There are two reasons for this:
- With a clean post, I can incorporate some "lessons learned".
- With a clean post, new commentors won't have that sinking "oh dear, do I need to read all these before I go on" feeling. I hate that feeling when I'm starting a new project.
So here we go...
Getting Your Stuff Together
Here is a list of all the things you will need:
- A Nook Color
.
- A micro SD card. There's no mandatory size / format / manufacturer for this process, but quality does matter and I have no idea how you tell the "good" ones from the "bad" ones without buying them first. I use this micro SD card
- I own three of these now, all from this listing on Amazon, and two of them are running CM7 for Nook Colors so I know they work well.
- You'll need a way to connect your micro SD card to your computer - something like this
.
- An image-writing program like WinImage. I used WinImage85 in my tutorial.
- The CM7 installer image here. Note that the ".gz" extension is a compressed format - you'll need to unzip it with a program like WinRar.
- The CM7 build here. (Download the update-cm-ETCETERA-.zip file. Do not unzip - just leave as is.)
- The CM7 google apps installer here. (Scroll to the bottom until you see this download link.)
Prepping Your Nook Color
A lot of people don't need to prep their Nook Color for this method, but several commentors in the initial thread noted issues with starting from scratch on an NC running 1.2.0 firmware. Because of this, I would recommend using the UnLockr method of flashing your Nook Color to the 1.0.1 firmware. The video can be found here (The UnLockr) and it's very quick and easy to follow their video -- the process should take maybe 20 minutes.
Installing CM7 to the SD Card
Now a slew of videos to follow along with:
- Video 1 is an introduction to the process and gets you from "What is this whole CM7 thing that Ana keeps talking about?" to "Mmkay, we're putting the SD card in the computer now."
- Video 2 is a step-by-step computer tutorial showing how to use WinImage to write the CM7 installer to the SD card and how to move the CM7 build file over to the imaged card.
- Video 3 shows you how to put the SD card into your Nook Color so that the CM7 installer can build CM7 onto the SD card for actual use, and what to expect when you boot up CM7 for the first time.
- Video 4 is another step-by-step computer tutorial for where to put the gapps (Google apps) installer on your SD card for installation to the CM7 build.
- Video 5 shows you how to walk through the Google apps installation process, how to connect to WiFi, and how shiny and cool CM7 is once you've done this final step.
Couple of things to note here:
- First, make sure you're right-clicking WinImage and selecting "Run As Administrator" because that will affect what options are available from inside the image-writing program.
- Second, if you're feeling adventurous you can combine the Google Apps installation into an earlier step, but I think it's best to install everything in "baby steps" to keep it simple.
- Third, if you boot up the NC and just see the little blue CM7 surfer guy but nothing seems to happen: Wait about 5 minutes. The first boot takes awhile. If it doesn't clear up, press the "n" button on the front of the device a few times. Then hold the "n" down. Then graduate to hard-rebooting (holding the power button until it turns off and then rebooting). Then move to the next step section:
Troubleshooting Your Nook Color
Three out of four dentists don't have any trouble with their installation, but some people do have some issues. Let's go through them here.
- It just doesn't work -- it's broken. This is the scariest thing, but we'll see if we can't fix it, ok? Turn the NC off. Pop the SD card out. Boot up the NC. Does it boot up with the B&N software? If no, you'll need to reinstall the firmware by going back to the UnLockr. If yes, then worst case you have to start the CM7 install over again. Wipe the SD card (you'll need a partition manager like this one here) and start over -- or you may consider trying a different SD card brand.
- CM7 boots up but the Google Market is force-closing. Yuck. Can you redo Video 4 and 5 and reinstall the gapps package from within recovery mode? This is your best bet -- probably the first install didn't go right for some reason. Or, if you're having trouble downloading from the market, you may be running into:
- CM7 boots up but the WiFi connection isn't working. The easiest way to test this is to reboot into the stock B&N OS and see if the WiFi works there. If the WiFi works on the B&N environment, but not on the CM7 environment, you may have Cynthia's problem: she managed to clear it up by going into the tablet settings and setting the "save" settings from SD card to external memory.
Backing Up Your Nook Color
You may just want to backup your system data and apps, in which case I strongly recommend the Titanium Backup and Titanium Media Sync apps from the Google Market. However, if you want to back up the entire kit-and-kaboodle of your SD card as an image, you can do so with WinImage.
- Turn off your Nook Color.
- Remove the SD card and insert it into your computer card reader.
- Open the WinImage program as adminstrator.
- Select Disk --> "Creating Virtual Hard Disk image from physical drive..."
- Pick your SD card at the prompt.
- Save the image as an "*.ima" file to your local computer.
- After the image is saved, you'll be able to browse the partitions in WinImage - just ignore this and shut it down.
To restore the image to a new SD card, follow these steps:
- Pop in a new SD card of the same size (or larger).
- Open the WinImage program.
- Select Disk --> "Restore Virtual Hard Disk image on physical drive..."
- Pick your new SD card at the prompt.
- The image will save to the SD card - when you pop it into your Nook Color and boot up, everything should be the same as it was when you backed up the initial SD card.
Credit
As a final note, credits must be given where credit is most definitely due:
- Credit to The Unlockr for the stock firmware 1.0.1 factory reset method.
- Credit to the Cyanogen team for the CM7 build, the gapps install, and their tutorial here.
- Credit to VeryGreen for the size-agnostic SD card CM7 installer.
- Credit to Quinxy von Besiex for his article on SD card vs internal memory rooting.
- Credit to Quinxy von Besiex for his bluetooth keyboard instructions which I use with this keyboard
.
- Credit to the community of MobileRead for introducing me to the concept of CM7.
- Credit to all my commentors for helping me improve this tutorial!
186 comments:
Hi
Nice presentation about doing a dual boot of the Color Nook. I have copied down all of the files and I am very tempted in starting. However, one question... on your updated set of directions, your CM7 build is update-cm-ETCETERA-.zip. However, when I went to their site, I couldn't find that file or build. I downloaded update-cm-7.0.3 encore-signed.zip, stable, dated 5-0802011. Is this the same file? Is it ok to use this file? If not, where can I find the one you mentioned- the etcetera file? Thanks for you help in this matter... Also, do you have any additional updated information or sites for completing your process? Thanks again- nice going!Paul
Yes, you have the right idea -- my ETCETERA was just shorthand for "7.0.3 encore-signed" because back when I was doing this, I believe they were still on 7.0.1 and I knew there would be updates. :)
This process as is should be complete -- I have more eReader posts for setting things up with, say, folder organizer apps, but once you finish the 5 videos here, you're essentially setup with an Android tablet and all that implies. ;)
Hi...
Must say I am so glad to have found your instructions... Just finished making a second sd card for my wifes nook.
Followed the extra info by tigerpaw and the process gets done all in one go !! Used 7.0.3-encore-signed and latest gapps file and all works perfectly. Using SanDisk 8gb class 4 microsd. Now both of us enjoying our nooks even more. Also looking forward to seeing any other of your modded nook advice for us beginners... Thank You :-)
Hi Reddragon,
I have a question about your Nook sd boot process. What is the tigerpaw reference? And is there a reason why you chose not to use a CM7 nightly build. I have been looking at too many links, etc, trying to decide the best route to take. Not sure if I want to downgrade from 1.2 backwards... did you do that, or just follow Ana's instructions? Thanks.
