NICE work How To + DL links please

No tutorial yet?

(cant wait to test some maemo5 apps )

Tutorial Time

First things first.

1. The N900 rootfs is not redistributable, so the only thing I can do is write how to obtain it (if you have a N900).
2. You need a linux box for this procedure, either virtual or real. It is possible that those steps that require linux could be done on a N900 with kernel-power but this is not certain
3. These are early stages, I've got many problems to solve, hopefully with some help from the community this project can be made usable day to day
4. Requires open mode, I don't know if inception can be used alternatively


How to get fremantle image.
Create a working directory N900root

Go here http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N900.php, enter your IMEI and download
RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin (latest global N900 firmware)
michaelmhk says that if you haven't got a N900 you can download the firmware from NaviFirm
Go here http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/maemo-d...-downloads.php and download maemo_flasher-3.5_2.5.2.2.tar.gz, or maemo_flasher-3.5_2.5.2.2_i386.deb if you have 32bit ubuntu/debian.

Install the flasher or extract the binary from the tar.gz in your working directory

Unpack the .bin file you just downloaded
if you installed or otherwise
You'll end up with a bunch of files in the working directory

Using a root prompt (sudo su) execute the following commands to mount the rootfs file to your system. Some commands are there just for checking if you've done well (cat and ls commands should produce similar output). You may need to create /mnt/n900 directory
These instructions are courtesy of x86 from this post http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=403015

Now you have a maemo rootfs mounted on /mnt/n900. Let's create an image of that node. This website has a very nice explanation of what's happening http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-create...rtition-s-file
We need to execute (change the working dir and the size to one of your liking, bigger than 800mb)
Now we can copy all files from the one image to the other
After this command finishes unmount the ext2 image
and copy rootfs.img to your N9/50 mass storage (MyDocs)
Now we have to use qole's scripts to get the chroot up and running (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=82114)

Download the scripts http://qole.org/files/harmattan/HarmChom.tgz as well as coderus' sudo http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php...9&d=1332087322 and install sudo.

You have to change user password by doing while root or edit your /etc/sudoers file to look like this

Then open the tgz and copy the files in /src/bin except sudo to your device's /bin folder via ssh. Do not copy /etc/ folder, it will mess with your ssh configuration and it is not needed since you just installed sudo. Also do create a /.debian folder in the root of your device.

You should be ready to go, launch a user terminal and
Now you should be greeted by a maemo 5 busybox
You can install WordPress and run it

Experiments
You can also install gnumeric and run it, but it misses the menu bar, and it doesn't run with a maemo5 theme. It segfaults if you try to run-standalone it.
If you do
it runs with maemo theme but still without a menu. We also need to get rid of harmattan's bottom toolbar.

I suppose we need a fully running hildon-desktop to see the menu, but we are missing xephyr. One solution is to use xephyr from another chroot running debian.

Another thought that if is true it would allow this project to take off is this:
What do we need to run hildon applications in harmattan? Of course drivers, firmware and other blobs are not needed, neither the stock fremantle applications. Hildon-desktop is open and most of the other libs. So theoretically we could create a stripped fremantle image that could be redistributable. Please anybody who can help with this task speak up.

Thanks to all testers for the corrections

[Edit]

Any way to backup all settings (and apps) from an incepted N9, then reflash it into open mode, and restore everything?

as far as i know, using inception method should be fine.
I'll test it now and show the results.

(ubiattach didn't work on my ubuntu 8.0 installing newest ubuntu now)

Thanks! I played a little bit more with this trying to get hildon-desktop to run in Xephyr without success. I managed though to get applications to run in Xephyr, and I also managed to start most of the Maemo services, so maybe more applications can work now (although mypaint which previously segfaulted now does not find it's python dependencies, which is not a good sign)

I managed to start services using a script from scratchbox modified a little for use on-device, but it stops halfway, with some dbus errors about com.nokia.clockd

I am attaching the script for reference

EDIT: I forgot to document how I ran Xephyr.

I followed qole's instructions to run harmchom (debian chroot) and after chrooting to debian I ran
This launches an empty Xephyr window. Then on fremantle chroot

Have you tried other parameters' configurations noted in http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/...own_the_SDK_UI ?

About your com.nokia.clockd errors, quick search came up with: https://garage.maemo.org/pipermail/e...st/000864.html - although there are com.nokia.clockd related errors, hildon-desktop starts there (as far as i understand). By the way, see how they run it: - what happens if you run Xephyr on your desktop linux and try to connect from Fremantle chroot to it? I would check it myself, but I don't have neither N950, nor even N9

Doesn't seem to work with other parameters either. When I tried on the desktop, it does the same thing as on the device, but as I could watch the Xephyr window while the system was starting, I realized that hildon-desktop flashed on-screen before dying. The message just before it dies reads as:

Going to check what that error could mean

It asks me for a password when I try to run
sudo qchroot MyDocs/rootfs.img /.debian

rootme isn't working. what is the default password?

edit:
using opensh should also work

Edit 2:
Couldn't get it to run, output: