If your not worried about loosing all your data on the device, I'd say re-flash it again. Check to see if it's accessable again. If not, grab the repositories from here http://www.gronmayer.com/it/ and then open up xterm and apt-get install becomeroot and then try to do what I posted before.

Thats what I would do anyways. If I coulden't get it to work after that I'd prolly try to get a RMA.

I have already reflashed it twice. I have been using becomeroot. I have tried every suggestion posted in this thread. In each instance the command fails because /media/mmc2 is "read only" or "busy". I also tried Control Panel > Clear device, which explicitly says it will delete all data from the non-removeable memory card.

I have spoken to Nokia. They suggest I try to exchange the device with the dealer or send it for service.

Problem is there are files on the card, which I cannot erase, that include scanned images of documents such as our passports. I probably do not want to return the device to the dealer with that material, and I need to think about whether I would even send it to Nokia.

For now it may be better to ignore the drive altogether. Unfortunately the GPS application sees map files there, tries to use them, and several of the features fail because it cannot write to the drive.

Is there any file I can edit to prevent the OS from mounting the drive when the system reboots?

If you have to RMA it I would get the RMA from Nokia and send it to Nokia, not the dealer.

Can you run sfdisk /dev/mmcblk0 ? prolly wont work since it should be unmounted first but you can't umount it worth a try tho. I'm sure a simple format on the thing will fix it.

If you have a Windows XP machine or Vista you can plug it in via the USB and try Rclick on My Computer , goto Manage, then Disk Management. Look to see if the drive poped up anywhere there and try to format it from there.

When the Nokia gets pluged into a computer via USB the mmc2 becomes unmounted I think. Or at least the vfat partition becomes unaccessable on the Nokia as windows takes controll over the vfat partition.

Why on earth would you need to make scans of your passports ? A scan is useless at airports or customs, you need to provide the actual book at customs and now they got the computer chip in it for USA peoples.

I used...

sfdisk --no-reread /dev/mmcblk0

...this still generated an error message, but now I have an empty reformatted Internal card This is good because even if there are other problems I can now comfortably send it for service. Thank you for staying with me on this.

The value of the scanned copy of the passports is to speed replacement if the physical one is lost or stolen, especially out of the country.

Off topic, I am a US citizen but when entering the United Kingdom I typically no longer use my passport, only my eye...

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applying/iris/

Glad to hear you got it resolved, sparkling. I would strongly suggest looking at some encryption routine for your sensitive documents on the internal card. I am intending to do something very similar (keep a copy of all CC info, passport, etc), but not without encrypting it! I know you mentioned not being too familiar with Linux, but this seems like something you could manage. It would probably help you sleep at night if you lose it or have to get it repaired.

I've not been looking long enough to see what is available for this platform. On Windows, I use TrueCrypt. There's Linux support for that, but I don't know if Maemo is supported (and I haven't searched). gpgp is likely ported. Given the legal requirements in the UK for hanging over encryption keys, I'd lean more strongly towards TC and its plausible deniability support if you want to extend your storage beyond the mundane...

Another thing to keep in mind is that the chance of your data being fully wiped is pretty slim. Better to store it from day one in an encrypted format. fdisk usually only wipes the filesystem structure, but not any actual data. Add onto that the wear-leveling nature of the memory card, and it's quite likely that every bit is still available (of course, the likelyhood of there being a determined person trying to go after your passport scan is pretty much nil).

Happy hacking

Or invest in a miniSD card for your Nokia so information wont ever get stuck on internal memory again!

Now hurry up and RMA it before the holliday season starts to flare up or else you might not get it back before next year. My experience with RMA'ing things in general is that it's usualy painfully slow.

Agreed. I've only had the device for a week and was playing around with the configuration. Didn't consider the possibility it could fail in a fashion that would trap files. I do understand that "deleted" files can easily be recovered.

Now I have reformatted the internal card and reloaded the GPS maps, but not activated Virtual Memory. I am inclined to think that the drive was corrupted while downloading an additional map rather than by the OS update.

In process of backing up, reformatting, and restoring the /map folder I did confirm that the GPS application will use files stored on a removeable card, but if it finds files on both the Internal and Removeable drives it uses the files on Internal.

I don't understand all the flailing.

I had the same error:

Unable to connect via USB
Memory Card in use: Internal memory card

I simply rebooted (click power, select "Switch off") and when it came up I turned off Virtual Memory in the Control Panel.

USB connection then worked as expected.

Mike

You may have seen one of the same error messages, but it was not caused by the same problem. If you have time to read my original post...

http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...78&postcount=1

...you will see in point (3) that my device would not allow disabling of the Virtual Memory.

I don't see where you said you tried rebooting to ensure the virtual-memory wasn't in-use when you tried to disable it.

I couldn't disable it either initially. Had to reboot first.

FYI, there's a note on page 15 of the Internet Tablet OS 2008 Edition User Guide that states "Heavy usage of the extended virtual memory may affect the durability of the memory card".

Mike