6 ms·

I loved the Nokia N900's design, that hardware keyboard that made it so easy to do remote system administration over SSH, or keep doing everything that I want t

I loved the Nokia N900's design, that hardware keyboard that made it so easy to do remote system administration over SSH, or keep doing everything that I want to do in Emacs just like on my laptop or desktop computers. Also like all Nokia phones of the time, it was nearly indestructible and could easily survive drops that would destroy a modern smartphone’s screen or casing. However, in retrospect not all was rosy. Advocates of Linux phones today would prefer to avoid binary blobs that make upgrades impossible (the N900 is forever stuck on kernel 2.6) and a cellular modem connected directly to main memory.

ggus 6y ago
The design has been re-proposed a few times, notably the F(x)tec PRO¹ looks really similar and cool. https://www.fxtec.com/pro1 https://www.fxtec.com/pro1
u801e 6y ago
I wish I had the opportunity to use the N900. I still have a partially working N9 (the SIM holder lock is broken meaning I have to hold the SIM in to use it for calls). I still browse and post on HN using it on occasion.
- tominated 6y ago
  I still have my N9 lying around somewhere - had to get the sim tray replaced two or three times but otherwise I loved it. How did you update the security certificates? I tried to boot mine up a while back but it was basically unusable on the web because of HTTPS.
  - u801e 6y ago
    I haven't updated the security certificates so far, bit I don't think that most of the TLS connection issues are due to expired CA certificates in the certificate bundle. I believe it's because it can't negotiate a mutually agreed upon cipher. It still works with a few websites like this one. In fact, I'm using my N9 to post this comment :-).
- sidpatil 6y ago
  > the SIM holder lock is broken meaning I have to hold the SIM in to use it for calls Why not just tape it in place?
  - u801e 6y ago
    There's a spring mechanism that pushes it out. It worked by pressing in to lock it and then pressing in again to unlock it. The cover is recessed relative to the case, so it would be a bit difficult to secure it with tape unfortunately.
    - noipv4 6y ago
      I had to end up using a small drop of superglue.
      - CTOSian 6y ago
        superglue is a no go there... I repair such things using tamper evident seal (those red/blue varnish for tamper proof screws etc)
drudu 6y ago
I had one of these and your note of "a cellular modem connected directly to main memory" makes me laugh. I didn't know that until now but I think that clears up why phone calls could crash the phone in some circumstances. Like you said it was a fantastic little linux terminal - great for SSH and it was certainly fun and novel to have a linux CLI on my cell phone.
- seba_dos1 6y ago
  > I didn't know that That's good, because that isn't true. Rapuyama has its own 128MB of DRAM on the N900.
MartijnBraam 6y ago
I'm running 5.11 on it though.
- glsdfgkjsklfj 6y ago
  from my experience porting cyanogenMOD from android phones that only received 2.3 officially all the way up to 4+, you are likely running the binary kernel drivers as binary blobs for 2.6 and some kid in a forum either flipped bits at random while following a asm tutorial or wrapped it in a syscall shell that emulates an old kernel to the driver. or maybe the n900 had less esoteric peripherals than android phones. I don't know... as I never got my hands on one despite actively trying to buy one for a couple years when they were announced.
  - seba_dos1 6y ago
    Your experience isn't very relevant to N900 then. It's a proper GNU/Linux device, the only closed driver blob was for the GPU.
    - glsdfgkjsklfj 6y ago
      nice. now i feel even more robbed of a decent mobile experience, thanks to nokia and tel co's monopolistic dealings.
    - MayeulC 6y ago
      Another PowerVR GPU for those that wonder. They quite notoriously don't have any open-source drivers. There is a lot of information on the net why that's not the case, from the GPU architecture to source leaks. One could possibly make a shim to load older proprietary kernel modules, but it's hardly worth it: PowerVR GPUs don't seem to be used much nowadays, in contrast with Mali GPUs. And PowerVR GPUs seem to require quite different drivers depending on IP customization.
      - seba_dos1 6y ago
        > One could possibly make a shim That has been done already: https://github.com/openpvrsgx-devgroup https://github.com/openpvrsgx-devgroup
noipv4 6y ago
it was a great phone for light remote admin! The ~ was in a weird location though ;)
seba_dos1 6y ago
Maemo Fremantle may be stuck on 2.6, but N900 is not - it's pretty well supported in mainline kernel. Also, the cellular modem (Rapuyama - BB5) on N900 isn't connected to main memory, it's pretty much a separate component (which was used as a main CPU on some other Nokia phones).

