downloaded large maps since you last checked?

[revwillie]

OK, nspeer. I think I'm completely on your boat now.

I was having these problems. I couldn't figure out what was using so much "memory" and re-flashed. Problem solved...but only temporarily. Now the problem is back.

I use the system monitor plugin (SMP) applet instead of the load applet. It shows more information. I also verify with xterm by typing "df" or "df -h". Both show that the root filesystem (anything under / in the device storage part of memory) is filling up for no good reason. When the device is running normally, up to 65% of the filesystem gets full and the device gets sluggish. Another symptom is that as soon as you get over 50%, you cannot remove the storage card without shutting down completely. Here's where my confusion starts. If we are talking about the filesystem, we aren't talking about swap files, are we? I have the 64MB virtual memory option enabled and so if I'm using more than 64 MB of filesystem space (more than 50%), I guess I'd understand why I get the error when I open the memory card door...except that would be a memory and a swap file issue, not the root filesystem. Does the 770 use the virtual memory to extend the filesystem (storage) memory or the memory in which programs run or both?

Most puzzling to me is that I re-flashed and saw that I was down to about 43% usage of the root filesystem. The device was happy. I didn't install anything else, but the usage crept up to 53% and now, I'm starting to see the symptoms: sluggishness, can't remove card. If I shut all the way down and restart, that's when the file system is more than 80 or 90% used for a couple of minutes. Then, usage drops back down to the 60's area. What will soon happen is that I cannot do a full shutdown and restart, because there will not be enough memory for that spike in usage. That's what makes the device appear 'bricked' as described by nspeer.

What's the deal? The last time around, I spent a couple of weeks rifling through the filesystem looking for the culprit and found nothing of consequence. I rf'ed what I could identify as unecessary and only freed a few megs. Where is the memory going to?

And if anyone has some advice on how to free up map space on the memory card, I'd like to hear that, too. Mapper crashes if I try to delete too many maps at once, but I've only been able to free about 5MB on the MMC card when doing it by area. I usually have to pull the card and do mass deletions using a separate card reader on my desktop.

[nspeer]

I reflashed and also deleted all of the maps using a card reader. Then, I re-formated my memory card. I then downloaded all the maps again. I seem to be up and running now. At times, I do get sluggish but not frozen like before. I think I may have had some corrupted data on the memory card. Try another card if you have one or reformat the one you have.
neil

[revwillie]

neil, do you use the built-in RSS reader?

[nspeer]

neil, do you use the built-in RSS reader?

I have been using it on and off..

[revwillie]

my 770 is just about unusable again now. I noticed the other time that there was a cache of images under .osso_rss... (tab complete...can't remember specifics) in the home directory. I'm thinking that one of my feeds had a lot of images piling up someplace in that directory. I have to try to rm some images from there if I can keep it from crashing.