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Resurrect your N9

Revision as of 19:46, 19 June 2022

As of 2015 and later, the N9 is an orphan in the world of mobile phones. No other MeeGo-based phones have been released to the public, and much of the corporate support offered has now been gone. Firmware and flashers are no longer available from Nokia, the Ovi Store has withdrawn all N9/N950 apps, and the MeeGo.com forums are no more.

The good news is that the N9 lives on, with the support of members of the Maemo community. Whether you've just acquired an N9, or are dusting off an old device, this page will help you get up to speed.

Firmware

You may wish to consider whether to re-flash your phone's firmware. Even if you are already on the latest firmware (40.2012.21-3, PR 1.3), you may need to re-flash if you are interested in the following:

• Open-Mode Kernel disables Nokia's Aegis security system. This is easier to install on a freshly re-flashed device.

• Ubiboot allows you to boot alternative kernels or operating systems. Requires the use of the Open-Mode kernel.

• Changing Firmware Variant, e.g. in order to gain localised applications. There are limitations to which firmware variants you can change to/from. See Flashing N9 for further details.

Regardless of your reason for flashing your device, you MUST read the Flashing N9 page thoroughly in order to understand the risks, and how to flash your device successfully.

See also: Firmware flashing discussion thread

Nokia Store and Repositories

A mirror of Nokia's software repositories is hosted on OpenRepos.net. This contains copies of the free system software and apps for the N9, including most (if not all) of the free apps that were available on the Nokia Store (which no longer works). Another mirror, thecust.net contains the developer packages required for enabling Developer mode.

To use these repositories, you must disable Nokia's repositories, and replace them. Installing the N9 RepoMirror package will do this for you.

• On your phone, open Settings/Applications/Installations, and enable the option 'Allow installations from Non-Store sources'.
• From your PC, navigate to https://openrepos.net/content/ancelad/n9-repomirror.
• Download the .deb file onto your PC and transfer it to your N9 through Bluetooth.
• On your N9, in the notification view, touch the transferred file, it should run the installation of n9-repomirror.

Some users have reported problems with the latest version (0.7.2). Using an older version (0.6.0) seems to help in this instance.

See also: N9 RepoMirror discussion thread

Warehouse

Warehouse was a package browser for OpenRepos. It allowed you to browse, select and install packages directly from your device, in a similar way to the Nokia Store app worked. As Warehouse uses an expired certificate - DST Root CA X3 (since the 29th of September 2021), it does not work anymore today. The workaround is to download the .DEB files of wanted applications from https://openrepos.net/ and to transfer them through Bluetooth or USB to your N9.

Files Managers

Available files managers are :

• myExplorer (https://openrepos.net/content/itsenov/myexplorer)
• FileCase (https://openrepos.net/content/cepiperez/filecase)
• FilesPlus (https://openrepos.net/content/zaidk9/filesplus).
• QAD File Manager (https://openrepos.net/content/enigma/qad-file-manager-free)

Download them, transfer them by Bluetooth, install them by touching them in the notification pane of your N9 once the transfer is done. If installation fails, see Apps section (below) that explains how to install manually (with Terminal and command line "sudo aegis-dpkg ..." ).

Developer Mode

Enabling Developer Mode requires the installation of additional developer packages. As the original Nokia repositories are no longer available, you must install N9RepoMirror first.

To enable Developer Mode:

• Connect your N9 to your WiFi/your network
• Open Settings/Security/Developer mode, and enable the option 'Developer mode'.
• After downloading the base packages, your phone will restart. You will find some extra apps such as Terminal are now installed.
• You can now enable further options, including logging, power analysis and IPv6 from Settings/Security/Developer Mode.

Performances

Pre-requisites: developer mode must be activated.

• Install N9 QTweakAll :
  • From your PC, navigate to here
  • Download the .deb file onto your PC and transfer it to your N9 through Bluetooth.
  • On your N9, in the notification view, touch the transferred file, it should run the installation of n9-qtweakall.

