jcwren Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 (edited) Some people find rooting the NOOK Simple Touch for Practiscore to be a complex process, with unclear instructions and good deal of presumed knowledge, and to a large extent, they're right. If you jumped into using this page, unless you know a lot of the terminology, it's overwhelming, and anyone in their right mind would walk away. Bill Noyes once told me "This needs to be so simple, an IDPA shooter could do it." Well, I think that's what he said, but maybe I mis-remembered it Anyway, I had to root 6 NSTs for River Bend Gun Club, and took the opportunity to document the process in excruciating detail, which can be found at http://www.tinymicros.com/wiki/NOOK_Simple_Touch_(NST)_Rooting_For_Practiscore. Don't let the number of steps be intimidating. I'm trying to walk someone through every detail, leaving out nothing. So, yes, at first blush, it looks like a lot. But it's really pretty simple, and if you already have the SD card made, it takes less than 10 minutes per device. After creating the instructions using the first 3 NSTs, I rooted the remaining 3 following these instructions, verifying each step as I went. If you choose to use these instructions, please let me know if you have trouble (or success!) using them, and if there are any steps that could use clarification. Between River Bend Gun Club, Cherokee Gun Club, North Atlanta Action Shooters, Gwinnett Practical Shooting League, and East Alabama Gun Club, and 2 personal NSTs, we have 30 devices in use. We really believe the NSTs are the way to go, based on cost and usability, and it's what we encourage clubs to look at, especially if you don't want to risk personal iPhones, iPads or higher-end Android devices when scoring or don't have a large budget to see if the electronic scoring route is the way your club wants to go. --jc Edited November 2, 2012 by jcwren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktm300 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I think it is possible that an IDPA shooter could do this but I am not sure. Great Job, this made the whole process pretty darn simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 (edited) ... Bill Noyes once told me "This needs to be so simple, an IDPA shooter could do it." Well, I think that's what he said, but maybe I mis-remembered it ... Whoa, whoa, hold on! I never mentioned IDPA and rooting a nook. Why would I? Practiscore couldn't do IDPA until only very recently (last couple of weeks) and then only on iOS. I said this needs to be simple enough that the average computer user could do it. No propeller head stuff. Forget that so-called other "solution" that involves installing the android development package on your computer and typing ip addresses into a terminal session to get practiscore over to it! I re-rooted my own single nook this past weekend with Chris' latest procedure, and that worked well enough -- on the 3rd go-around. Mine's not set up exactly the way theirs are but it's close enough for me that I would consider buying a fleet of these now for south river. Chris' procedure works about as simply as this process is going to get, and that's still not very simple, but it's a whole lot better than some of the others! As I said in email, I had the top menu/status bar disappear twice. 3rd time, I've not deleted any of the desktops (that's where it seems to start going downhill for me) but removed extraneous icons, I changed the wallpaper to one of the nook nature scenes (the light-colored beach or lakefront one), I haven't locked the desktop (That I think is what made it top bar disappear last time), I'm using the default adw theme (didn't like the minimalist theme) , left the favorites and web icons in place, and my desktop has practiscore, settings, dropbox, and AndExplorer on it in the center 4 positions. I added dropbox to the mix for bringing new version of the practiscore app over as simply as possible. I set screen timeout to 15 minutes. And I left the google bar in place at the top. I don't know why; I just didn't want to get rid of it. I think I would mention down in the "resetting back to factory" section that you need to unregister the device first. I ran into trouble with that until I figured out which original email address I registered it with initially. Also I'd drop method #2. (The power-on 6 times nonsense.) That just seems like such a kludge to me, and you have to hold down the button a whole lot longer than 15 seconds. Edited November 7, 2012 by wgnoyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 (edited) Apple mac safari also has a way of excising all the header and extraneous stuff out of a given web page and rendering a clearer, easy to read document. I did that with Chris's procedure and printed it to pdf. Here it is. Good until the next time he changes it. Maybe he'll want to make it a download link from his website. I think on the "install andexplorer" section, you mistakenly specified the practiscore.apk file instead of AndExplorer.apk. Oh, and I think I'd drop the whole "enabling the market" section. You don't need it so long as practiscore.com continues to make the .apk file directly available for download, and the stuff about screwing with youtube and blowing up gmail just doesn't make any sense to me. If you don't need to do it, why have it in there? NOOK Simple Touch (NST) Rooting For Practiscore - Wiki.pdf Edited November 7, 2012 by wgnoyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziebart Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 If I don't have to mess with the market all the better. I never seemed to get it to work 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Yeah, I had the market work on the previous rooting that I did exactly once and I don't know how, because it never could again find practiscore, whereas a regular ready-to-use android device finds it immediately. Oh well, that what happens when you take an e-reader and jab it in the side with a fork to make it do things for which it was never intended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcwren Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 Oh well, that what happens when you take an e-reader and jab it in the side with a fork to make it do things for which it was never intended. Fact! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktm300 Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 The first one I did using these instructions took about an hour and went pretty darn well. I did my 2nd Nook in about 20 minutes. If I did 5 or 6 more I think 10 minutes is optimistic but 15 minutes would be pretty easy to hit. The fact that you only have to root them once, and this procedure makes that pretty simple. I don't see rooting as much of an issue anymore. Nice Job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctay Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 Tanks for the instructions! And the utilities that you've written! Makes this whole process so much easier when there are others who have tread before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vluc Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Tried another method on 1 of 5 NST's that I now have to do that I did not like, so I deregistered, reloaded stock and then rooted with this method. Worked like a charm. Maybe 15 minutes to do it with this method. I agree with losing the market stuff as long as practiscore can continue to be a seperate dl that can be installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mainus Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 We want to try practiscore this year at our club. But this whole rooting thing is way over my pay grade. Does anybody have a device that would work that we dont have to mess with rooting that would work as good as the NST. I am an Apple user, so I am comfortable with the apple products. But is the whole outside glare, battery life problem that bad with the Ipods. I just know there is no way I could root one of those NSt with out wanting to blow my brains out when It does not work. Or is anybody willing to sell some NST's already rooted for practiscore. