Touch Hacking or Rooting the new nook simple touch reader

[slm]

As far as I can tell, the Nook STR is basically a clone of the NookColor insofar as core software is concerned (prior to the 1.2 upgrade). So the NookColor stuff is more useful.


FWIW here are the steps that seemed to work for me, after following the NookDev instructions to get a "#" in the shell. Bear in mind that I have no idea what I’m doing so you could really screw things up following these instructions.
First:
download the following apks from somewhere onto you hard drive
1. NookColor Tools
2. Any launcher ("Launcher Pro" in this example)
3. Any file program ("Files" in this example)
4. Z4Root.apk
5. Softkeys or Button Savior (to provide the menu, home and back keys when needed

Then install these onto the Nook STR as follows, one line at a time and wait for a response before the next line:


>adb shell
# mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
#exit
>adb push “path to NookColor Tools on your hard drive" /system/app
>adb install “path to Launcher Pro”
>adb install “path to Files”
>adb install “path to Z4root”
>adb install “path to Softkeys”

Eject Nook STR and reboot the device (turn it really off by holding the on button until you are asked whether you want to power off, say yes. They restart a few minutes later)

When it reboots you will be asked to select the launcher you want to use: Click the “use as default" button and the button for the Launcher you installed. (Not “Home” which is the built-in launcher”)

You will be taken to the installed launcher.
In the installed launcher, first launch NookColor Tools. There is a check box to allow side-loading of apk files. Check it. (If it is already checked, uncheck it then check it again.) From now on you can install putting an apk file in memory and navigating to it and clicking it.)

Next launch Z4root and select “permanent root”
This will (after a while) reboot the device, rooted and running Superuser.
Launch and set up Softkeys or Button Savior.
After that, you are on your own.
Good luck.

[rahulm]

Is it possible to remove the sideloading limit when the device has been rooted?

I think it's one of the most underhanded and dirty things a company can do. I'm paying them for their product and they create an artificial storage limit to force people to buy from their stupid store.

[forkyfork]

Originally Posted by rahulm

Is it possible to remove the sideloading limit when the device has been rooted?

I think it's one of the most underhanded and dirty things a company can do. I'm paying them for their product and they create an artificial storage limit to force people to buy from their stupid store.

Wait... what sideloading limit?

Also, can anyone explain to a n00b the benefit of rooting a nook touch?

[afv011]

Originally Posted by forkyfork

Wait... what sideloading limit?

From the 1Gb of space available, 750Mb or so are reserved for B&N content, so only about 250Mb are available for side-loaded content.

Originally Posted by forkyfork

Also, can anyone explain to a n00b the benefit of rooting a nook touch?

It's arguably less useful on an eInk device than on an LCD device, but lets you run additional apps (like additional readers, browsers, ...) and you can as well modify the system. On the NC, there are instructions on how to repartition the internal memory to increase the space for side-loaded content.

[Antioch]

Originally Posted by afv011

On the NC, there are instructions on how to repartition the internal memory to increase the space for side-loaded content.

Oh, really? Then I imagine there will be some method to do the same on the Nook Touch. Seeing as how I only use my Touch as a Simple Reader, this is likely the only thing I'll root for.

Can't wait!

[kacir]

Originally Posted by afv011

From the 1Gb of space available, 750Mb or so are reserved for B&N content, so only about 250Mb are available for side-loaded content

I have to add something:
Out of 2GB advertised as Nook Touch memory, only 1GB is available for books. From those 1GB, up to 750MB is unacessible to user. That 750MB are used for purchased books and Nook will manage the memory as it sees fit. You can not see that memory, you can not make backup, you can not decide what books from your purchased library you will keep in that memory. The remaining 250MB is available to you for your sideloaded content.

Rooting is good for running your own software. You can run better browser, you can run Kindle app, you can run other programs for reading many book formats, you can have mail client, games, notepad, ... just about any application that isn't too flashy and animated. Animated and flashy stuff that is so popular on Android isn't well suited for e-ink.

[jasoraso]

Can someone please confirm which partition apps are installed to - is it the 250mb partition? or the 750mb?

Also, for sideloaded content ie. books - doesn't a memory card provide (unlimited) space?

I would imagine that besides re-doing the partitioning, it would also be possible to install apps to the SD card (if it is Android 2.1 it might need some tweaks to enable this though).

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by jasoraso

. . .
Also, for sideloaded content ie. books - doesn't a memory card provide (unlimited) space?. . .