ggus 6y ago

The design has been re-proposed a few times, notably the F(x)tec PRO¹ looks really similar and cool. https://www.fxtec.com/pro1 https://www.fxtec.com/pro1

u801e 6y ago

I wish I had the opportunity to use the N900. I still have a partially working N9 (the SIM holder lock is broken meaning I have to hold the SIM in to use it for calls). I still browse and post on HN using it on occasion.

tominated 6y ago
I still have my N9 lying around somewhere - had to get the sim tray replaced two or three times but otherwise I loved it. How did you update the security certificates? I tried to boot mine up a while back but it was basically unusable on the web because of HTTPS.
- u801e 6y ago
  I haven't updated the security certificates so far, bit I don't think that most of the TLS connection issues are due to expired CA certificates in the certificate bundle. I believe it's because it can't negotiate a mutually agreed upon cipher. It still works with a few websites like this one. In fact, I'm using my N9 to post this comment :-).
sidpatil 6y ago
> the SIM holder lock is broken meaning I have to hold the SIM in to use it for calls Why not just tape it in place?
- u801e 6y ago
  There's a spring mechanism that pushes it out. It worked by pressing in to lock it and then pressing in again to unlock it. The cover is recessed relative to the case, so it would be a bit difficult to secure it with tape unfortunately.
  - noipv4 6y ago
    I had to end up using a small drop of superglue.
    - CTOSian 6y ago
      superglue is a no go there... I repair such things using tamper evident seal (those red/blue varnish for tamper proof screws etc)

drudu 6y ago

I had one of these and your note of "a cellular modem connected directly to main memory" makes me laugh. I didn't know that until now but I think that clears up why phone calls could crash the phone in some circumstances. Like you said it was a fantastic little linux terminal - great for SSH and it was certainly fun and novel to have a linux CLI on my cell phone.

seba_dos1 6y ago
> I didn't know that That's good, because that isn't true. Rapuyama has its own 128MB of DRAM on the N900.

MartijnBraam 6y ago

I'm running 5.11 on it though.

glsdfgkjsklfj 6y ago
from my experience porting cyanogenMOD from android phones that only received 2.3 officially all the way up to 4+, you are likely running the binary kernel drivers as binary blobs for 2.6 and some kid in a forum either flipped bits at random while following a asm tutorial or wrapped it in a syscall shell that emulates an old kernel to the driver. or maybe the n900 had less esoteric peripherals than android phones. I don't know... as I never got my hands on one despite actively trying to buy one for a couple years when they were announced.
- seba_dos1 6y ago
  Your experience isn't very relevant to N900 then. It's a proper GNU/Linux device, the only closed driver blob was for the GPU.
  - glsdfgkjsklfj 6y ago
    nice. now i feel even more robbed of a decent mobile experience, thanks to nokia and tel co's monopolistic dealings.
  - MayeulC 6y ago
    Another PowerVR GPU for those that wonder. They quite notoriously don't have any open-source drivers. There is a lot of information on the net why that's not the case, from the GPU architecture to source leaks. One could possibly make a shim to load older proprietary kernel modules, but it's hardly worth it: PowerVR GPUs don't seem to be used much nowadays, in contrast with Mali GPUs. And PowerVR GPUs seem to require quite different drivers depending on IP customization.
    - seba_dos1 6y ago
      > One could possibly make a shim That has been done already: https://github.com/openpvrsgx-devgroup https://github.com/openpvrsgx-devgroup

noipv4 6y ago

it was a great phone for light remote admin! The ~ was in a weird location though ;)

seba_dos1 6y ago

Maemo Fremantle may be stuck on 2.6, but N900 is not - it's pretty well supported in mainline kernel. Also, the cellular modem (Rapuyama - BB5) on N900 isn't connected to main memory, it's pretty much a separate component (which was used as a main CPU on some other Nokia phones).