Gingerbread on Nokia N900

Note: This guide was originally written on 30-08-2013 and first appeared here

Pheww, so finally after messing badly with my friend's N900, I got gingerbread running. And after spending 3-4 nights w/ this phone, I must admit, I'm in love with it..
It took me 3-4 days because all the info is scattered here and there, and some things work, some don't. Finally after messing and flashing N900 5-7 times, I got what I was looking for..

Disclaimer : I'm not responsible for any damage done to your phone or you. Use it at your own risk.

If you wish to taste Android on N900 (I'm sure there's very few of you), I'd suggest you to try everything on a freshly installed N900. Just flash the eMMC and Firmware. Instructions are @ Updating The Firmware.
Then enable all the repositories - extras, extras-devel, and extras-testing by following instruction here.

Once you're done, just blindfold your eyes and follow the instructions given:

1. Download rootsh from here and install it.

2. Download NITDroid 12 "UMay" from here and kernel from here.

3. Transfer the downloaded content to root of the N900 (Remember internal memory).

4. Open X-Terminal and enter following commands:


root
apt-get update
apt-get install nitdroid-installer
y
y [again if it asks again.]


Remember though you've installed the installer,DO NOT RUN ANYTHING.
Now execute these commands on terminal:

cd /home/user/MyDocs 
bzip2 -d N12_UMay.tar.bz2 
cd /home 
mkdir /and 
cd / 
mount /home /and 
cd /and 
tar xvf /home/user/MyDocs/N12_UMay.tar.bz2 
dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/nitdroid-kernel-2.6.28-07_6-rc6_armel.deb

5. After this execute this command

vi /etc/multiboot.d/11[press tab to auto fill here]

Enter into insert mode and set

ITEM_DEVICE=mmcblk0p2


6. save and exit. Reboot the device w/ open keyboard.

7. When it boots, if you see something like this




Press 2 to boot into Android..

If everything goes well, you'll be tasting Gingerbread, else I don't know. Flash and try again. :P

NOTE : While using Android, power button works as "lock key", camera was not working for me (note: I'm using older version). Camera key was the "back key".

Resources :


Actually this whole procedure was on this and this. I've just compiled it in a easy manner.

Thanks.
Hope you'll enjoy.