Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Stuart
I searched here and in Google and did not find any clarification, so I want to explicitly ask this:
Will an entirely stock and unmodified ("unrooted") Nook Color boot from a bootable microSD card (inserted in the microSD slot) when the Nook is turned on ?
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short answer to your question:
YES
The reason not as much emphasis is place on booting from a microSD is for 2 reasons:
1 - many users LIKE the B&N reader/shop. when you boot from microSD, you are usually running a generic android setup (whether 2.2 froyo, 2.3 gingerbread, or 3.0 honeycomb). I don't think I have seen any 2.1 eclair SD roms that include the stock B&N reader. When you run these other flavors of android, you can install the generic android Nook app; but you lose magazines and children books.
2 - running from SD card isn't ideal - speed becomes an issue. I've only ever tried w/ class 4 cards, and found it unsatisfactory for longterm use. Sometimes the OS was very fast; other times extremely slow (market is one example). I believe class 6 or class 10 cards are better, but nothing beats the EMMC internal memory. Having your o/s on the EMMC also lets you swap SD cards, mount them in the computer etc.
For me, the ability to boot from SD is great for 2 main reasons - I can TRY alternative flavors of android w/o changing my main installation; and it lets you root and modify your EMMC installation w/o fear because you can always boot off of microSD to recover.
That being said, there are many people who DO use their Nooks daily using the SD card for their primary o/s; but they don't hang out on mobileread (I think because of reason 1 above).
Regarding impending updates: Yes there is the possibility that new update will require redoing your Nook - but that would be because of a change in android flavor from 2.1 to 2.2. So far, the updates HAVE NOT required mass re-doing of your setups, and it is possible that even a switch to 2.2 would not require setting up the Nook again.
Rooting is SO simple that I would say that if you are able to figure out booting from SD cards (making a bootable SD card) you should also go ahead and root your stock ....