• Run N9 QTweakAll, press <Enter> key twice (for passing the PDF part) and follow this steps:
  • Letter EE : install FasterN9 (option 3 ) then select the unstable version 1.1.7 (option 2)
  • Letter KK : change the priority of smartsearch (option 7) then select Change (option 1). This will decrease the priority of smartsearch from 100 to 10 and therefore prevent the known issues of smartsearch (CPU work load).

Enable automatic network connection

Under the settings page you can define how the phone will connect to different networks. Go to Settings>Internet connection>Edit networks. There you can select which networks will be automatically used and which ones manually. Unfortunately this does not work any more because it requires a working connection to connectivity-test.ext.nokia.com and (you guessed it) the server is not longer running. BUT there is an easy fix. Just open the terminal and edit the file /etc/hosts, e.g. via nano. Add one line to redefine the IP to point for connectivity-test.ext.maemo.org.

213.128.137.20 connectivity-test.ext.nokia.com

NB : 213.128.137.20 points to maemo.org

Apps

Most of them are no longer easily installable because some certificates are too old (the install process fails because of that). However here is a solution:

• Pre-requisites: developer mode must be activated!
• Install Aegis-install hack from CODeRUS: https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=90750
• Download the needed .deb file from openrepos.net and transfer it to your N9, say the /Downloads folder
• Then run Terminal and run :

sudo aegis-dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/Downloads/myapp.deb (default password of root is rootme)

Edit 1 : I recommand you to use openssh. It enable you to open an SSH connection from your PC to your N9. From this SSH connection, you can run easily any command you need. User is user. Password is rootme. User's password is modifiable through n9qtweak.

AccuWeather

Not usable but MeeCast and Gismeteo are good replacements.

Meecast is well integrated in Harmattan (widget in lock screen, event view and standby screen). It's available on https://openrepos.net. It still works in 2022 with the Openweathermap.org source.

Gismeteo uses MSN as source. It's available on https://openrepos.net as well and still works in 2022.

Calendar

Working

Synchronization is not trivial in 2022. As main providers have stopped support, we must search for more confidential providers that still support Harmattan or EAS :

• EAS (Exchange Active Sync) :

1. Microsoft Outlook Exchange Active Sync (EAS) stopped to work by March 2022. The office365.com domain or eas.outlook.com server seem to be OFF. KO.
2. A long time ago, Google supported EAS but stopped to do so by 2013. KO.
3. But memotoo.com still provides today a quite good alternative : it provides a calendar/tasks/contacts solution accessible through an EAS connection. Create an account, connect and search for "harmattan" in the Sync section for instructions. Really easy. Domain is memotoo.com, server is exchange.memotoo.com.

• CALDAV :

1. Google abandons CALDAV in 2013. KO.
2. NextCloud CalDAV (Zaclys, Framagenda...) is not compliant with N9 CalDav agent (logins fail). KO.
3. Orange CalDAV (Saber server) is half compliant with the N9 CalDAV agent (only upload works, not download). KO.
4. Mailo.com provides mailing, calendar, contacts and files management (DAV) capabilities. It provides many integration possibilities through many protocols including CalDAV and this one is compliant with the N9 CalDAV agent. The CalDAV settings for your beloved n9 is : https://caldav.mailo.com/calendar/your-mail-account-in-mailo@mailo.com/1
5. Fruux CalDAV (Saber server) is 100% compliant with the N9 CalDAV agent. Fruux supports N9 and Sailfish through dedicated bridges. Step by step procedure :
   1. Register a Fruux account. Wait the validation mail...etc
   2. Connect to Fruux and go here : https://fruux.com/sync/new/
   3. Scroll down and click on "Nokia N9 Calendar"
   4. Give a nickname of your N9, click Next.
   5. Now, copy given IDs (user, pwd, url) in a safe place and send them to your N9. Save
   6. Back to your N9, add a new CalDAv Account and use the IDs.
   7. Everything works so far (sync in both ways).

PS : For Android devices, it's easier : Fruux provides a CalDAv Synchronization Agent (see here https://apkpure.com/fr/fruux/com.fruux.android ). Run it and log in with your regular Fruux Account (sandwich menu : options). By this way, we can share Cal Events between the N9 and Android devices.