Paul
Hi Ana,
I took the plunge and followed your instructions, and those of Tigerpaw- for dragging the gapps file to the sd card when adding the CM7 file. I have to admit, everything seems to be working pretty well. Got to market and downloading some apps. Kind of just feeling it out now on a 4GB card.. wanting to make sure before I take the jump to a 16 GB cards. Thanks for you instructions and videos. I do have a couple of questions I hope you can help me with. While in the CM7 mode, I was trying some settings and programs and I pressed pictures- gallery. I was surprised and a bit shocked to see 4 magazines I have purchased on the stock B&N. Is this really possible to access the emmc (B&N) file system... I really don't want to. Any thoughts. The 2nd point is that after taking out the 4GB sdcard, and viewing it in my laptop, it shows only a capacity of 121,000,000 plus bytes - about 115 MB, of which I am apparently using 10.4 MB. How can this be? I thought I would have almost 3 GB free for apps and books. Any suggestions? Is this one of those things where I need to do something to the partitions? I hope you can help, as it would make no sense getting a bigger card and not having any free space. Thanks again for you consideration in this matter.
Paul
Hi Ana,
Great tutorial. I have not tried this yet as I am still waiting for my NC to arrive in the mail but am ready to go when it gets here. I do have a question for you. Do you know how to make a boot menu so that you don't have to take the sd card out in order to run the NC operating system?
Paul,
I'm so glad everything is working for you. :)
(a) RE: Magazines, I do not know of a way to access the NC internal memory from the CM7 boot, so that is very odd. Is it possible that you've downloaded the Nook app, and it had downloaded those magazine covers to your SD card? I suppose you could test this by placing a unique image on the internal memory from the stock boot and then trying to access it from the CM7 boot.
(b) Your computer is showing you the size of the Boot partition only, which is just a few MB -- the rest of your SD card is partitioned separately and will not show in Windows. You'll need a partition program in order to see how much size you really have left. (You should also be able to check from the tablet settings, I think.) It's kind of annoying that Windows can't so this for you, but it is normal in this case for your SD card to look so small. :)
Kristin,
Unfortunately, I don't know of a dual boot system myself. It IS possible to pop the SD card, boot in stock, and then push the SD card back in for safe keeping, but the stock software is capable of wiping the card (if you ask it to) and I didn't want to hit that option by accident.
The CM7 forums might have an answer to this, though. Good luck! :)
The tigerpaw reference was that after you make the sd card bootable you can just drag and drop the unzipped cm7 file and the google apps file onto your sd card. Then when you put into the nook both installations get taken care of in one go. After that I just powered down my nook, waited a few seconds and turned back on to see the first boot up with cm7 installed. Everything has been fine to now. I decided to go with the stable cm7-signed-encore version for my first attempt at this but look forward to trying other versions when I read more about them. Hoping that cm7.1 becomes stable soon and I will try it out. I did not downgrade my nook at all. It is a stock 1.2 refurb unit bought over 4th July weekend when they were on sale on eBay for $189.99 no issues at all with it. Looks just like a brand new one.
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for your feedback. Installed nicely, then I had issues with the tablet trying to install like 14 different apps at once, it it took for ever, and only reached 50%... like Google Maps, street view and others... not sure why. I have about 2.3 GB on my 4GB card free. Would like to know if it is possible to save new apps to the SD card that I have installed, rather than to the main memory? Sorry for all of the questions, but trying to get it right. Thanks again. Paul
It's best to install apps one at a time. The apps have to download to a "cache" partition on the card that is really not very big -- very large apps like Google Maps will fill up the cache very quickly, and if a whole bunch of things are downloading there at once, you can have a pile up on your hands.
You can save apps to the main memory, but you essentially have to get them (a) from the Internet, (b) via a desktop computer, (c) and moved over to your tablet via Dropbox or Sugarsync or something similar.
Hi Ana,
I finally have the knack of doing your install. Have done it three times,... the final one on a 16GB card. Everything runs well. Have downloaded a tons of apps, copied over 100 mp3 and 3 movies to the SD card. Battery and wifi work fine. For this install, I used a higher number generic installer image (agnostic 1.3) and it seems to work well. Only issue seems to be the volume.. seems a tad lower, but it might just be me.... sounds great on headphones. The next step I am going to do is make this a dual boot, though I am beginning to wonder if I will need to go back to the stock 1.2 Nook... but it might be fun to try and to have that option for some of the B&N apps that I have already purchased. Thanks again for your help and your directions. If you come up with any new suggestions or options for improving the "dual booting" Nook, please let us know. If I get the Nook to dual boot, I will post my results here. Thanks again, and happy Nooking.
Paul
Hi,
Just want to let you know that I now have dual boot capabilities on my color Nook. After following the instructions here, I had a SD card that booted right into CM7, but would have to take it out in order to boot the stock B&N 1.2. I went to the Nook2Android site. On it, there is information about how to update his card- which is basically what Ana did here. I downloaded his u-boot.bin after changing my original to u-boot.bak. Reinstalled the SD card and yeah! I have a choice now to load right into CM7 or use the menu - 3 clicks, and load up the B&N reader. It has worked great so far! I have movies and mp3, tons of apps, 3 launchers, etc...and still playing around. Can't wait for any minor improvements and tweaks, and then can't wait for Honeycomb to dual boot off of my SD card. Thanks.Paul
Paul, that's awesome! I never use the stock rom, but my husband does on his NC. I'll have to send that link to him. Thank you! For readers, the link Paul is referring to is:
http://www.nook2android.com/faq/
"Do you make a dual boot card?" question.
Hi Paul,
Nice tip for the dual boot, and some other interesting information on the website. Which CM7 did you finally decide on installing or have you tried out different versions and if so do you notice any differences between them ?? I read somewhere that battery life is improved with release candidate update-cm-7.1.0-RC1-encore-signed.zip ?? not sure what other features this release will contain.
Everything seemed to work until after I imaged my sdcard. There was nothing on it, still I copied the cm7 zipfile. finished the rest of the steps but nothing. I had to get the mini tool partition to wipe and reformat card. Tried again up to copying cm7 zip , but want to make sure I'm not missing something .
running xp
sandisk cl 4 4gb
update to previous,
got further penguin on screen and writing but it says initial install files not found
I installed this yesterday using the latest update of CM7 (hero-5/8/11) and other than needing to plug my fully changed nook into the wall charger to get the program to load, it worked fine except for installing apps. I used that initial installer and selected most of the choices including facebook and google maps and streeview. Neither facebook or google maps downloaded and when I go to the market they show up without a download button. Streetview supposedly downloaded, but did not show on the total app page when I hit the launcher button. I uninstalled and reinstalled it and it still does not show. When I go to settings>apps>manage apps, it is listed. Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a solution?
Paul, I tried your method, but I cannot get past the boot menu so at the moment neither android nor nook os loads. Am I missing something? The boot menu has two lines at the top; then the instructions for changing the options and then in the middle of the page in German the author of the boot menu. After choosing the boot option, nothing happens. Pushing the power button just turns the nook off and pushing power again brings me back to the boot menu.
I think I figured it out. I was holding the power button too long and not giving the device the opportunity to boot.
It gets stuck on: "Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information:" during the initial placing of the SD card in the nook.
Wondering if it has something to do with the class 10 16GB micro SD card I am using: http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1000957.html
WOW! this is amazing, thank you so much!
Hi Everyone,
I am enjoying my dual boot Color Nook very much. My daughter did the same to hers, except she purchased the Nook 2 Android sd card. Her Nook runs well, too. I did compare the two and I do notice a difference. In mine, down at the bottom left screen, I have 4 icons... but one of them is not the house you see for home. On my daughter's, she has the home icon in the bottom left corner, I have the bars for set up, the back arrow, the magnifying glass, and the up arrow in a circle. Does anyone else have the house icon in theirs? Just curious. Thanks. Can't wait for Honeycomb. Enjoy your Nook.
Paul
Thank you soooooo much!! This worked great! I tried other sites and well I just got lost but yours was very very easy to follow! Thanks again!
Hey, me again
Guess what? Yep, I solved my own problem... the house icon was in one of the setup menus.. nice to explore and learn. So now my Nook also has the house (home) icon... I love how it works.
