How to: Fixing “Unable to install application” error on N900
If you delved into the realms of “Extras Testing” applications, an app there may possibly have caused a fault in your N900 giving you “Unable to install __insert__app_name” errors. Since Christmas day I’ve been unable to find the answers to fix
- Unable to install ‘Bounce Evolution’
- Unable to install ‘Hermes’
- Unable to install ‘MooBox’ etc.
Reinstallation/formatting memory card did not work.
Thanks to Jon Shipman’s reply in my plea post “How to Hard Reset your N900?” [not a tutorial] there’s now a working solution! By following the simple steps below (it’ll take a couple of minutes], you’ll be able to install applications again.
- From your N900′s Web Browser go to http://maemo.org/downloads/product/Maemo5/rootsh/
- Download that file and install it (you may have to find the download using file manager. Once you open this file, App Manager will take care of installation)
- Open X Terminal on your N900
- Type
-
- sudo gainroot
- You’ll see “BusyBox v1.10.2 …../home/user #”
-
- Type
- cd /home (not sure if this part’s necessary, I don’t understand this all, but this is how I got it to work)
- Type
- mkdir opt
-
- Refresh application catalogue in download. You’re done!
- I was unable to reinstall “MooBox” before, but now it’s back. And so will a whole bunch more other apps now this error has been fixed.
Many thanks again Jon!
Now if the “unable to install error” was self inflicted by extras testing app, you’ll know to be more careful. If you ever do come into similar problems again however, you’ll know what to do. (Hopefully nothing worse than this)
Jay Montano
chaslam
nokiacreative
llaadd
Sergejs Cuhrajs
Andy Harsent
John Wiegand-forson
Andre
Marc Lamarie
yes this is because some crap software you installed did not un-install right
that the problem with the test install software
as i am unable to install apps, when i open the file rootsh, it also hangs in between ! “preparing for installation, please wait”
Everytime i try to install any app it just hangs in between this screen. installation bar is highlighted till “preparing for insta” with orange color (as my theme is digital nature)and then it hangs ! and ultimately i have to stop it !
please help !
thanks
i have the same problem.. did you find out how to fix it yet?
i also have the same problem did u fix it ???
me too, any ideas what to do?
Hi there.
Thank you for a great post. It was very helpfull.
Anyone reading this post should bookmark this guys contents.
I have a new PC and needed some installation help so i went over to http://www.InstallSoftware.com but they did not provide me with the in depth
info this guy did. he kicks all the bigger sites’ butts.
Thanks Again
I am sure ‘rootsh’ is a wonderful thing. If I only would not always get the following error message: “Unable to install ‘rootsh’”
I downloaded rootsh 1.5 via appl.manager. log-file says: apt-worker: Not handling unrelated package recorder. required disk space: 3156
thank you for your help! kind regards from freezing germany j.
Thanks a lot. This great post let me get rid of an immensely annoying problem, making the N900 almost useless for me. Checking the logfile after those interrupted installations I could see the problem had something to do with ‘opt’, but I could not figure out the fix. Thanks again!
I am trying to install VOIP applications on my N900, but the application manager menu does not show the downloaded files. please help
What VoIP applications might they be? Some applications can only be initiated from X-terminal.
Alternatively there’s Skype by default on N900.
thank you for this little tutorial!
but I do not succeed with step 1.
N900 says: unable to install “rootsh”.
what can I do?
tyvm
jürgen from ulm, germany
Hi there.
One solution maybe to follow this tutorial: http://mynokiablog.com/2010/01/03/how-to-hard-reset-nokia-n900. This will also stop you from ever needing to install rootsh if you reset/reinstall firmware on your N900.
The link has been updated and will bring back the N900 as to how it was when you first bought it. Also, if you make a backup, it will bring back all your settings/widgets/contacts so it’s like nothing happened to it.
You can manually choose which apps to reinstall too.
Just make sure you backup onto a memory card and not the Mass Memory as that will get wiped.
Good luck.
dunno what the hell all this is about but it seemed to work for me
correction: it left me with an almost full space for applications, then I used this one to flash again successfully:
http://mynokiablog.com/2010/01/03/how-to-hard-reset-nokia-n900/
if I can do it anyone can:()