Contacts

Working

• Exchange Active Sync :

1. Microsoft Outlook Exchange Active Sync (EAS) stopped to work by March 2022. The office365.com domain or eas.outlook.com server seems OFF now. KO
2. but memotoo.com still provides a Contact sync support through an EAS connection. See Calendar section just above.

• Google,

1. see here http://meestuff.blogspot.com/p/syncgcontacts.html
2. Warning 1 : I was unable to install it correctly since some python-qtmobility libraries are missing on my N9. I didnt manage to install them with "sudo apt-get -f* install". I guess we have to download them first and then to install them with "sudo aegis-dpkg ...". You may find them here : http://mirror.thecust.net/harmattan-dev.nokia.com/pool/harmattan/free/p/python-qtmobility/
3. Warning 2 : Google stops the "Less Secure Apps" option by May 2022.

Cloud

No one is accessible from a "fresh" N9 but ...

In 2022, no file manager is still able to connect to any Clouds.

In 2021, FilesPlus was still able to connect Google Drive. The Token was located in /home/user/.filesplus/GCDClient.dat file. It's a Hexa file with ASCII characters. Perhaps hackable ?

If you plan to RESET your N9, copy this file in a SAFE location. You will need to restore it after the reset.

Drive

Working

As OVI server are down, we have to change some links & behaviors.

• Install and run Nokia Drive Enabler.
• open /home/user/.config/Nokia/Maps.conf and check this line is present in [General] : isSsoEnabled=False
• open /home/user/.config/Nokia/Drive.ini and check this line is present in [Generalsettings] : ssoDone=True
• Change the SUPL resource for GPS FIX because supl.nokia.com resource is dead :
  • First method : run N9 QTweakAll and change the GPS Fix provider to "supl.google.com"
  • Second method : edit /etc/xdg/nokia/location-settings.conf file :
    • devel-su
    • nano /etc/xdg/nokia/location-settings.conf
    • enter in Edition mode with ctrl-o
    • Edit two parameters: PrimarySuplServer and SecondarySuplServer
      • PrimarySuplServer=supl.google.com
      • SecondarySuplServer=a value among supl.vodafone.com, supl.sonymobile.com, agpss.orange.fr
    • Quit and save (ctrl-x...)

The GPS FIX should be quicker from now, at least outdoor.

PS: don't forget to calibrate the compass before driving. The GPS FIX needs an accurate compass !!!

See the Maps section for the second step : download and install the maps, POI, voices...

Facebook

Not working anymore HOWEVER...

*** Facebook is deprecating XMPP support so it does not work anymore. [1] ***

For memories, here was the procedure that made Facebook usable :

"The N9 app will work if you de-select 'Chat and Contacts' when adding a Facebook account. If you don't do this Facebook will continually ask you to sign in. The main advantage of using the inbuilt app is that it will add notifications to the N9 feeds page.

Alternatively the Facebook website can be browsed through a web browser, or by installing one of the third party apps available on OpenRepos.net.

Facebook chat can be used on the N9 as a Jabber account, as they both use the same XMPP protocol. In order to do so:

• Install extraplugins to add support for more accounts, including Jabber
• In Accounts, add a Jabber account with the following credentials:
  • Username: your-facebook-id@chat.facebook.com
  • Password: your-facebook-password
  • Server: chat.facebook.com

"

... HOWEVER, you can browse the Mobile Basic version of Facebook on any browser. Just visit https://mbasic.facebook.com on e.g. default N9's browser and enjoy.

Google Hangouts

Working for text messages

• Install the Hangouts Plugin (OpenRepos)
• Then run the account manager and add your Hangouts account here.
• That's all. You can send and receive text message to/from Google chat !
• Notifications work!

Hurry up to create this account on your N9. Google announced the end of the Less Secure Apps option by May 2022.

Mail

Working

• Exchange Account:

1. Microsoft Outlook Exchange Active Sync (EAS) is OFF since March 2022. The domain office365.com or server eas.outlook.com seems to be OFF. KO.
2. And unfortunately memotoo.com do NOT provides a solution for mails. KO.