Enjoy
Paul
This is wonderful! However, I need a bigger .gz image space so I can install a larger ROM onto my SD card. Any chance you can make one or tell me how to make a .gz image with a space of 500MB rather than 115MB you've provided? Thanks again.
I've worked hours on this at this point. HELP! About 80% of the generic-sdcard.img file downloads and I get an error message stating: Error reading File blah, blah, blah ending with the generic-sdcard-ver1.1.img.gz. Have done this numerous times. Deleted, downloaded and unzipped the file from several sites as well. I have noticed that my SD card is no longer formatted after these efforts. Am then doing a quick format of the card via windows. Though I'm not a wizard by any stretch, I would prefer to build my own card rather than purchase the Nooktoandroid card. Not saying that I've already spent nearly that amount of money anyway with a 8gb card and card reader purchase:) Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Mack, that's very strange for the file to refuse to download from multiple sources. Is there another computer in the house you can try? If you want to email me, I can try to send you the image file directly, maybe?
Are the previous versions of the image file also giving the same download error?
NC1987, I'm afraid I didn't make the image file and wouldn't know how to change it. You might check the CM7 forums and see if someone has one with different sizes. Good luck!
Ben, did this error clear up for you? It does sound like the problem might be SD card related -- can you reformat and try again? I wonder if trying a small 2GB or 4GB card as a test would yield the same error?
Ana, thanks for the reply. I guess I never fully unzipped the file! Once I had the full file unzipped, almost everything went easy! I followed your advice to do everything in baby steps. Now, I simply can not get my NC into recovery mode. My screen only ever says Loading..... I never see the Reading forever screen. So no Google Apps Market. Thanks again for your help!
Mack... I had the same problem! I figured out what was happening though... I noticed that for what ever reason I was still using the zip file hince the img.gz. part. I erased all my downloaded files and started again from scrach. After you unzip the generic-sdcard-ver1.1.img you'll get another file called generic-sdcard ... just like that no .img or anything and it will have a little flop disk icon next to it. Use that file. Hope that helps you.
OK, just tried this last night, and all I can say is; wow! Excellent instructions and so far very happy with the results. I did a full root on my old nook to Honeycomb last winter ... before I knew better and ended up "bricking" the darn thing. I have a 1.2 version and did not revert to 1.1 and just pretended ( and prayed) that it would work. Is there a down side to this? It seems like things are working OK .....
@a26615dca8dc30a3c930e5f4281e1191:disqus
One question, I downloaded the nook mobile app & all my books and mags show up, but thus far, they will not download or open??
Again thanks for the great article and listening to your pleasant voice was far and above listening to some geeky-guy with a touch of condescention giving instructions.
Todd
Okay so this all worked great and thanks again... There are several other little issues about getting the market to work right and you can find some good info here. http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146635 (one side note I used the LCD density app to change to 160, it worked and we even loaded youtube but you must restart your nook after loading youtube to get it to play videos, the screen needs to be back to 161 I guess lol) Question Ana, I still don't have Netflix, it's not even in the market. I know you can get the apk file from the web but I'm not having much luck getting it on to the nook. Do you know how to load an apk file on to the color nook? Thanks!
Now Ana, I still can't get Netflix it's not in the Market even after the fix above.
Ha, well I'm glad you liked my speaking voice, Todd. Regarding the Nook app: very occasionally the Nook app gets fussy and won't download on my phone or my Nook Color -- you might try waiting awhile to see if the servers clear up. Also, once the download starts, it does seem to take awhile before a magazine fully downloads. Outside of waiting, there's also always the rebooting option.
Forrest, I find the easiest way to get files onto the CM7 atmosphere is to use Dropbox. You can sign up for a free 8MB account and then use the desktop application and android app to move stuff back and forth easily. (I've also liked SugarSync in the past.) Then once the apk is on the tablet, you can use a number of installers to install the app. :)
Ana, Dropbox worked like a charm!! Netflix is now installed :) Again you ROCK!!! Thanks!
Hi Everyone,
I am using a new launcher on my dual boot Nook. It is called Launcher 7. I think it is very cool. Makes your Nook's home screen look like the Windows 7 phone interface..but that isn't why I like it. Puts my most important apps on one screen...they are easy to see and it works well. There is only on issue I have. After I installed it, I set it to the default launcher and it works great while the Nook is running. However, even though I checked it off as default, when I shut down the Nook, and then reboot into CM7, the two launchers I get are Launcher Pro and ADW.launcher. The Launcher 7 doesn't show up. I have to hit the n button, and then all three show up, and then I select it as default. Does anyone know how to make it come up when I do a reboot? Do I need to go into Applications and uninstall Launcher Pro and ADW? If so, how will I be sure Launcher 7 will come up then at boot time? Or do I need to install it to a specific folder. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Give it a look, I think you may like Launcher 7.
Paul
Paul, you might check the Launcher 7 options and see if there's something like "start on boot-up" or something like that. It sounds like the default is "taking" but that after reboot the program isn't launched until specifically told to do so with your N press.
The odd thing is, from Googling, it looks like launching at boot is something that is supposed to be programmed into relevant apps, not a user setting:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2782448/android-how-to-start-a-service-at-boot-based-on-user-settings
So you might send the Launcher 7 developer this information as a request.
Hi Ana, thanks for the great tutorial!! Donation is coming your way!!
Before I start what are the "problems" people are having when keeping the 1.2, instead of going back to 1.1? Since it is booting CM7 from the sd card, I am not sure why the firmware version of the nook makes any difference?
Some of the users are having trouble completing the CM7-to-SD-card installation and those users are often running the 1.2 firmware. (Then again, several users have had no trouble at all with the installation process, regardless of firmware.) At any rate, this is why I suggest rolling back the firmware IF you run into trouble during the install.
Once the install is complete and CM7 is running, you can turn off the Nook, pop the SD card, boot up the stock software, and update with no problem -- that's how I did it and everything runs fine. :)
I'm glad you found it helpful! :)
Okay, everything was wonderful except I am not savy enough to be able to save things to the SD card. I try to 'mount' the SD card and it won't let me. Dropbox says I dont have an SD card in, how can I run CM7 off the SD card and save .zip and .mp3 to the same SD card, I mean, is this even possible or I am stupid for asking such a odd question lol? BTW, you're awesome for all the support you offer!
That's odd. You shouldn't have to mount the SD card -- it should already be available for use. Can you download "AndExplorer" from the market and launch it? Then press the "SD Card" button near the top of the application (or there should be an sdcard folder in the folder view) -- does that show a bunch of various folders? That's the data that apps are saving to your SD card.
If that works, you know your SD card is behaving and Dropbox is the one at fault. Maybe an uninstall/reinstall of Dropbox? o.O
Everett, I have the same problem with facebook not having a download button. How did you fix this? Thanks.
I am not sure how far back in this blog there was a link to a program called 4shared. I downloaded it and in it found an .apk that worked for quickpic.
I followed your instructions and it installed great. Only problem is I cant use half the apps such as facebook. Any answer to this?
You mean you can't download them from the market? If so, I would try rebooting the tablet. The market apps download to a cache partition that can fill up from time to time with temporary data. (I think) rebooting will clear the cache and you can try again.
If you mean you can't use them once downloaded, I'm pretty sure I have Facebook installed and working fine on my build.
Hi,
Just want to let everyone know that my Nook continues to work very nicely in its Dual Boot configuration. I would like to know if anyone has seen any new articles on dual booting Honeycomb or Ubuntu off of a sd card- in the same manner that we can dual boot CM7. I don't want to install anything to the Nook itself. Thanks.
Paul
Hi Ana,
Thank you so much for your help getting my NC running CM7. It running great, but now I am wondering what is the best way to get my music/photos/videos onto the NC. Can I put them on the micro SD and just reboot? I have also read about Drop Box, but I'm not sure if you can download to NC or just access when you have a Wi-Fi connection.
