Root for Glowlight 4 Plus?

[IAM]

Originally Posted by erkins007

Using this version of magisk i finaly got root

With what version of the Glowlight 4 Plus software did you successfully root the nook, for example 8.1.7.38(E)/6.6.7.11?
I found that the version can be seen by touching the bottom left and right corners of the screen at the same time on the home page after powering on.

[ramensoup150]

So quick question
has anyone besides erkin007 succesfully rooted the device?

[scientifically]

Originally Posted by ramensoup150

So quick question
has anyone besides erkin007 succesfully rooted the device?

I'm still curious about this as well. Never succeeded in rooting mine after several attempts because the device would never go into fastboot mode. I've learned to use it without root but would still prefer to have it rooted!

[ramensoup150]

Originally Posted by scientifically

I'm still curious about this as well. Never succeeded in rooting mine after several attempts because the device would never go into fastboot mode. I've learned to use it without root but would still prefer to have it rooted!

hmm still no mention of a root

[readthinksurvive]

how much extra space did you get after rooting?

[WhyNine]

I'm having problems even starting the root process. I have connected ht enOok Classic to the wifi but it won't display anything in the Social page - just complains about no wifi (even though the wifi symbol is being dispayed).

Have I left it too late to root this device?

[Renate]

If you enable ADB you should be able to simply "adb reboot bootloader".
I have a NeoNoogie for the BNRV1100 (nnglow21.img).
I've never seen a BNRV1300 (which I think is what you're talking about).
I gave up on B&N years ago.

[tombert]

Originally Posted by erkins007

after 10 minutes in this mode the device becomes visible in fastboot and after flashing the native boot it boots without problems

You didn't happen to do anything else did you? I ended up bricking it in the same way, it's stuck on update, I've had the fastboot flash of the stock boot.img queued up for almost twenty minutes and I've made no progress.

Is there a button I need to press or something?

[tombert]

Originally Posted by tombert

You didn't happen to do anything else did you? I ended up bricking it in the same way, it's stuck on update, I've had the fastboot flash of the stock boot.img queued up for almost twenty minutes and I've made no progress.

Is there a button I need to press or something?

I figured it out, at least one way, and I haven't seen it documented so I will put this here so that it gets scraped by search engines.

On the factory reset screen, if you hold all four of the face buttons *and* the power button at the same time for ~15 seconds, and plug in the USB *while still holding all these buttons*, that seems to get it into fastboot mode. From there I was able to flash the stock boot.img, do a factory reset, and it's back to its normal function.

Holding all those buttons and plugging in the cable is easier said than done. It helps if you have another person to plug in the cable.

[tombert]

If anyone here is looking to root solely to run KOReader, I have a bit of a hackey workaround.

I wrote a dumb Android application that starts the Simple App Launcher, which then lets me select KOReader. To anyone interested: https://github.com/Tombert/StupidLauncher

I am not an Android developer and I hacked this together over the course of a few hours, so there are certainly improvements that could be made and I encourage anyone with more Android dev skills to fork and improve this.

This should all be in user space so I don't think there is a ton of risk to this, but usual disclaimer of "I take no responsibility if something breaks".

Or find a reliable root method

[tombert]

Ok, with a bit more tinkering, I was able to get it so that the launcher is launched when hitting the top left button.

Not the most elegant thing in the world, but better than messing with timers and whatnot.

Nice thing is that this should allow access to basically any sideloaded Android app without a root. I might see if I can get Libby on there.

[plainbriny]

I can confirm this works.
I use clips to hold the 4 buttons for me, one hand holding power button and the other hand plug in the USB cable.

I needed to do this because I tried to root, flashed patched boot.img by magisk (v29.0) and then the device was stuck.
With this trick I can enter fastboot and flash the stock boot.img and bring it back to life again.

Originally Posted by tombert

I figured it out, at least one way, and I haven't seen it documented so I will put this here so that it gets scraped by search engines.

On the factory reset screen, if you hold all four of the face buttons *and* the power button at the same time for ~15 seconds, and plug in the USB *while still holding all these buttons*, that seems to get it into fastboot mode. From there I was able to flash the stock boot.img, do a factory reset, and it's back to its normal function.

Holding all those buttons and plugging in the cable is easier said than done. It helps if you have another person to plug in the cable.

[plainbriny]

I can confirm that this works and I got my GL4+ rooted.

However, I can not rule out security risks from this version (92546e8a (23016)) of magisk, as the source is unknown/unofficial. It seemed to be an old debug version (v23?) of Magisk (Magisk canary) but I can't find it on github of the original author anymore. Maybe the official v23 would work?

I do not intend to register this GL4+ nor connect it to wi-fi, therefore I think the security risk is managable.

However, if internet connection and BN registration is required, please evaluate the security risk before using this version of magisk.

Originally Posted by erkins007

Using this version of magisk i finaly got root

[tombert]

Originally Posted by plainbriny

I can confirm that this works and I got my GL4+ rooted.

However, I can not rule out security risks from this version (92546e8a (23016)) of magisk, as the source is unknown/unofficial. It seemed to be an old debug version (v23?) of Magisk (Magisk canary) but I can't find it on github of the original author anymore. Maybe the official v23 would work?

I do not intend to register this GL4+ nor connect it to wi-fi, therefore I think the security risk is managable.

However, if internet connection and BN registration is required, please evaluate the security risk before using this version of magisk.

Interesting, I tried doing this Magisk thing and it seemingly bricked it until I did the reset.

Would you be willing to write a step-by-step of what you did? I would like to get mine rooted and I am ok with not connecting it, but I don't want to brick it again and have to do a factory reset?

Or even better, if you could share the Magisk'd image that you used to do this, that would be great.

[plainbriny]

Was done on 8.1.7.50, just upgraded to 8.1.7.109 and doing the whole process again:

1. on first boot, alternatively tapping top right and left corner and enter EasterEggActivity
2. enter diagnostic -> android development settings -> unlock with password NOOK-BNRV1300
3. turn on "OEM unlocking" and "USB debugging"
3.1 adb devices (pop up in device to allow USB debugging access; make sure devices is authorized)
4. adb push boot.img /sdcard/ (extracted from update.zip for matching version, 8.1.7.109)
5. adb install magisk.apk (using v24 from official github release of magisk this time)
6. adb shell am start com.topjohnwu.magisk/.ui.MainActivity
6.1 patching boot.img in launched magisk
7. adb pull /path/to/patched_boot.img (should be /sdcard/Download/magisk_patched-24000_XXXXX.img)
8. adb reboot bootloader
8.1 fastboot devices (to make sure the device is in fastboot/bootloader mode)
9. fastboot flash boot patched_boot.img
10. fastboot reboot

That's it.

Since this version of magisk is taken from the official github release, the security risk should be smaller. I think the latest (or newer) version of magisk introduced some incompatibility and cause it not working for GL4+. The version by erkins007 is a debug version between v23 and v24, so I use v24 this time and it worked.