I am having the same problem my Nokia WH-205 headset is working (tested on my n810). my n900 does not recognize it.

searched on the bugzilla and found this problem: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6360

I plugged in and removed my WH-205 headset that cam with the device twice,
I plugged in and removed a stereo headset twice.
I then ran "dmesg | tail" in x terminal and got this response.

~ $ dmesg | tail
[ 971.960632] headphone (GPIO 177) is now connected
[ 973.812164] headphone (GPIO 177) is now disconnected
[ 975.960632] headphone (GPIO 177) is now connected
[ 977.804290] headphone (GPIO 177) is now disconnected
[ 980.077697] headphone (GPIO 177) is now connected
[ 981.671600] headphone (GPIO 177) is now disconnected
[ 982.968200] headphone (GPIO 177) is now connected
[ 985.218383] headphone (GPIO 177) is now disconnected
~ $

The WH-205 headset did not display an icon nor would it play sound.

would love to get my n900 working again any help welcome
thanks,
Tim

Damn, was on a plane today and was using my stock nokia n900 headphones. They got bent and the end snapped off, so now I need to pick up some others. But the only ones I can seem to find that have the mic when looking online are iPhone headphones. Even nokia USA's site does not have any that are aimed at the n900 directly (although their others may work, so I just want to be sure).

Anyone have any suggestions?

doesn't the n900 have a extra pin for video out, which would mean the headphone jack would need to be longer?

when i use the n900 headphone on my laptop i cant push it all the way in otherwise it wont work.

i havn't compared it yet but it looks like the n900 headphones might be a few mm longer then normal ones

Today I have been trying to create my own headset adapter cable. As already mentioned in this thread, the Bose mobile headset doesn't work on the N900. The pins 3 and 4 are swapped compared to nokia headsets.
Simply swapping the pins doesn't work! I suspect that more is needed, like a capacitor of some size or maybe more electronics. I have now created an adapter which only makes use of the audio (using a 3-pins 3.5" jack).
I hope that some manufacturer is going to create a working headset adapter. But for now, I'm satisfied with good audio only!

Some other (useful?) information:
- My WH-205 (N900) headset works fine, is always recognized
- And another headset HS-48, isn't recognized by the N900. No headset/headphone symbol is shown, but audio is routed to the headset!

@lurthirk

Thanks for the bug report, I hope though that you conclusion is incorrect as I cant send mine back due to it being imported from out of country. I have the same issue with no recognition of headphones, Nokia stock or any other I also get no recognition from TV out (is anyone else getting this also?) my question is has any of the software/development team gotten back to you with any other possible outcomes?

Cheers.

strange, never experienced anything described in previous posts neither on my pre-production N900 or the retail one.

Tried with multiple head phones, nokia stock ones. sennheister cx 300 II. sennheister cx500, sony v700dj, shure E2c, Klipsch Image S4(i)
No problem what so ever luckily enough.

Tv-out jack sticks out a bit and dont go all the way in, but make sure if you got problem to have correct tv-out setting.

One of the best in-ear phones i ever tried (atleast in the "normal" price range) are the Klipsch Image S4 and the (i) version works excellent as a headset with the N900.

Sounds strange that the phone dont find the ear-phones if you unplugged them and then reconnect them at a later point.

Any chance anyone of you installed any other media player then the original one that might cause this problem?

@Model900

I have only added stock apps only media one is Decoder support.

If this is hardware can it be fixed eg taken to a nokia repair centre and fixed?

i don't think it is hardware i too have "Decoder support" installed along with FM radio and Ogg support i will try and uninstall at home and follow up with comments.

@timwatt great I have none of these apps loaded any more and no headphone support.

My scenario seems different as I don't get any recognition whatsoever even when I open x term and do dmesg | tail

Another poster had flashed and said the problem was still there so this still points to hardware maybe in my case. Would be very interested to see your results, as my next step will be taking this thing apart.