Nokia N770: ITOS2007 HE MK2

I decided to get a Nokia internet tablet, when I found the basic Chinese support works. Last week, I got 2 Nokia n770 instead of n800 for my wife and me, as I can not reject the price ($250 for 2). IMHO, I also prefer its design to N800. Actually my wife love it as soon as she got it, although she does not want a tablet at all before that. It can save her much effort to bring slides, books or laptop, while the screen size is acceptable. From maemo.org/news, we know N800 will get support for next two version of maemo, while N770 has no support for even ITOS2007. It's OK. As the hacker edition (HE) of ITOS2007 works great. maemo news also announces a new hacker edition will come soon. But I decide that I had better to install ITOS2007 HE MK2 on 770, other than just waiting the new version. This article lists what I did on the 770, for future reference. It is only for ITOS2007 HE MK2. For a new comer, it is good to start from

1. http://maemo.org/community/wiki/howto/ (general problem)
2. http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/ (ask question)
3. http://maemo.org/downloads (install software)
4. http://guoyong.org (CJK support)

Flash ITOS2007 to 770

In office, I use Windows, so, need to download the exe from http://www.nokia.com/A4144790, install it and then follow its simple wizard. In home, on Ubuntu, just follow Flash the latest Nokia image to your Nokia 770/800 device with Linux from maemo wiki.

Install becomeroot, xterm

This step is prerequirement for other operations, as it allow me to become root user. Please follow maemo wiki.

Partition of MMC

I bought 2G MMC Mobile card for the gadget. ITOS2007 requires the 1st partition of the MMC is vfat format. If we want to install OS into the MMC, I guess we need a ext2 partition it. So, it is time to do partition. The vfat partition can be recognized by Windows when connect with USB cable. So, it is convenient to share files using this partition. I think 950M is enough for it (virtual memory file is also on it). Please follow maemo wiki to do the partition, and the following texts are parameters I use:

/dev/mmcblk0p1:1,30000,6
/dev/mmcblk0p2:30001,,

PS: The largest swap file ITOS2007 can manage is 64M, sb. says we can use swap partition larger than 60M, however, I failed.

Install dual boot menu for 770

With the ext2 partition on MMC, we can install OS on it. The basic idea is copy the OS in flash into MMC and then generate a dual boot menu when tablet starts. Thank fanoush, it is easy. Please follow maemo wiki. If want to set default OS to the one in MMC, we need to modify bootmenu.conf before install the dual boot menu. Please do:

# cp bootmenu.conf.n800.example bootmenu.conf
# vi bootmenu.conf

change the parameters in bootmenu.conf, and then install.

Duplicate OS from flash to MMC

After reboot, it is time to copy OS. Please follow rear part of maemo wiki to do it.

Patch kernel for fast MMC access

By default, ITOS2007 kernel only support low speed of MMC card. Sb. say the reason may be high speed can cause shorter life of the card. Who care when we have lifetime warranty for the card? It is dangerous to do the patch before following maemo wiki to copy OS into MMC, as I failed to copy OS with the patch. Please follow weezedog's step by step guide to do the patch.

Install Chinese support

Please goto maemocjk Web site to install it.

Install Minimo

Opera come with 770 is not compatible with lots of Web sites, and mozilla based minimo should be a better choice. Now, minimo is one-click installable from maemo.org/downloads

Conclusion

This is my 2nd time to do the procedure (as I have two). and cost about 1 hour to finish all steps. So, it is not difficult and very time consuming to improve performance of the gadget. I just suggest do not install other software before duplicating OS successfully, as sb. reported failure after that.