Question about the Nook HD Tablets

[PatNY]

Penny, thanks for your information. When I have time I will read everything over and see if I want to give it a go.

However none of your links work!

Can you repost the links?

--Pat

[mystika1]

Ok, I fixed the links...sorry.

Reminder..I have the HD+ so if you have the HD then I would use this image:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/atta...7&d=1360015493

(the above image replaces the
http://forum.xda-developers.com/atta...6&d=1368660885 that is in my first post.)


and then put the extras zip on the card once the image is made.

Hope I am not too confusing. It is really easy.

Pennyc

[PatNY]

Thanks Penny for the revised links. A few questions. Once I boot up the Nook with the prepared sd card, then how do I get the APK onto the Nook?

Once the APK is on the Nook, do you just remove the SD card and reboot and the Nook will be back to its original firmware with the new APK?

--Pat

[Xanthe]

Just because I wanted to try it out, I bought the downloadable N2A program for the Nook HD+ (just because I didn't want to bother with the other process myself - sheer laziness on my part) and put it on a 32GB microSDHC card.

The process was simple, but long. It took about two hours for the program to unpack and install itself on the SD card via my laptop card reader, due to the 32GB size.

My Nook now boots into CM10 when starts up. I installed a program called Quick Boot that allows me to switch over to the B&N version without removing the SD card. Quick Boot can't be used on the Nook side, so when you power off the device while on the Nook side, it will restart on the CM10 side.

What's interesting is that when I check the core speeds using CPU-Z, in the Nook side the cores show an individual speed of 396 MHz at resting state, while in the CM side the cores show an individual speed of 800 MHz at resting state.

[mystika1]

Ok..once you reboot the nook with the sd card inserted the nook will boot from the sd card. Once booted, you will see the option to install update via sd card. scroll to choose the extras zip that you drag and dropped onto the sdcard. This update enables "unknown sources" on the nook. After the update is complete...reboot the nook and remove the sd card. Now you will be able to download any apk from the web and have the option to insall it directly from the nook itself.

Penny

[PatNY]

Success!

Yesterday I made the CWM sd card and flashed the modification. I then was able to sideload apps that the system previously refused to accept. I now have USA Today, Yelp, TV Guide Mobile and Amazon Local -- all apps I can't download directly from Google Play because of the lack of GPS. And all of them work just fine with the Nook HD. This requirement to have GPS in order to download some apps is ridiculous and unnecessary. I could see why the restriction would make sense for some maps apps, but not for those apps I wanted.

The process was really easy. The only glitch I had was applying the image to the sd card. It didn't work and in fact wrecked my micro sd card. I don't know what I did wrong at that step. Good thing it was just a 4gb card. So instead I used the alternative method to prepare another card -- setting the first partition as active and dropping the 5 boot files onto it. I think that method is easier anyway.

At any rate, I now have the original interface and navigation that my Nook came with and which I wanted to keep, but it is modded to allow easy sideloading of apks.

Thanks, Penny, for your links and information!

--Pat

[mystika1]

You are welcome.

Penny

[lifer109]

Got a new HD+ 32gb during the father's day sale. Was quite perturbed to discover that even after B&N put in the Google Play Store, system wouldn't let me install anything outside of that or their site.
Not enough research on my part I guess. So, I was tempted to return. But it IS a really nice tablet for the price. SO, that led me to search for an answer as I have several apps that I really wanted to install and use. Played with the android developer site and d/ls, but kept having issues with connecting.. So I broke down and got an mSD card and followed Mystika1's instructions below.

Easy Peasy....Worked seamlessly. found SD formatter, and used it. Found the disk imager, and after unzipping the first zip to get to the image, installed the image. Then dropped the extra's zip.
Powered down the Nook, installed the card and crossing my fingers, powered up. Oh, you use the volume controls to select install the zip file once the CM boot is up. and after confirmed the install, it took seconds. I then powered down, removed the card and rebooted my Nook. It came up with nothing missing, a new launcher it seemed to install and then went to Amazon. Installed their app and then a free selection. Both installs worked great.
THANK YOU Mysticka1!!!

Originally Posted by mystika1

Instead of me typing I copied and pasted a reply I made to a different thread. You don't need to root to install apk's. You just need to enable unknown sources. I have the HD+ so you would have to use the appropriate download to create the sdcard.

