This guide was originally posted at Maemo.Org
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 theres quite a lot of alternative mobile operating systems available for it and today Im 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 projects 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:
1- A Nokia N900, updated to a latest PR (which is 1.3).
2- A MicroSD card with a large capacity (at least 4 gB).
3- U-Boot installed on your N900
4- Download the image from here:
http://build.shr-project.org/shr-cor…okia900.tar.gz
INSTALLATION (ADVANCED USERS ONLY 
)
1- 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.
3- A PC with a cardreader.
4- An N900 Image of SHR
The guide assumes youre 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. Youll want to
repartition it.
> If you dont 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 its 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.
Source Maemo.Org
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