Ever had or seen an Amiga machine? Well, if you did, there’s a chance to have a nostalgic rush to the past, if you didn’t, there’s a chance for you to see how the once living Amiga machines looked like. And all that with your N900.

Workbench 1.3

UAE4ALL is a Commodore Amiga emulator, which will emulate the Amiga 500. For it to work, you’ll need a Kickstart ROM. Kickstart 1.3 works best, but 2.0 runs too and is required for some 600 games (Cannon Fodder, one of my all-time favorites, would need a 2.0, for example). Unfortunately, I can’t give you an exact link for the ROM, but you sure know where to find it, right?

Slikworm IV

I tried booting with both Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0 and most of the games I tried worked quite well.

One of the things you should note: controls are not very intuitive, so check out this FAQ page, which also might answer some of the questions you might have about the emulator.

Fetch the emulator form Extras with

sudo gainroot

apt-get install uae4all

and dive into Amiga classic programs and games!

Are you an engineer or an engineering student? Then a scientific calculator is a must-have for you! AlmostTI will turn your N900 into one of the Texas Instruments Sci Calcs that beat pretty much every calculator app that is available for the N900!

AlmostTI is a Texas Instruments Sci Calc emulator and a really great one! It will emulate TI73, TI82, TI83, TI83+, TI83+ SE, TI85, and TI86 (some models will require you to locate a ROM for them, as the app doesn’t include it by default) and emulate them really well, making pretty much every single function usable! Writing code, graphical calculations, anything that a real TI can do, Almost Real TI can do as well.

See for yourself, fetch the emulator from Extras with

sudo gainroot

apt-get install ati85

The only thing I found weird is the lack of documentation. It took me some time to figure out that you need to tap the top-left corner of the screen for a menu that will allow you to choose which calc to emulate. The top-right corner quits the emulator.

Totally the best calc app for the N900, and a must-have for the engineers, ATI85 is something you would really like to have on your N900. Especially since real TI-eighties don’t actually fit into a pocket.

Enjoy reading? Enjoy interactive fiction? Well, some happy news for you, in addition to Ren’Py for visual novels, with a Maemo port of Gargoyle you have tons of interactive fiction in your pocket!

Everybody Dies, a 2008 XYZZY winner in many nominations.

For those who never heard of Gargoyle yet, it is a very advanced interactive fiction interpreter that supports many-many different formats, like z-machine (Inform), glulx, tads, agility, alan, hugo, level 9, magnetic, scare and more!

With that much formats you can play many sorts of fiction, allowing you to choose many genres and play famous games, such as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy or Zork. For those of you in search for fiction to read (or play, if that is how you prefer to say it), you can find game archives with the help of search engines. One of the most famous archives is IFArchive, which has games for most platforms Gargoyle can handle. Just grab the file for the game and launch it either from a command line with gargoyle [gamefile] or from a graphical menu.

Gargoyle can be obtained via the Extras catalogue with:

sudo gainroot

apt-get install gargoyle

GET it, but don’t forget a light source.

Just yesterday, I was on my way home. Usually, I listen to the music while out on the street, but my audio player wasn’t with me and it’s been a while since I have uploaded any fresh music into my N900. Luckily, I had all my music on my home PC (which was conveniently running) and with an N900, I sure can access and listen to it. Want to know how? I’ll show you in this guide.

This guide assumes the machine you’re connecting to runs a *nix system (GNU/Linux, BSD, MacOS). For getting SSH up with Windows, refer to this guide by Lifehacker.

First things first, you would want to have SSH running on your machine with the music. Make sure you start it and have the SSH port unlocked on the machine.

If you are unsure how to do that, see this guide for Ubuntu, which will work for most other GNU/Linux distros with minor changes, or refer to your system’s documentation.

Obviously, you also need OpenSSH on your N900, which you can get with

sudo gainroot

apt-get install openssh

if you don’t have it already. Now, let’s look at the methods you can use to start playing music from a remote machine on your N900.

You can use MPlayer + SSH. This is a faster, but a slightly inconvenient way, for which you need MPlayer on your N900.

If you don’t have it, get it with

sudo gainroot

apt-get install mplayer

Then, you can use this command:

ssh <user>@<remote-address> “cat <full-path-to-file>” | mplayer -

Where <user> is your username on the machine, <remote-address> is your machine’s IP address and <full-path-to-file> is the full path to the file you want to play.

