you could try using flasher booting from ubuntu with u-boot. Copy the flasher binary from maemo to an external location, boot ubuntu, copy flasher to /usr/bin, download images and try flashing (haven't tried it but it should work)
Can you successfuly boot at all..after 2,3...10 tries? If yes, try to install power kernel, I think it might help.
I guess I did forget to mention I was using kernel-power 50. I did a kernel reflash, as sugested, and I must say the problem goes away almost completely by that - it will only fail to boot when REbooting (there's a tutorial somewhere about how to re-activate this option in the power button menu).
Obviously after the kernel reflash I am left with a bunch of packages that are installed but aren't used ( kernel-power* ), so I purged them and re-installed kernel-power-flasher (which brings with it kernel-power and kernel-power-modules).
And about 5-10 normal shutdown/startups later I can say with some confidence that it is cured.
However, what brings back the issue is installing kernel-power-settings and batterypatch (not sure yet which exactly is the culprit). And that's a shame 'cause I like the idea behind batterypatch.
Try pulling the battery for an hour, and then see if it'll boot (after putting the battery back in). This has consistently worked for me.
Though this still doesn't address the main issue, which I'm not sure what it is. I'll need to reflash it at some point, it seems.
As I said before, I've seen no corellation between taking the battery out and boot up success rates. Keeping the phone turned off (with battery in it) for that same hour might have the same results for all I know (didn't do any specific testing on that, but at least the phone time wouldn't reset). Let me know if you try
you could try using flasher booting from ubuntu with u-boot. Copy the flasher binary from maemo to an external location, boot ubuntu, copy flasher to /usr/bin, download images and try flashing (haven't tried it but it should work)
In theory the n900 should be able to flash itself (meaning flash from the device, without using any external computer). In fact, that's exactly what happens when installing kernel-power-flasher or restoring a backup with backupmenu - the device is flashing an image (be it just kernel or entire eMMC) into itself.
If you are able to boot the phone, at least occasionally, it might be worth a try using backupmenu. I've read somewhere that the backup images it uses are compatible with the nokia's flasher, so I'm guessing the reverse is also true. In that case one should be able to install backupmenu, put the firmware image (vanilla or combined) on an SD card and restore it to the device from within backupmenu.
I will try it on my old n900 (also broken off USB). Will report back when I have results.
Sometimes I need a second try to successfuly boot..after flashing it's good but with time it starts to happen. Maybe it's just "normal" thing..I don't know. Good luck!
Powering off the phone for an hour is not the same as pulling the battery for an hour. Pulling the battery resets some settings and brings you to the localization config menu once the phone comes up. I also have to change the time format from 12-hr to 24-hr each time -- so pulling the battery does seem to cause the phone to loose some settings.
If there's another/better way to reset the nvram (correct term for the n900?), then that should work too.
i also had same problem....once i flashed my phone but the problem nt gone.....but few days ago when i reflashed my phone.......completly means rootfs and EMMC both...then now the problem is solved...hope it works for you.....
