How to Pick your Nook Color Operating System and Install Options

Navigating the various OS options you have with your Nook Color can be complicated and confusing to the newbie or infrequent modder. I'll describe your basic options for install and the choices you have for operating system versions and customized installs.

If you're here because of the horrible Nook Color update bug and your device has now reset itself and is unusable, read this to learn how you might be able to regain access to your files.

"Rooting" or New Install

The first major decision you'll need to make is whether you "root" the existing operating system (OS) or install a new one. Rooting is the process of gaining control of the operating system and unleashing the full Android power lurking behind the customized Barnes & Noble experience. This process, at least with some rooting methods, can break important elements of that B&N experience, most critically access to the Barnes & Noble e-reader content; future updates of the OS may look for and take action against such activity.

Rooting has been made pretty easy, the most popular method at the moment is Auto-Nooter 3.0. You download a file, write that download to a microSD card, insert that card in your Nook Color, and voila! Well, there are a bunch of caveats and steps you need to follow, and it actually gets a bit messy if you have trouble with YouTube and need to fix it by setting up something called Android Debug Bridge (ADB); ADB install is not hard, but it's long, requires you install drivers, the Java Development Kit, and ADB, and the process can easily go wrong.

I would strongly recommend against rooting. It's a lot more trouble than it's worth. At the end of the process you have an awkward Android tablet, with a user interface and user experience marred by the lingering remnants of the original Barnes & Noble software (their home screen, their real estate wasting virtual buttons at the bottom of the screen). And the Android you will be left with is a bit outdated, it's Android 2.1 (codenamed Eclair), which is missing quite a lot of more recent improvements, like easier cursor moving and cut/copy/paste. If you want to retain access to the original Barnes & Noble e-reader features/experience then see the next section on installing the new OS to a microSD card, which will allow you to revert back to the original experience whenever you want and need to.

Where will your new OS live? Choosing between eMMC and SD

If you made the wise choice of going with a new OS install, the next decision will involve where the OS will live. Do you want to replace the existing OS that lives in the Nook Color's internal memory (eMMC) or do you want to put your new operating system on an external microSD card instead.

One of the great things about the Nook Color is that since it can boot off of an inserted microSD card you don't actually need to modify anything in the Nook Color you bought in order to run the latest and greatest Android OS; you leave the Nook's original OS completely untouched and in tact. Any time you want just pop out the microSD card and the device is just like it was when you bought it. Many of the traditional dangers, such as bricking your device, or having the device reveal itself as defective with a warranty-voiding ROM installed, are gone!

Contrary to what you might expect, the user experience of running of the eMMC or an SD card is identical, the read/write performance of external SD storage and internal eMMC storage are practically indistinguishable.

The negatives about booting from an external SD card may or may not affect (or matter to) you:

The Nook Color seems to be extremely finicky when it comes to SD cards. Some work great but others either refuse to work or appear somewhat unstable. The faster the cards and the larger the cards the more problems we seem to see. Some may behave perfectly, others not so much. I have used three SD cards in mine, one PNY class 4 and two Patriot LX class 10, all perform better than class 10 cards, and when I install the OS to them I end up with a Nook Color which experiences unnecessary crashes and file system corruption. Many people experience no problems at all, but let my experience be a cautionary tale. If you have problems such as I describe, it's most likely related to your SD cards and your choice is then to buy and try others or use an eMMC installed OS.
Booting from an external microSD card means that you have a portion of the internal memory you don't use, the portion which holds the original OS you may never boot into. This argument is a weak one given that depending on which operating system (OS) you choose, you'll likely still be able to use the remainder of the internal 8 GB eMMC for extra file storage (music, video, etc. but NOT apps); an average user with only a few apps installed in the original internal OS will have 5 GB internally free they can use for storing files. Additionally, with a 16 GB microSD card running only $25, and with most apps now streaming rich media content (audio, video) how important are those few lost GB when measured against the comfort of knowing you can still get warranty coverage, can still run the official OS when they release important and compelling updates, etc. For most users I'd suspect this down side isn't much of one.
The microSD card as created by most of the SD-based installers will not behave exactly like a traditional microSD card you would stick in your Nook Color. The only partition you will see from a Windows box will be the /boot partition. That is great for adding ROM update.zip files and replacing the kernel, but with only 100 MB of space it's little use for anything else. While the /sdcard partition on the SD card is formatted fat32 it remains hidden from Windows because all of the partitions are primary and Windows only allows access to the first such partition. There is surely a way to tweak the partition table and work around this limitation, but I haven't bothered. I personally work around the problem by running some special software USB Mass Storage Utility (found on my list of must have apps) which lets me access any partition over the USB cable. The fact that the boot partition on the SD card can be so easily accessed is fantastic, because you can easily replace the kernel (the piece of code most responsible for your OS's behavior, performance, stability), and if something goes wrong you can fix the problem on your PC without needing to resort to more complicated alternative methods which must be done on the Nook Color.

