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jhitesma · 02-08-2011, 11:18 PM

I just rooted my 1003* that came with 1.5 pre-installed today and was able to do it without downgrading.

The nookdevs site is really a mess. So much stuff on there is only half explained, or spread across multiple pages, or hidden in discussion pages behind the main pages. Heck just finding a bit of info I know exists is a pain. But after a few days of researching I figured I had enough figured out to give it a try.

I followed the instructions at the very bottom of this page:
http://nookdevs.com/Talk:Rooting_New...ng_vanilla_1.5

Basically it's the "router method" of the "new hardware" root only somewhat simplified...but it's not really fully explained anywhere. I'll do my best to explain it here to hopefully save someone else going through the headaches I've gone through the past few days.

The one twist is that Nomad has setup his server to feed the files for the router method - and updated his files to take advantage of weakness in 1.5 that he doesn't fully explain. I'm still not 100% clear on how it works but basically like the standard "new hardware" root it uses the flaw in the update to write a new file to the nook. This time it's an apk which (for a reason I've yet to figure out) gets run when you try to go back to the nook home and lets you start adb.

So you need to setup a way to redirect the DNS to his server at 217.20.163.111. I did this using the dnsmasq settings in my router which was running DD-wrt. If you can't do that through your router then one of the "no router" methods can be made to work. Just instead of redirecting sync.barnesandnoble.com and edmfiletransfer.barnesandnoble.com to your own server you redirect them to 217.20.163.111

I put some details about how I set this up in DD-WRT on my own Talk page here: http://nookdevs.com/User_talk:Juggle

Once you have your network configured so the B&N sites resolve to 217.20.163.111 all you have to do is run the "Check for new content" deal on the B&N library page. (So you'll have to be registered first to get there.) It should finish fairly quickly with a small error in the lower right hand corner that's safe to ignore (in fact, that error is a good thing since it's a sign that the bug in question has been exploited.)

The final step is just to return to the nook home at which point the OS will ask if you want to run the normal app or the new apk that Nomad's scripts tricked the nook into loading. You run his root app and tell it to root. You may have to run it more than once (I didn't have to) but it should get adb started.

Now - this is where the documentation got really sketchy. I've got adb but now what? I could load trook...but how the heck to I start it?

So I resorted to installing one of the "Packages" Nomad came up with here: http://nookdevs.com/Applying_With_De...ation_packages

I tried the first one "mynook_package.zip" and installed it manually by bringing up an adb shell and executing /system/media/sdcard/root.sh (after taking a look at what exactly root.sh tried to do and what was in the tar file it extracted. It looked like a full set of apps so I gave it a go.)

The result was a nook that was very unstable. Any book I opened in any format would close after a few seconds returning me to the mynook.ru launcher. I wasn't able to find half the apps I knew were installed or figure out how to customize the menus...and rebooting my nook caused it to loose it's registration. At one point the nook also got locked into a loop where it just kept restarting the launcher. I was not impressed. Which is why I found out that my 1.5 from the factory nook did have 1.4.1 on the recovery partition - since I couldn't actually read anything with it I had no choice but to try and factory restore.

The factory restore itself wasn't very well explained and my first two attempts didn't work (leaving me to sit through the annoying long nook boot procedure before trying again.) Really it's simpler than the instructions on the "Firmware 1.5" page (http://nookdevs.com/User_talk:Naerymdan) make it sound. Instead I followed instructions I found on some other page that basically said just shut down the nook, turn it on, when the screen goes black hold the button for 12 seconds, then let it go for 1 second and repeat the 12/1 a total of 6 times. You don't have to wait for the screen to change color each time - just hold for 12 release for 1 hold for 12 release for 1 after that initial black flash.

Since I had reset my router after doing this my nook factory updated back to 1.5 immediately...and I did the root again but this time installed the other nomad_package.zip from Nomad which appeared to include a much more basic set of tools and a modified B&N launcher that puts apps under what was "Games" instead of the mynook.ru launcher.

Which is where I am now.

And where I'm not sure I'm entirely happy. I really like trook and a few of the other apps and don't want to give them up. But I'm worried about battery life. The wifi_locker app freezes on me when trying to stop adb and I've noticed that adb is always available without me specifically enabling it even though it appears to be listed as disabled in /init.rc (though the disabled line is commented out and it says disabled while some pages say it should be disable) ... but I don't have an original init.rc to compare to and the Nomad package installs it's own init.rc so I'm not sure what was changed without doing another factory reset to compare the original file with the modified version.

I also noticed that at one point this evening my nook never went to sleep despite me not doing anything that should have prevented it from going to sleep.

And it's still loosing my registration when I do a full reboot on the nook. (which will be very annoying if the battery is drained nightly because of adb running over wifi non-stop.)

So when I have time I'm hoping to factory restore again, then just do the root and manually install as few packages as necessary. Just not sure of the best way to go about that yet - it looks like installing the custom launcher and market is the best first step...though I do like Nomads approach of the modified stock launcher...just not sure about some of the other stuff in his packages at this point.

I'd try updating some of the stuff on the nookdevs wiki myself after learning all of this...but I really hate editing wikis. So I figured sharing it here was the next best thing as this was the site where I found the most helpful info so far.

