Color Rooting with SD card

[taosaur]

Yes, CM7 nightlies are in the 170s now, but the last official stable release was in May. I've seen some trouble reports on 177, but 176 has been rock solid for me. You wouldn't need to upgrade to a new nightly ever, if you didn't want to be bothered, and I wouldn't even recommend frequent updates--I update once or twice a month, and I'm keeping up on CM7 development.

WinImage is a standalone program, and one of the few that will burn and rip images on SD. You could use it to back up a bootable card, but what jhempel was describing was downloading an image of a ClockworkMod card, burning that image to a SD, copying a generic stock firmware .zip to the card, booting to the card and using CWM to install the .zip, restoring his NC to stock.

Originally Posted by jhempel24

Here are step by step instructions for creating a bootable CWM Card.

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

All you have to do is follow them exactly

What I linked her was a less wall-o-text version of the OP of that thread, with a link to the original.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

Here are step by step instructions for creating a bootable CWM Card.

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

All you have to do is follow them exactly

Thanks,
Carol

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by taosaur

Yes, CM7 nightlies are in the 170s now, but the last official stable release was in May. I've seen some trouble reports on 177, but 176 has been rock solid for me. You wouldn't need to upgrade to a new nightly ever, if you didn't want to be bothered, and I wouldn't even recommend frequent updates--I update once or twice a month, and I'm keeping up on CM7 development.

WinImage is a standalone program, and one of the few that will burn and rip images on SD. You could use it to back up a bootable card, but what jhempel was describing was downloading an image of a ClockworkMod card, burning that image to a SD, copying a generic stock firmware .zip to the card, booting to the card and using CWM to install the .zip, restoring his NC to stock.

What I linked her was a less wall-o-text version of the OP of that thread, with a link to the original.

So are you running 176 on an SD card. Are you satisfied with it running on an SD card. I'm tempted to try this myself if I get the Nook Color. Your instructions make it seem easy. If I do, I'll probably have lots more questions for you.

I take it if you have trouble with one build (say 177) you could just reload an earlier build and use that.

Also, I've read that you should use a SanDisk Class 4. How can you tell the Class of the card. I have an old 2GB card but can't see any class notation on it.

Before I would start anything, I would want to back up the Nook Color itself. Would I use WinImage for that or can I use another backup program, such as Acronis True Image.

Thanks for your help.
Carol

[taosaur]

There's already a backup recovery image on the NC, which will trigger in the event of 8 failed boots. In any case, you're not doing anything to the on-board software when you make a bootable SD card, so there's no need for a backup.

For cards, SanDisk class 2, 4, or unclassed 8GB and 16GB cards have been found to work well. It's a shot in the dark how well that 2GB card would perform, and it would in any case be pretty impractical.

I've done lots of things with my NC It's been a few months since I was running CM7 on SD, but yes, it worked just fine. I eventually replaced the stock software with CM7 on the internal storage, and ClockworkMod on my internal recovery partition, and have since repartitioned my NC and set up a dual boot of CM7 and stock, allowing them to share the same SD card for storage.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by taosaur

There's already a backup recovery image on the NC, which will trigger in the event of 8 failed boots. In any case, you're not doing anything to the on-board software when you make a bootable SD card, so there's no need for a backup.

For cards, SanDisk class 2, 4, or unclassed 8GB and 16GB cards have been found to work well. It's a shot in the dark how well that 2GB card would perform, and it would in any case be pretty impractical.

I've done lots of things with my NC It's been a few months since I was running CM7 on SD, but yes, it worked just fine. I eventually replaced the stock software with CM7 on the internal storage, and ClockworkMod on my internal recovery partition, and have since repartitioned my NC and set up a dual boot of CM7 and stock, allowing them to share the same SD card for storage.

I would still like to make a backup of the NC just in case I decide to ever put CM7 on internally. Would I use WinImage or Acronis True Image.

Do you know how to tell what Class a card is.

Carol

[taosaur]

If there are no class markings, it is not classed, and more or less equivalent to class 2. Class is largely irrelevant to our needs--you would need to benchmark your card for small-block (4kb) random write speeds to get any idea how it will perform as a boot drive. While that stat tends to decline in cards class 6 and higher, it also varies considerably between cards of the same class and make. A 2GB card isn't going to be a permanent solution anyway, so you don't need to worry too much about its stats if you just want to use it for a dry run to check things out.