The only reasons I can see people wanting to put their new OS install on the eMMC is if they experience SD-card related stability problems or if their usage of the Nook Color requires / demands that they be able to remove or swap SD cards while the operating system is running. Perhaps they have dozens of movies across several SD cards and they want to switch between them, or perhaps they are in the middle of something and need to copy a file to the Nook Color without stopping what they were doing.

If you are new to all this you should probably go the SD install route. You protect your warranty, avoid a lot of the dangers involved in modding, and any time you want you can pop your SD card into your computer and make a complete backup of the OS and all your data just by creating an image of the SD card. It's a win-win-win! It's what Charlie Sheen would do if he was ever sober enough to do it.

Which OS? Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb?

The next step is to pick your operating system. This choice requires balancing your desire for new features with your desire for a stable/workable operating system. The Android operating systems available are:

Android 2.1 (codename Eclair)
Android 2.2 (codename Froyo)
Android 2.3 (codename Gingerbread)
Android 3.0 (codename Honeycomb)

Eclair

Eclair is what your Barnes & Noble Nook Color runs as delivered. And even they are replacing it with Froyo in their April update. There is no good reason to put Eclair on your Nook Color.

Froyo

Froyo is a significant improvement over Eclair, and quite pleasant to use. It is arguably the most stable of the Nook Color post-B&N operating systems, but to my mind that reason isn't compelling enough to use it when the Gingerbread install (in the form of CyanogenMod 7) is considerably easier, faster, includes a lot of improvements, and seems to me almost as stable as Froyo. But, if you insist, you can follow the instructions in my complete guide to installing Froyo on an SD card.

Gingerbread

The Gingerbread version that most people are using is in the form of CyanogenMod 7 (it is now officially stable). CM7, as it's called, is derived from the official Android Gingerbread source, but tailored and tweaked to provide a more positive experience on these devices, Android as released being intended for phones (small screens, cell service, specific hardware buttons, etc.). Gingerbread, again the CM7 version, seems widely regarded as the best current choice for a Nook Color operating system. It blends many of the most recent features with stability. A week ago I would not have advocated for Gingerbread/CM 7 because it was only with the very recent release of RC 4 that hardware acceleration of video was achieved, making it feel like a functionally complete OS. And, what many might not realize, the CM 7 release includes Bluetooth support for the Nook Color, meaning that you can now use your Bluetooth keyboards and headsets! It should be noted that Bluetooth support is still evolving, and one big lingering issue is extremely limited range, measured in inches, not feet.

All in all, having now been using CM 7 for several days, running all sorts of tests (personal and professional) I can say that this is the best option for users at the moment, and my experience has been almost universally positive. If you'd like to know how to install it read my guide to the verygreen SD install of CyanogenMod 7 (Gingerbread) or my guide to phiremod eMMC install of CyanogenMod 7 (Gingerbread) or wait until I mention some of the alternate installs below.

Honeycomb

Having debuted very recently on the Motorola Xoom tablet, this is the newest Android OS. This latest incarnation does include quite a few new and impressive elements, but with the latest of its source as yet unreleased by the official team, the dev community isn't going to be close to having it fully functional on a Nook Color for quite some time. I have tried some of the preview versions and while fun to play around with, I actually need my device to be stable and usable, and that's simply asking too much of Honeycomb on the Nook Color at the moment.

