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1.2.1 Nook Root MUCH EASIER


ctay

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ok - Significantly easier root procedure is out now for 1.2.1.

Here is the Root: "Nook Manager"

http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=2040351

Basically this is a write the card, plug and play root. Very simple. I'll try to document what I did but with a little work someone smarter than me will figure out the best way to set this thing up for ease of use.

Edited by ctay
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Ok here is the procedure. This is silly easy now.

Follow steps 1 to 5 of from jcwren's website: here Only difference is we want the nook to have 1.2.1 firmware.

Now we need to write the microsd card - again jcwren has done all the hard work, we just need to change the file we are writing. In place of the "NST rooting image for sd card" that he references, download the image located HERE. Continue with his instructions. Stop before you start the step labeled "Rooting the NST".

Rooting

Now that you have the microsd card properly written with the root program pop that sucker into the NST. Power off and power back on. The NST will show "NookManager loading..." Just wait.

The next screen that pops up automatically will ask you if you wish to enable wireless. Just click the bottom right hard button, directly to the right of the arrow that says "no, continue without wireless".

Main Menu

The next screen says "Main Menu" click the top right hard button, directly to the right of the word "Root".

Click the top right hard button, directly to the right of the words "Root my device"

It will flash through some steps, this doesn't take very long. When it is done you will see at the very bottom of the screen (under a lot of other words that you don't need to know about) "Success!".

Click the bottom left hard button, directly to the left of the word "back".

If this Nook is to be used ONLY for Practiscore follow the next steps. If you wish to still use this to read books click the hard button directly to the left of the word "Exit" and skip the next section.

For Practiscore use only:

Click on the hard button directly to the right of the word "more"

Click on the hard button directly to the right of the word "B&N Apps"

Click on the hard button directly to the right of the word "Disable all B&N Apps"

Click on the hard button directly to the left of the word "Back"

Click on the hard button directly to the left of the word "Back"

Click on the hard button directly to the left of the word "Exit"

Exit

Pop out the microsd card and the Nook will restart.

Unlock the Nook and it will ask you "complete action using:"

If you will only use this for Practiscore, check the checkbox then select "ReLaunch". If you will still use this as a reader, do not check the box and click "ReLaunch".

Now we need to install the Practiscore program. Download the .APK file from https://practiscore.com// and save on the SD card.

Insert SD card, then select "practiscore.apk"

More to come but that gets you most of the way (really all of the way) there.

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If you want to skip the Out of box experience, when powering up a NST for the first time.

After powering on the Nook, you should be presented with a welcome screen with a Next button in the lower right.

  • hold the lower right button and swipe acros the top of the screen.
  • A "Factory" button will appear in the top left of the screen.
  • Tap it to get to the Factory screen.

  • While on the Factory screen, hold down the top right button and tap in the bottom right of the screen.
  • A "Skip Oobe" button appears. Tap it to completely bypass the time zone, Wi-Fi and B&N registration process.

Read more: http://nookdevs.com/Nook_Simple_Touch/Factory_Mode/Skip_Out_of_Box_Experience#ixzz2IfqsWSTT

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

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So your base nook operating system has to be at 1.2.1 in order for this to work? I remember 1.2.0 would crash on the reboot after the first rooting step of Chris Wren's procedure. Any screen prints of what you end up with?

Hard to say as both of the nooks I was working with were 1.2.1. It says it will work with all current firmwares. I've actually modified the setup a little after playing with it for a while - need to nail it down a little more but the idea is that you can modify all the hard buttons with ease on this root so I set the home button to go to pratiscore when you press the home button and the home page when you long press the home button. So basically you grab the nook, press home (no need to swipe), press home again and you're in pratiscore.

Any idea how to take screenshots on a nook?

Edited by ctay
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Those 9 dots in the middle bottom are the "applications" button. They open the applications menu where Praticscore resides (not installed yet in this picture but you get the idea):

Nook10_zps43e813d4.jpg

What I am going to start doing is set the home ("n" button) to open practiscore on press. This way scorers only have to tap the n button once to unlock then once to score. Easy breezy.

Nook11_zps0ba97493.jpg

This is done in the "Nook Touch Mod Manager" application included with the root. Click "Nook Touch Mod Manager", click modify buttons, then click "n button" and select practiscore from the popup. I also set "n button (Long Press) to "home" so I can get to the home screen to make changes if I need to.

This is really as close to a point and click experience that we are likely to get with these devices. I'll write up another post that shows all the steps, the pros and cons and what I have as my best practice setup for this new version of the root.

What do you think?

Edited by ctay
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks a ton ctay for posting this super easy process!! I'm super new to all of this & the forum ... :) and even I managed to get thru the initial root with a 1.2.1!!