The Nook will take up to 32 GB micro USB cards. So, you can have up to as many of those as you want.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by jasoraso

Can someone please confirm which partition apps are installed to - is it the 250mb partition? or the 750mb?

Also, for sideloaded content ie. books - doesn't a memory card provide (unlimited) space?

I would imagine that besides re-doing the partitioning, it would also be possible to install apps to the SD card (if it is Android 2.1 it might need some tweaks to enable this though).

Apps would go to the 750Mb partition. The 250Mb partition for side-loaded content can be seen, from the user point of view, as a small SD card.

Yes, you can use an external SD card for your side-loaded content, up to 32Gb, which should suffice most people.

Even if you install to the SD card (which as you mentioned, is not available on Eclair), some data still goes to the data partition.

Originally Posted by slm

As far as I can tell, the Nook STR is basically a clone of the NookColor insofar as core software is concerned (prior to the 1.2 upgrade). So the NookColor stuff is more useful.


FWIW here are the steps that seemed to work for me, after following the NookDev instructions to get a "#" in the shell. Bear in mind that I have no idea what I’m doing so you could really screw things up following these instructions.
First:
download the following apks from somewhere onto you hard drive
1. NookColor Tools
2. Any launcher ("Launcher Pro" in this example)
3. Any file program ("Files" in this example)
4. Z4Root.apk
5. Softkeys or Button Savior (to provide the menu, home and back keys when needed

Then install these onto the Nook STR as follows, one line at a time and wait for a response before the next line:


>adb shell
# mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
#exit
>adb push “path to NookColor Tools on your hard drive" /system/app
>adb install “path to Launcher Pro”
>adb install “path to Files”
>adb install “path to Z4root”
>adb install “path to Softkeys”

Eject Nook STR and reboot the device (turn it really off by holding the on button until you are asked whether you want to power off, say yes. They restart a few minutes later)

When it reboots you will be asked to select the launcher you want to use: Click the “use as default" button and the button for the Launcher you installed. (Not “Home” which is the built-in launcher”)

You will be taken to the installed launcher.
In the installed launcher, first launch NookColor Tools. There is a check box to allow side-loading of apk files. Check it. (If it is already checked, uncheck it then check it again.) From now on you can install putting an apk file in memory and navigating to it and clicking it.)

Next launch Z4root and select “permanent root”
This will (after a while) reboot the device, rooted and running Superuser.
Launch and set up Softkeys or Button Savior.
After that, you are on your own.
Good luck.

This worked very nicely - thanks much for a very lucid post. The NookDevs instructions leave a lot to the imagination - I have a rooted NookColor so I was able to fill in the gaps on NookDevs.

I have found that:

a. Zeam 2.88 (available on XDA-Developers) is very smooth and probably uses less memory than LauncherPro.
b. I installed Cool Reader - it's great on this device and much more customizable than the Nook reading app

[thdurrant]

Once rooted, does anyone know if its possible to gain access to the device over wifi? Specifically, is it possible to push content (such as news feeds) from calibre to the nook without a usb cable?

[afv011]

Originally Posted by thdurrant

Once rooted, does anyone know if its possible to gain access to the device over wifi? Specifically, is it possible to push content (such as news feeds) from calibre to the nook without a usb cable?

It should be possible. There are apps like Wifi Explorer that do the trick. You can also adb push over WiFi with ADB Wireless, though that's mostly for development.

[thawk]

I have a questions. What does Z4root do?

I think the device is rooted after the NookDev instructions, right?
After that, we can install apks, replace launcher, and run apps. Why to use Z4root to root again?

BTW, in the last step of the NookDev's instruction, we can use wireless adb to connect to the device. Does this means everyone in the same network can control my device using adb? Can I limit the adb access from only the usb pot, not the wifi?

[slm]

I used z4Root to install Superuser correctly. Otherwise, Softkeys and Button Savior can get root access so only the Home button will work. (Softkeys actually provides notification that it doesn't have root access if you try to use one of the other buttons, Button Savior just fails silently.) Superuser provider the interface that lets programs running on the device access the root.


Superuser is not just an apk--there is a second part which modifies something. The instructions I found for installing Superuser required booting into recovery mode and running a complex set of commands.

Before I tried that, I tried z4Root which did all the work for me.

[Dedale]

So basically, when you root your nook touch, you have access to reading software much better than the one proposed by default?

I've never looked at it but it's true that if I can have a software which allows me to manage my library with tags and can change fonts or margins and such, it's surely a good deal now.
Also, what about the ghosting effect after that?