Hi.
I done something terribly wrong in terminal (as root by command sudo gainroot, but not from RD mode but from shroot package installed apparently inside same folder I locked with this command) : chod -R -xwr /usr/sbin

After closing terminal I lost any ability to log in as root, locally all passwords were rejected in attempt to log in as root (tried my own passwords in multiple combinations and default passwords like root and rootme, none of those worked), also ssh server didn't allow remote acces for root login (there wasn't even request for password).

Another terrible mistake of mine was shutting down my N900.
When i try to boot maemo its stays on white NOKIA screen and nothing else happens.
When trying to load backupmenu it just shut down after short while (but first i can see that backupmenu is loading in upper part of screen) .
Trying to connect to PC (with windows 7 32-bit) via USB cable :
-if N900 isn't powered up device connects and immediately disconnects, no drivers loaded.
-when n900 is powered up prompt to connecting usb cable, windows shows no signs of noticing it, but phone starts to recharge (??? not sure, yellow LED isn't blinking like in charging mode, its giving solid light [sry, not sure if this expression is English])

Basically its totally useless BRICK now.
I'll try to dig up my old notebook which I used for reflashing (i have there win xp with maemo flasher, installed drivers for flashing n900), but for now i would appreciate any good ideas.
Any way to regain control over device? Or at least backup my backups made by backupmenu () from emmc?



BTW> Why I did such stupid thing? Im not every-day unix/linux user, and got my n900 for few days now in which I dint re-learned that much about navigating thru command line, and what is more important : I'm lazy
Tried to unpack some .tar archive into /usr/sbin by using xarchiver, so in my laziness I changed access rights for this folder into "777" and after successful unpacking did what is described at the beginning of this thread.

Check/search for rescueOS. (techy solution)

Or reflash. If you just reflash rootfs, it should be OK already. Or flash the combined image.
Both will not touch the MyDocs partition.

I would suggest reflashing, in such case. Even if you would be able to clear this mess using recovery shell, I'm not sure if any other "damage" wasn't done, that could hit you at later time.

/Estel

Thanks for quick responds (can't see "thanks" button ), both solutions seem reasonable and I will try those ASAP.
To be exact : I would try to repair existing maemo thru rescueOS and reflash from backupmenu later (I was during new battery calibration process when I did stupidly ruined device).

Right now I'm struggling with n900 unrelated problems with running Linux needed to apply rescueOS. Apparently my old notebook dedicated for re-flashing also old phones cant run any useful distro (well, its transmeta CPU based piece of history, back in the day it wasn't supported by open-source and I guess nothing changed), somewhat newer tablet-pc failed repeatedly to run any live-cd ubuntu, I managed to run gparded which proven to be useless in that case (no rpm2cpio nor apt-get ). Day like everyday

Thanks again.

@hamil_hamster,

Nice fvck up you've done there I assume you don't have U-boot installed, do you?

Some time ago I had a similar issue (left /sbin/getbootstate without the executable permission), but thanks to U-boot I managed to boot with init=/bin/sh (instead of the default init=/sbin/preinit), so I had time to chmod +x /sbin/getbootstate (in your case: chmod 755 /usr/sbin) before the watchdog rebooted the N900.

If you don't have U-boot (U-boot and R&D mode are the two most fundamental unbricking tools. Every N900 should bet set up like that, especially knowing that the USB port might fail anytime), then you have the options already indicated above: flash rootfs or use rescueOS.

OR: use flasher to boot stock kernel with arbitrary kernel commandline (i.e. same as with U-boot, but with the advantage of not having to type it all on the N900 keyboard . Never tried that one, but there's no reason why it should not work.

The Transmeta CPUs don't support the full i686 instruction set and I don't know if the workaround described here [1] ever made it into the vanilla kernel. So distros based on an i686 kernel like Ubuntu or derivatives might not work. To be on the safe side you need to use a distro with an i586 kernel (e.g. openSuse) or lower (e.g. Debian has a i486 kernel).

If you need any further assistance you should provide more info. What is the exact designation of your notebook and what exactly does not work?

[1] http://news.techeye.net/software/pat...to-a-full-i686

SOLVED
I ended up doing re-flash after all, as was predicted before - MyDocs was left untouched and luckily no files nor fs was damaged as result of my actions. So there was no reason to panic here.
Also tried kernel-only reflash but it didn't worked out.
Thanks again for support peterleinchen and Estel.

As for RescueOS, if someone will get in same kind of trouble like I did, don't bother with this tool, theres no chmod.
Nevertheless its extremely useful tool, did managed to backup my files prior to reflash by using usb mass-storage mode (much more fun, than original usb storage mode), didn't managed to telnet into device in usb network mode but it is doable. Knowing that I can always dig out data from my n900 helps me sleep well
Are there more tools or operating systems loaded to phone same way as rescueos?

Using recovery os, reflashing and loading backup from backupmenu was fast and painless, my only issue with recoveryos was actually converting rpm to img with small linux distros (which in most cases have no apt-get, nor other package manager, also there no rpm2cpio needed for recoveryos images) + hardware compatibility problems with some that actually worked(no wireless + no aps and libs = ). So I uploaded rescuos files already converted to .img for anyone with similar troubles (or using windows for maemoflash, don't know any reason why it shouldn't work) http://www.speedyshare.com/P3Gdn/boot.zip


@reinob
Thanks for advice. I would definitely install u-boot before bricking my n900 again!


@sulu
I just accepted lack of support for my transmeta as a fact, there no reason to struggle with putting new os in ancient device. Its sure would be great to set up some command line only linux server for some file and device sharing services (especially SANE scanner share, which is something that ms windows based systems can't offer) to reuse old notebook. Device is rebranded ECS 532 with 1 Ghz Efficeon TM8600. It is usable with both windows xp and windows server 2003, tried running w7 PE (because its small and fast fully usable command-line based windows) but lack of compatible drivers ended that experiment.
With its low power usage (5W x86 capable chip with integrated memory controller and north bridge from year 2004! It was re-achived few years ago with amd brazos and some newer intel atom cpu's), mostly fan-less operation and battery backup it its still perfect candidate for 24/7 working device.
It might be old piece of junk, but very unique one

I believe that issue of support for code-morphing "x86" CPU would be back pretty soon. Nvidia made some vague threats few years ago after hiring Transmeta's engineers.