One important caveat is that many developers have been porting features from Honeycomb, as well as reconstructions of features from Honeycomb, to use with Gingerbread, and various install options include some of these, the most popular of these installs being phiremod nook.

Installers / Flavors

Now that you've picked where you want your operating system to live and which operating system you want the only thing left is to figure out which installation is closest to your needs. Different modders/developers have come along and taken the available OSes and created customized experiences of them. This can get a bit confusing because you may find several different factions re-packaging and re-releasing a given OS. For example, you can get CyanogenMod 7 in its relatively raw form via a verygreen SD install or as a tweaked / themed ClockworkMod zip phiremod eMMC install.

(I should pause to note that ClockworkMod is an app and boot tool that helps frequent modders stay on top of kernel/ROM and OS update releases, allowing them to easily update as well as recover when things go wrong. The software is incredibly poorly documented, and little exists on the web to explain it to a newbie. I am hoping to write the missing manual for it when I have a chance.)

Which installer / flavor you choose is up to you, and will likely be strongly influence by your decision regarding which OS you want and where you want it to live.

An updated list of installers / flavors can be found in this post.

Personally, since I am a strong advocate of the safer SD option if it works for you and your SD cards. I am currently recommending the verygreen SD install which I document in my complete guide to installing and configuring CM7. I like how verygreen has put things together, I like that it's easy to stay up to date with OS updates, I like that it's very easy to add new kernels (such as dalingrin's excellent over-clocking kernels). Individual Honeycomb-ish apps and hacks I can add to my install as I feel they are warranted. But if you have any problems with the SD install, I would instead recommend the phiremod install.

Pick what's right for you, and don't be afraid of trying more than one. Most of all, enjoy the best little tablet out there!

Keeping Your Install Up to Date

Once you've got your system up and running you'll inevitably want to update it. There are two separate things you'll update, the first is the operating system and the second is the kernel/ROM. While the operating system includes a kernel, most modders run kernels which are independently maintained and hacked for reasons of performance and bug fixes.

For more information, check out my guide to keeping your Nook Color up to date.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments (104) Trackbacks (1) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Michael
April 30th, 2011 - 10:32

As I wrote in the Gingerbread section of these guides I now have a fully functional Nook Color running the Market apps that I have installed and I am grateful for your amazing help and patience.

I used a 4 GB card for the install and I have noticed that the Windows Browser only displays the card as about 122 MB. I assume there is free space in some of the invisible partitions, so I was wondering if it was possible to recover that space for use on the card. I have tried the Windows Disk Manger and an older copy of Acronis Disk Manager, but to no avail. I first tried this on an 8 GB card, and that card is also now displaying only a very small amount of free space and nothing I have tried on that card (including a low level format) has had any effect.

So can you recommend any software that would recover the space for use?

Thanks.
quinxy
April 30th, 2011 - 12:54

You’re somewhat misunderstanding what you are seeing. When you connect your SD card to your PC your PC is only showing you the first partition, which is the boot partition. It is meant to be 122 MB, since it really wouldn’t need any more (it is hidden when you booted in NC, and is only needed for kernel and update files). The other hidden partitions have free space, but not in the sense you mean, since the space is ready to be used by those partitions when they need them. What may exist is space beyond the last (fourth) partition which may not be allocated, if you imaged/cloned a 2 GB card onto a 4 GB for example, then 2 GB would exist beyond the fourth partition, which you could recover by expanding the fourth partition to use that space. The fourth partition being the virtual SD partition, you would then get 2 extra GB of space, in this example. You can transfer content to your Nook Color by plugging it into your computer and in the status panel (the thing you can pull down) you choose the USB access option, it will then show up as a drive in your PC.
Michael
April 30th, 2011 - 16:09

So, if I understand you correctly if I can use some disk manager software (either Windows Disk Manager or Acronis Disk Director) to expand the final partition on the boot microsd card, then that space should be available for use on the NC?

