[UnBrick]TOTAL WIPE and reflash back to 1.4.0 via Ubuntu Recovery --Now Easier!!!!

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mak0305

Senior Member
Aug 14, 2010
52
2
I've got NT 8 Gb with CWM and used Hard reset to brick my NT.

Now I'm able to boot BETA-1-4-2UbuntuRecovery4GdiskAdamOutler.img from SD (appears "n" screen and then "box" image), then black screen for 30 mins and Power Button for 10 sec. (I'm assuming this part works by cable indicators ). Then I took out SD from Nook.

But the screen simply won't turn on and nothing happens when I press Power buttton or Power+"n". No "n" start screen, no 1.4.2, no recovery.

So I can't load from internal memory as someone above mentioned but able to load from SD.
Waiting to hearing from you)


that i pretty much the same for me.
 

AdamOutler

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
Feb 18, 2011
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Miami, Fl̨̞̲̟̦̀̈̃͛҃҅͟orida
Ok.. so the BETA 1.4.2 does not work. I'm going to take that one down as it's useless. It works without display on 16 gig units, but it does not work on 8gig units. 8gig units are the entire purpose of having that.

On second thought, I'll leave it up.. for anyone who has a 8gig unit please get UART connected to it.

Video explanation:


Written guide: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1423009



Video explanation of using UART with a bus pirate.
 
Last edited:

DarkDvr

Senior Member
May 30, 2007
1,848
259
Followed instruction to the "T", booted into ubuntu, but process is stuck at "writing all zeros to MLO".
I can tap outside, window loses focus, so it's responsive, just stuck at that step for some reason.
My NT is still a brick =(


EDIT: Turns out that was due to my partitions being all borked.
I found Celtic's thread about using "parted" to fix the partition table, and I'm not at "writing all zeros to SDCARD" step. Hopefully it all finishes up fine.
Maybe you'd like to add a link to OP about this issue. I read it's a common problem now, people doing dumb stuff to their NTs.. I know I did =)

EDIT2: In combination with Celtic's parted guide, ur recovery worked wonders and unbricked my nook =) Donated to both of u guys, thank you!
 
Last edited:

Jario

Member
Dec 23, 2011
29
2
Chico
why did my SD card go from 16 gigs to 70 mb?! has anyone else had this issue? i tried formatting it but it stays around the same amount
 

raywaldo

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2007
805
106
Southeast Louisiana
raywaldo.com
Linux easiest way to do do tech stuff

i dont want to put linux on my laptop. i think i figured it out, it got it to say 14 GB so im not sure if thats right but close enough for now. How would i look at the partitions?
That is WHY he recommended you to run the CD. Linux is the best tool for seeing the partitions - and so many other technical stuff.
Running the Ubuntu CD will NOT install Linux on your computer (unless you choose to do so). It runs via your computer's hardware and the memory - not the hard drive. Amazingly, although it takes several minutes to boot up, it runs almost as fast (on the CD) as your Windows machine does when it is using your hard drive. It may make you WANT to install it (you can do dual boot).:cool:
 
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Jario

Member
Dec 23, 2011
29
2
Chico
That is WHY he recommended you to run the CD. Linux is the best tool for seeing the partitions - and so many other technical stuff.
Running the Ubuntu CD will NOT install Linux on your computer (unless you choose to do so). It runs via your computer's hardware and the memory - not the hard drive. Amazingly, although it takes several minutes to boot up, it runs almost as fast (on the CD) as your Windows machine does when it is using your hard drive. It may make you WANT to install it (you can do dual boot).:cool:

lol ahhhh sorry didnt think about it, i feel dumb know :p. I have always wanted to use Linux but i just dont have to time to learn it. For anyone who is wondering I used Mini Tool Partition Wizard to delete the partition and reformat.
 

raywaldo

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2007
805
106
Southeast Louisiana
raywaldo.com
partitioning tool

lol ahhhh sorry didnt think about it, i feel dumb know :p. I have always wanted to use Linux but i just dont have to time to learn it. For anyone who is wondering I used Mini Tool Partition Wizard to delete the partition and reformat.

No problem. Glad you got it working! BTW, if that is a good tool, I will recommend it on another thread where the user is looking for a Windows tool.
 

PlacidCat

Senior Member
Sep 16, 2010
108
32
lol ahhhh sorry didnt think about it, i feel dumb know :p. I have always wanted to use Linux but i just dont have to time to learn it. For anyone who is wondering I used Mini Tool Partition Wizard to delete the partition and reformat.

Grab a live cd of Ubuntu and boot from the CD. If you know how to write an ISO to a disc, you are halfway there. Once you boot Ubuntu, I'll virtually guarantee you won't have to "learn" much. Windows users generally can get into it quickly. Not only that, but once you plug in a card reader, it's automatically mounted and you'll see the partitions. No sweat. You don't even need to touch a command prompt if all you want to do is look at the files.

