First, a question for qgil:

For how long into the future can you assure us that the Diablo image will be available for flashing with the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard?

I'm paranoid that the day will come when I'll still be using my N800, I'll need to flash the system, and the Diablo image hosted by Nokia will no longer be available.

IIRC, I start the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard and it goes online, fetches the Diablo OS, and flashes my N800's internal memory with it. I would feel more secure if I could download that OS (or whatever it is) onto my computer, save it as a file, and re-direct the Update Wizard to fetch that file. Then I could still flash my N800 if I need to, regardless of whether Nokia maintains it.

Does anybody know how to do this?

You'll note that the earliest of 770 releases is still available.

However, all previous releases are available from tablets-dev.nokia.com.

FWIW all previous images since 2005 are still available, but having a local copy never hurt anyone.

Visit http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/ and enter your tablet's WLAN MAC address when asked for a product id.

I don't know about the "Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard" Windows app, but there is a command-line flasher for Linux (and MacOS I think?) desktop machines which uses locally downloaded copies of the images. So if you download the images and the flasher, you'll be happy that there will be a way to reflash in future, even if you need to use a Linux LiveCD or something.

flasher-3.5 is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

Cool. Out of interest, for people who like GUIs, does anyone know if (as the OP asked) it's possible to make the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard use a locally stored file too?

So I wouldn't run the Software Update Wizard and "re-direct" it to the .bin file I got from the link on posts 2 and 3; instead I would use the setup_maemo_flasher-3.5_2.4.5.3_beta.exe and somehow direct that program to find the .bin file -- yes?

Edit: I was posting this the same time as Pelago. I'm curious about his question, too. I didn't mean to say his question was irrelevant (I just hadn't seen it yet).

setup_maemo_flasher-3.5_2.4.5.3_beta.exe sounds like an installer than you have to run on its own, which will presumably install a command something like flasher.exe, hopefully in the path. You would then use instructions like those at http://wiki.maemo.org/Flasher and http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_tablet_firmware to do the flash.

Just a couple of notes. First, you don't have to remove the battery as suggested to get the MAC address. It can be found by running Control Panel and selecting About Product.

Second, the instructions for flashing are found in the Wiki: https://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_tablet_firmware If you are paranoid, you might want to copy them.

Third, for Windows, you will need the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard at:http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/...ate_Wizard.exe so you'll want to get a copy of that.

Last, to flash a downloaded image you "On the summary page of the wizard, press the change button to select the software image you downloaded in step 2 from your computer's file system."