Touch Nook STR Rooted - well that didn't take long

[kacir]

Originally Posted by John F

If I root a Nook Touch, would I be able to load some different reader apps?

Kindle app works.
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...he-kindle-app/
It looks weird at the moment because it is optimised for LCD screen and the way of running is not suitable for general public yet, but if this works, lots of other things can.

[OrganicJerk]

ADW Launcher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4dMZvff9qg

It's obvious from this and the Kindle vid that whatever launcher/apps are to work on here, they have to be totally no frills/NO animations.

One homescreen, No turning or transition animations. Basic reading and turn based gaming apps. (Email, Aldiko/FBReader, Notes, Chess, etc)... Not to mention Big Icons.

Gotta love open source. I am so thankful that BN chose Android for these devices.

[NookLuser]

Originally Posted by trescenzi

I plan to try rooting my nook touch right now. I'll update this post with success/horror stories.

Update:
So far I'm not having too much fun. For some reason it isn't booting off of the sd card all the way and is getting stuck on their "rooted forever" screen. I'm trying to find a way to hard reset the nook to try it again.

Trescenzi, I have the same problem, stuck at "rooted forever". I could not reset it. I pulled the microSD and it rebooted to stock software. Did you get past this? What was the problem?

My guesses
1) Did I wait long enough? It does boot pretty slow anyway, and maybe the root firmware does not feature the neat bootup animations
2) Was it the cheap microSD? I don't have the class 6 recommended in NookDevs. [Class 4 worked fine]

[kacir]

Originally Posted by NookLuser

Trescenzi, I have the same problem, stuck at "rooted forever". I could not reset it. I pulled the microSD and it rebooted to stock software. Did you get past this? What was the problem?

Did you follow this directions?
http://nookdevs.com/NookTouch_Rooting

If so, please notice point 10

Replace the uRamdisk on that partition with your downloaded uRamdisk_rooted

uRamdisk_rooted must be renamed to uRamdisk, overwriting the old one

[NookLuser]

Originally Posted by kacir

Did you follow this directions?
http://nookdevs.com/NookTouch_Rooting

If so, please notice point 10

Kacir,
Thanks for replying! I think I'm seeing the error in my ways. I expected to see the nook come up and work after booting from the NOOGIE microSD image. Apparently this is not correct. I'm now seeing that the microSD _only_ enables ADB, right?
Actually, I was wrong. What this NOOGIE image does is make the whole nook filesystem available as USB drives to the computer you plug it into.

So, are you telling me this: When the NOOGIE microSD boots, it is supposed to say 'rooted forever' and stop, because it is waiting for me to go into ADB and copy the new file. I was wrong here, too. (but closer) Any PC with USB can move the special uRamdisk over. ADB does not come into play at this step.

I was hoping for an interim sign of success before jumping off here. The sign of success is that the nook becomes a bunch of USB drives. It won't boot normally or operate as a reader from the NOOGIE image.

Further explanation: After you have the new uRamdisk on the boot partition of the nook, AFTER you follow instructions to 'safely remove' or unmount the USB drives from the PC, AFTER you remove the microSD, and AFTER you reboot nook, THEN it appears to boot normally, but can be controlled by ADB.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by NookLuser

Kacir,
Thanks for replying! I think I'm seeing the error in my ways. I expected to see the nook come up and work after booting from the NOOGIE microSD image. Apparently this is not correct. I'm now seeing that the microSD _only_ enables ADB, right?

So, are you telling me this: When the NOOGIE microSD boots, it is supposed to say 'rooted forever' and stop, because it is waiting for me to go into ADB and copy the new file. I was hoping for an interim sign of success before jumping off here.

Boot from card enables you to connect via USB and enable adb - that is my understanding of the rooting process. You see, I do not have Nook Touch yet ;-) so I am just reading forums and collecting info.

It is my understanding that when you boot from an SD card, all that happens is that you can connect to the device from PC via USB cable and you can replace the boot image in device memory. When you replace the boot image, you reboot the device again, this time without an SD card and a backdoor (adb service) is opened for you on your device, so you can start installing stuff through WiFi network (using adb connect <nook's ip>). The adb is the command from commandline on your pc. adb is Android Debug Bridge - a software that is installed as a part of Google Android SDK (Software Development Kit)

Please study the steps on the nookdevs site carefully and make a checklist. You have to finish each step before the next step works.
Also, <sigh> there is lots of stuff the hackers that wrote the HowTo consider obvious ;-)

It is also my understanding, that when something bad happens and the device can not finish boot, you just switch it on eight times and then factory default software is flashed automatically from internal memory.

Disclaimer:
I am just reading forums and collecting info, so when I manage (IF I manage) get Nook Touch I can root it. You see, I live quite far from USA so I can't just visit the nearest Barnes and Noble shop.

[thawk]

I'm wondering, how can I disable adb from wifi, and only enable it from usb port?
It's quite danger to enable everybody control my nook touch through wifi.

