Hack-A-N900/Wall Of Bricks

Boot loop? hang? Congratulations, you made it! Please share how.

Tried to enforce bash as system default shell

How:

rm /bin/sh
ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

Result: boot loop.

Tried to overwrite /lib from a running system

How:

cp -a /somewhere/lib/* /lib/

Result:

Malfunction! Device shutdown in 10s

Tried to write a disk image to an extended partition

How:

# /dev/mmcblk0p4 is an extended partition
dd if=image.dd of=/dev/mmcblk0p4

Result: corrupt partition table

Tried to load and execute a custom build kernel during runtime (forced - without shutdown ;))

How:

kexec -f /boot/zImage --command-line="init=/sbin/preinit ubi.mtd=rootfs root=ubi0:rootfs rootfstype=ubifs \
rootflags=bulk_read,no_chk_data_crc rw console=ttyMTD,log console=tty0 snd-soc-rx51.hp_lim=42 snd-soc-tlv320aic3x.hp_dac_lim=6"

Result: corrupt partition table

Tinkered with preinit scripts

How:

just do something stupid, pretty early during preinit while running on low battery

Result: Couldn't boot. Couldn't reflash. Until i figured that somehow the device wasn't able to draw enough power via usb for the flashing process.

if you ever should happen to end up there. dont' panic. Remove and reinsert the battery while the device is connected via usb and let it load the battery (don't worry if the led isnt lit). then try again.

mv /usr/share /home/share - while appmanager is downloading an update

How:

start app manager &  download an upadte that needs more space than there's left on your rootfs
while downloading:
mv /usr/share /home/share
wait, go to toilet, come back, see errors & ssh disconnect msg

Finally: Watch the n900 update destroying your system

Result: boot loop.