I have noticed that when I use adb to access the NC on my PC I can only see the main memory, and only that portion of it under the emmc folder. I suppose I am not supposed to muck around in the rest of the memory and I cannot see the sd card itself. But if I expand the available space after the last partition on the sd card, will I then be able to see it using adb?
Michael
April 30th, 2011 - 16:37

Just took a look at the boot card in Windows Disk Manager and the card appears to have only 3 partitions. There is space beyond the third partition (> 2 GB), but the DM does not show it as an active partition. I was tempted to try to create a partition in the free space, but I assume that might well destroy the functionality of the book disk.

If that space can be made available for use it would be a good idea to use something larger than 4 GB for the extra storage space that would be made available.
quinxy
April 30th, 2011 - 17:54

Michael

Yours is an SD setup of verygreen’s CM 7? I really thought it was 4 partitions. I have resized the last partition in Acronis Disk Director just fine,. Be warned, something can go wrong if you change or possibly even look at it with Windows Disk Management. One time I looked at it but as far as I was aware made no changes and it screwed up the boot partition (likely writing its disk signature there). You would not want to create a new partition, you really should expand the virtual SD one. With a new partition you’d need to edit the mount list to mount that partition and obviously it wouldn’t be used by default for anything like the SD one would.
Michael
April 30th, 2011 - 20:24

I am sorry for the misleading info. I looked at the (4 GB) card in Windows Disk Manager and saw only 3 areas marked as partitions. Disk Manger showed 4 areas, but only three were explicitly marked as active partitions. But when I examined it in Acronis’ Disk Manager I saw that it was, in fact, 4 partitions. And it looked to me like the space in the fourth partition was made up of all of the remaining space as there was no extra space (on my disk) to expand the partition.

My original thought was to use a larger sd card and re-do the process. I assumed that if I could access the space in the last partition, then perhaps I should use a 16GB card and then I would have plenty of space, but I could not find any way to copy stuff to the disk. I cannot see it in Windows Explorer when I mount the device and I cannot see it when I remove and card and insert it into the sd card reader on my PC. When I use Calibre apparently it is only able to see the main memory of the device since the card a and card b entries are disabled and can’t be used. So I have given up on that idea.

In any case you were right about the number of partitions. I need to stop reacting so quickly when I have an issue and give myself time to think.
quinxy
April 30th, 2011 - 20:50

Look at my instructions about cloning an SD card in my FAQ (the link is near the top of the phiremod and CM 7 instructions). You can use that to move to your 16 GB card, using Win 32 Disk Imager. But, be warned, since your current SD card is 8 GB the temporary file created will be 8 GB. You can use Acronis Disk Director to shrink the fourth partition way, way down before cloning if you want to reduce this temporary size. Either way you will need to use Disk Director to expand the last partition once the image has been written to the 16 GB SD card.
Heste Hest
May 4th, 2011 - 16:04

Thank you very much – these are the best instructions/recommendations I have come across yet.

I have only halfheartedly peeked through the developer forums, because I had hoped the 1.2 release included a messenger.

Well, rooting gave me a messenger, but…well, like you point out, it’s a somewhat awkward experience.

With your instructions I think I may be ready to go whole hog and try a Gingerbread SD nook.
quinxy
May 4th, 2011 - 16:24

Heste, it’s definitely worth exploring what CyanogenMod 7 has to offer, but personally I find typing on this thing a little awkward, so not sure how much I’d want to be messaging people with it. You might need to try out some alternate keyboards and calibrate the screen to find something that makes typing easy and less error prone.
NoAxis2
May 5th, 2011 - 00:27

I just blew my autonootered NC trying to avoid the update to 1.2 by uploading a build.prop file from xda. Now it’s stuck in a reboot loop that I can’t get out of.

Now, since it looks like I’ll have to go back to stock, I was thinking about the CM7 SD installation. With this configuration, where do I put my books, videos, music, app info etc if the bulk of the SD card is not accessible to the computer? Right now, I have a 16 GB card which has hundreds of books, some music and videos and lots of apps that keep their data on the SD card.

What do I need to do to my SD card to have CM7 and appear to have external storage space to apps and Calibre? I have 2 4 GB cards I think I used to autonooter and the 16 GB card currently in my non-working NC.

