Install CWM without rooting / Mount bootable SD partition over USB [SOLVED]

taosaur · 05-05-2011, 06:29 PM

I've been asking around a few threads here and at XDA how to get into the boot partition of my SD card without an external card reader. I had installed CM7.0.2 to my SD card, leaving the stock OS 1.2 untouched on the internal storage (eMMC), using verygreen's method:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1000957

and anamardoll's instructions (I skipped down to "what you'll need" and only watched the 2nd and part of the 3rd video, using verygreen's steps from there):

http://www.anamardoll.com/2011/04/er...e-on-nook.html

IF YOU HAVE A MicroSD READER OTHER THAN THE NC, YOU CAN STOP HERE (unless you're curious

)

I was able to flash the bootable image to my SD card over USB to the Nook, once my PC recognized both the NC and SD card as removable drives. I was also able to drop the CM7.0.2 ROM into the boot partition at that time. I disconnected USB and rebooted, installing CM7.0.2, but from that point forward I had no access to the boot partition, which meant I could not install the google apps package, which meant no market

What got me into the boot partition and rendered my configuration much more flexible in general was simply going into the ROM Manager app on CM7.0.2 and choosing the first option, "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery." THIS OPTION WILL INSTALL CWM TO YOUR INTERNAL STORAGE. It will not, however, as far as I can tell, alter your stock OS in any way. I was still able to read epub, pdf, and the sample kids' book, and install a free app from the B&N market.

This arrangement gives me four boot options:

1) power on with SD card inserted, and I get CM7.0.2, which is delicious.
2) hold home (n) key and power on with SD card inserted, and ROM Manager will check for new ROMs and the gapps installer.
3) power on with SD card ejected (not necessarily removed) and I get stock 1.2.
4) hold home (n) key and power on with SD card ejected, and I get CWM, which gets me numerous back-up, restore, mounting and install options.

By inserting the SD card after CWM loaded and plugging the USB cable into my PC, I was able to navigate down to "mounts and storage" using the NC volume buttons, select it using the home (n) key, then choose "mount USB storage," which gives me access to the boot partition (and only the boot partition) of the SD card in Windows. Drop in the gapps zip file (or a new ROM if you like), "Safely Remove Hardware" in Windows, unmount in CMW, power off, then power on using option #2 above, and voila, market installed

A couple things to consider: CWM will replace the NC's stock recovery utility, meaning the "hold these buttons for so long, so many times" method of restoring factory settings will no longer be available. Also, to state the obvious, flashing CWM to internal memory will void your warranty if discovered. I found this method and the resulting configuration pretty ideal, as I wasn't much worried about my warranty and am confident in being able to "undo" by other methods if necessary. I don't anticipate much trouble updating the stock OS--if anything, the next update might wipe out CWM, or simply not take, in which case I'll wait for a CWM compatible ROM. I was originally planning to dual boot from internal storage, but CM7.0.2 is running so much faster than the stock OS as it is, and this set-up is so convenient, I'm leaving it as-is until want to pick up a higher-capacity SD.

The SD model does matter! I went with an un-classed (so, probably 2) 16GB Sandisk, recommended along with some others in this thread:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1005633

I hope this has been helpful, or at least informative, to someone

ETA: Thanks to jasoraso for tracking down this thread with tools to restore the NC's stock recovery if you no longer want CWM on the eMMC:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=914690

ETAA: A perhaps simpler solution to my original problem, accessing the boot partition of my CM7 SD:

If you insert the CM7 SD after the NC has started booting from eMMC, but before the stock OS loads (for instance on the blinding white "Nook Color" splash screen), the NC will load up the SD boot partition as storage. You can then connect the NC to your PC over USB, and the PC should read both the NC and the boot partition of the SD as storage. From there, you can drop in any update package you like, disconnect, and boot by method #2 above.

jasoraso · 05-06-2011, 01:04 PM

Great post!!!

(this forum needs a THANKS button!)

AnemicOak · 05-06-2011, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasoraso

(this forum needs a THANKS button!)