Also, any apps that aren't available in Market for download to SD card ( no download button on app page) have to be side loaded through ADB with the apk? I really don't know too much about this, just words/info I gleaned from multiple websites.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Tim,
No, you won't be able to put files directly on your SD card via Windows because Windows will only see the "boot" partition of the SD card. I think there are partition managing programs that will let you drag-and-drop stuff into the data partition, but I haven't used them.
Dropbox works over a WiFi connection, yes, but you can use it to download to your Nook data partition and then the files are there for good, even after you leave your WiFi area. This is definitely the easiest way to move over an APK file, and then you can install it with any number of "installer" programs in the Google Market. And then you can just delete the APK file when done.
SugarSync is another app that is good for getting material onto your tablet -- I use Dropbox because it works well with my cloud library, but SugarSync is nice for simple file transfers.
I was wondering how you put books on the nook..once you root it. I found how how to put PDF files. A lot of the books I have on my computer are .mobi files. I love the rooted nook, but I want to use it for what I originally got it for, reading!
Hello Ana,
I too am here to sing your praises! Awesome tutorial! One thing though, most apps from the market are unavailable to me. I read above and followed the link to the moblereads forum...but its like looking at gibberish. Im not competely computer illiterate, I do know my way around, but they're obviously refering to something I'm missing. I'm new to the cm7 world so I dont understand.
I'd like to have the marketplace work for me like it does on my phone and computer, I just need to know how to get there.
The error I get is "Your device is not compatible with this item"
This pops up for most apps. Including the nook for android app.
That is strange! Obvious question, but have you rebooted the device?
I have. Several times over now. I even reformatted my sd card and went through the whole install of cm7 twice! Nothing seems to work. I know there has to be some crazy easy fix for this but I've yet to find it. (to be fair I only started this yesterday :) but I've looked EveryWhere!)
Oh, man! That's frustrating, I'm sure. Which build of CM7 are you using? The one linked in the post?
The first time it was the one linked, the other two times I used the latest version, I saw you had referenced somewhere else..its the 7.0.3 signed released last month
Huh. Sounds like you've done good trouble shooting on this! So it's not the build.... Did you use the same gapps install each time?
I will say that asking at the Mobile Read or CM7 forums may net you someone who's seen this before. I'm sorry I'm not being more helpful. :(
LOL, Ive tried, that's for sure! I did try at the cm7 forum...but last I checked I was refered to search the forum for my answer, which was no answer at all :/
I did use the same gapps for each, but its supposed to be the latest one so I thought I was good there.
Yeah, I dunno. Maybe I'll just let it be for a little bit and hopefully someone will have my answer later on.
Thanks for tryin'!
ps: please check your email soon for a request :)
Yeah, "search the forum" is a crap answer. :(
Another thought -- what firmware is the stock Nook Color running? Did you flash it to the lowest one?
I only got my NC a little over a week ago, so it already had the latest firmware, the 1.3...but I made a mistake on the onset of trying and tried anothers tutorial...BIG mistake! I accidently rooted my nook then had to recover it. I then used the 1.0 then the 1.2, currently running the 1.2. Do you think I should update back to the 1.3?
I think if you were going to start over (*groan*), I would recommend flashing back to 1.0. I *know* that one works, but 1.2 and 1.3 seem funky for some folks. :(
I'm groaning right with ya! But I'm willing to try just about anything to get this to work! I'll give it a try tomorrow and tell you how its working/not working :)
Thanks for the advice!
I admire your patience! I wish you all the best luck. Let us know how it turns out.
Alrighty! After many attempts, I finally decided to try a nightly...and it works! SQUEEEEEEE! Super excited to have it working like it should!
The only thing now is that the font seems to be a tad too big. It's overlapping onto itself and sentences are one on top of the other...
Yay!!! That's weird about the fonts, but if you press the Menu soft key button in lower left hand corner, and pick Settings, under Sound and Display is a Fonts option.
HEEHEE! I fixed it :D
Can you tell Im excited?
Thanks so much for showing me the way with your tutorial. After watching several before actually sitting down and doing, then choosing the wrong one first...Yours was definitely the better of the two!
Again,
Thank you!
You're very welcome! I'm only sorry it took so long for you! You're a model of patience. :)
I did everything along with the videos and I am still stuck with the surfer 2 hours later. I have reset it twice and tried to start in recovery mode. No luck. Any advice? I used google apps 20110613, update 7.0.3. Sandisk 4gb microSDHC card.
Missmdh, what firmware is your Nook Color running as stock?
I installed it all and it booted up, but I don't have the google market place? It looks like it does when you have the cm7 card with out the apps package. Any ideas? I've booted it up in recovery mode a couple times.
wow nevermind!! I have never used anything android based and after I found the launch button I was amazed with all sorts of fun stuff. Thanks for all the help, works great!
Does this method work for software version 1.3.0?
I don't know that it does or not, but you should be able to use the UnLockr method to flash to 1.0 and go from there. You can always update back to 1.3 after the CM7 install is done.
http://theunlockr.com/2011/02/14/how-to-restore-the-nook-color-to-stock/
So today all the techie sites are saying that Cyanogen Mod 7.1 is available and it can be downloaded using the ROM manager. When I tried that it said I have to download clockwork mod recovery and then lists all the devices which are covered. There are sixty some devices, but Nook Color is not on the list. Is there a way around this and should I even care? Is CM7.1 that much better?
Everett, I've never updated my CM7 install, but there's a discussion here on how to upgrade by dropping the install into the SD card boot directory:
http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/NOOK-Color-General-Discussion/How-to-update-CM7-I-m-running-it-on-SD/td-p/1028070
I have NO idea if this will re-write your data. I suspect it may. But let us know if you try! :)
I followed your instructions and it was super easy and worked well. Then I wasnt as impressed with how cm7 looked on the nook. I started looking around the net and found MIUI. It is a rom that has been tweaked to run much better on the nook. Somewhat Ipad looking icons but they are much larger than the nook icons and so far mostly everything that I have downloaded from the market runs perfectly. I was also suprised that when I installed it the ,arket app was already there! Ana give this a try....
J
Very good directions, best I've come across. Have my NC running CM7, google apps marketplace and apps installed. I'm having 1 issue. When I install a widget it doesn't appear in the list so it can't be added to the desktop. How to resolve that?
Well, that shouldn't happen. Hm. One way to refresh the widget list is to reboot, but if that doesn't work, you may contact the widget developer. Is it just one widget or all widgets?
Are you sure it is not out of alphabetical order, and is not at the bottom of the list? That happened to me.
Thanks a lot Ana for your videos. Help me a lot. Spend the whole day yesterday rooting my 4G sd card.
I used exactly the same way as instructed but i use CM7.1 ..not the 7.0.0. I'm running NC 1.2 ( i tried to install 1.0.1 but i messed up and my nook stuck at n screen..scary!) here's outcome from my experiment yesterday.
1. Prep to 1.0.1 messed up! - i manage to follow this instruction and my nook back to the way it was. Quick Restore to stock method - http://mrm3.net/nook-color-recover-any-bricked-device/
2. CM7.0.0 - i can't install app from market. is says app not compatible with my device.
3. CM7.0.2 - same as 7.0.0
4. CM7.1 - yeya! i hit the jackpot! it run slow at first it works better when i off then on the NC. I can install apps ..no compatibility error. Netflix run ok, facebook so-so. youtube - no idea when it doesn't run.
Now i'm ordering 32GB sd card from Amazon. I planned to redo what i've done on bigger size card.
I hit bump here and there along the process but i glad i did, at least i learn something abt rooting haha.
