ClockworkMod Recovery

[zartemis]

What is clockworkmod?

Most android devices have a way to recover from serious errors and restore the OS to a working state. The BN Nook ships with a method to restore the 1.0.0 version (as of 2/20/11) of the BN android software via 8 failed reboots. This function resides in the 'boot' partition of your device. Clockworkmod (CWM) is a replacement for this function that offers more features. If installed into internal memory, it removes the BN 8-boot recovery. It can now also be run from the SD card.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of CWM?

Advantages:

1. You can make as many system level backups (nandroid backups) at any state that you want. The BN recovery is limited to flashing 1.0.0 OS. The nandroid backups have a full snapshot of both your OS and apps at the point in time you made the backup. You can now feel free to try crazy changes and get back to where your were without having to reroot or reupdate from 1.0.0
2. You can easily install modifications offered by Nook hackers: e.g. you can try out faster overclocking kernels
3. You can get into recovery easily -- either by booting into it via Rom Manager or by n+power, no 8 failed boots needed.
4. Simply running CWM does not wipe your device, if your Nook unexpectedly boots into recovery (either because it thinks there have been 8 failed boots or there is a BN glitch) it will not trigger a restore/wipe like the stock BN recovery will.

Disadvantages to installing CWM to internal memory:

1. It's a hassle to go completely back to stock 1.0.0 because you'll need to download the images from the net, they aren't on your device anymore.
2. If there is a bug in CWM and it doesn't work, you'll have to reimage from SD to restore BN recovery

How do I install clockworkmod to internal memory?

Prerequisites:

1. A 1.0.1 rooted Nook (installing CWM to a 1.1 rooted Nook does not appear to work reliably (results in bootlooping into CWM), but you can install it on a 1.0.1 rooted Nook and then upgrade to rooted 1.1 using the prerooted update).
2. SD card in your Nook with at least 1G free space (for your nandroid backup)
3. Comfort with writing an image to SD card (in case of error) -- but you probably already did this when you rooted.
4. Working market
5. Internet access on the Nook
6. Good amount of charge on your battery and optionally plug in to AC (not a PC USB port) for extra security. The nandroid backup can take 5-10 minutes and you don't want to run out of power.

Installation:

1. Install Rom Manager
2. Launch Rom Manager
3. Tap Flash ClockworkMod Recovery (it should find and confirm 'Nook Color')
4. REQUIRED: power off your Nook and reboot.
5. Launch Rom Manager, tap Reboot into Recovery
6. REQUIRED: Follow these instructions starting from make a nandroid backup. You must do this immediately or you will have no onboard restore option.
7. (optional) Copy the backup folder to your PC for safekeeping (you'll find it in /sdcard/clockworkmod/backup)

How do I use CWM from an SD card?

Make a CWM bootable SD card. Good ones are listed in the Monster Rootpack thread on XDA. If you want to use it to make nandroid backups, you'll need a bigger SD card (2gb or more) and make sure to download the appropriate size clockword mod image (the first post in the thread lists links to various size SD card images you can use). After creating the SD card, power off your Nook, insert the CWM SD card and reboot. You'll boot up into CWM. Thanks Rayven01 for confirming this works well.

I have CWM in my Nook internal memory, how do I launch CWM if my device isn't working and I can't launch Rom Manager?

Power off your Nook and then hold the N button and the power button for about 5 seconds after 'Touch the Future of Reading' comes up and release. Here is a video of the process.

How do I navigate CWM?

Use volume +/- to move up/down in menus, the n button to select, and the power button to go back.

I have CWM in internal memory, how can I get the BN recovery back?

Use Monster Rootpack (with instructions) that can make a bootable SD with clockworkmod. Make one.

Then power off your Nook, put the SD in, and power it on and:

1. From the Clockwork Recovery home screen use the volume buttons to navigate to “Install Package from SD Card” and press the home (“n” button) to select it.
2. Select “Browse for Package”
3. Navigate to optional/ then select RemoveClockwork.zip
4. Select “Yes”, then wait for the process to complete.
5. Power off, remove the SD card and reboot.

[KryptoNyte]

Thank you, clear and to the point.

[Driaz]

Thank you for this!

This is just what I was looking for since I'm really new to Android and hear everyone talking about ClockWork Mod and have been like huh?

Might I make a recommendation that this be a sticky. It is very informative and the level of traffic here and user experience, I think a good detailed explanation like this could be usefull at the top.

[volwrath]

And if CWR screws up your boot and you are stuck on Touch The Future, download repartition boot from this thread and the bootable clockwork recovery from this thread

[=X=]

Excellent write up. I wish there was something like this when i roted my phone, this write up was clear and consise.

[zartemis]

Originally Posted by volwrath

And if CWR screws up your boot and you are stuck on Touch The Future, download repartition boot from this thread and the bootable clockwork recovery from this thread

I'm a bit surprised you need both of those. Flashing CWM doesn't repartition, so the partition itself should have been fine. A bootable CWM SD with appropriate boot installs (either BN or CWM should have repaired it. I do like the tools in your second suggestion (pointing to instructions here). I see he has both 'install CW' and 'remove CW' functions. Handy and straight to the point.

[BarryR]

Thanks Zartemis, this is great info.

The instructions on XDA say to
Download NookColor_v1.1.0_r2.zip
and compare the md5 hashmarks to make sure they match

* Compare md5 hashes! If it's identical, continue. If it's not identical, redownload.


I think they're supposed to match this:
md5: 5b2e14170a319b2329e954f4ad89a422

The question is where do I get this number in the download to compare?

