Nokia Software Updater isn’t supported on Windows 7. It just fails:

Nokia requires that I use either Windows XP or Windows Vista. Fortunately, I had a spare XP virtual machine lying on my disk, and managed to reinstall the system software.

Unfortunately, this didn’t clear the user data from the device. How… unexpected! Well, you could call this a feature, or a blessing, depending on your situation. Now you don’t have to hassle with backuping and restoring your Maemo device every time you do an OS upgrade.

But for me it’s a curse. I really, really want to erase every bit of personal data on this device. I synced it yesterday with my Outlook, and now it seems to contain every bit of both my personal and work life.

I sent Nokia guys several e-mails requesting assistance, but haven’t got any response yet. ^*

After trying out things by myself, I’ve figured out that there really isn’t a simple command to erase all the accounts, passwords, logs, pictures and what not.

Since I am fluent with Maemo, I’ve decided to install root access and SSH on the device, and start digging within the file system.

I so wished it wouldn’t get to this. I wished that Maemo 5 would be mature enough for the average user. I pretended to be one, until now.

rm -rf, here I come!

^*) Got just official response back from Nokia. They confirmed my suspicion: there’s no GUI command for removing all personal data, and regretted that N900 is still a “hacker device” in some respects. I was instructed to use rm -r .*. Hint: choose your working directory carefully!

The instructions tell me not to disconnect or abort the process, or I’ll break the thing.

But I have to return it back to Nokia today – other reviewers are waiting for the unit.

I resorted to the manual for guidance: “Read the documentation stored on the device”. Well, that’s quite difficult now, but thank’s for saving some paper.

Quite a conundrum here.

(Errata & follow-up)

Tomorrow the unit goes back to Nokia, but first it has to be re-initialized. So, I launched the Nokia Software Updater and started the process as usual:

Alas, the progress bar seems to be stuck. The estimate “15 minutes left” hasn’t changed at all in 2 hours.

Oh well, I’ll leave it crunching for the night and disconnect it it the morning.

1. Tap-and-hold on the text.
2. Markers appear. Drag them to the beginning and end.
3. Tap Copy.

How to copy text from a web page on the Nokia N900:

1. Drag with the stylus from outside the left edge of the screen to the middle. (Note: This doesn’t work with a finger.)
2. A cursor icon appears. Tap it quickly, before it disappears.
3. Drag with the stylus across the text to select.
4. Tap the menu.
5. Tap Copy. (Note: This menu item may randomly not appear. Try again.)

Note that on the N900, this only applies to the browser. For other applications, the way to copy is either different or not available. You may need to use cursor keys instead of the stylus. Sometimes you need to hold down Shift, sometimes not. Selecting text can make it an unreadable blob of single color.

My point? Apple got no end of grief for not having copy-and-paste on early iPhones. A trivial feature, it was called. Implementable in a few lines of code.

On the new Nokia flagship model, the same feature is inconsistent, haphazard and a pain to use. Sometimes it feels downright accidental that it works at all.

All features are trivial if you don’t care about doing a good job.