Debian on Nokia N900?

[Victor Nitu]

Hi there,

Nokia released some time ago some smartphones using a Debian-based OS,
which they called Maemo.
I was wondering if anybody on this list had any previous experience with
the N900, trying to setup a
vanilla Debian system. The arch used would be armel, and I guess the
original phone software (well,
the important pieces) can still be installed via apt-pinning from the
Maemo repositories.

The only variant I have found searching the web was a chroot-ed install
which I am sure is killing the battery
pretty fast, since it produces a reasonable amount of system load. And,
of course, I want it to run smoothly :)

I have tried the direct change in /etc/apt/sources.list, pointing to
stable, then oldstable, but the result
was a major failure both times, each try ending with downgrading udev
and some other major implications.

I guess a direct Debian install would a nice choice, and then installing
the Nokia's apps and tools directly
from the Maemo repository, but with the main package source set to some
official Debian mirror.

What I am not sure about:
- a safe and easy to restore backup method via USB data connection / USB
networking
- installation method
- whether is recommended or not to use Embedded Debian, although the
amount of storage space is more than
generous on N900 (~32GB for root / internal memory, and I also have a
16GB MicroSD card)

I guess anybody with a minimum of experience in embedded devices can
help me with this one. I never attempted
this kind of operation before.

TIA,
Victor

[Selim T. Erdogan]

Post by Victor Nitu
Hi there,
Nokia released some time ago some smartphones using a Debian-based
OS, which they called Maemo.
I was wondering if anybody on this list had any previous experience
with the N900, trying to setup a
vanilla Debian system. The arch used would be armel, and I guess the
original phone software (well,
the important pieces) can still be installed via apt-pinning from
the Maemo repositories.

Ask the debian-arm list too.

[Victor Nitu]

Post by Selim T. Erdogan
Ask the debian-arm list too.

Thanks. I'm on my way.

Kind regards,
Victor

[Johann Spies]

Post by Victor Nitu
Nokia released some time ago some smartphones using a Debian-based
OS, which they called Maemo.
I was wondering if anybody on this list had any previous experience
with the N900, trying to setup a
vanilla Debian system.

I have a N900 and did setup Debian using the Maemo provided packages. I
could even run openoffice on my N900 in the Debian environment.

I removed it again as it used up a lot of space and was a bit slow.

See http://wiki.maemo.org/Easy_Debian

Regards
Johann
--
Johann Spies Telefoon: 021-808 4699
Databestuurder / Data manager

Sentrum vir Navorsing oor Evaluasie, Wetenskap en Tegnologie
Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology
Universiteit Stellenbosch.

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thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
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