[zartemis]

Originally Posted by BarryR

* Compare md5 hashes! If it's identical, continue. If it's not identical, redownload.
The question is where do I get this number in the download to compare?

There are various utilities you can use to calculate a md5sum for a file. If you are using windows, this one from Nirsoft will work. Or this one from Bullzip is handy since it adds it to your context menu and you can just right click on the file from Windows Explorer. These aren't particularly recommended over others, there are probably hundreds of utilities that will work.

[BarryR]

Thanks. the md5sum was fine.
Not sure why but the first two times I tried the flash with the NookColor_v1.1.0_r2.zip file a got a "(bad)" error and a fail (though it didn't mess anything up).

Threes a charm, so the third time it worked fine. Took a few minutes and worked great!
Thanks for all the info!

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by zartemis

I'm a bit surprised you need both of those. Flashing CWM doesn't repartition, so the partition itself should have been fine. A bootable CWM SD with appropriate boot installs (either BN or CWM should have repaired it. I do like the tools in your second suggestion (pointing to instructions here). I see he has both 'install CW' and 'remove CW' functions. Handy and straight to the point.

I may not have needed both, but I definitely needed the bootable CWM, since my NC wouldnt get past the Touch The Future Screen. I used the bootable CWM to flash boot to stock, so then the NC came back to life, and I used rommanager to reinstall CWM. Perhaps I could have simply flashed CWM to internal.

[zartemis]

Originally Posted by volwrath

I may not have needed both, but I definitely needed the bootable CWM, since my NC wouldnt get past the Touch The Future Screen. I used the bootable CWM to flash boot to stock, so then the NC came back to life, and I used rommanager to reinstall CWM. Perhaps I could have simply flashed CWM to internal.

That makes sense. I also wonder whether the pre-rooted update zip applies cleanly from the CWM SD. If it does, then folks who are not comfortable with replacing boot could try it out. Wouldn't want to recommend it without trying it myself and I'm too lazy to go through more restores right now (I probably did 3 or 4 over the past couple days, so I have a fair amount of comfort with the integrity of my restore files and installed CWM).

There is one case where I can see restore failing to get one completely back to a working state, though -- if your BN keys are updated, then prior restores will have bad data for BN apps (although this might fix it)

[BarryR]

I did my original (1.0.1) backup by clicking "Backup Current ROM" in ROM Manager. I did not do it from the "Reboot into Recovery" button.

If I remember correctly, it did, in fact, reboot into recovery and then do the back up. So is this essentially the same thing as what I'd get following the above instructions and is it a valid backup (which I hopefully will never have to use)?

[zartemis]

Originally Posted by BarryR

I did my original (1.0.1) backup by clicking "Backup Current ROM" in ROM Manager. I did not do it from the "Reboot into Recovery" button.

If I remember correctly, it did, in fact, reboot into recovery and then do the back up. So is this essentially the same thing as what I'd get following the above instructions and is it a valid backup (which I hopefully will never have to use)?

I just chose Backup Current ROM in ROM Manager to confirm, and yes it is the same as choosing reboot into recovery and backup from there. It doesn't give you a chance to change your mind once it reboots you, though, (so I'm now making yet another 10min+ backup. Heh. Iz OK, it's all unattended, no babysitting required).

[zartemis]

Just wanted to update this thread with more explicit instructions on restoring the stock BN if you can't boot and can't activate either CWM recovery or BN recovery.

Here's how to restore BN recovery from SD card that will cover 99% of cases(*):

There is a rootpack (with instructions) that can make a bootable SD with clockworkmod. Make one. (I know the page says that 1.0.0 and 1.1 aren't supported --that only applies if you are using the rootpack to root, it doesn't apply if you are just using it to repair recovery which will work on any Nook).

Then power off your Nook, put the SD in, and power it on and:

1. From the Clockwork Recovery home screen use the volume buttons to navigate to “Install Package from SD Card” and press the home (“n” button) to select it.
2. Select “Browse for Package”
3. Navigate to optional/ then select RemoveClockwork.zip
4. Select “Yes”, then wait for the process to complete.
5. Power off, remove the SD card and use the 8-boot restore to rewrite the stock OS and the factory restore to wipe data if you need it completely clean.

If you have a valid clockworkmod nandroid backup and just want to repair a bad clockwork install and restore your last working nandroid backup, instead of RemoveClockwork.zip in the above, choose InstallClockwork.zip.

* What's the 1% that this won't work for? When you've damaged the initial partitions. Then you do need a repartition boot that Volwrath gave links to.

[Rayven01]

Originally Posted by zartemis

There is a rootpack (with instructions) that can make a bootable SD with clockworkmod.

The ClockworkMod bootable SD linked in that thread is now fully functional without having to install CWM to the NC as of version 0.7. Boot off the SD card and you can backup and restore nandroids to/from the card without modifying the NC boot partition. He has also updated the rootpack to work on 1.1. I have tested a backup, /data wipe, root, and google apps install and all worked great. I was even able to modify the root scripts easily to disable things I don't personally like (changing boot animation and modifying build.prop fingerprint). Only thing I haven't tried yet is a restore.

Edit: I can now confirm that restore works as well. I wiped /system and /data, and restored a nandroid backup of my original 1.0.0 root taken this morning and it booted up just fine. My battery is now shot from a day full of backups, rooting, re-installing, and restores, so I'm not restoring my 1.1 backup yet, but I expect that to work fine as well.