Thanks a lot for the clear step by step instructions!
quinxy
May 5th, 2011 - 00:56

NoAxis2,

You don’t have to worry, that’s all taken care of for you. The SD-installed OSes create a partition on the SD card that appears to Android and all apps as a regular, external, mounted SD card (/sdcard). All you have to do is move your files to that partition once you get the new system up and running. And you can transfer all the files there by using the cable connection to your PC and the built-in USB SD card mounting feature (when you are cable connected just open the status window and choose the option for USB mounting your SD card). And just make sure when you’re done you safely eject the Nook via your computer. Easy peasy.
NoAxis2
May 5th, 2011 - 02:16

Thanks for your quick reply! I now cannot turn off my nook! I’ve downloaded various files that are supposed to allow me to return to stock (CWR-removal.zip, NookColor_v1.1.0_r2.zip, RecoveryFix.zip). However, since I can’t power down the Nook, I can’t switch cards. (okay…fixed that by unplugging it).

So, I install these zips and install the NookColor ROM and…another night or this weekend I will tackle CM7!
Ken
May 6th, 2011 - 22:29

Hello,

I am trying to follow the instructions but am lost at step one of the verygreen tutorial.
The file referenced in the first step is a .gz file. The Win32DiskImager program will not recognize it.
What program do I need to open a .gz file

Thanks in advance.
quinxy
May 6th, 2011 - 22:45

Ken, the free program 7-zip will ungzip the image file.
NoAxis2
May 7th, 2011 - 02:07

Thanks for your detailed instructions. Between your page, XDA and persistence, I was able to successfully get CM7 and google apps to run on my Nook! I even made an image to put on a larger card so I can put all my stuff onto one card. I believe that MiniTool Partition Recovery is doing something now that will make that fourth partition available.

Thanks!
Mathew Blanchard
May 9th, 2011 - 14:13

I have a rooted NC that I Auto Nootered via sd (1.0.1) and I have been enjoying the benefits of root access and the android market. I am wanting to have the new features offered in the update just released by B&N. I also just bought my wife a NC and she wants me to root hers. I am pretty green at this stuff and I’d like to take your suggestion of just having a bootable ROM from the SD card but the only problem I can think of is I need Ad hoc wi fi access and I am not sure if I can do that without being fully rooted. The only internet we have at home is though tethering to our phones (Rooted Droid Eris running Gingerbread). I think GB on the nook would be great but I guess I’m a little nervous departing from the stock B&N experience. Any advice on which way I should go? Thanks.
Chris
May 10th, 2011 - 13:51

Great instructions, thank you.

It is up and running, three basic questions (the answers are above somewhere, but I am seeking clarity):

1. “And you can transfer all the files there by using the cable connection to your PC and the built-in USB SD card mounting feature (when you are cable connected just open the status window and choose the option for USB mounting your SD card).”

How is this mounting option accessed? From the Nook? Using XP SP3. If I just plug the card in with a reader it doesn’t work, XP only recognizes the boot partition (inherent issue with Windows).

2. Thinking about jumping from 4gb to 8gb. Do I just need to clone the whole card to the 8gb card first and then expand the third partion (/SD) with a partition manager? Or is there an intermediate step?

3. How to fix the Calibre issue raised above, either by having the CM7 OS recognize books in the main memory of the nook, or having Calibre recognize the /sd partition.

Thanks again.
quinxy
May 10th, 2011 - 16:31

Chris

The following assumes you have CyanogenMod 7.0 (stable or higher) (or phiremod or something else based on it).

1. You plug the USB cable into your Nook Color and PC then from the status screen on the Nook Color you will see a USB mount enable status entry. Click that and it will let you make the contents of your SD (or virtual SD partition if you’re using an SD-based OS, which I now see you are).

2. Correct, mostly. Just image the SD card first to your computer then to the 8 GB SD card then expand the FOURTH (not third) partition. I go into great detail about this in my Nook Color FAQ, see the link above.

3. I’m sorry, I don’t know what Calibre is, but given the context it must be a reader of some kind. Having not used it I can’t say much, but one easy thing you could do (I would think) would be to create a symlink such that Calibre can look on the SD card and underneath a folder in the normal place it looks it would see the folder in eMMC that has your Calibre files. You’d create a symlink with the “ln” command in shell (presumably as root). Google it, and I can help you with details if need be.
Chris
May 10th, 2011 - 19:29

Wow, thanks for your fast response.