[Blue4Ever]

Originally Posted by kacir

Did you follow this directions?
http://nookdevs.com/NookTouch_Rooting

If so, please notice point 10

I am also stuck. I have followed instructions to the letter, but hit a wall at #7. I have the Touch connected via USB and can see the boot partition, but no others. I have never seen more than the one and have yet to see 7 of them. I do not want to continue to #10 until I complete the backup of original Nook image (#8), but no idea what to do at this point.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Blue4Ever

I am also stuck. I have followed instructions to the letter, but hit a wall at #7. I have the Touch connected via USB and can see the boot partition, but no others. I have never seen more than the one and have yet to see 7 of them. I do not want to continue to #10 until I complete the backup of original Nook image (#8), but no idea what to do at this point.

I believe this is based on a Linux host machine. Some of the partitions are not FAT, they are probably EXT2/3/4, and Windows (bless!) doesn't know about those.

[NookLuser]

Originally Posted by Blue4Ever

I am also stuck. I have followed instructions to the letter, but hit a wall at #7. I have the Touch connected via USB and can see the boot partition, but no others. I have never seen more than the one and have yet to see 7 of them. I do not want to continue to #10 until I complete the backup of original Nook image (#8), but no idea what to do at this point.

Blue,
I used a linux host but it didn't matter. I saw all those partitions but I only modified the boot partition per the instructions. It, alone, should be enough.

BUT, I also wanted to back it up first. I could not understand the NookDev instructions for doing that, so I skipped that step. BUT,
Has anyone successfully backed up the original config?
http://nookdevs.com/NookTouch_Rooting step 8
"dd if=/dev/<nook> of=nook_touch_backup.img bs=1M" ?
I think there must be some unmounting / remounting implied here that I missed. My Ubuntu netbook mapped things under /device, and I got lost after that.

[pejhod]

Originally Posted by NookLuser

Blue,
I used a linux host but it didn't matter. I saw all those partitions but I only modified the boot partition per the instructions. It, alone, should be enough.

BUT, I also wanted to back it up first. I could not understand the NookDev instructions for doing that, so I skipped that step. BUT,
Has anyone successfully backed up the original config?
http://nookdevs.com/NookTouch_Rooting step 8
"dd if=/dev/<nook> of=nook_touch_backup.img bs=1M" ?
I think there must be some unmounting / remounting implied here that I missed. My Ubuntu netbook mapped things under /device, and I got lost after that.

*Ubuntu*
Once at that step (or after just booting off of the noogie sd card), open Disk Utility and find the Nook under Peripheral Devices, it'll have a lot of volumes on the right column, now look for the little section that says "Device: /dev/sd*"

if it says /dev/sdb like on mine, type on terminal:

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=nook_touch_backup.img bs=1M

It should give you a 2 gb backup of the whole Nook, placing it in your home directory

[pejhod]

Originally Posted by esi435sam

Hi;
My nook simple touch have problem;
This error showed in nook screen:
Restart required :
Your Nook encountered a problem that requires a system restart .
I restart system again and again but not solved problem;

and All files in Internal memory deleted;
because i had incomplete root (ihave not wifi) ;
i write noogie on internal memory of nook str (mistake);
Internal memory decrease to 75Mg (empty memory);
please help;

If it's under 14 days try taking it in the store, mine was bricked but didn't show any root evidence. Bring everything with your receipt. They swapped mine after trying to reset it. But make sure there is NO evidence of modifying the software, that couldn't be mistaken for a natural occurrence. Make up an excuse that it was trying to update. Play it dumb if the ask if it was rooted. (That's what I'd recommend, first see if others have a solution)

I smartened up and made a full unrooted back up once I received my second one.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by pejhod

If it's under 14 days try taking it in the store, mine was bricked but didn't show any root evidence. Bring everything with your receipt. They swapped mine after trying to reset it. But make sure there is NO evidence of modifying the software, that couldn't be mistaken for a natural occurrence. Make up an excuse that it was trying to update. Play it dumb if the ask if it was rooted. (That's what I'd recommend, first see if others have a solution)

I smartened up and made a full unrooted back up once I received my second one.

That's not very honest, is it? If you root your device and you brick it in the process, the manufacturer should not have to pay for it.

[linux_author]

Originally Posted by afv011

That's not very honest, is it? If you root your device and you brick it in the process, the manufacturer should not have to pay for it.

B&N should provide the consumer the ability to restore the Nook Touch to out-of-box...

ASUS does this with its Linux-based eeepc notebooks, providing a restore DVD with the OS and software.. no matter what you do to the unit (short of forgetting BIOS passwords), you can fully restore the system

B&N could provide this on-line for download, but chose an inefficient route of support for the Touch, a Linux-based 'droid device

i see no problem with returning a unit that cannot be restored to out-of-the-box - if B&N wants to transition to something more than just a bookstore, this is the price of that transition - either that or hire better contract programmers

now if the poster had taken the two minutes to boot w/noogie.img and then use the dd command to create a 2GB backup image, his/her problem would be moot...

BACKUP YOUR NOOK TOUCH BEFORE 'UPGRADING'!!!!

[stockhomer]

Originally Posted by linux_author

BACKUP YOUR NOOK TOUCH BEFORE 'UPGRADING'!!!!

could someone please give us a precise and simple (for newbies) guide how to back up and restore safely the nook before rooting and installing something

ty