I used this thread

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2062613

I downloaded sdformatter from the web to format an old sdcard that I had in the closet.
I also downloaded Win32DiskImager from the web and installed it on my computer and used it to install the following image file onto the sdcard

http://forum.xda-developers.com/atta...6&d=1368660885

after that was created I just drag and dropped the following zip onto the sdcard

http://forum.xda-developers.com/atta...4&d=1367889100

My nook was powered down and I inserted the card and let the Nook boot up and installed the zip. It is not complicated at all. Most people think that they need "root" to enjoy their Nook. I had to root my old nook tablet to get it like I wanted it but the new Nook HD and HD+ are much better(IMHO)and don't need it.

Penny

[khahoon]

Originally Posted by guanaco

Thanks to both answerers (is that a word?). I think I should use the word "sideload", because by 3rd party apps I mean applications which are not on Google Play.

Anyways, if I can sideload apk files then the tablets look very desirable

You can sideload them, if you install ANdroid sdk along with Nook Adb usb drivers. I did that and it works. I install F-droid using sideloading however to be able to install apps within f-droid you need to enable unknowh sources patch, you can find them on xda forums.

[guanaco]

About the original question in post #1, I decided to pull the trigger and got the 16GB version of the Nook HD+.

At first, "adb devices" came empty. But after some hours fiddling with the settings and several reboots of my laptop, now the tablet is recognized and I'm able to sideload 3rd party apps using "adb install". Thus, I don't see a reason for rooting the tablet. At least not yet .

Just for the record, maybe somebody is in the same situation, I followed the instructions found in this page.

[PatNY]

The good thing about the sideloading solution Penny pointed out is that once you make the minor mod to the stock firmware, your Nook HD/HD+ won't even have to sideload most apps that Google Play previously "hid" from the device due to hardware limitations. Almost all of them now show up in Google Play as compatible with your device and you can download them normally. So you don't even need to get APKs to sideload.

USA Today, Yelp, NBC News, TV Guide ... all these apps I couldn't download before the mod but now show up normally in Google Play. Interestingly, the only exception to that is Amazon Local. I don't think there is anything intentional there since Amazon Mobile shows up fine. Must just be something quirky. So Amazon Local is the only app I've had to sideload.

Bottom line is the mod not only allows sideloading of apps, but it tricks Google Play into thinking your Nook HD/HD+ has more hardware features than it really has!

--Pat

[livramax]

Originally Posted by PatNY

...
The only glitch I had was applying the image to the sd card. It didn't work and in fact wrecked my micro sd card
...

You can try recovering the card using sdformatter with "Full (OverWrite)" option.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by livramax

You can try recovering the card using sdformatter with "Full (OverWrite)" option.

When the card went "bad" I tried formatting it in Windows, disk partitioning apps I had, and even sdformatter. Nothing was working and so I was just going to throw it away. For some reason I didn't.

When I saw your post, I thought, what the heck, why not try once more. So I opened up sdformatter, used the middle option (I think it's full erase) and it worked!

So thanks for the suggestion. I might have tried again in the future but I probably would have just thrown it away eventually without trying again.

--Pat

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by PatNY

When the card went "bad" I tried formatting it in Windows, disk partitioning apps I had, and even sdformatter. Nothing was working and so I was just going to throw it away. For some reason I didn't.

When I saw your post, I thought, what the heck, why not try once more. So I opened up sdformatter, used the middle option (I think it's full erase) and it worked!

So thanks for the suggestion. I might have tried again in the future but I probably would have just thrown it away eventually without trying again.

--Pat

You probably could have also wiped it in Windows Disk Management. It was probably formatted or partitioned in a way that Windows doesn't understand (Linux EXT2/EXT4 file system, etc).

Windows->System->Administrative Tools->Create and Format hard disk partitions. You'd probably have seen the device here (it shows devices even without valid file systems on them), and you could have right click/wiped it there. But you can also do some damage there to a secondary disk drive or something if you aren't PC saavy and wipe the wrong device.

[livramax]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

You probably could have also wiped it in Windows Disk Management. It was probably formatted or partitioned in a way that Windows doesn't understand (Linux EXT2/EXT4 file system, etc).

Windows->System->Administrative Tools->Create and Format hard disk partitions.
...

I tried that Windows Disk Management route when I had the problem -- it didn't work.

I think the problem has to do with the GPT vs. MSDOS Partition Table formats.