Hello, I have the N900, which I have found is a great GNU/Linux device.

However, I am having problems with the "apt-get upgrade" and
"apt-get dist-upgrade" causing my phone to not boot up. Since it doesn't brick, I can just flash the firmware again, but this got really annoying since I had to do it two times already.

I also had another problem with installing Backupmenu, because it was missing some library: liblzo2-2 I think.

My final problem that I have is that Application Manager forces me to put my N900 in Nokia Suite mode and expects Nokia Suite on my PC. FYI, I don't use Windows anymore, I only run Debian Linux on my PCs. Sorry, Nokia, I'm not going to use proprietary bloatware on my PC at least.

I know I'm just jumping straight into Maemo. I'm excited. I've only had a "meh" experience with Cyanogenmod. android was a horrible bloated OS, and that's why I wanted a GNU/Linux system. It was either N900 or OpenMoko Freerunner (sadly only 2 choices, how disappointing in this day and age), and of course I took the device with the physical keyboard, which is only now $200 on Ebay, and I couldn't even afford the GTA04A3 with case and camera and stuff. Why bother? Why did I disregard the N9? Capacitive touchscreen. Every screen in the future should at least be an active digitizer with capacitive touch. My body would explode in confetti if there was a slightly smaller Galaxy Note device with a physical keyboard and use a free GNU/Linux OS. That would be beyond amazing.

Anyway, I think I was on the right path... Here's what I did:

1. Flash to PR 1.3, and flash the eMMC update (only once).
2. Somehow manage to update CSSU without Nokia Suite (I forgot how.)
3. Install rootsh
4. Put entries in the repositories, such as extras-devel, to try and install Backupmenu
5. Update, upgrade.
6. Problems start happening.

That was really frustrating, but I can't let some issues like that boggle me. I am learning after all, and I know there are people here who have been hacking with this thing for 4 years now.

So my final question is that is there a new users guide for people who may be "power-users" at GNU/Linux and want to quickly set up the N900 with all the updated software and as much FOSS replacements as possible? Thank you.

You might have walked into the trap some guy created with his upload of libxau6 package.
Right now it is not possible to upgrade with extras-devel enabled or you have put libxau6 on hold like thisFor Backupmenu you may be just need to install the missing libraries, may be you need some from this thread about backupmenu with multiboot http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=67866

This quite often is a misleading error message, but you could start by debugging with these commandsThere is no need for nokia softawre for windows at all! Please post here, best copy and paste, the full error messages here for further guidance along the way.

@mrrhq,

Welcome to TMO!

Although I get the impression that you more-or-less know what you're doing, I would advise you to treat extras-devel with EXTREME care.

This is not Debian. Packages in extras-devel are in development, and anyone can upload anything that "upgrades" (read: fvks up) critical system packages in the worst imaginable ways.

Normally you enable extras-devel to install a single package, and then disable it.

NEVER do apt-get upgrade with extras-devel enabled.
NEVER do apt-get dist-upgrade under any circumstances (extras-devel or not).

I repeat: this is not Debian!

Enjoy your N900!

Thanks.

Okay, I had only intended to set the pin-priority of extras-devel such that the stable/testing packages come first.

So this is how it works then?
extras is like Debian Stable.
extras-testing is Like Debian Testing/Sid.
extras-devel is like Debian's Experimental.

And Nokia's repos are old-stable

Well, I thought that the libxau6 was working by now since someone said it had worked. I read the thread. But I suppose I'll change the priority of libxau6 to devel/testing and see if that works.

Also, I plan to get u-boot, Multiboot, and Recoverymenu installed after I do the fix to prevent the USB issue.

This is what is confusing me. How do you completely upgrade the system, then?

apt-get dist-upgrade bricked my N900 system once and i had to reflash i dont know why ??

Dist-upgrade is for distribution upgrade, like from lenny to squeeze. There is no such thing as maemo6. Just do upgrade, like you said in your first post.

The usual solution to the problem of installing CSSU is just running apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. On rare occasions, such as now, there is a problem when something disastrous is in the pike to be upgraded. I presume that using the hold code recommended earlier will solve that problem, so update and upgrade should fix you up.

I have had my devel and testing repositories enabled since I got my N800, then N810, then N900, without major problems. I have been running apt-get update and apt-get upgrade more than once a day most days.

Okay. I have done the USB fix up, installed Backupmenu-Multiboot, Multiboot itself, installed the CSSU and am now ready to do much more, such as install uboot and customize the N900's bootup.

--- My N900 todo list ---

I'm now starting from the bottom up.

Customize bootloader? Yes, uboot.
Custom kernel(s)? Yes, kernel-power.
Customize boot menu? Yes, multiboot.
Get rid of osso- and other proprietary bloatware crap? No.
Install other OSes? No.

--- The below applies only to Maemo at the moment ---

Customize bootup? No.
Install loads of free software? No.
Customize UI? No.
Advanced UI and system tweaks? No.

--- End N900 todo list ---

To be honest, I'm looking for just a simple "init-script looking" bootup. Not only is it faster and shows me errors during bootup, but it also improves geek credit.

Anyone know any way of doing that? I've backed up before and after installing the CSSU. I can just check the app repos myself, but I'm mostly wondering what N900 users recommend?

Have a look at the Recovery Console thread for additional info on text-based bootup.

Basically, once the kernel is loaded and initialized, it passes control to /sbin/preinit, which does the rest. If you load the framebuffer console module (modprobe fbcon) early when preinit starts, you get to see the boot messages on the screen.

For fbcon you'd need the power-kernel (v50 is the latest & greatest).

Recovery console? So that edits the preinit? And now I have u-boot set up to boot kernel-power v50! I'm making another backup right away.

Is there a link to the thread you're referring to? I'm scrolling through pages of posts to find exactly where that reference is and learn what to do.

Also, I've been having another problem, but this happens only sometimes when I reboot the device. It goes back to the "Welcome" screen and asks for locale, date and time, even though I did it already. It remembers the locale but forgets the date and time, which is odd, so I'll look more into this. Again, it only happens sometimes when I reboot, but not all the time.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, it may have just been because I used kernel-power. I'll find out if it keeps happening.

EDIT2: I think I found the thread. http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=999066

I think I can soon figure most of this N900/Maemo stuff out. Maybe this topic can be closed soon.