That's kinda what Karma's for...

taosaur · 05-07-2011, 12:28 AM

I've been in discussion over on XDA, and one thing to consider about my set-up is that CWM replaces the NC's on-board recovery utility, meaning that the "reboot to recovery X times" factory reset will no longer be available. There is a "factory reset" option in CWM, but at this stage I'm not sure what it will do (perhaps just erase all the settings and data associated with the stock OS install).

And I hope this much is obvious, but replacing stock recovery with CWM will void your warranty if discovered.

Flashing CWM to the eMMC remains the only method I've found to gain access to the SD's boot partition after following verygreen's method and without a card reader, and a number of methods for getting ROMs on the eMMC start with rooting for the sole purpose of installing CWM. Setting up one of verygreen's size-agnostic SDs is, to me, much simpler than rooting, and doesn't need to be re-worked as a result of every B&N software update. Also, depending on your SD card, you may find along the way that running from SD is simpler and at least as effective as replacing the stock OS or setting up a dual boot, as I originally intended.

I might edit a warning/disclaimer of sorts into the OP.

fuzzynco · 05-07-2011, 10:55 PM

Is there a way to restore the original recovery on emmc? I didn't know CWM from
SD (and its rom manager from nookie froyo) updated the emmc files only. I dumbly
thought the NF RM and the SD bootable CWM were moded for SD updating

.

I build the SD cards from gparted (from USB bootable flash drive) so I have access
to all 4 partitions on the sd card and all the NC's emmc partitions. Is there a way to
restore the 'factory' filesystems (like the std recovery would do on a 8 failed boots)?

taosaur · 05-08-2011, 04:02 AM

Are you sure you even installed CWM, or are you just assuming? I don't know what bootable image you started with to get Froyo--it may not behave like verygreen's size-agnostic SD image. If you boot to recovery with the SD card ejected (method 4 in the OP), does it take you to CWM?

As of now, I don't know how to restore the NC's stock recovery. If I come across a method, I'll update this thread. I haven't had any feedback from XDA on either restoring stock recovery or setting up CWM alongside CM7 on an SD, and haven't had much time or inclination to do more research.

jasoraso · 05-09-2011, 04:47 PM

This thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=914690
contains several different .zip files that can be used in CWR to restore back to stock. There is a zip that will erase CWR off the recovery paritition and restore the NC back to stock recovery ... just flash from CWR and it will erase CWR off the NC boot/recovery partition.

taosaur · 05-09-2011, 06:56 PM

Thanks jasoraso! For my own system I'm going with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," for now. Plus, I can still use CWM's mounting functionality for ROM updates, but those images may come in handy down the road.

taosaur · 05-10-2011, 09:24 PM

Another update (edited into OP): If you insert the CM7 SD after the NC has started booting from eMMC, but before the stock OS loads (for instance on the blinding white "Nook Color" splash screen), the NC will load up the SD boot partition as storage. You can then connect the NC to your PC over USB, and while you may have to eject and try again, or even unistall from device manager and rescan, the PC should eventually read both the NC and the boot partition of the SD as storage. From there, you can drop in any update package you like, disconnect, and boot by method #2 above.

I had no luck inserting the SD card after the stock OS was loaded: it would read it only as "ready to remove."

fuzzynco · 05-13-2011, 03:21 AM

I removed the SD card and did a power+N boot and got CWR (orange on
black) 3.0.2.8. The referenced restore zips look like they are from 1.0.1 and
1.1.0 -- did the the stock uRecImg/uRecRam change between 1.1.0 and 1.2.0?

Could I copy the recovery image and ramdisk from a unrooted NC updated
to 1.2 with both NC's attached and p1 on each emmc mounted to
somewhere?

jasoraso · 05-17-2011, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzzynco

I removed the SD card and did a power+N boot and got CWR (orange on
black) 3.0.2.8. The referenced restore zips look like they are from 1.0.1 and
1.1.0 -- did the the stock uRecImg/uRecRam change between 1.1.0 and 1.2.0?

Could I copy the recovery image and ramdisk from a unrooted NC updated
to 1.2 with both NC's attached and p1 on each emmc mounted to
somewhere?

I would guess that they did change. I would install the 1.0.1/1.1 zips and then update to 1.2 ...