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctay Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 Tom - all native android and ios devices that I know of can run practiscore just fine. Their negatives are in cost and battery life. Rooting a Nook is actually not hard - much like reloading your first round just go slow and follow the instructions. The newest root out for the Nook Simple Touch is so easy a caveman with a decent computer, some rudimentary English skills and access to this forum to ask questions could do it. Not quite a Geico commercial... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glock27 Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 Tom, You WANT the e-Ink display of the NST's. No other Apple or Android device I've seen can can be used in direct sunlight except the Nooks. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mainus Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 (edited) I just talked to one of the other clubs in the area by me. They are using Kindle Fires for there tablets. They are an indoor club though. They said you could see them just fine outside though, and you do not have to root them. They are more expensive though. Anybody have any experience with these devices. Just found this site. Anybody ever try this before. http://root-android.org/ Edited February 5, 2013 by Tom Mainus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROY NEAL Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 I am pretty sure that my home club was the first to use the Nooks (or at least in Area 5). They are the best out there for what we do. Other devices are nice but the Nooks have them beat hands down. If you are having trouble rooting them, get a hold of W00f (rob gaffney) or Too Slow (brian killam). They do the scoring and tech side for my club. They are the pro's at this. They will help you in whatever way you need. Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctay Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Just found this site. Anybody ever try this before. http://root-android.org/ Yuck - all these guys do is SELL you the FREE software that is linked in this thread. Don't let them hussle you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdphotoguy Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Thanks guys for the instructions, they will come in handy as my club is looking to score the Outlaw Steel matches with Practiscore and I'll be the guy rooting all the Nooks. Also hoping our USPSA and ICORE matches decided to go the Practiscore route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitman Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 So if we start using Nooks we have to root it to get it to run Practiscore? Been using an Ipad or the big Ipod so dont laugh cause they have been plug and play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 So if we start using Nooks we have to root it to get it to run Practiscore? Been using an Ipad or the big Ipod so dont laugh cause they have been plug and play. Yes, the Nook is a dedicated e-reader. (And not a very good one at that, but that's a different topic.) It is set up to display books and magazines and allow you to purchase material from B&N, and that's it. In order to turn it into a "regular" android-type tablet, you have to apply one or the other of a wide selection of software patches through the micro-SD card to over-write certain parts of the Nook operating system and make regular android functionality available. (It's not unlike jail-breaking a iphone or iPad.) Once you do that, then you can install and run the android version of practiscore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester121 Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 One suggestion for the doc -- it's worth pointing out that you need a micro SD card, not a regular SD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) What do you do if you get through Part 1 and reboot and nothing happens? It just sits there saying it's rebooting. Never mind. I just had to hold the power button a bit longer. Edited April 3, 2013 by Graham Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean68333 Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 When I try to write the image to the micro SD card, I get the message... "An error occurred when attempting to get a handle on the device. Error 5: Access is denied." I tried to copy files to the SD card and that worked and I can open the files. Any ideas? Thanks, Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 No, you can't just copy the files to the card; you have to format the card and use the named windows utility (which you also have to download) to transform the card in a bootable "hard drive", per se. That is, you stick the card in the nook, turn it on, and the nook boots the operating system from the card rather than from internal rom. Just copying the files to the drive won't do it, because that doesn't set up the booting information. I copy/pasted the details from Chris Wren's writeup, which can be found above. To build the SD card you will need the following items: 2GB or larger SD card SD card to USB adapter (such as this one) NST rooting image for SD card (located here) Image Writer for Windows program (located here (home page) or here (backup)) To build the image, follow these steps: Download and unzip Image Writer for Windows to a folder on your desktop named 'IWW' or somesuch Download the NST rooting image and unzip to your desktop Insert SD card into adapter Insert SD card adapter into USB connector Open the WIW folder and run 'Win32DiskImager.exe' Click the folder icon, navigate to the desktop and select 'NST_Rooting_Image.img' Select the drive letter the SD card appeared as Click 'Write' Go get a cup of coffee, this will take a while (15-20 minutes) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Also there is now a whole lot easier rooting procedure than this one, but you still have to write the microsd card in the same way. This is the one I use now. http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=166830 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean68333 Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I just noted that I was able to copy a file to the card to point out that the card worked in general. I wasn't trying to write the image that way. I figured out my issue for now. I didn't have administrator access on the computer I was using to reformat the SD card. I will head on to the next steps of rooting the NST now that I have the SD card taken care of. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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