I am not going to use practiscore so much but want to continue to use it as an reader along with some other basic browsing & mail apps. Now when I go to the Amazon app store it seems i cant get any of the apps I want to show up or download. It shows the options when I type, but the actual app never shows up (e.g. kindle, gmail, etc). Instead some other free apps show up. Is there some trick I am missing? OR Is the only way to instal apps thru the micro sd card using .apk package?

Also every time it seems like I have to go to the "relaunch" screen to get to the home screen as you have shown. Looks like both the original 1.2.1 and Android are running on the machine. Is that how this will work?

Many thanks for bearing with my ignorance ...

cheers!

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CBX - I'm not sure what the problem is for you. On the nooks that I tested, all of them connect to the Amazon app store without trouble. If you can get the .apk packages for the app you want you can always install them via ReLaunch (the "home" launcher that is installed with this root).

ReLaunch is just a different application loader for the Nook. It is actually pretty snazzy because you can use it to load .apk files with out installing anything else (previously I had to install ANDExplorer to load .apk files). For those not in the Android world yet - .apk files are simply programs - Similar to .exe files on your PC.

Edited by ctay
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  • 4 weeks later...

This is done in the "Nook Touch Mod Manager" application included with the root. Click "Nook Touch Mod Manager", click modify buttons, then click "n button" and select practiscore from the popup. I also set "n button (Long Press) to "home" so I can get to the home screen to make changes if I need to.

That was an awesome idea. I've set ours up the same way. I'd love to have it boot to practiscore as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...

* * * * * * * Do not clone your devices it will mess up your MAC addresses, which is a bad thing. See post from pdice below.

Well I did 5 NSTs following the method outlined by jcwren's, without some much as a hiccup. Then we bought 6 more NSTs and after Installing the Root Kit, everyone bricked. I then decided to just make an image of a working NST with PractiScore and load that image to the 6 bricked NSTs. The image download took about 6 minutes per NST.

So my suggestion is, if you have several NSTs to root, do one start to finish, making all the necessary changes, then make an image of the NST, from there it's a simple procedure to copy that image to another NST.

Backup/Restore process http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1142983

Edited by jdphotoguy
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Well I did 5 NSTs following the method outlined by jcwren's, without some much as a hiccup. Then we bought 6 more NSTs and after Installing the Root Kit, everyone bricked. I then decided to just make an image of a working NST with PractiScore and load that image to the 6 bricked NSTs. The image download took about 6 minutes per NST.

So my suggestion is, if you have several NSTs to root, do one start to finish, making all the necessary changes, then make an image of the NST, from there it's a simple procedure to copy that image to another NST.

Backup/Restore process http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1142983

I had no idea you could do that! I'm guessing that brings over any matches you have on the source nook as well?

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Well I did 5 NSTs following the method outlined by jcwren's, without some much as a hiccup. Then we bought 6 more NSTs and after Installing the Root Kit, everyone bricked. I then decided to just make an image of a working NST with PractiScore and load that image to the 6 bricked NSTs. The image download took about 6 minutes per NST.

So my suggestion is, if you have several NSTs to root, do one start to finish, making all the necessary changes, then make an image of the NST, from there it's a simple procedure to copy that image to another NST.

Backup/Restore process http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1142983

I had no idea you could do that! I'm guessing that brings over any matches you have on the source nook as well?

Makes an exact duplicate of the Nook you made the image from, so yes it would have all the matches as well.

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Well I did 5 NSTs following the method outlined by jcwren's, without some much as a hiccup. Then we bought 6 more NSTs and after Installing the Root Kit, everyone bricked. I then decided to just make an image of a working NST with PractiScore and load that image to the 6 bricked NSTs. The image download took about 6 minutes per NST.

So my suggestion is, if you have several NSTs to root, do one start to finish, making all the necessary changes, then make an image of the NST, from there it's a simple procedure to copy that image to another NST.

Backup/Restore process http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1142983

I had no idea you could do that! I'm guessing that brings over any matches you have on the source nook as well?

Makes an exact duplicate of the Nook you made the image from, so yes it would have all the matches as well.

Be careful with this. You clone *everything* about that master nook including its mac address. So now, when you connect these nooks to the network, they will all have the same ip address and networking gets really tough :)

Follow this post on xda-developers to set the mac address:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=892426

You'll have to use adb wireless and a hex editor to get it done.

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Well I did 5 NSTs following the method outlined by jcwren's, without some much as a hiccup. Then we bought 6 more NSTs and after Installing the Root Kit, everyone bricked. I then decided to just make an image of a working NST with PractiScore and load that image to the 6 bricked NSTs. The image download took about 6 minutes per NST.