05-05-2011, 06:29 PM	#1
taosaur intelligent posterior Posts: 1,562 Karma: 21295618 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohiopolis Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro	Install CWM without rooting / Mount bootable SD partition over USB [SOLVED] I've been asking around a few threads here and at XDA how to get into the boot partition of my SD card without an external card reader. I had installed CM7.0.2 to my SD card, leaving the stock OS 1.2 untouched on the internal storage (eMMC), using verygreen's method: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1000957 and anamardoll's instructions (I skipped down to "what you'll need" and only watched the 2nd and part of the 3rd video, using verygreen's steps from there): http://www.anamardoll.com/2011/04/er...e-on-nook.html IF YOU HAVE A MicroSD READER OTHER THAN THE NC, YOU CAN STOP HERE (unless you're curious ) I was able to flash the bootable image to my SD card over USB to the Nook, once my PC recognized both the NC and SD card as removable drives. I was also able to drop the CM7.0.2 ROM into the boot partition at that time. I disconnected USB and rebooted, installing CM7.0.2, but from that point forward I had no access to the boot partition, which meant I could not install the google apps package, which meant no market What got me into the boot partition and rendered my configuration much more flexible in general was simply going into the ROM Manager app on CM7.0.2 and choosing the first option, "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery." THIS OPTION WILL INSTALL CWM TO YOUR INTERNAL STORAGE. It will not, however, as far as I can tell, alter your stock OS in any way. I was still able to read epub, pdf, and the sample kids' book, and install a free app from the B&N market. This arrangement gives me four boot options: 1) power on with SD card inserted, and I get CM7.0.2, which is delicious. 2) hold home (n) key and power on with SD card inserted, and ROM Manager will check for new ROMs and the gapps installer. 3) power on with SD card ejected (not necessarily removed) and I get stock 1.2. 4) hold home (n) key and power on with SD card ejected, and I get CWM, which gets me numerous back-up, restore, mounting and install options. By inserting the SD card after CWM loaded and plugging the USB cable into my PC, I was able to navigate down to "mounts and storage" using the NC volume buttons, select it using the home (n) key, then choose "mount USB storage," which gives me access to the boot partition (and only the boot partition) of the SD card in Windows. Drop in the gapps zip file (or a new ROM if you like), "Safely Remove Hardware" in Windows, unmount in CMW, power off, then power on using option #2 above, and voila, market installed A couple things to consider: CWM will replace the NC's stock recovery utility, meaning the "hold these buttons for so long, so many times" method of restoring factory settings will no longer be available. Also, to state the obvious, flashing CWM to internal memory will void your warranty if discovered. I found this method and the resulting configuration pretty ideal, as I wasn't much worried about my warranty and am confident in being able to "undo" by other methods if necessary. I don't anticipate much trouble updating the stock OS--if anything, the next update might wipe out CWM, or simply not take, in which case I'll wait for a CWM compatible ROM. I was originally planning to dual boot from internal storage, but CM7.0.2 is running so much faster than the stock OS as it is, and this set-up is so convenient, I'm leaving it as-is until want to pick up a higher-capacity SD. The SD model does matter! I went with an un-classed (so, probably 2) 16GB Sandisk, recommended along with some others in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1005633 I hope this has been helpful, or at least informative, to someone ETA: Thanks to jasoraso for tracking down this thread with tools to restore the NC's stock recovery if you no longer want CWM on the eMMC: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=914690 ETAA: A perhaps simpler solution to my original problem, accessing the boot partition of my CM7 SD: If you insert the CM7 SD after the NC has started booting from eMMC, but before the stock OS loads (for instance on the blinding white "Nook Color" splash screen), the NC will load up the SD boot partition as storage. You can then connect the NC to your PC over USB, and the PC should read both the NC and the boot partition of the SD as storage. From there, you can drop in any update package you like, disconnect, and boot by method #2 above. Last edited by taosaur; 05-12-2011 at 03:18 PM. Reason: USB issues are apparently just me :/

05-13-2011, 03:21 AM	#10
fuzzynco Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Color Nook (1.2)	restoring NC 1.2 stock recovery? I removed the SD card and did a power+N boot and got CWR (orange on black) 3.0.2.8. The referenced restore zips look like they are from 1.0.1 and 1.1.0 -- did the the stock uRecImg/uRecRam change between 1.1.0 and 1.2.0? Could I copy the recovery image and ramdisk from a unrooted NC updated to 1.2 with both NC's attached and p1 on each emmc mounted to somewhere?