The inconvenience of this is that you won’t be able to play many files at once and you’ll have to use the full path to the file.

A better method is sshfs. Again, if you don’t have sshfs, grab it with

sudo gainroot

apt-get install sshfs

Create a directory, which you’ll use (as root):

mkdir /home/user/Home-PC

Finally, mount your machine’s filesystem on that directory with sshfs:

sshfs <user>@<remote-address>: /home/user/Home-PC

There, you can now access the whole home directory of your home PC via /home/user/Home-PC and that means (besides other files) you can also access your music and play it with any desired player app. If your music is in a directory other than your home one, specify it after the colon, for example:

sshfs <user>@<remote-address>:/some/music/directory /mnt/Home-PC

Now you know how you can listen to your remote music with your N900. Sure, simply uploading the music to your N900 is ideal, but sometimes you don’t want to have it, you don’t want to waste space, or you simply forget to, like I did in my story above. Anyway, enjoy and stay tuned for more Maemo Apps, Games and Hacks!

Note: this how-to is aimed at advanced users. Messing something up may harm your device, everything is done at your own risk.

Want to keep record of all your call durations? Well, while the functionality is not included by default, there’s a hack that can help you out. All we need to do is to patch the SQL database.

Note: You don’t need to be root for following the guide.

Open up your X Terminal and cd into a folder we need:

cd /home/user/.rtcom-eventlogger

Make a backup of your original database file, just to be sure:

cp -a el-v1.db el-v1.db.backup

Download the patch (you’ll need wget, if you don’t have it, install it with sudo gainroot; apt-get install wget):

wget ‘http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=10495&amp;d=1275242093′ -O triggers.txt

Apply the patch:

sqlite3 -batch /home/user/.rtcom-eventlogger/el-v1.db < triggers.txt

Finally, install Extended Call Log from Extras:

sudo gainroot

apt-get install extcalllog 

You’re finished! Now the call durations will start recording. Please note that it will just start, so you’ll need to go through a couple of calls before you can see the durations.

Enjoy!

Thanks to kovach from TMO for the patch.

Ever since J2ME have spawned, it has been widely used by pretty much any mobile platform. However, J2ME support on the N900 is rather lacking, which has become a problem, but not an unsolvable one. Some of you may have heard of MicroEmu, but as it is written on Java (SE version) itself, it is very RAM consuming, making apps slower. PhoneME is an alternative written in C, and while it is still in testing, a rather good one.

Since the emulator is still in testing, the most progressive version can be fetched through this link. Get the file and open it with your App Manager. Alternatively, do it faster via the command line:

sudo gainroot

dpkg -i cvm*.deb

After installation you will have several new items in the menu:

Run Midlet will run a specified .jar file. You can also use it through a command line:

/opt/phoneme/bin/runmidlet <path_to_jar_file>

Midlet Settings will, obviously, open up a settings menu, where you can customize a few things, like fullscreen launching or portrait mode.

Finally, there’s a preinstalled Opera Mini and Microemu-demo for testing using/testing purposes.

Well, I should definitely say that the performance of the apps is very, very good. Opera Mini starts up in seconds, unlike it did in MicroEmu and works very well, you can as well use it as an alternative browser.

Some other apps I’ve tried work just as well: sounds, network etc. are all functional.

A few downsides include the inability to handle .jad files well and some sound glitches, but that can be forgiven, given that the emulator is still in development.

So go and get it, it’ll be worth it.

Thanks to Salut Ct for yet another good suggestion. Have your own suggestions? Please leave them in the comments, we’ll definitely look into them and give you credit!

If you’ve been using the N900 for a while, perhaps you have been thinking on “how can I record my screen?”. Well, today we’ll show you how.

