Admira: Concerning the following from your last message:

"3. After you have cloned the operating system to the card, you will need to install the boot menu in flash to choose to access either the flash operating system or the cloned operating system on start-up of your N800.

"I can't seem to find where that happens in the thread, unless its part of what I've already got above?"

The instructions for this are in the README file in Fanoush's initfs_flasher directory. There he gives a file labeled "bootmenu.conf.n800.example" in which one of the commands specifically refers to the External slot and labels it mmc12. Follow his instructions for making this into the active bootmenu.conf file. If you're going to be booting only from the external slot and not the internal slot, you can edit out references to booting from the Internal MMC card, and re-number the MENU items. But this is not necessary, and once you get the initial booting working without that edit, you can simplify it later when you have more time. Looks like you're on the right track.

OK I'm a little confused about the ordering of the initfs_flash events, it seems like you have to run it first AND last?... I'll put it all in this post, for me its important to have every step detailed in one area or I start to get lost amidst multiple posts, readme's, wikis etc:

Download and extract initfs_flash first (from http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/#initfs) but do not run.
Regarding this, is this what is meant by

1. Partition your card so you have two partitions: One for the operating system clone and the other for your data which you will wish to store.

For this I will run:

#sfdisk /dev/mmcblk0 -uM

/dev/mmcblk0p1: 0,1300,06
/dev/mmcblk0p2: ,,,
/dev/mmcblk0p3:
/dev/mmcblk0p4:

2. After partitioning, you will want to clone your operating system to the appropriate partition on the card.

For this I will run:
As user "user"

mkdir ~/bin
cd ~/bin
wget http://www.nmacleod.com/nokia/bin/nupgrade.sh
wget http://www.nmacleod.com/nokia/bin/tar
chmod +x nupgrade.sh tar

As user "root"

Pass parameters to the nupgrade.sh script to control progress, as follows
o 0 - Create ext2 filesystem on partition 2 of the Internal memory card
o 1 - Mount partition 2 as /opt
o 2 - Mount rootfs as /floppy
o 3 - Perform cloning process
o 4 - Commit filesystem updates and unmount /floppy and /opt
Code:

sudo gainroot
cd /home/user/bin
./nupgrade.sh 0
./nupgrade.sh 1
./nupgrade.sh 2
./nupgrade.sh 3
./nupgrade.sh 4
reboot

3. After you have cloned the operating system to the card, you will need to install the boot menu in flash to choose to access either the flash operating system or the cloned operating system on start-up of your N800.

browse to where initfs was extracted to, and edit the bootmenu.conf.n800.example so its relevant to my setup, then rename it to bootmenu.conf

then run ./initfs_flasher. It should detect I have the edited bootmenu.conf and apply it.

After a reboot I should see the boot menu.

Or have I misintepreted what to do with initfs?

[QUOTE=Admira;88157]

"Download and extract initfs_flash first (from http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/#initfs) but do not run.
Regarding this, is this what is meant by

1. Partition your card so you have two partitions: One for the operating system clone and the other for your data which you will wish to store."

Initfs_flash has nothing to do with partitioning. It can be done after everything else -- partitioning and cloning -- has been done, but it is installed and resides in flash memory, not on a card, as it controls the initial booting choices.

"browse to where initfs was extracted to, and edit the bootmenu.conf.n800.example so its relevant to my setup, then rename it to bootmenu.conf

"then run ./initfs_flasher. It should detect I have the edited bootmenu.conf and apply it.

"After a reboot I should see the boot menu."

It should work, but you have to follow -- and understand -- the initfs_flasher and its README instructions exactly.

Thanks for your help with this ascherjim, I appreciate your patience. Its the understanding of the readme.txt that I'm struggling with.

In the HOWTO section of the README.TXT it says to "Run flash_initfs script and follow instructions"
I have tried that twice, the only instruction are the "Close all applications" - "disconnect form network" "make sure you have 5mb disk space" and "make sure you know how to reflash" - saying yes to continue just goes to a command prompt.

