New Freerunner, factory image - "Registering..."

[Stroller]

Hi there,

So my Freerunner arrived this evening, I plugged it in and started  
charging and it powered itself on. I _love_ that kernel messages are  
displayed during boot-up, and the plastic of the Freerunner's case  
has a really nice feel to it.

Anyway, once booted to the factory image I get continuously a  
"Registering..." message in the top-left corner of the Home screen.  
After 30 minutes or so this message persists.

Cell phone reception in my flat is always a little poor - I have to  
walk to the window if I want an intelligible conversation - but all  
other phones have connected to the phone network fine, SMS'd and rung  
on incoming calls fine when located at my desk.

Could this indicate that my SIM is amongst those which the Freerunner  
doesn't like?

It is a UK O2 SIM, at least a couple of years old, probably several  
and perhaps 7 or 8. It has been used last in my Sony-Ericsson P990i  
which is 3G, but I have no idea if that phone has been used at full  
speed. I find that when I received this P990i, c 15 months ago, O2  
sent me a new SIM which is marked as "3G", but I have never used it  
as the phone "seemed to work fine" with the old one.

It is very nice that a terminal app is included on the default image,  
but I cannot work out how to enter a forward-slash ("/"), so cannot  
list /var/log and see if there's anything interesting in there. Would  
I be best advised to set up USB networking and log in via SSH to see  
what's going on? Having plugged it into the wall and started it  
charging for the first time I am reluctant to unplug it until it is  
fully charged, as per the instructions. So any suggestions of how to  
debug this from the phone's own console would be appreciated.

Stroller.