• Gmail: see IMAP & SMTP section just below.

• IMAP & SMTP: pure mail accounts work well as long as you know their SMTP and IMAP servers settings. Here are few examples:

1. Outlook Mail Accounts work well with imap-mail.outlook.com (SSL,993) and smtp-mail.outlook.com (TLS,587) servers
2. Gmail Accounts should work if you follow this procedure : [2]

Maps

Working

See the Drive section for the first (and required) step.

The second step is to download the Maps (2013), the POIS and the Voices.

Maps :

As OVI servers are down, you have to download maps here http://nokiamaps.ct8.pl/nokia_maps_v_00.02.54.223.html

The nokiamaps.ct8.pl site is almost down : it does no longer contain itself the ZIP files. However, fortunately, the WAY BACK MACHINE mechanism works well for the SECONDARY link (web.archive.org).

Installation : Unpack downloaded zip archive(s) to cities/diskcache folder.

Advice: each time you run Drive, go in Parameters and UNCHECK Online. This will enable the search of cities and addresses.

POIs :

Go here http://nokiamaps.ct8.pl/nokia_maps_poi_00.02.54.223.html

Installation : Unpack downloaded zip archive(s) to cities/diskcache/ClientIndex/ folder.

Voices :

Go here http://nokiamaps.ct8.pl/nokia_maps_voices_v_00.02.54.223.html

Installation : Unpack downloaded zip archive(s) to cities/diskcache/voices/ folder

Messages (SMS and IM)

Partially working

First, install Harmoji, an Emoji SMS Fix. It consists of a patcher utility and a drop-in library that fixes a bug in libsms-utils, causing incoming SMS containing Emoji characters to be silently dropped.

Recommended version is 0.6.6 and it's available here : https://code.google.com/archive/p/harmoji/downloads. Reboot after installing.

Second, install ExtraPlugins. It provides many plugins for ICQ, AOL, MSN, QIP, Yahoo, Jabber/XMPP accounts. Nowadays ICQ, AOL, MSN, QIP, Yahoo are DEAD. Only Jabber/XMPP works.

For Google chat, see hang-out section just above.

Jabber is an open source messaging system. Anyone can install its own jabber/xmpp server. You can even phone to any jabber/xmpp contacts whatever their own server!

As almost all BIG companies abandoned this protocol (see Facebook section...), you must discover available servers, conferences(multi users chat) and users by yourself.... See here https://www.jabberes.org/servers/ for servers. And see https://search.jabber.network for most attended conferences. I recommend you to use Pidgin of Gajim on your PC for fetching more easily available resources.

Procedure:

• Install ExtraPlugins, it provides a plugin for Jabber/XMP account management.
• Add your Jabber.XMPP account (in Account Manager).
• Optionally install Multi-User Chats (harmmucs).

NB: Harmoji fixes the Emoji issue on jabber/xmpp incoming messages as well. See here for all information about it : https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=86704&highlight=harmoji

Music Store

Not working anymore

Phone

Fully functional

Podcast

Working

Install gPodder.

Edit: gPodder requires a lot of additional libraries (python-***). If you encounter errors during installation, run this command for automatic installation of missing libraries : sudo apt-get -f install

Radio (internet)

Working

• Install Internet Radio Player or MeeRadio.
• For MeeRadio, follow these steps :
  • Create one .m3u file per station (no space in this file name, please).
  • Copy yours .m3u files into /home/user (no space in its name).
  • Go in the List tab of MeeRadio, your should see your .m3u files here.
  • You may add some station into the "Preferred stations" tab IF the name of the .m3u file does not contain any SPACE.

