Oct 29, 2010 14:17 GMT  ·  By

On Thursday, we reported on the availability of MeeGo 1.1, the first version of the new mobile operating system Nokia and Intel are working on to be optimized for use on mobile phones. Along with the announcement, came news on the availability of the new solution for users of a Nokia N900, who can now install MeeGo on their devices to enjoy it along with the already present there Maemo platform.

First things first, we should note that those who will try to install the solution on their Nokia N900 devices would do so at their own risk. Those who are not familiar with what the open source project is all about should stay away from installing it on their devices.

As for those who would very much like to have the new OS on their phones, we should start by saying that the N900 supports dual-boot in Maemo and MeeGo following the availability of a new software update for it, released only a couple of days ago.

In order to have MeeGo installed on Nokia N900, one would need an empty MicroSDHC card of at least 2GB and lass 6 or higher (the microSD will be wiped out, so make sure that no important files, or no files at all, are stored on it), and the MeeGo Handset Image for N900.

The MeeGo Handset Images for N900 consists of two parts:

The meego-handset-armv7l-n900-{ID}-mmcblk0p.raw.bz2: This file contains the rootfs with the Handset UX experience that is flashed to micro SD memorycard. The meego-handset-armv7l-n900-{ID}-vmlinuz-{ID}-n900: This file is the kernel that is used to boot to the MeeGo Handset image.

In order to boot Nokia N900 with MeeGo Handset UX image, one would have to copy a rootfs image (*.raw) to the Micro SDHC card.

As soon as the image was downloaded one would have to extract the compressed file to the Micro SDHC card, and both moves should be done via a desktop PC, while using a card reader to mount the Micro SDHC.

Specific details on how to perform this action via a Linux-based computer, or on a Windows PC can be found here.

The next step involves booting the image on Nokia N900, which requires downloading the flasher application from here (one would have to download the binary suitable for the OS on the PC. The package would then have to be installed on the PC.

The flasher is needed to load the kernel to the device, but the original Maemo kernel is returned when the device is powered off.

In order to load the MeeGo kernel to the N900, one would have to insert the aforementioned MicroSDHC card in the N900 without powering on the device, but with the back cover placed onto the phone (the phone won't detect the Micro SDHC card properly without the back cover on) - see video below for more on this.

As soon as this was done, one would have to start the flasher with the following command:

Linux: $ sudo flasher-3.5 -l -k meego-handset-armv7l-n900-*-vmlinuz-*-n900 -b

Windows: $ flasher-3.5.exe -l -k meego-handset-armv7l-n900-*-vmlinuz-*-n900 -b

As soon as the flasher is started, the users would be prompted to connect the Nokia N900 to the PC using a USB cable. As soon as this is done, the flasher should start automatically. When process the is completed, the device should boot to the MeeGo Handset UX.

Additional details on the installation process of MeeGo on Nokia N900 can be found here.