So my suggestion is, if you have several NSTs to root, do one start to finish, making all the necessary changes, then make an image of the NST, from there it's a simple procedure to copy that image to another NST.

Backup/Restore process http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1142983

I had no idea you could do that! I'm guessing that brings over any matches you have on the source nook as well?

Makes an exact duplicate of the Nook you made the image from, so yes it would have all the matches as well.

Be careful with this. You clone *everything* about that master nook including its mac address. So now, when you connect these nooks to the network, they will all have the same ip address and networking gets really tough :)

Follow this post on xda-developers to set the mac address:

http://forum.xda-dev...ad.php?t=892426

You'll have to use adb wireless and a hex editor to get it done.

Interesting that the Nook MAC address seems to come from a file and not the firmware on the chip. Good to know and not an issue here anymore as I rebuilt each cloned Nook shortly after posting that, because I wanted to use the Nook Manager method. So I dodged a bullet without even knowing I'd done so.

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Curious how the Nook manager method is working for everyone. I have had great success without any trouble.

If someone were really ambitious they could write a script to install practiscore and the hackers keyboard during the root. Nook manager works well with third party scripts from what I read, I just don't have the skills to write one.

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I just finished using it on 10 newly purchased Nooks and it's quite good -- as long a you pay attention. On one I got distracted and forgot to upgrade the firmware before rooting, that was a hassle.

Once Practiscore has the numberic keyboard thing fixed it will significantly reduce the complexity -- for these ones I had to add:

(after Practiscore installation)

- install hacker's keyboard

- install Nook Color Tools

- use the ADB wireless shell subroutine to move hkeyboard.apk into /system/app

- reboot

- designate keyboard

We also upload a screensaver, which is easy, and program the n button to run Practiscore. Our first match was supposed to be tomorrow but the range is an iceberg so it'll be another 2 weeks.

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For a club:

Is there any advantage to going through the registration process or is that just a waste of time?

What is advantage to upgrading to 1.2.1 and using this rooting procedure rather than the 1.1.0 procedure described elsewhere?

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You HAVE to register the nook through B&N; that's part of the basic setup process, and you have to complete that before you root the device. (Otherwise you won't be able to determine your base operating system maintenance level.)

There IS NO ADVANTAGE to updating to 1.2.1. None. Zip. Nada. In fact, it causes problems, specifically, the severe numeric keyboard hassle with time entry for which there is currently no acceptable solution. If you get a nook through initial B&N setup and see that it's at 1.1.0 or 1.1.1 or 1.1.2, LEAVE IT ALONE; do NOT update to 1.2.1 from the B&N website. If you buy a new very recent nook and it comes with 1.2.1 already installed...., then you're stuck.

I've even heard of some users after having rooted going back later and updating the base to 1.2.1. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO EVER DO THAT! Once you have successfully rooted the nook and it's running practiscore, leave the operating system alone! It's not a general purpose computer whose operating system requires maintenance. Rather, it's a specific dedicated electronic tool, like a pocket calculator. Except for upgrading practiscore from time to time, don't muck with it!

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Thanks Bill. We got 6 brand new NST's directly from B&N online and they were all 1.0.1 and I updated them to 1.1.0 then got to wondering if 1.2.1 and the newest root process were a better solution.

As long as I can document the entire process so that it's simple for someone to take over, I'll be satisfied.

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This root DOES WORK FINE with 1.0.1 and 1.1.0. Just so you know. The 1.2.1 update actually does add a few things to a rooted nook - the ability to hard code the buttons for instance. You can hard code the buttons on the root Chris Wren documented too but it isn't quite as simple. Chris did a ton of leg work making that root as simple as possible - he did a really really good job. If your Nook has 1.0.1 or 1.1.0 on it the procedure he documented works really well.

Newer Nooks are getting more and more likely to have the 1.2.1 firmware from the factory. If you have 1.2.1 firmware this is the only option that I am aware of. Because I want everything the same I have updated all our club nooks to 1.2.1 now and use this root for everything.

I prefer the graphical root method that this uses because it has less steps and they are all super basic. One other really nice side benefit is that if I need to factory reset one of the Nooks for whatever reason there is an option right in the NookManager boot that allows that. Much better than having to do the turn on 6 times stuff that never worked for me.

As for getting someone else to take over - Burn a SD card with NookManager on it, give the card to the person in charge of rooting and you are done. Everything is graphical and spelled out on the screen of the device being rooted. It simply can not get easier. Save practiscore.apk on the SD card too and you have everything in one place.

Edited by ctay
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