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05-06-2011, 01:04 PM	#2
jasoraso Addict Posts: 228 Karma: 1212418 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Nook Touch, Nook Color (rooted) and Samsung Galaxy Nexus	Great post!!! (this forum needs a THANKS button!)

05-07-2011, 12:28 AM	#4
taosaur intelligent posterior Posts: 1,562 Karma: 21295618 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohiopolis Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro	I've been in discussion over on XDA, and one thing to consider about my set-up is that CWM replaces the NC's on-board recovery utility, meaning that the "reboot to recovery X times" factory reset will no longer be available. There is a "factory reset" option in CWM, but at this stage I'm not sure what it will do (perhaps just erase all the settings and data associated with the stock OS install). And I hope this much is obvious, but replacing stock recovery with CWM will void your warranty if discovered. Flashing CWM to the eMMC remains the only method I've found to gain access to the SD's boot partition after following verygreen's method and without a card reader, and a number of methods for getting ROMs on the eMMC start with rooting for the sole purpose of installing CWM. Setting up one of verygreen's size-agnostic SDs is, to me, much simpler than rooting, and doesn't need to be re-worked as a result of every B&N software update. Also, depending on your SD card, you may find along the way that running from SD is simpler and at least as effective as replacing the stock OS or setting up a dual boot, as I originally intended. I might edit a warning/disclaimer of sorts into the OP.

05-07-2011, 10:55 PM	#5
fuzzynco Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Color Nook (1.2)	Is there a way to restore the original recovery on emmc? I didn't know CWM from SD (and its rom manager from nookie froyo) updated the emmc files only. I dumbly thought the NF RM and the SD bootable CWM were moded for SD updating . I build the SD cards from gparted (from USB bootable flash drive) so I have access to all 4 partitions on the sd card and all the NC's emmc partitions. Is there a way to restore the 'factory' filesystems (like the std recovery would do on a 8 failed boots)?

05-08-2011, 04:02 AM	#6
taosaur intelligent posterior Posts: 1,562 Karma: 21295618 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohiopolis Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro	Are you sure you even installed CWM, or are you just assuming? I don't know what bootable image you started with to get Froyo--it may not behave like verygreen's size-agnostic SD image. If you boot to recovery with the SD card ejected (method 4 in the OP), does it take you to CWM? As of now, I don't know how to restore the NC's stock recovery. If I come across a method, I'll update this thread. I haven't had any feedback from XDA on either restoring stock recovery or setting up CWM alongside CM7 on an SD, and haven't had much time or inclination to do more research.

05-09-2011, 04:47 PM	#7
jasoraso Addict Posts: 228 Karma: 1212418 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Nook Touch, Nook Color (rooted) and Samsung Galaxy Nexus	This thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=914690 contains several different .zip files that can be used in CWR to restore back to stock. There is a zip that will erase CWR off the recovery paritition and restore the NC back to stock recovery ... just flash from CWR and it will erase CWR off the NC boot/recovery partition.

05-09-2011, 06:56 PM	#8
taosaur intelligent posterior Posts: 1,562 Karma: 21295618 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohiopolis Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro	Thanks jasoraso! For my own system I'm going with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," for now. Plus, I can still use CWM's mounting functionality for ROM updates, but those images may come in handy down the road.

05-10-2011, 09:24 PM	#9
taosaur intelligent posterior Posts: 1,562 Karma: 21295618 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ohiopolis Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Samsung S8, Lenovo Tab 3 Pro	Another update (edited into OP): If you insert the CM7 SD after the NC has started booting from eMMC, but before the stock OS loads (for instance on the blinding white "Nook Color" splash screen), the NC will load up the SD boot partition as storage. You can then connect the NC to your PC over USB, and while you may have to eject and try again, or even unistall from device manager and rescan, the PC should eventually read both the NC and the boot partition of the SD as storage. From there, you can drop in any update package you like, disconnect, and boot by method #2 above. I had no luck inserting the SD card after the stock OS was loaded: it would read it only as "ready to remove."

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