To return a favor, Calibre is the swiss army knife of ebook management. http://calibre-ebook.com/

With a nonrooted or autonootered Nook, Calibre recognizes it on plugin, and gives you every option under the sun for formatting, tagging and organizing books for reading in the B&N reading software. It also has hundreds of web periodicals it “spiders” to put the entire content of a website into your Nook in epub book form. I have found that the native B&N reader plays better with these files than the Android reading programs.

If Calibre doesn’t work with CM7, all the more reason to keep it on the uSD, with B&N in main memory, pop out the card and run the B&N software to read.
Mitch
May 11th, 2011 - 20:09

Ok, I have a problem with my 16 gb mSD card. I had to reinstall the Android Os on to and when I went to check the amount of space on it it only comes up with 116 MB. It is a 16gb card. How can I format it so that I have the full 16 gb back, so that I can restart from scratch?
Mitch
May 11th, 2011 - 20:30

Nvm I found where all the space was. but how do I utilize it so I can access the entire card again?
quinxy
May 11th, 2011 - 20:55

Umm, well, I’m wondering what you did find and when you have still left to find. The answer is that only the first active partition of your sd card (which happens to be the small boot partition) shows up when you put the SD card in a Windows PC. In addition to the boot partition you can see there are three others you can’t. The last of those is the virtual SD card partition, which mounts as /sdcard. That partition might fill up the rest of the SD card (in which case I’d expect it to be > 10 GB in size as reported by the Nook Color), or it might be smaller. If it is much smaller then most likely the last partition stops well before the end of the SD card, in which case you need to expand the last partition using a tool like the free gparted or the paid EASUS’ Disk Manger or Acronis Disk Director. To transfer content to the SD card the easiest way is to use the app I list on the must have apps page, USB mass storage utility (the built in CM7 utility doesn’t work from the SD card, it doesn’t seem to mount the right volume).
Mitch
May 12th, 2011 - 03:22

I checked the last partition and it is around 13 gbs of space so all is good….one major thing that i am seeing when running cm7 is that I keep getting the network connection error even though i am connected to a network. Ill take allok at the usb mass storage util. thnx fir your help
Mitch
May 12th, 2011 - 04:17

well i got the internet to run fine now.I am still having trouble trying to figure out how install the USB Mass Storage utility. I tried going to the link using the CM7 and i got there fine on my nook/android afte ri downladed the file it says that the files could not be run.
quinxy
May 12th, 2011 - 11:55

Mitch,

You will need to change the setting related to allowing you to run unapproved third-party apps. Go to Settings > Application Settings and then enable “Unknown Sources”. Then you can install the .apk you downloaded by running it with any file manager.
Mitch
May 12th, 2011 - 19:48

Ok I did that and then I used Astro to find and install the files thnx for your help.
Terry
May 22nd, 2011 - 01:30

Hi, I purchased a Nook Color a week ago, before that I bought a Micro SD class 6 and prepared it with an image etc. I was up running but got these Force Stop errors, as soon as I did something like watching a video and then wanted to do something else I got the same errors. After having redone the whole thing and still getting the errors I came upon your article about problematic micro sd cards. I took a 2 year old micro sd card from an old Nokia N86 that I use as a spare. It is probably class 2 or 4 and I cloned the error prone micro sd and transferred the image over to my 2 year old card. Lo and behold, Android 2.3 is snappier and I get no more errors. I am certainly glad I didn’t buy that class 10 card.
riaz
May 28th, 2011 - 02:08

Hi there friends
I have a nook color, but i have a great problem in dealing with the books and and things like reading word docs with the nook.
i want to download all softwares those make my nook able to read any book or document.
moreover
i want to change my honeybee 1.1 to latest gingerbread, how to do it .
please help me in this regard.

