Flashing the Nokia N8XX

The phones probably come unflashed, and it's a good idea to flash them even if they already have a working OS. This will give us all the same system to start with.

Hacking the Nokia N810

This site contains instructions on how to flash the N810. We just followed those.

I used the RX-44_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin kernel, as it was the most recent. That may be incorrect.

Follow this, continue with whatever steps you think are correct from the above tutorial. For instance, I installed openssh and created a root account with a root password.

We flashed the N810 phone using vmware:

1. On PC: Install VMWare and our Ubuntu Kernel containing scratchbox and all of the flashing scripts. They are on the Desktop of user jars.
2. On N810: Unplug charger and switch off the Nokia N810. Connect the tablet to your computer via USB
3. On Ubuntu: Execute as root (or as a normal user with rights to use the USB port):

   sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-44_2008SE_1.2007.42-18_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

4. On Ubuntu: “Suitable USB device not found, waiting” is displayed on the console
5. On N810: Now switch on the N810 using the power button WHILE holding the Home-button (which is labeled as #11 - the Swap key on the Get Started guide. It is on the left of the face of the Nokia with a little white square on it.)
   1. On PC: If you are installing via VMWare, you'll want to make sure that there is a usb icon that says “Nokia Removable Disk” on the top bar, which should be highlighted like the Ethernet icon also on the top bar. You may need to disconnect the device via Windows by clicking on the device manager in the system tray and disconnecting the nokia drive, just as you would disconnect a usb keydrive before removing it.
6. PC: Watch the messages (as seen below) as the image loads to the N810 after which it reboots automatically.

USB device found found at bus 001, device address 004
Found device RX-44, hardware revision 0805
NOLO version 1.1.6
Version of 'sw-release': RX-44_2008SE_1.2007.42-19_PR_MR0
Sending xloader image (8 kB)...
100% (8 of 8 kB, avg. 246 kB/s)
Sending secondary image (97 kB)...
100% (97 of 97 kB, avg. 1525 kB/s)
Flashing bootloader... done.
Sending kernel image (1494 kB)...
100% (1494 of 1494 kB, avg. 2856 kB/s)
Flashing kernel... done.
Sending initfs image (1908 kB)...
100% (1908 of 1908 kB, avg. 1584 kB/s)
Flashing initfs... done.
Sending and flashing rootfs image (134400 kB)...
100% (134400 of 134400 kB, avg. 1087 kB/s)
Finishing flashing... done
jars@jars-desktop:~/Desktop$ 

The original instructions are here.

The original image was unable to play audio or video. The image I gave above seemed to work, but it's probably advisable to visit a nice UCB CS related youtube video to give it a whirl.