Thank God i didn't buy the pre-rooted card on ebay hahah! (i almost buy since i'm not really a techy person).
Again thanks a lot Ana! I owe you and other developer big time!
Hi. These directions were so easy and I was able to do all of this with no problem! But now, I am trying to install the latest ROM 7.1... but not matter what I tried (Re-booting into recovery or powering off the nook to manually reboot into recovery) it seems the update just will not apply. Other wired thing I noticed is that It looks like my screen just doesn't want to FULLY power off any more. When I hold the power button, it just turns the device back on. Please help, I want to apply the latest update so badly because I think it will help with my wifi connectivity issues. Thanks so much!
@Artistickd, I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble. :(
I have not attempted to apply the update, so I'm next to useless on this issue, but have you tried applying it through the Clockwork ROM app? I think some CM7 users manage their updates through that app. I'm sorry to not be more help. :(
Are you still able to browse all e-books at a Barnes and Noble store? My wife likes that feature on her B&W Nook.
If you download the B&N Nook app from the Google store, yes. :)
Thank you so much for this awesome write up. One question: I did the initial install on an 8gb card and I did a back up to a 16gb card for more space. However, the storage information is the same as my 8gb card. Is there a way to fix this without doing the install all over?
So you did the install on an 8GB and then used a program to backup the 8GB to a 16GB? I don't think there's a way to get the space back without a reinstall -- I remember reading that somewhere. I'm so sorry. :(
Can I do all of this .. the loading and winimage and interface on my MacBook Pro? Do I need a windows machine to get started with this?
I remember you saying that you were currently unaware of anymethod to access the nooks own internal 5gig storage while running on cm7. Here is how. Open the file manager app. Fromere you can browse the file system structure. The nooks internal 5gig exists inthefiledirectory /home/months/emmc. Have funguys with your "extra" 5gig. Peace
Wow some auto correct and grammar issues. Sorry. The folder is under/home/mnt/emmc.
sorry
Cm7 basically just thinks its another SD card
I meant to put this here not in the old post : Hi Ana. I wanted to give you an update. This method did work for me on my NC v.1.3. Not sure if it's because I have an older Nook. I decided to to continue without flashing it because flashing defeated my whole point of dual booting from an SD (It voids the warranty, in which case, I would have just rooted the NC.) I did have an issue with getting into recovery mode to install gapps. So I started over and couldn't get it pass the "Touch the Future of Reading." I tried a different SD card. Same results. After hours of unsuccessful attempts, I decided to use a different CM7 Build - The Encore Nightly. I followed your instructions except I decided to eject the SD card from my computer after writing the image. I also set up the internet before continuing with installing Gapps. And Voila. I'm dual booting! For others who are stuck with restarting in recovery mode, I found this by verygreen: "hold nook N key and then press and hold power until the "Loading..." message appears and then disappears with screen going blank. Release power button, then press it again and hold for ~5 seconds, the bootloader "Loading..." message should be on the screen for three seconds or so before you release power button, keep holding N button until screen blanks again. If the screen went off while you were holding the power key, that means you were holding it for too long." -That might have help me hours earlier. But Thank You so much for your clear instructions/videos! It got me in the right path. And hopefully, I helped others who are stuck.
Hi
I am trying to update my CM7 to CM7.1 stable. I have tried 3 times but nothing boots. I am using 16 gb PNY. I already have a 16 GB sandisk that works great except for one thing- I have tons of apps, but some won't download from the market - says device not compatible. Also, I seem to have lost my "flash" and can't download flash from the market.... same reason.
I would appreciate any help or suggestions in this matter. Thanks.
Paul
Thanks Ana. Worked like a charm.
Hey Everett,
7.1 addresses a few ongoing issues so it's a good idea to pick it up. CM is making improvements all the time. That said, you should be able to update from within your NC. Just open ROM Manager and it should automatically tell you there is an update and ask if you want to install it. That's what happened for me. Otherwise try looking for "Encore" on whatever list it was you were looking on. Encore is the code project name for the NC.
OK, newb question time...when I go to the Cyanogen site, I cannot find the update-cm-ETCETERA-.zip file...but plenty of others. Is the file out there and I'm overlooking it, is it dated and gone, should I use something else...
Thanks for the help in advance!
There's no "etcetera" file. That just means to get the current version. :)
OK, time to knock some sense into me...now where's that hammer...
Thanks Ana!
Ana, thank you so much for all the great work you have done here. I was tempted by an ad on the Buy.com site last week for a Nook Color (refurb.) for $139. So I started looking around on the web and found out a lot about the NC. So I ordered one as I am a committed tinkerer of gadgets, especially if they run on Linux. Then I found your posts and I got really excited. I had a 4 GB mini SD sitting around and made a boot card following your instructions. Then I ordered a 16 GB card and waited. The NC arrived today and I turned it on, checked the version, 1.2.0. I registered the NC and then followed your directions with the 4 GB card. It went smoothly until the reboot and it turned out that it didn't like that I had put the google apps zip file on the SD, I removed it and booted and all was fine. Replaced the google apps file and after a lot of tried got into recovery mode and installed google apps. Now I have a very neat Android tablet running CangenMod-7.1.0-encore with a LOAD of free apps on it! Fantastic.
Thank you so much for posting all this information.
Ana,
I'm working through the second video tutorial. When I extract the generic image file, the resulting .img file doesn't seem to be recognized as a file that can be opened. When I get to the step in Winimage "Restore Virtual Hard Disk...", select the micro SD card, and then navigate to select the "generic-sdcard.img" file that was extracted, I get the error "Window cannot open this file" and asks me to either search the web or pick a program to use to open.
Has anyone else had this issue, and if so, what was the fix?
Thanks!
Tom
Tom, are you running WinImage as an administrator?
Yes, I am.
Ana, if this helps, when I extract the .img file, it does not associate it with the little "floppy disk" icon as your tutorial shows. Instead, it has the icon that is show in your tutorial for the initial .gz file...the "Gee, Windows doesn't really know what the heck kind of file this is" icon.
Sorry for all the technical jargon. :0)
Ana,
I was able, with a little noodling, to get WinImage to accept the files.
I won't say threats were not involved; it was not pretty. :0)
Oh, I'm so glad! I was really puzzling over it, because I can't figure out why it would do that. I'm glad you got it. :)
thanks worked perfectly for me
I tried installing the files and then there was an error so I went back and my sd card is full of undeltable corrupt files
Well, that's not good! :(
Can you de-partition the card and format it?
Hello folks. I have been playing around with my Nook Color for a couple of weeks now thanks to Ana's info here, and I have discovered some interesting things about micro SD cards. Specifically that they can appear to be flaky and not functioning properly. I started with a Sandisk 4GB class 2 card and it worked well, was fast and I loaded lots of apps on it. Then I bought a Sandisk 16 GB class 2 card and found it was slower and kept dying on me and finally started corrupting data. I then bought a Kensington 16 GB class 4 card and it was even slower and kept locking up the Nook. Well I discovered via the Kensington web site this link to a free SD card formatter:
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/
I D/L the file and formatted both of the 16 GB cards and started over. Both cards seemed to work better but then I stumbled on this free app called SD Speed Increase. What it allows you to do is to change the cache size on the memory card from the default of 1024 (kb) to 2048 (kb). Wow that made my Nook into a completely different tablet! Now it is fast and so far is running stable with the latest nightly build. I hope this helps anyone that is having trouble with SD cards.
Sorry the above message should have said Kingston cards not Kensington!
I did the install and I think I did it according to the instructions, but it just says "Touch the future of reading" any ideas?
Never mind, I got it, I had to not do Tigerpaws advice and just do things the simple way. I love CM&, now I just have to figure out how to transfer music and stuff on to it. Thanks Ana, I read several different articles on how to do it, but none were concise and none really seemed to guarantee results! Thanks again.