thankyou
drriazahmedkhan@yahoo.com
Tracey
May 30th, 2011 - 23:26

Hi, Quinxy! I hope you can help me. I’m fairly new to the whole android thing and not a true tech person, so bare with me. I’m running CM7 Stable 7.0.3 on a Sandisk 8Gb sd card in my NookColor. (Not sure what other info you’ll need at this point.) I’ve run it this way for about a week with no problems. Yesterday, I noticed that there is an odd flashing on my screen upon going into and coming out of sleep mode. The screen has even went so far as to turn green for several seconds. I thought perhaps it was caused by the live wallpapers I had downloaded off the net the day before, so today I wiped the card clean and started over installing only what I needed to get myself going. It didn’t take long before the flashing started up again. The flashing doesn’t take place while the card is uninstalled. Also, there don’t seem to be any other problems. Any ideas what this could be? I really hope it’s not the card itself because I don’t feel like going on a wild goose chase to find a card that works. LOL. Any help will be truly appreciated!
John
May 31st, 2011 - 09:46

Q,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This page really helped.
Daena
June 1st, 2011 - 01:15

I found this Youtube video that realllllllly helps in rooting to the sd card. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4nenR-mNo0
jose
June 3rd, 2011 - 06:33

Hi, i want to say thanks for the excellent guide!
though I am stumped at the moment on installing gapps.
I got cm7 working but can’t install gapps. i watched a video where before the NC’s screen opens up the logo “touch the future of reading” comes up. I don’t get that when I open my NC. but I do have CM7 working…
help, I want to download apps so that I can use my NC.
I downloaded the latest stable CM7.0.0.3 and the latest gapp. Where I am going wrong?
quinxy
June 4th, 2011 - 20:59

Jose (and everyone), sorry for the delay in approving and responding to comments. My mail system was treating my comment notices like spam and I had no idea there were any comments I hadn’t responded to….

At any rate, Jose, the problem seems to be that you’re not holding the buttons for just the right amount of time and thus it’s not going into the mode where it installs gapps. if you can’t get that timing right (you are presumably not holding it quite long enough) then you can always repeat the installation and put both the gapps and the cm7 install in the root of the SD when you do the initial install. that works, just look at the posted comments here which mention how to go through the steps once the system has booted for the first time. there’s no huge mystery but you basically need to skip the Google sign up at first because you have no wifi set up yet, so you skip that and come back to it once wifi is set up. but it can be confusing to people.
Jonathan R.
June 5th, 2011 - 16:01

Quinxy, I am interested in putting this writeup on my website. Would like you to contact me on various questions I have as I professionally supply these cards pre-programmed to people who don’t have the time, or skills to do it themselves. Please revise my website and contact me.

I love the writeup by the way, it sure clears up so many questions for someone who just came into the scene. Awesome writeup, easy to grasp the entire concept with the way you wrote this.
quinxy
June 6th, 2011 - 13:19

Jonathan

I contacted you by email.
Jonathan R.
June 10th, 2011 - 11:27

Quinxy,

I lost your email because I had so many these past few days. Could you email me once more.

I have been linking many people to your write-up and they come back to me as if they have been rooting nooks for months…LOL, goes to show how well this writeup is. Thanks again!
Jonathan R.
June 10th, 2011 - 11:36

For people asking which cards seem to work: (4gb-16gb-class 4-10)
SanDisk – Works excellent! All classes, and sizes. It’s actually what’s inside the nook for internal storage.
Kingston – Works great.
Transcend – Have heard of 16gb cards bootlooping, need to still confirm. Lower sizes work.
PNY-16gb, works, but issues.
ADATA – DOES NOT WORK!
Chiniese Fakes – Stay away from fake cards, they suck so bad its annoying to save just a few dollars.
———————-
That’s what I got so far… Hope this helps some people out their before they waste money on cards that dont function 100%. I lost 100 bucks on the adata’s…. =(
quinxy
June 10th, 2011 - 14:38

Jonathan

Here’s what I said:

Thanks for contacting me. That’s a great idea for a business, very entrepreneurial! While I appreciate your wanting to use my text, hopefully you’ll appreciate that writing (and updating) the Nook related content for my site has taken quite some time, and as I’m not generating any revenue from it the only payment I’m asking from the world is in the form of ego-boosting site visits. I may be open to including some significantly reduced version of the text with prominent links back to my back, to feed that ego and prevent/reduce the hit to my page’s rank in Google. So let me know if you can imagine a reduced version that would still feed a good bit of traffic back to me. Either way, I wish you great success!

