I just reflashed back to 2007OS due to instability from the 2008OS. There are a few items I miss from the 2008OS, specifically the file manager and BT Keyboard. 2008OS was able to natively see my shared folders on my laptop and the BT Keyboard was able to wakeup and connect with my igo keyboard- these features are not available in 2007.

Not being very well versed in Linux, I'm thinking that the file that is used to flash the unit is similar to an .iso file. I tried to open it in PowerISO but got an error message. That may be due to trying to load an ext2 based filesystem onto a program expecting Fat32 or NTFS. (just a guess on my part)

My question is- assuming I'm on the right path, and it is possible to edit one of these bin files and then flash the N800 would it be possible to "pull out" say the file manager and BT Keyboard apps and plug them into the 2007OS bin? Ignoring for now lib conflicts and other dependency issues.

Would setting up the scratchbox SDK on a linux partition and editing what I need then rolling it back up into a bin be possible?

Why does the unit need to be totally erased when updating the OS anyway? I thought with linux based operating systems that apt-get would be able to update just about any file. Could there theoretically be a way to just pick and choose areas to update?

What were your problems with OS2008?

Problem 1: I was reading a book on FBReader and noticed that turning pages took increasingly longer and longer, then suddenly it crashed to the white Nokia screen. It stayed on that screen for several minutes before it started to boot back up. This happened 3 or 4 times within a 20 minute period. Afterward, all programs began exhibiting prolonged loading times. The application manager took over 5 minutes to uninstall an 85kb program. (timed using the screen darkening setting). GarnetVM crashed hard with just one program on it- it lost all its built in applications and displayed an error message when I tried to re-install it again.

Problem 2: Strange behavior with charging and device not shutting off. Not sure if a bug or a feature- was different than what I was used to with 2007OS. In 2007OS I can push the power button, select lock screen and the screen turns off and the unit is locked. I didn't have this effect in 2008- at least not as default behavior.

Not a problem- more a dissatisfaction- large program icons on program menu. Prefer the smaller ones in 2007.

You wouldn't happened to have corrupted your internal card and be using swap?

As for the original question - to access the filesystem of the binary you must
1) Use the flasher tool to extract the root file system (in OS2007 that file was called rootfs.jffs2)
2) Then loopback-mount it as a jffs2 filesystem.

Unfortunately 2) isn't as straight-forward as loopback-mounting other filesystem types, but I did it after a little googling. You'll need some extra kernel modules (on your desktop linux box) because jffs2 is a special flash file system.

After that you should be able to access the filesystem on your desktop and get files from it - whether that would be at all useful is another question (I don't think it's easy to mix and match OS2007 and OS2008 applications, at least not GUI apps).