Will this also work for the Nook tablet?
And just so that I understand what you've done here, will this allow for a dual boot so I could boot to CM7 or the Nook OS?
These instructions are for the NOOK COLOR only. I very much doubt they will work for the NOOK TABLET.
I'm watching the CM7 community closely to see when/if a NOOK TABLET build is created, and I hope to make new instructions when/if that occurs.
And, yes, these are "dual boot" instructions, although you will have to manually pull the SD card when you want to boot back to the Nook OS.
I do not understand the process in video 2! can someone help me??
ok so i do everything you tell me to do and then i put gapps and nightly at the same time because when i tried it and then put gapps it cant go into recovery mode no matter how many times you try it any way i put them together it loads the list and then after that it still shows the light and it wont shut off. Ive reformatted it a bunch of times and put the folders again and it doesnt work. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hi and tyvm for your awesome tutorials. Question: is the 2.0 flash memory card reader a necessity because using the built in card reader by way of the microSD adapter isn't sufficient for the task? I was unable to do anything with the sd (unable to format the card at first and then wouldn't even read it) card on my toshiba satellite running vista, however, using my roomates newer satellite running windows 7, was able to format the card, however, am cannot get the img file to unzip either on the card or on my computer from my desktop even - but it is showing that it's only like 7MB's, so i don't think it's already been unzipped... is it because i perhaps downloaded the wrong winimage? or maybe i need to adjust my download settings? or.... thanks for your help - i'm doing all this because the "sideloading" the kindle app process one person suggested didn't work for me either. but booting cm7 is better anyways because it will improve my NC's performance, so it's better anyways, right?
oh, also, one set of instructions from another forum said nothing about winRar, but everything else is much like how you go through this process..not sure why.. i've spent so many hours watching, reading, searching, etc, perhaps it's overload and frustration and being overwhelmed by so much info i'm making it harder than it is...idk..
is there a free alternative to winrar? seeing as how it'll be a one time use thing?
nevermind. (would delete comments if i knew where...)
@ana
First of all thanks a lot for the easy to follow writeup. My installation process was a breeze,just a word of advice to people who are not able to go into recovery mode for the gapps installation , should try with a modified dual boot Boot.ini as discussed here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=947698
as for the other thing that most ppl were facing of seeing partition other than the boot partition on the MicroSd card, this following app is the perfect solution , Usb Mass Storage Utility , more details here . Just remember u need to mount the partition 4 to get access to all the data and don't mess with the internal mounts.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=952456
Hi, ok let me start off by saying this works great to an extent. I followed your directions and everything worked perfetly right up to when I tried to install the CM7 google apps. I finally got it to boot up right but theb is just froze. I clicked the n a few times I held it down and still nothing so I tried rebooting about 3 times and nothing. I even redid my SD card and still nothing. I dont know if I got the wrong thing or what, because the only version I could find that was similar to the pic you have wasnt identical. Any ideas that might help?
Thank you so much for the great tutorial. I've had my NC running from the SD card for a couple months. I now want to do the same for a friend. I have it booted to an SD card, works fine. When I try to install Market, I run into trouble. I am doing this on MY nook, not hers. Is that the problem? Whatever I do I can't get it to install Market from her SD card on my NC. Do I have to have her NC to get Market to install? Thanks again for all you've done!
I found the problem...I had moved the widget to the SD card. It can't run from there. Moved it back to the phone and it was back in the list.
Another source for a boot file - proper operation and safety unknown.
http://myraroldan.com/wp/2011/08/dual-book-your-cm7-nook-android-microsd-card/
Problem writing to SD card with WinImage and Win32DiskImager
SD: PNY 16GB / 10MBsec / Class 10
PC: OS-Windows 7 - Laptop - Toshiba i3 Intel Core, with built in card reader.
Note: I tried to find this problem posted above but could/did not ... If someone had already posted this issue then I apologize. My intention is to help out other people - not duplicate posts (so I apologize if I did).
I am experiencing the WinImage error when writing the image file to SD ("Restore Virtual Hard Disk Image on Physical Drive"). The error is:
" Error in writing disk Disk 1, error 5 : Access is Denied. "
I found this page URL regarding the same problem which includes a solution : http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-1252283.html
The solution for user "back2grave" was to use Win32DiskImager r0.15 to write the image to the SD, which evidently was successful for him allowing him to move onto the next step and boot up his Nook Color.
I downloaded the Win32DiskImager, but it does NOT see my SD card. (The SD card was previously wiped clean with the WinImage application and formatted FAT32.)
Any suggestions?
Thank you so much for your time, effort and expertise! Works great!
Hi Ana,
Your tutorial has been the most informative I have found. However, I have not yet been able to get Google Apps installed on my NC. I get Android running [update-cm-7.1.0-encore-signed.zip], but I am another one of those who can’t get Google Apps to install [gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip]. I have tried a few file versions, but no success. It seems there are so many variables in the mix that the right combination is hard to find. As the relevant files continue to be updated, is there a new combination you can suggest? Is CM7 still the best version to use on a Nook? Thanks for being such a great resource. btw: my NC is v 1.3.0 w/ a 32GB SanDisk card.
Mark
I think your tutorial is pretty self explanatory to anyone whom can follow simple instructions, however I was given a B&N Color Nook (soft vers 1.2.0) as a christmas gift and would very much like to rock CM7 on it as I am among the camp that doesn't like buying, receiving or using any type of hardware that comes originally limited by electronic giants especially when I know that one can gain so much more user friendly functions once these limitations are stripped.
Question here is will the CM7 tut here work on the version I was given or is their some type of downgrade required that can be had in order to get CM7 working on it?
Any help would be appreciated, and thanks..
Joseph.
Thanks Ana, your instructions worked great on my NC. For those that want to put videos on the SD card just use the USB cable to connect to your PC. Then open to card and make new folder called "video" then copy your video file there.
Ana, your tutorial is great and I got my NC working great but, now I have a problem. My NC isn't recognizing the SD card anymore. When I look at the storage settings it just says "unavailable" and if I try to mount the SD card it says, "SD card is blank or has unsupported filesystem". It worked just yesterday and now I lost all the information I had saved. I appreciate any help!
Thanks,
Amber
Ana, you ROCK!! I absolutely LOVE your videos! Just like your CSS-tutorial for Sony PRS you made me dare try things out!
Some tips from me:
I have a Nook Color that came loaded with 1.3 firmware, and I just wasn't able to get into recovery mode. Googled and found that others with 1.3 had the same problem. Another version of the generic sd-thingy solved it for me. I used that, and could get into recovery mode by usng the rebbot menu when powering off. Found the dowlnload link adn instructions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000957
I saw in some comments people didn't find the initial image to use in Winimage. By dedault it looks for another prefix. Just choose "all files" in the little box to the right and the right file should show up.
And thanks to comments here I dared experiment som more and made my SD card into a dual boot card. Woohoo! Thanks again!
Hi Paul,
I recently got a nook color (for Christmas and love it). I have been reading up on installing CM7 to a micro sd card and am very interested in the dual boot capabilities you have discovered. Can you please send me or post the step by step instructions? I tried to follow the different instructions from different places and got a bit lost.
Thanks, Belinda.
i tried all the steps, nook color is now andriod and also installed the nook android app. However when i try to open that app, it says "SD card not detected" popup window. Any idea whats going on with my nook color?
Mybidda, if you just follow the steps in Ana's videos but load a different image in step 1 your card will be dual boot. I linked to the newer card image a couple of comments before yours.
Hi,
I managed to create the dual boot cm7 to sd card successfully. These are the files I used:
Generic-image-v1.2.1
gapps-gb-20110307-signed.zip
update-cm-7.0.3-encore-signed zip
update-cm-7.1.0-encore-signed.zip
u-boot.bin
The problem I am having is in market. A lot of the apps I want to download says:
'Your device is not compatible with this item'. ie kindle, lds scriptures etc
I have checked around for how to fix this problem and followed some advice.