First of all, fetch a .deb package you will need for recording to your N900, put it anywhere.  You may, of course, use wget to ease the process:

wget http://sumoudou.org/n900/load-applet-ximagesrc_0.4.4-2_armel.deb

Next, install the package:

sudo gainroot

dpkg -i load-applet-ximagesrc*.deb

And install the missing dependencies:

apt-get -f install

There, now you have a little panel on your N900 that will allow you to record your screen (and make screenshots, if you’re not comfortable with Ctrl-Shift-P):

When you press the button that I showed above and exit the statusbar menu, recording will start and you can now make videos, like this one I made. When you press the button again recording will stop. And yes, it will also record sound from the microphone, however the audio input is rather sensitive and will capture screentapping sounds and keyboard, so you might want to mute the sound, like I did. You will find your video in your Videos folder (~/MyDocs/.videos). By pressing the camera button to the right you can take screenshots, tap it and press the camera button (on the top of your N900) to take a screenshot which will land in your images directory.

Enjoy your new screencasting experience!

Thanks to ShiroiKuma for putting up the package together.

Ever wanted to control your desktop computer right from your N900‘s screen? This post will show you how to do that using PresenceVNC.

This guide is for *nix (GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, MacOS) users. Windows users can look up a guide on setting up VNC online and try the same, by connecting to their PC directly, however, without ssh this will be much less secure.

First of all, fetch PresenceVNC from your N900:

sudo gainroot

sudo apt-get install presencevnc

Get openssh too, if you don’t have it:

apt-get install openssh

Now, on your PC you’ll need to generate an SSH key (again, if you don’t have it yet):

ssh-keygen -t dsa

This will create a file ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub

You will have to drop this file into the same directory from your PC to the N900, you can use file sharing sites, USB, ssh, whatever you want for that.

Verify that you have the SSH server running on your PC, try to SSH into it:

ssh <user>@<ip_address>

Repalce <user> with your username on the PC and <ip_address> with your PC’s IP address. If you don’t know it, use sites like this one. If your PC and the N900 are connected to the same network, you can usually try the local address, 192.168.1.33 or 192.168.1.34. It should ask you to verify the key (type ‘yes’) and your PC’s password. IF it doesn’t then it’s likely your 22nd port is closed, use tools like iptables or Firestarter to open it.

You will also need x11vnc to start the server, look it up in your distro’s repositories.

Once that is set up, open up your N900‘s terminal and connect to your PC with the following command:

ssh -C -L 5900:localhost:5900 <user>@<ip_address>

And start the server (yes, right from your N900)

x11vnc -ncache 10 -display :0

Now, just open up PresenceVNC (don’t quit the terminal!) and connect to localhost:0 Watch in amazement as your PC is fully controlled through your N900.

On the screenshot below you can see IceCat opened on my ArchLinux desktop’s StumpWM:

Enjoy!

Note: This guide is aimed only at advanced users. Messing something up during the installation might break your device, so do not attempt anything, unless you are sure you can handle it.

With the “hackability” of the N900 there’s quite a lot of alternative mobile operating systems available for it. We already covered NITDroid and Mer, and today I’m going to direct you through the installation of another mobile system I find very promising, SHR.

SHR is a GNU/Linux based OS that is available for quite many devices, all of which can be found by surfing through the project’s wiki. Surely, for a mobile OS, it can perform phone calls, end SMS, use GPS all while being a well-working GNU/Linux system, just like Maemo is. So, onto installation.

You will require all these things:

• A Nokia N900, updated to a latest PR (which is 1.3).
• A MicroSD card with a large capacity (at least 4 gB).

Class and brand of the SD card plays a huge role here. A class 10 card is preferable. Cards are mostly “what-you-pay-is-what-you-get”, so the more expensive card is usually the better one.

• U-Boot installed on your N900

Get U-boot from Extras-devel, if you don’t have it. Reboot the phone to verify installation, there should be a mention of U-Boot and usually a picture of Tux (a penguin) in a corner. Make sure to disable extras-devel after installing U-boot.

• A PC with a cardreader.
• An N900 Image of SHR

Get the image from here.

The guide assumes you’re using a *nix machine. Windows users can use a small GNU/Linux LiveCD for following the guide.

Now, slot your MicroSD card into your cardreader. You’ll want to repartition it.

If you don’t understand the repartition process via a commandline, you can use GParted or a similar partitioning manager.

Verify the name of the SD device with

sudo fdisk -l

It should look like /dev/sdX with X being a letter. Make sure it’s the correct device name by mounting it or otherwise checking.

