Frustrated with the horrible performance of my N900 I set out to overclock it. It would have been a simple matter of installing a custom firmware via USB, but the USB connector on my N900 has broken off!

The next step would have been to simply install the Power Users program, but since PR1.3 that program no longer installs automatically, saying that there is a conflict between the normal maemo-kernel and the power-users kernel.

This meant I had to manually patch the kernel, which seemed to have worked fine, following the instructions on the Wiki. I installed the new kernel, rebooted my phone and continued the instructions, but ran into some trouble trying to install the Settings half of the overclocking app. Despite having rootsh installed prior to beginning my upgrade, rootsh now decides not to work, with Xterm asking for the root password when I try and execute SU commands.

On top of that, now that I have a patched kernel that the Nokia software doesn't recognise, I can't use App Manager to re-install rootsh, because when I open Application Manager it says "Operation Failed", and tells me I have no installed apps, and no repositories. I tried adding repo's but when I push save nothing happens.

On top of that, my phone now has other issues. Media player won't play anything, MicroB is half broken, not loading pages when it feels like it, FAPman won't work.

This leaves me in a tight spot. I can't go any further with the kernel patching, because rootsh doesn't work. I can't reinstall rootsh through App Man, if I try and run the "Deinstall Kernel-Power" the program doesn't open, and I can't wipe my phone over USB because the port is broken and Nokia refuses to fix it, lying to me and trying to palm off the repair.

What do I do now? Throw my phone off a cliff? Because all it's useful for at the moment is SMS. If I just wanted a phone to do that, I wouldn't have spent $800 on it...

tldr: Kernel-power upgrade is stuck half way because rootsh won't work. I'm stuck in a catch-22, can't go forwards without rootsh, can't install rootsh with half an updated firmware. Can't flash over usb because the port snapped off.

Did it broke off after adventurous tweaking of experienced user named kiplinght?

I mean that why don´t you send it to nokia care? Use search to find more info about USB issue.

I think there are 2 top priority issues that are blocking you as you've already identified. First is getting the USB port fixed and second is getting root access. If you can do either of those 2 things then you should be able to fix your problem.

What happens when you enter your root password when prompted for it? (The password you defined when installing rootsh originally). What happens when you run "root" or "sudo gainroot"?

If you are electronically skilled and don't care about (or don't have) warranty then maybe you can open it up and try to repair the USB port yourself, I think there were some discussions about that around here somewhere.

You don't need any custom firmware (I don't know if there is such a thing out there for N900, other than MeeGo images). Just enable Extras repository if it's not already, then install the package kernel-power-settings (which installs the power kernel) and reboot. That's all that is necessary to use the power kernel. Obviously you're stuck in a spot where that's not possible anymore, though.

Do you use multiboot (for example with nitdroid)? May be able to switch back to normal kernel that way if you do.

It is absolutey typical of third-party repair people hired by Nokia to refuse to fix the USB problem -- I'm surprised that no one mentioned that above. There is a long thread in which that problem is mentioned repeatedly. Call Nokia direct and eventually you should be able to batter your way through.

Much of your message is of the "my child is sick and my car won't start and I lost my job" variety. All that stuff isn't related and can only be solved one by one.