Radio (FM)

Working WITH handset

• Download the following 4 files from openrepos into a folder on the device, say the /Downloads folder:

fmrx-qt_0.2.0_armel.deb
fmrxd_0.2_armel.deb
fmrx-utils_0.2_armel.deb
qmlradio_0.0.9_armel.deb

• Then login as root user devel-su with password rootme, then:

dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/Downloads/fmrx*
dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/Downloads/qmlradio_0.0.9_armel.deb

• Or

sudo aegis-dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/Downloads/fmrx*
sudo aegis-dpkg -i /home/user/MyDocs/Downloads/qmlradio_0.0.9_armel.deb

Reddit

Not Working anymore (SSL handshake fails)

Quickddit provided most of basic functionalities and connection to your Reddit account. Unfortunately, SSL handshake fails now, so nothing works.

Search

Fully functional

I strongly recommend you to decrease the priority of the smartsearch Cron. You can do that easily with N9QTweak in the Files Tweaker section. It decreases the prio to 10%. This avoids some lags.

Skype

Not working anymore

Telegram

Partially Working

• MeeGram (Releases) - new Telegram client for MeeGo. Based on Qt, is really comfortable and cute. Under development.
• Kutegram (Releases) - native Telegram client based on Qt for many platforms, like Symbian, MeeGo and Maemo. Under development. Actually, it has ugly interface and lack of any functions.
• Telegram-cli (OpenRepos) - a CLI interface for Telegram. Supports sending photos, files, groups, and many more. Wunder Wungiel created icon and launcher for it, download here: OpenRepos
• MeeTeleGram (OpenRepos)- Telegram client, with ugly interface and lack of any functions.

Twitter

Not working anymore

The stock app does not work anymore. Until mid 2019, the Tweetian app was an alternative but it does not work anymore as well since July 2019 :-(

Just for memory, here was the procedure to go through the authentification process with tweetian :

• install and run Opera Mobile
• install and run Tweetian
• once Tweetian opened a page in the stock browser, copy/paste the link into Opera Mobile, you should obtain the precious secret number for validating your connection by this way.

Web

Partially Working

With time, some of the SSL root certificates have expired. Additionally, available browsers do not support modern internet technologies.

Here is the HTML5 score (from best to worst) according to html5test.com :

• MeeFox 1.0.5  : 360/555
• QmlMozBrowser  : 351/555
• Opera Mobile 12.1 : 218/555
• N9 Grob  : 205/555
• Opera Mini 8  : 145/555
• Firefox 15.0  : unable to perform the test (can't visit https://html5test.com)

N9 grob seems to be the quickest.

Meefox and QmlMozBrowser are slow, plus they seems not compliant (install only 1 among them).

Opera Mini 8 gets a bad HTML5 score, however it can manage the SSL security mechanisms and can download files (i.e from openrepos.net...).

Opera Mini 8 works in a client/server way with an Opera "proxy" server in the middle (between you and the site, this proxy server seems to be located in Nederland). The web Pages are not running on your device but on the Opera proxy server and the HTML output is then send to your N9. I notice that sites with JavaScript are rarely usable.

You can find the Opera Mini 8 on https://openrepos.net/content/smartblu9/opera-mini-80-harmattan

Otherwise, try to find some pure HTML 2.0 sites. Here are some I know : http://lite.cnn.io/en , http://www.msn.com , http://68k.news (Google news)...

Whatsapp

Not working anymore

Wazapp uses a too old authenfication method. It fails at login.

Whatsup is banned on the Whatsapp servers side. And some say that you risk to be ban several weeks.

YouTube

Partially Working

The stock client and CuteTube2 can no longer play YouTube videos.

You can use http://iteroni.com on default N9's browser. It works really well, direct watching works.

New - on June 2022 Wunder Wungiel released full version of JTube for N9 / N900, that supports now up to 720p. Downloads faster, supports more functions. Still only download is supported, no direct watching! phoneME required. Download here: OpenRepos or his Telegram channel.

JTube Lite is a solution provided by Wunder Wungiel on Telegram by first of April 2022. It's a Java MIDlet that requires phoneME (Java VM). Go to the "Maemo/MeeGo World" Telegram group (https://t.me/maemomeego) for explanation and resources. You can search and download the YouTube videos (.3gp format). The Video Player of Harmattan can play them. You can download JTube Lite in these places: OpenRepos , Telegram group (search for JTube)