Possible to create own flashable image?
 

Hey folks,
I was wondering if there isnt a way to create a flashable image of my systemroot including all the installed applications and individual changes I did. My idea is to have a backup image of my wholes ystem with which I could reflash my n810 using the nokia flasher tool. Would be awesome because you wouldnt have to individualize your device again if you destroyed someting and it forces you to reflash. Probably also suitable if you have to maintain more then one n810 with the same configuration.
Hope that somebody can help me,
Shnifti

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

Short answer: Yes. Will Nokia allow you or someone else to create a tool that will permit the creation of such images. Short answer: No. Will they allow the use or distribution of said custom images should they be created. Short answer: Epic Hell No!

So yes, you can write a tool to do it (nothing currently exists that can do this, but it shouldn't be hard to write a tool that more or less mirrors your entire drive into an installable flash file) if you want, or have someone else do it, but don't expect the project to live long before Nokia pitches an epic sized C&D at it. And I wouldn't really blame Nokia if they did. All corporations these days are getting super anal about anyone doing anything with their products without the expressed blessing of corporate.

Sure, we produce a lot of FOSS software for the NITS and the 900, however, that work is corporately blessed. Creating an app that can create custom flash images however is not, nor is editing existing images to create your own custom image either. Now if Nokia corporate wants to give its blessing to something like that, I know we'd all welcome it. But I seriously doubt they would, for several reasons.

A) There's risk that bad or compromised images could get on the web and be listed as "official" images of Nokia, and thus said compromised users would blame Nokia even though it's not their fault.

B) The custom images would be outside of Nokia control, so when new changes came down, Nokia would not be able to force the needed updates (Ie, security, features, etc) to the images that is required. And thus they would get blamed.

C) A poorly compiled custom image could fry the device, thus resulting in loss of money for Nokia due to warranty repair or bad press.

And there are a hundred other reasons they don't allow said things such as custom install images to happen. Most of it is corporate CYOA, if you get my drift. And honestly, in our "sue at the drop of a hat" society, I don't blame them. Fix our environment of lawsuit overload, and most of those kind of problems would go away. The only problem with that idea is you'd have to kill all the lawyers first, and we all know hell will freeze over first before we rid ourselves of the plague of lawyers. ;)

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

Er, Lord Raiden.... what did you eat for breakfeast today?

shnifti: Google "mkjffs2"; it comes with manual page.

I see that there's even some documentation in the wiki: http://wiki.maemo.org/Modifying_the_root_image

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

hehe. It looks like I was having one of my piss and vinegar days. ^_^;; It was likely brought on by yet another wave of corporate stupidity of the Redmond and Capernio variety. ;)

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

console-tools can backup your root system, and I'm fairly sure there's some method of putting it back on the tablet (presumably within console tools).

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

If I recall Stskeeps has an article on the Mer project blog about how to do it.

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

Great idea! I'm for anything that makes things more convenient and from experience I know how important back up is.

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

Yes, I've seen some remarks saying that you can basically back up your rootfs and restore it later somehow. Still didn't see any concrete instructions on how to do it though. Would be extremely useful for doing various risky things with the OS. After all, my repartitioned N900 with /usr on eMMC (thanks ruskie) did survive PR1.1 upgrade (did it via apt-get, then edited init scripts before rebooting), but I'm not so sure about forthcoming PR1.2...

Re: Possible to create own flashable image?
 

Hmm you were luckier then me... But then I was trying to mess some things in between. It's annoynig not having a diff command to see diffs and being able to jump out to edit.