Quinxy
quinxy
June 10th, 2011 - 14:40

Thanks for the list Jonathan, you can add Patriot LX to the cards that work-ish, with lots of force close errors (file system becoming read-only).
Jonathan R.
June 12th, 2011 - 02:15

Quinxy please email me, I would like to hire you to write my entire FAQ section. I keep sending people here to find out about rooting, and they come back with real good questions.

If not, then I would like to ask about advertising on this page page somewhere…
Chris
June 12th, 2011 - 09:09

Quinxy, just wanted to tell you that I am about to attempt to install a new OS on my son’s Nook. I have been reading for what seems like days to try to figure out and get comfortable with the process. (Guess I am a newbie). Your instructions are extremely well written and without a doubt the most understandable I have found. I just wanted to say thank you for you efforts. I am about to jump in so wish me luck. Thanks again.
Chris
June 12th, 2011 - 21:08

I did it! Had a little trouble installing gapps as described in verygreen’s instructions because I guess I couldn’t boot properly into recovery. Found a solution on page 3 of verygreen’s thread. Thanks again.
Jonathan R.
June 15th, 2011 - 22:24

Quinxy, may I directly link to this post from my website?
quinxy
June 16th, 2011 - 23:43

Jonathan, of course, I’d be honored.
Walt
July 29th, 2011 - 15:55

Thought you might want to know, I flashed the MIUI rom on an SD card and it works flawlessly. Also, the ability to load files to the SD card wirelessly via FTP is very cool. Also, the icons are much larger which is nice for those of us over 50 with poorer eyesight and less nimble fingers. Seems like the same battery life as other CM7 based roms as well.

web link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1161914
Nestor
August 9th, 2011 - 13:25

I Rooted my daughters Nook Color and every time she goes back to the Home screen she gets and error. She is getting impatient and want to go back to the Original Configuration (NOOK). Is it possible? Do you have the instructions to do it.
Kenneth
September 9th, 2011 - 15:58

Thanks for straightforward help, I’ve got a nc that I’ve installed CM7 on the SD card.

I’m having problems with new apps market place, the download button has disappeared for many apps (i.e. google maps). So, I’ve found two possible solutions (so far) but can’t enact them due to some problems.

First possible solution: editing the build.prop file.
I tried using es fileexplorer app to configure lcd_density. (there was a hint to set the lcd_density to 160 on the xda board). I can’t get my edits to save. I believe I’ve given the ES program proper writing permisions, but I THINK maybe the underlying permissions on the /system are set at read only? Does that make sense. Any ideas on a workaround (how to temp give the drive write permisions?).

Second possible solution: installing previous market version (See https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=279479622068267) Similar problems here? I can’t get Su to work, permissions issue. So the rest of the solution is a no go. I’ve unpacked the RAR file and the market and update apk’s are in place, but haven’t been able to access them in the terminal emulator … presumably because of the Su failure.

Any ideas. Is the root of my problems the fact that I’m on the SD card and haven’t done the eMMC route. I really like the SD for now. I guess I can get apps thru other methods … help?
Kenneth
September 9th, 2011 - 18:49

oops, meant to clean this up a little. I’m using ES File Explorer. Have also tried messing with lcd_density settings using other apps but it hasn’t restored the download buttons on market. Those apps were “LCD Resolution” and also “LCDDensity”
Lynne Connolly
September 27th, 2011 - 16:47

I have a Nook Color on the latest 1.3 update. I followed the instructions to put CM7 on an SD card (a class 4 4gb card), inserted it in the Nook, got the little penguin and it ran through some code (saw lots of “error” lines) and then it just stopped on this line:
mv: overwrite ‘../system/etc/void.ftsab’?
I couldn’t turn off the NC, and it hung for half an hour before I gave up.
Do you know what’s wrong?
Joe
January 2nd, 2012 - 18:01

Quinxy, great write-up! I have been pouring over forums and other sites for 3 days and found this to be quite helpful. You are a gentleman and a scholar!