I changed the LCD Density from 161 to 160 and still have the problem.
I have cleared the cache of market and then data and have run 'fix permissions'.
I still have the same problem.
Is there different files that I should have used to setup cm7? Is there an update file i can use or should I start again?
Thanks, Belinda.
By the way I should have mentioned I am running the cm7 on Nook Color.
Belinda
continuation to my earlier question..all apps are working fine after installing cm7 on my nook color except BN nook app.. is there any specific step am i missing in the ovrerall install process? I get an error that "SD card not detected...".
Dear Ana and other Nook Color owners:
I bought a few cheap, refurbished Nook Colors as Christmas gifts for my younger brother and sister, ages 14 and 23. The 23 year old didn't really want it, so I was preparing to return it to B&N, but decided to see how hard it would be to root it. I am very comfortable with technology, but not proficient at rooting Nooks. I came across this awesome instruction post and gave it a try. Sadly, it didn't work the first time I tried. I was able to get CM7 running and, by all appearances, Google Apps was able to load - but on the reboot immediately after loading the GApps onto the tablet, I could only get as far as the little Android skater dude and the CM7 logo...for upwards of 30 mins. I then gave up and tried some other programs I found on the web. No luck, and they were super confusing. I came back here and considered flashing the older version onto my Nook (I was running 1.3), but didn't want to void my ability to return it by doing that. Somewhere, I saw a comment that after loading CM7 (but BEFORE loading GApps) that I should set up my wireless on the CM7 operating system. So I gave it a try. I wiped the SD card, followed Ana's instructions to the T with the exception of setting up wireless after CM7 was installed, then loaded GApps -- and IT WORKED! I then repeated it with the second Nook with absolutely no problem. I will say, however, that it's darn near impossible to get the Nooks into recovery mode so the GApps can be loaded. Took forever and a lot of swearing, but I finally got it.
So to summarize:
2 Nook Colors successfully rooted on software version 1.3 by following Ana's instructions EXCEPT for that I set up wireless after installing CM7 and before installing Google Apps.
If it matters, I used a 2 gig microSD card for the first Nook and an 8 gig microSDHC card for the second Nook.
PS- When I bought the Nooks, they were "certified pre-owned" (refurbished?) and sold directly by B&N on ebay for $129. They come from B&N and follow the same 14 day return policy (must have RMA and return by mail to B&N).
Thank you, Ana!
what if you dont have an card
can you plug up sd card by usb through cell phone
Thanks for the wonderful instructionS. I dual booted my nook color and it worked for about 3 hours. I turned my nook color off and turned it back on now it's stuck on the cyanogen 7 screen. What did I do wron? I used a PNY 4 GB Micro SDHC Card. Could that be the problem. HELP!!!!!
Joseph_K_T said in part..
"I think your tutorial is pretty self explanatory to anyone whom can follow simple instructions.."
I'd like to respectfully disagree. I've been involved in computers for over 30 years (starting with the Commodore Pet).. and after several days of trying, I'm STILL nowhere near finished (let alone having it boot from the SD card!
As it is now (and all it's done in the past) is start and operate as a direct from the factory Nook!
Hi Ana,
I have tried to follow your directions, but have stumbled at the beginning when attempting to 'Restore the ...' image file with WinImage. [As an aside, I reformatted the 32 bit Sans micro SD drive because I had made a mistake in my initial efforts and had ended with a WinImage.hdm file on the disk; reformatting was the only way I could remove that file. ] Now that I have worked out the correct sequence, when I arrive at the final step before the image file is to be written to the microSD, an error message box pops up and reads
"Error in writing disk.
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process"
I assume that 'it' in this second line refers to the image file - generic sdcard.img; however, that doesn't make sense to me. Any suggestions?
I forgot to mention that my OS is Win Vista Home Prem sp2 and used the WinImage (Administrator) link to start the imaging program [if that makes a difference].
Did restarting the computer clear it up?
I know I can't be THAT dumb/stupid. After all, I've got over 30 years 'puter knowledge starting with.. MS DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11 & IE 2.01, Win 95 & IE 3.02, Win 98 (editions 1 & 2), Win 2000 Pro & Win ME, Win XP (Home, Pro & Media Center) and ending with Win Vista. I've not only installed, built and repaired all the above OS's and complete systems, but also networks and other multi hook ups.
I hate to say it, but... THIS is getting ridiculous. I've watched, re-watched and re-re-watched all four videos... and I'm still right where I was several days ago with a stock, non-CM7 Nook!!!! As far as I'm concerned... it would be so much easier if the instructions were written out on a step by step basis.
So the question is... "where the heck am I going wrong? Are the instructions so simple that they're beyond my comprehension... or is it something else?"
Ummm - this was too easy! You know, I could actually see myself using this thing now. Just frittered away 3 hours setting it up, configuring, finding new stuff. What a winner my NC is now. Used a Transcend CL4 16gB card found deal @ $9.95 each. I don't know if it's slow or not - I get good response from my NC. Extremely happy. And like I said - it was too easy!
Hi Ana, do you know if the SD card root that you've provided will work on the new Nook 1.4.1 version? I have an opportunity to exchange my nook color for the new version (because it work update for whatever reason), but am a little hesitant because I would hate to get a new nook and not be able to use my rooted SD anymore :(
I finally achieved a modicum of success by using an 8 GB Kingston microSD (class 4) card by following your recommended procedure. [Later, I again tried the 32 GB Sandisk card which I reported above and it also worked; the reason my initial attempt failed seemed to be related to some glitch with my pc which I have not completely diagnosed]. By the way, my NOOK Color has the current version 1.41 of the proprietary software; I did not revert to the earliest version which you suggested. After removing the CM7-containing microSD card, I had to restart several times in order to get the proprietary software to work correctly [I think that you mentioned a similar problem].
As an aside, I thought others might find the following link/video of interest in case one is interested in obtaining a CM7 rooted version of the NOOK Color [I haven't tried it, so cannot recommend.
Huskermania also posted a second set of instructions/video on reversing the rooted version to the original NOOK Color :
Uploaded by huskermania on Apr 8, 2011
[Please read this] Mac Version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmmmm8cBpe0 This video will demonstrate how to install CM7 onto your Nook Color. This is the *BEST* ROM I've used on the Nook Color to date, so I'd highly recommend that everyone updates to this. Enjoy! :)
Download Links:
ClockworkMod Recovery: http://legacyschool.us.to/nookdev/clockwork/0.7/
CM7 & Google Apps Pack: http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/20138-cyanogenmod-7-for-barnes-noble-nook-...
7Zip: http://download.cnet.com/7-Zip/3000-2250_4-10045185.html?tag=mncol;1
Win32DiskImager: http://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/trunk/0.3/+download/win32diskimager-R...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88qRbLLEAPQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
I can't get it to workk. Multiple errors have shown up. From it saying Ineed to download something from linux.hacker.ru or something like that. Then it installing gapps, but not booting into cm7... :(
So after I installed my gaps file it gets stuck on the cyanogen boot screen. After about 4 trys nothing has happened. What should I do from here? Thanks.
I think the tutorial that is presented here is clear and concise about the steps that need to be taken in order to create a bootable SD card that can load android OS to the Nook Color without modifying the hardware.
I think the issues with SD cards and brand are minimal compared with the problems that can occur if mixing the incorrect versions on the procedures. I am using a 16gb Lexar Class 6 card. Just to prove the point that any good quality uSD card should work.
I acquired a refurbished Nook Color that came with firmware 1.3 directly from Barnes and Noble.
When I followed the procedure described here I ended up with a successful Android boot, but with an unsuable tablet as the touchscreen was unresponsive.
