[maemo-developers] Continuous reboot problem with the N770 hacker edition

[From: Frantisek Dufka]

Rainer Dorsch wrote:
> Hi Markku,
> 
> I have no idea how I can replace the binary when the N770 is rebooting itself 
> before the desktop is up :-( Is that possible?

http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowTo_EASILY_Boot_From_MMC_card

If you haven't this installed then it is almost impossible to recover
now but you may consider it for future. With this installed you may boot
working system and mount and fix the broken one.

Also if you really have some important data there you may prepare
bootable mmc card on desktop PC with linux but it is harder. You need to
format card as ext2 and extract rootfs.jffs2 from firmware image  to it
(try Google for instructions how to mount jffs2 image) and set root
device via flasher.

> 
> Are there 
> any plans to update the N770 hacker edition image in near future to fix bugs 
> like this?

If your reboot loop is caused by rss applet then upgrading could help
but reboot loop in general has more causes and is not specific to
IT2007. It may happen sooner or later on any Nokia tablet with any IT
200x system so far. If you have bad luck even first device crash and
watchdog reboot can cause infinite reboot loop if the device was in the
middle of some 'sensitive' write.

> If yes, I would probably wait for a few days and test the updated 
> image (and would be happy to pick up the other improvements;-)

I have already asked here in the list two or three times about future of
hacker edition but got no reply.

It is possible to update some packages from Bora 3.1 repository and it
should be also possible to recreate deb files on n800 with upgraded
firmware and upgrade them on N770 hacker edition via dpkg (except those
which are modified for hacker edition and there are no sources).

I'm planning to do it when I hit some bug on n770 which is not on my N800.

Frantisek