02-08-2011, 11:18 PM	#11
jhitesma Member Posts: 22 Karma: 14 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Nook Classic & Nook Color	I just rooted my 1003* that came with 1.5 pre-installed today and was able to do it without downgrading. The nookdevs site is really a mess. So much stuff on there is only half explained, or spread across multiple pages, or hidden in discussion pages behind the main pages. Heck just finding a bit of info I know exists is a pain. But after a few days of researching I figured I had enough figured out to give it a try. I followed the instructions at the very bottom of this page: http://nookdevs.com/Talk:Rooting_New...ng_vanilla_1.5 Basically it's the "router method" of the "new hardware" root only somewhat simplified...but it's not really fully explained anywhere. I'll do my best to explain it here to hopefully save someone else going through the headaches I've gone through the past few days. The one twist is that Nomad has setup his server to feed the files for the router method - and updated his files to take advantage of weakness in 1.5 that he doesn't fully explain. I'm still not 100% clear on how it works but basically like the standard "new hardware" root it uses the flaw in the update to write a new file to the nook. This time it's an apk which (for a reason I've yet to figure out) gets run when you try to go back to the nook home and lets you start adb. So you need to setup a way to redirect the DNS to his server at 217.20.163.111. I did this using the dnsmasq settings in my router which was running DD-wrt. If you can't do that through your router then one of the "no router" methods can be made to work. Just instead of redirecting sync.barnesandnoble.com and edmfiletransfer.barnesandnoble.com to your own server you redirect them to 217.20.163.111 I put some details about how I set this up in DD-WRT on my own Talk page here: http://nookdevs.com/User_talk:Juggle Once you have your network configured so the B&N sites resolve to 217.20.163.111 all you have to do is run the "Check for new content" deal on the B&N library page. (So you'll have to be registered first to get there.) It should finish fairly quickly with a small error in the lower right hand corner that's safe to ignore (in fact, that error is a good thing since it's a sign that the bug in question has been exploited.) The final step is just to return to the nook home at which point the OS will ask if you want to run the normal app or the new apk that Nomad's scripts tricked the nook into loading. You run his root app and tell it to root. You may have to run it more than once (I didn't have to) but it should get adb started. Now - this is where the documentation got really sketchy. I've got adb but now what? I could load trook...but how the heck to I start it? So I resorted to installing one of the "Packages" Nomad came up with here: http://nookdevs.com/Applying_With_De...ation_packages I tried the first one "mynook_package.zip" and installed it manually by bringing up an adb shell and executing /system/media/sdcard/root.sh (after taking a look at what exactly root.sh tried to do and what was in the tar file it extracted. It looked like a full set of apps so I gave it a go.) The result was a nook that was very unstable. Any book I opened in any format would close after a few seconds returning me to the mynook.ru launcher. I wasn't able to find half the apps I knew were installed or figure out how to customize the menus...and rebooting my nook caused it to loose it's registration. At one point the nook also got locked into a loop where it just kept restarting the launcher. I was not impressed. Which is why I found out that my 1.5 from the factory nook did have 1.4.1 on the recovery partition - since I couldn't actually read anything with it I had no choice but to try and factory restore. The factory restore itself wasn't very well explained and my first two attempts didn't work (leaving me to sit through the annoying long nook boot procedure before trying again.) Really it's simpler than the instructions on the "Firmware 1.5" page (http://nookdevs.com/User_talk:Naerymdan) make it sound. Instead I followed instructions I found on some other page that basically said just shut down the nook, turn it on, when the screen goes black hold the button for 12 seconds, then let it go for 1 second and repeat the 12/1 a total of 6 times. You don't have to wait for the screen to change color each time - just hold for 12 release for 1 hold for 12 release for 1 after that initial black flash. Since I had reset my router after doing this my nook factory updated back to 1.5 immediately...and I did the root again but this time installed the other nomad_package.zip from Nomad which appeared to include a much more basic set of tools and a modified B&N launcher that puts apps under what was "Games" instead of the mynook.ru launcher. Which is where I am now. And where I'm not sure I'm entirely happy. I really like trook and a few of the other apps and don't want to give them up. But I'm worried about battery life. The wifi_locker app freezes on me when trying to stop adb and I've noticed that adb is always available without me specifically enabling it even though it appears to be listed as disabled in /init.rc (though the disabled line is commented out and it says disabled while some pages say it should be disable) ... but I don't have an original init.rc to compare to and the Nomad package installs it's own init.rc so I'm not sure what was changed without doing another factory reset to compare the original file with the modified version. I also noticed that at one point this evening my nook never went to sleep despite me not doing anything that should have prevented it from going to sleep. And it's still loosing my registration when I do a full reboot on the nook. (which will be very annoying if the battery is drained nightly because of adb running over wifi non-stop.) So when I have time I'm hoping to factory restore again, then just do the root and manually install as few packages as necessary. Just not sure of the best way to go about that yet - it looks like installing the custom launcher and market is the best first step...though I do like Nomads approach of the modified stock launcher...just not sure about some of the other stuff in his packages at this point. I'd try updating some of the stuff on the nookdevs wiki myself after learning all of this...but I really hate editing wikis. So I figured sharing it here was the next best thing as this was the site where I found the most helpful info so far.