If you have automounting enabled, unmount the card:

sudo umount <card_mount_point>

Run fdisk on the card:

fdisk /dev/sdX

Obviously, replace sdX with your actual device name. For testing purposes, just a single ext3 partition is okay:

Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-4865, default 1): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-4865, default 4865): 4865

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 83

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Finally, format your partition into ext3:

mkfs.ext3 -b 4096 /dev/sdX1

Once you finished repartioning, mount your newly made partition:

sudo mount -t ext3 -o rw /dev/sdX1 <mount_point>

(<mount_point> being the directory, where you wish the card to be mounted)

cd into the mountpoint:

cd <mount_point>

and extract the SHR image you downloaded earlier into it:

sudo tar xvzpf /path/to/shr-image-nokia900.tar.gz –numeric-owner

Remove the card from your cardreader, shut your N900 down, slot the card into it. Turn it on with the keyboard slider open. Your N900 shall now begin booting SHR. If you want to boot into Maemo instead, turn it on with the slider closed.

Enjoy your new OS!

Note: this how-to is aimed at advanced users. Messing something up during the installation or usage may harm your device, everything is done at your own risk.

Being an ultimate hacker device, the N900 is often prone to getting software issues during your playful experiments. When that happens, don’t go strait to reflashing your device, it may still be rescued with a rescue initrd image provided by MeeGo! This how-to will show you how to install and use the initrd image for rescuing your N900.

The first part of the how-to assumes you’re using a *nix system (GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, MacOS) on your PC , information on Windows installation can be found below.

On your PC, open up the terminal. Make a new directory, where the image will be kept, and cd into it:

mkdir n900-rescue-initrd

cd n900-rescue-initrd

Now, get the rpm files for the image from the MeeGo repos:

wget http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.1/core/repos/armv7l/packages/armv7l/nokia-n900-rescue-initrd-0.1-2.157.armv7l.rpm

wget http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.1/core/repos/armv7l/packages/armv7l/kernel-n900-2.6.35.3-10.3.armv7l.rpm

Now, you’ll need to unpack the rpm packages using rpm2cpio. If you don’t have it, it should be available from your distribution’s repos. Else, you might try using a BASH or Perl versions, execute them the same way, as you would execute rmp2cpio.

rpm2cpio nokia-n900-*.rpm | cpio -vid ./boot/initrd*

rpm2cpio kernel-*n900-*.rpm | cpio -vid ./boot/vmlinuz*

Now you will have a directory named boot that will contain the files required.

Before you start the initrd charge your battery completely. The initrd doesn’t support charging and you want to be sure your phone won’t die when the initrd is in use.

To start the initrd, you’ll need to use the N900 flasher, please read this article, if you don’t understand what I mean. Note, we’re not reflashing the device, we’re just loading the image into the device’s memory on boot.

Shutdown the device by removing the battery and putting it back, then start the flasher in the same directory with

sudo flasher-3.5 -k boot/<vmlinuz-n900> -n boot/<initrd.img> -l -b”rootdelay=1 root=/dev/ram0″

Replace <vmlinuz-n900> and <initrd.img> with the actual file names.

After it is started, plug your N900 to your PC with a USB cord. Your device should now boot and you’ll get a menu with the following features:

• Toggle USB networking on/off (N)
• Reboot the device (R)
• Shutdown the device (S)
• Start recovery terminal (T)
• Toggle USB storage mode on/off (U)

Here, now you can use the provided functionality to fix your breakages. You can also do a backup by toggling the storage mode on (U) and mounting the device.

Enjoy!

Windows Installation

If you’re using a Windows machine, installation on Windows can be tricky, as unpacking the rpm packages is required. Most of the process is basically the same, make a directory and download the rpm files from the wget links above to it. Now to unpack the packages you can do several things:

1. Set up a virtual machine with a small GNU/Linux distribution and use the rpm2cpio commands there.

2. Use Cygwin with the BASH rpm2cpio script mentioned above. cpio should be included in it, but if not, just get the cpio for Windows.

3. Get ActivePerl and try the Perl script mentioned above together with the cpio for Windows.

After you unpacked the packages, just use the flasher from cmd.exe with

flasher-3.5.exe -k boot/<vmlinuz-n900> -n boot/<initrd.img> -l -b”rootdelay=1 root=/dev/ram0″

Again replace the things in <> with the actual file names.

Your device should boot into the rescue image.

Have a suggestion or a problem? Put them up in the comments, or on our forum, and we’ll be sure to give them a look!