Aug 08 2007
Avoiding the dreaded N770 WSOD
This past June, I was one of the many people who bought a Nokia N770 Internet Tablet (IT) from Woot. In fact, I bought two, one for my husband and the other for my daughter. I really wanted to buy three, but didn’t want to spend that much at one time. Besides, I figured that one of them probably wouldn’t like the Tablet and it would then revert back to me. Wrong! They fell in love with it. Of course I had the job of getting the tablets setup for them. So far they have been quite pleased with them. There are some buyers that have not had the same experience. There was a rash of White-Screen-of-Death (WOSD) among the Wooters, causing many potential buyers to rethink purchasing the device from other retailers that had similar prices. While I am sure that most of the WSODs are valid I also think you can avoid this tragedy. Before going forward, I need to state a few things. I have no programming skills what-so-ever. I have like negative knowledge of Linux. The little knowledge I have about command lines come from my long ago DOS days. I’m telling you this so that you won’t dismiss this as “Well, she’s a techie, of course it worked for her,” or to take what I say as gospel. The following has worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you too! That said, here is my experience with the Nokia N770.
1. After inserting the battery, I put in the RS-MMC card. I bought the max size (2gb). Now that the battery and card are in, I will never take them back out again.
2. Before installing programs I let the IT charge completely. However, I did go ahead and set it up on my wireless home network.
3. Go to Nokia and download the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard. Also click on the manual instructions and the tips and troubleshooting links. Copy and paste these instructions into your word processing application and save for future reference. I noticed today that the device is not listed in the product section. I had to search. Maybe I just missed it, but if it has disappeared, it doesn’t surprise me.
4. While it was charging I read as much as possible about the N770. I did a search on Google and found Internet Tablet Talk. I think that I may have read every post on the forum over next few days. By reading the posts I not only found out what works, but what doesn’t work, and more important, what not to do. While browsing posts, I also came across more links leading to the various application homepages, Blogs, and troubleshooting guides.
5. Before I installed the built in applications I checked for updates in the application manager. It then asked me if I wanted to refresh the package list and I picked “yes”. I did not get carried away at this point, but carefully chose what I wanted to install. All software is installed in the internal memory, not on the RS-MMC.
6. I then went to Maemo to take a look at what software was available. That was when I ran into repositories and deb packages. I also ran into problems installing apps due to missing files. I found that it was better to install the software that had the green install arrow on the site. I also found it easier to go online with the tablet and install directly as opposed to downloading to my PC and transferring the file to the Nokia. By installing these applications first chances were that new repositories are also added to the package list. This saved me from adding the repository and it also added more applications to the “Install new applications” list.
For those applications that I had to go to the application homepage to download, I made sure I read everything. Some of these will come packaged with everything you need, but a lot don’t. For those I had to add new repositories in the Application Manager- Tools- Application Catalog section. I installed what my family wanted over a couple a days and left it at that. After I installed one application I let them play with it to make sure it was stable before adding another. When I could not install directly to the device, I downloaded the install files to my PC and then transferred them to the memory card via USB. To keep it tidy I created a folder called “Install Files”. Then in Application Manager I picked install from File.
7. When adding repositories, everything must be typed correctly. I suggest adding one repository at a time. Once it’s added the tablet will ask if you want to refresh. If it doesn’t refresh, then the repository no longer exists, or more likely you have typed in something wrong. There is also a repository list on the Maemo site.
8. Now that you’ve installed your software. back up your N770. It won’t reinstall the programs, but it will reinstall your repositories and then you can get back to the installable applications section and reinstall your programs.
9. If you do get the dreaded WSOD, don’t panic! You can try re-flashing your device. Now you know why I put in Step 3.
10. You may be tempted to hack your N770 to OS 2007 / 770 hacker edition. You may be also tempted to partition, boot/run from the RS-MMC. Unless you are familiar with Linux, are the high tech sort, like WSOD, I would steer clear. I did install a theme for my daughter, but she decided she didn’t like it. It was a challenge to get rid of it. Finally I changed back to one of the stock themes and then uninstalled. It took a few tries, but I was able to do it.
11. Some people have reported that the N770 is hard to turn back on after a switch off. This happened to me. I simply plugged it into the power and tried again. My husband says he just holds the on button until he sees the start up screen. I just told my daughter not to turn it off, and to use the hard cover to put the device into suspend mode. I am not sure she always does this.
Here are some other sites that I have found helpful:
Found this link on Internet Tablet Talk. I agree with the poster this old ad in EBay is best described as a true tutorial. While it talks about the N800, all N770 folks will find the information invaluable. I have written the seller to see if he has a site. Click here.
Adding repositories here.
Tethering with Cingular or T-Mobile here. (Site says N800, but it worked for the N770)
Download software updater here.
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