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Oct
27
2010

How-To Install MeeGo on the Nokia N900 Running PR1.3

| October 27, 2010 07:30 UTC | one response | source

Nokia N900 PR1.3 MeeGo 1

The Nokia N900 received firmware PR1.3 yesterday, and it brought us support to dual-boot the phone with Maemo and MeeGo.

Now the official MeeGo Wiki has gone forward with this, and posted a how-to guide on instaling MeeGo and U-Boot on the Nokia N900.

Due to various kexec problems and a lack of btrfs filesystem support in the Maemo kernel, the only way to dual boot Maemo and MeeGo currently is to chain-load kernels from an initial boot. For this we use u-boot, which is a capable and cross-platform bootloader. Once u-boot is flashed onto the device, at first boot it looks for a bootable vfat partition & image on the SD card. If it finds one, it boots that (MeeGo), if it does not, it boots Maemo as normal. This is not destructive to either operating system but as it does involve replacing the default boot kernel on the device it is only recommended for those who know how to recover their device if it goes wrong.

Read the full instructions on how-to install MeeGo on the Nokia N900, follow this link. Good luck!

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Category: Maemo, MeeGo, Nokia

About the Author: Jonne is a mobile phone enthusiast who is currently pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science at the Vaasa University of Applied Sciences. He has been using the newest phones out there ever since the Nokia 5110 was released. Currently his choice of smartphone OS is Windows Phone 7.5.

  • Lars Wadefalk

    Hi Jonne, thanks for the info!
    What I don’t understand however is whether kexec and U-boot need to co-exist on the device in order to get dual boot to work?
    Is the kexec supported only INSIDE the kernel or separated from it, like the U-boot loader seems to be?
    If I for instance install the titan power kernel (that has indeed kexec support) will I then loose the ability to dualboot Maemo / MeeGo?
    Are these two (kexec / U-boot) different ways to achieve dual boot?