You cannot "make a backup of the NC" and it would be pointless to do so. Maybe ClockworkMod Recovery could make a backup that it could later restore, if you wanted to unnecessarily make a CWM SD card. One of the programs you mention might be able to produce a disk image, but it's highly discouraged to read and write disk images over USB to the NC, due to the chance of interruption or data corruption. Any backup you did produce would be basically identical to the recovery image already on the device and/or a generic stock .zip you could download online.

It's already as backed up as it's going to get.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by taosaur

If there are no class markings, it is not classed, and more or less equivalent to class 2. Class is largely irrelevant to our needs--you would need to benchmark your card for small-block (4kb) random write speeds to get any idea how it will perform as a boot drive. While that stat tends to decline in cards class 6 and higher, it also varies considerably between cards of the same class and make. A 2GB card isn't going to be a permanent solution anyway, so you don't need to worry too much about its stats if you just want to use it for a dry run to check things out.

You cannot "make a backup of the NC" and it would be pointless to do so. Maybe ClockworkMod Recovery could make a backup that it could later restore, if you wanted to unnecessarily make a CWM SD card. One of the programs you mention might be able to produce a disk image, but it's highly discouraged to read and write disk images over USB to the NC, due to the chance of interruption or data corruption. Any backup you did produce would be basically identical to the recovery image already on the device and/or a generic stock .zip you could download online.

It's already as backed up as it's going to get.

So let me see if I understand this correctly. Even if I 'root' to internal I could still go back to the native NC just by doing the 8 reboot thing?

Also, by doing the SD card cm7 can you display flash websites.

Can the NC natively display flash websites.

Carol

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by sadievan

So let me see if I understand this correctly. Even if I 'root' to internal I could still go back to the native NC just by doing the 8 reboot thing?

Also, by doing the SD card cm7 can you display flash websites.

Can the NC natively display flash websites.

Carol

I was able to watch movies on Crackle.com on an unrooted NC - the video was jerky, though.

On a rooted one, the video is even jerkier - same on Hulu.com.

Flash is sloooooow on a NC.

Netflix streaming, however, is lovely to behold.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by sadievan

So let me see if I understand this correctly. Even if I 'root' to internal I could still go back to the native NC just by doing the 8 reboot thing?

As long as you leave the recovery partition alone, yes--it's part of what makes the NC practically unbrickable. Just do not "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" in the ROM Manager app, and you'll be fine. In fact, I would uninstall ROM Manager first thing, especially if you're booting CM7 from SD.

Even if you do flash CWM to your recovery, though, you can just use it to install a generic stock zip the same way you'd use it to install CM7 (which seems easier than 8 failed boots to me).

[DianNC]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Netflix streaming, however, is lovely to behold.

Kate - is your CM7 root from the SD card? I just bought another NC and I'm thinking about rooting one of them.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by taosaur

As long as you leave the recovery partition alone, yes--it's part of what makes the NC practically unbrickable. Just do not "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" in the ROM Manager app, and you'll be fine. In fact, I would uninstall ROM Manager first thing, especially if you're booting CM7 from SD.

Even if you do flash CWM to your recovery, though, you can just use it to install a generic stock zip the same way you'd use it to install CM7 (which seems easier than 8 failed boots to me).

OK. I thought I was doing good and understanding things. What is ROM Manager. I take it it is an app/program. Does it install itself on the NC when booting cm7 from the SD card.

Carol

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by khalleron

I was able to watch movies on Crackle.com on an unrooted NC - the video was jerky, though.

On a rooted one, the video is even jerkier - same on Hulu.com.

Flash is sloooooow on a NC.

Netflix streaming, however, is lovely to behold.

Netflix doesn't use Flash. They use Silverlight.

Carol

[taosaur]

ROM Manager is the companion app of ClockworkMod Recovery and does come standard with CM7. It does a lot of the same things as CWM, but from within CM7, without having to reboot into recovery. Installing the ROM Manager app is the default way to get CWM on most devices, but most devices don't have a bootable SD slot like our NC.

If you're running CM7 from SD, you don't want or need CWM or ROM Manager. Even if you're running from internal storage, if your goal is to have one stable system and leave it alone, you don't need ROM Manager.

If you flash new ROMs every few days or flash every nightly build as soon as it's available, you might find a use for ROM Manager, but personally I prefer downloading updates manually and installing them with CWM. If you hit the "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" button in ROM Manager, regardless of whether ROM Manager is on a CM7 SD or internal storage, it will install CWM to your internal recovery partition, which will obstruct both the 8-failed-boots recovery and B&N updates.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by DianNC

Kate - is your CM7 root from the SD card? I just bought another NC and I'm thinking about rooting one of them.

Yes, it is.

[DianNC]

Thanks!