After more further research, I learned that in addition to differences in the firmware, the Nook Colors are also being assembled differently depending on the serial number or the month and year they were manufactured. In my case the hardware used for my screen touch was different, hence I needed new drivers to make the android work.
I followed the steps described on this tutorial, but I used different files.
After several attempts, what worked for me were this file. I want to clarify that once I found the files that worked for me I repeated this process three times with two different uSD cards. One with a SanDisk, another with a Kingstone and the third and final attempt with my fastes uSD card the Lexar. All three cards are working on my Nook Color FW 1.3
To create my boot SD card I used this image.v1.3. Ana mardoll was using v1.1 on her tutorial. I found the file in this link.
http://tinyurl.com/86qsp5q
For installing the android OS I used. the latest nighlty version of CM7 cyanogenmod in this list.
http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?device=encore
To install the google market I used gapps 20110828. From the same link Ana suggested. On her tutorial she used an earlier version.
Does this have to have a certain sized SD card to work? I got Cyanogenmod to boot, but cannot boot into recovery. I noticed when it was installing in the lines of code it stated that there was not enough space and something was not found. I have redone this 4 times with the same results. I have an 8GB SD card I am doing this with. Any suggestions?
Nevermind! I was able to fix it by adding a older update (7.0.0) and it worked great thanks!
I think the recommended size is a 32gb, but the minimum is a 4gb. Your 8gb card should work fine. Depending on the CM7 you're installing it may vary the way it has to enter in recovery mode. On my version, After I get a successful boot and I press the power button to shut down, the menu appears to decide if I want to shutdown the tablet, reboot normal, or reboot to recovery mode.
Mine when I do that it just pops up with the penguin and really fast shows some text, and then shuts the screen off, trying to reboot. I want to install some custom stuff from recovery like I do on my phone, but have no normal recovery mode like on the phone with the interface. Maybe I need a different recovery?
Hi my boyfriend has followed all your instructions and it worked fine, but when he goes to the android market it tells him there are no android devices associated with the account so there for he can't download any apps, because he tried to get gapps and it wouldn't work either, I don't understand much of this so can you help us out?
Had same error. I installed the r0.15 and it worked.
so far I have tried this 3 times and once resulted in a brick. First time boots fine into CM7, but when I put google apps on I can't get past the CM7 loading screen. I went back to 1.0.1 which initially caused my nook to be bricked. Thank God someone was able to help me. After successfully going back to 1.0.1 I started again and I am able to boot into CM7, but then when I add google apps I get nothing but the CM7 loading screen. This seems like such a simple process. I don't know where I am screwing this up. Please help.
Ana, Just installed CM7 as a dual boot on a N/C with Barnes and Nobels update 1.4.1 using your guidance and it works flawlessly. Everything from apps to wIfi are fully functional. My wife is an avid reader and has been Ill so she has needed the functionality of the tablet to keep from going nuts while bedridden. Just want to say YOU ROCK! Thank you for your work on this!
Thanks for this Ana! I just did the process yesterday, and everything's working great. I was stuck getting my NC to go into Recovery Mode. I did a little looking around, and someone suggested holding the Power, N, and Volume Down button at the same time (!) Kinda tricky to do, but it worked the very first time.
Just finished doing a backup image from the SD card so I'll be all set if the SD card should fry in the future. Thanks again! Paul
So I can't get WinImage (32 or 64) to complete the write of the CM7 installer to the SD Card ( generic-sdcard-V1.1 0r 1.3). I get an Error reading file between 76% and 86% complete stage. Downloaded both twice from separate (recommended) sites.
Hi Chip, try checking other sites for CM7 on a Nook Color with SD card. I don't remember where, but I saw in a few places where people had issues with Winimage. There are other software tools available. Also: some SD cards have problems too. If you can't make it work with another software option, consider returning you card for another of the same, or a different brand. Good luck!
Paul,
Thanks. I am about to pitch it in. This is my fourth SD Card 2GB SanDisk, 2GB PNY, 8GB, SanDisk, and now a 16GB SanDisk. I tried for weeks to "roll back" my NC to 1.4.0 to no avail. I saw this blog post and thought "maybe this is what will work." I have downloaded multiple forms of CM7 and the various update zips from XDA Devs with zero luck getting the NC to boot from the SD. I can read books from the damn thing all day long. But no downloading App or booting strange and nefarious OS's. Ohhh NOOO! So yeah, thanks for the tip. I'll keep looking. I can't justify shopping down the price of the machine (with this in mind) only to blow the difference on a pre-made chip. I think I'll try another imaging software next.
Has anyone been having issues after the google market has turned into google play?
I followed all your instructions but the touch screen doesn't work now. Can you please help me to fix this issue? Please email me so we can correspond to get this issue fixed/
I've been running CM7 on my NC for several months. I want to upgrade to a recently purchased 32 GB microSD card. I've used Winimage to create an image/backup of the running microSD card. I wrote it to the 32 GB card. That worked, but how do I expand the partition so the Nook will see that it has all that free space? The partitioning software that I have (Disk Director from Acronis) won't resize the partition. What's the best way to get my current installation on the 32 GB card and use all that space? Would be great to put videos on it.
I have been trying for 4 months to get it to go into recovery mode with no luck. This worked great! Thanks for posting it.
Garie
I used winimage to copy my 16gb boot card to a 32gb boot card but it still only shows 13.3 gb of space...is there a way to get to the additional 16gb or do I need to make a new build from scratch.
What is the process if I have a mac??
If anyone's still having trouble getting into recovery mode, I followed most of the above instructions w/ some slight modifications. Instead of the 1.1 installer, I used
generic-sdcard-v1.3.img.gz
which can be found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1000957
And instead of CM 7.1, I used
update-cm-7.2.0-RC3-encore-signed.zip
which you can find here:
http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?device=encore&type=RC
I got an error when trying to use the direct link so I used the torrent. It's the little green icon to the left of the direct download link.
I used Winimage to image the installer file w/ no issues. I copied the CM7 rom to the SD card, popped it into the Nook, booted it up and let it do its thing. When I got to the home screen, I punched in my WiFi settings and shut down. I popped the SD card back into my computer to copy
gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip
which can be found at the bottom of this page
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Latest_Version
I booted the Nook again w/ the SD card and when I got to the home screen, I pressed and held the power button until I got the pop up menu w/ the reboot option. I hit reboot, then hit recovery and it Installed Google apps w/ no problems.
I've done this on two refurbished Nooks--one w/ 1.4.1 firmware and the other w/ 1.4.2. Prior to this, I had a couple dozen failed attempts to get into recovery mode. I tried various combinations of holding the n button and volume buttons but nothing worked and after a while, it would just be stuck on the CM7 splash screen and just wouldn't boot up at all.
Also, I originally did this w/ a Kingston 4GB Class 4 card and it took about about 30 minutes to boot up the first time. I did the same procedure w/ a Sandisk 16GB Class 6 and it was done in five minutes. Using the Nook w/ the Class 6 Sandisk is noticeably faster as well.
Thank you Turk! Your instructions with updated info worked great the first time I tried. My problem is that when I booted up my "tablet" and logged in with my gmail acct, I somehow managed to backup from my phone account I guess. My nook has downloaded all the apps from my phone, include camera and phone, but I can't find the apps anywhere. Where should they be?
Do I need to start over and not backup from my phone account? Do I need a different gmail account?
Thanks very much,
Mary
Nevermind. I panicked. It's all good. Thanks again!
Hello Ms. Mardoll,
Great guide on rooting the nook color and even moreso, you placed all the links and references for further research. I do have one question though, is there a guide on how to update the SD card to newer cyanogenmod releases or do you have to reimage the card again?
Very energetic post, I enjoyed that bit. Will there be a part 2?
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