Further in the README.TXT, I saw that it has a CUSTOMIZATION section where it describes editing the bootmenu.conf.nXXX.example - I simply renamed that to bootmenu.conf and reran the flash and still got nothing. But I'll go through this all tonight or tomorrow from scratch and see how it goes. But I wouldn't say I understand the readme.txt completely...

Admira: I'm perhaps repeating myself, so please excuse me.

You will be doing two different things:

1. You will be working on your mmc card to partition it and clone your operating system onto one of the two partitions you will have created.

2. Totally separate from this, you will be creating a booting menu which appears when you turn on your N800 and gives you the option of which operating system you want to use -- the internal flash one or the mmc card clone.

You can do the above steps 1 and 2 totally independent of each other.

Before you even work on your mmc card, you may wish to get the boot menu to appear. To do that, follow Fanoush's instructions, and don't at this point attempt to make any changes to the bootmenu.conf. By following Fanoush's instructions for flashing the bootmenu, the initial bootmenu.conf will be created automatically.

When you are in the initfs_flasher directory, you will see a file labeled "initfs_flash." (That's "flash" NOT "flasher.") In accordance with Fanoush's instructions on his web site (http://fanoush.webpark.cz/maemo/#initfs), execute this file by typing "./initfs_flash" This then will get your installation started and just follow the instructions.

Once your boot menu appears on rebooting, you know you can proceed to work on your card. It shouldn't matter if you work on your card from the Internal slot, as you boot menu will give you the option of booting from either Internal or External slots. If you can successfully boot from the Internal slot, then you can move your card to the External slot, and using the bootmenu, boot from there. If this works, you can then simplify your bootmenu by editing out the reference to booting from the Internal slot. But this is not necessary.

Well its definitely a problem with the way I'm using initfs then... I just re-downloaded it (to check I got the right source), uncompressed it again and then the following cut and paste is straight from xterm:

/home/user/MyDocs/.documents/initfs_flasher # ./initfs_flash

=== Flasher for initfs with onscreen bootmenu ===

For safe flashing please do the following:

- close all aplications (to free available RAM and prevent system cras h)
- disconnect from network (to prevent system crash)
- make sure you have at least 5MB free disk space in flasher directory
- make sure you know how to reflash device in usual way if this fails

Are you sure to continue? (yes/no) : y

OK, see you later :-)
/home/user/MyDocs/.documents/initfs_flasher #

And rebooting didn't bring up a boot menu. So I've really done something stupid

I think I'll wait until the new OS comes out and get it going with that. In the meantime, how do I put all this behind me and repartition my internal card to be one big partition?

Admira: You're going to laugh. I made the same mistake myself in reinstalling this a number of times over the years. Where Fanoush asks "yes/no", you have to actually type the whole word "yes." I tried using "y" alone without remembering and got the same result you did, on more than one occasion! YOU HAVE TO TYPE "YES!" Also, if you're really that discouraged -- which you shouldn't be -- you can re-format the mmc card directly from N800 by going to File Manager, clicking on the top bar with your stylus, a menu will come up with Memory card being one of the choices, click on that, click on your designated memory card, and then a menu will come up giving you the choice of "format.." Click on that and it will return your designated memory card back to one formatted partition.

Hi Jim,

You are right, that is pretty funny. I can't believe I missed that.

Again, thanks for your patience, its people like yourself and all the others here who assist others that make forums like this such a great resource (and also make the n800 a great device, without a community behind it it would be nothing.

I just did that now and its booting from the mmc card without any problems.

If there is any way I can return the favour I'd be glad to do so.

Admira: Relieved to hear everything ultimately worked out OK. I myself have benefited so often from the help of others in this forum, that on the rare occasion when I also can pass along some useful information, it's very gratifying to me. Best of luck, Jim

(Round of applause for Jim!)