Give yourself a bit more credit and try it out. I think you'll find it quite easy. Granted it sounds like you won't need it now. You might still want to play with it for fun, though!
 

raywaldo

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2007
805
106
Southeast Louisiana
raywaldo.com
ubuntu linux as a tool

Grab a live cd of Ubuntu and boot from the CD. If you know how to write an ISO to a disc, you are halfway there. Once you boot Ubuntu, I'll virtually guarantee you won't have to "learn" much. Windows users generally can get into it quickly. Not only that, but once you plug in a card reader, it's automatically mounted and you'll see the partitions. No sweat. You don't even need to touch a command prompt if all you want to do is look at the files.

Give yourself a bit more credit and try it out. I think you'll find it quite easy. Granted it sounds like you won't need it now. You might still want to play with it for fun, though!

Could not agree more!
 

02dimas

Member
Dec 28, 2008
8
0
Nook Tablet 8Gb Ubuntu Recovery Card

It will still be great to have Ubuntu SD Recovery card for 8Gb Nooks.

As many people with 16Gb post, it works great while other tools not and it's so simple.

Hey people, nobody with 8Gb unit and UART here?)
 

sangahm

Senior Member
Feb 24, 2008
158
21
Grab a live cd of Ubuntu and boot from the CD. If you know how to write an ISO to a disc, you are halfway there. Once you boot Ubuntu, I'll virtually guarantee you won't have to "learn" much. Windows users generally can get into it quickly. Not only that, but once you plug in a card reader, it's automatically mounted and you'll see the partitions. No sweat. You don't even need to touch a command prompt if all you want to do is look at the files.

Did all that, but it wouldn't recognize my usb drive that I plugged in with the nook sd. It recognized the boot USB drive though, so not sure what's going on. Will have to play with it a little more.

I do like the ubuntu interface; a big improvement over the old kde i was familiar with many years ago.
 

raywaldo

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2007
805
106
Southeast Louisiana
raywaldo.com
Ubuntu to flash an SDCard

Did all that, but it wouldn't recognize my usb drive that I plugged in with the nook sd. It recognized the boot USB drive though, so not sure what's going on. Will have to play with it a little more.

I do like the ubuntu interface; a big improvement over the old kde i was familiar with many years ago.

In Ubuntu, call up the GParted program and use it to re-partition the SDCard / USB drive.
 

rwischer

Senior Member
Jan 5, 2012
60
3
I copied build.prop to my tablet from another Nook platform (yeah dumb) so I'm hoping this will allow me to boot and swap back to the old build.prop.

Does it have to be a blank SD card or can I use the one that I currently have in the Nook? The one I'm using is 32GB so it has more than enough space and I think its a class 4. So, I'm assuming that I can copy the image to the card and reboot from it even though it is used for other purposes.
 

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  • 75
    This post can unbrick any Nook Tablet as long as there is no hardware damage.

    Introduction
    Some of you might know that I've been working on getting Ubuntu 11.10 running on the Nook Tablet. Why Ubuntu 11.10? It's optimized for touchscreen. My work with Ubuntu is not totally ready yet. The touchscreen is totally wonkey and unusable for touch input.

    ...Well, without a 3.0 kernel tailored to our device, Ubuntu is quite unusable as a Graphical User Interface. I've tried to compile a few times without any real results to report. The best results I've come across use a 2.6 kernel based on the kernel used for our device by Android. Anyway, if anyone can help get us a operational 3.0, 3.2+ kernel with full support for our device, I can get Ubuntu running.

    However, all is not lost. Ubuntu DOES boot on a 2.6 kernel and it WILL perform most tasks that do not require special device control, like wiping the disk and reflashing. I've come up with a total wipe and restore program for SDCard based on ubuntu.

    So, as a result of my work, I would like to present the first ever Ubuntu Recovery. This will totally wipe your device. With the exception of the ROM Partition which contains serial information, every single partition will have zeros written to it then flashed with just enough to perform an initial factory reflash. Normally when you perform an update or flash of a device, it is simply formatted. A formatted device can be unformatted. A zeroed device cannot be unformatted. All information is overwritten with zeros.

    This will also work if you've damaged the bootloaders or recovery partition.


    how to create your own bootable Ubuntu Recovery SDCard


    You will need:
    • A Class 4 SDCard with at least 4Gigs of space
    • 6 gigs of free space (for downloading sdcard image and uncompressing)
    • The SDCard Image: http://ge.tt/9rVFXxC?c

    Linux/Mac Instructions
    1. Open a terminal in Ubuntu by typing "terminal" in the search bar then hit enter
    2. uncompress the Downloaded SDCard Image
      Code:
      cd ~/Downloads
      tar -xvwzf ./AdamOutlerUbuntuTotalReFlash.tar.gz
    3. With the SDCard or reader removed from the computer, get a list of all disks
      Code:
      ls /dev/sd?
    4. Insert your sdcard or usb sdcard reader, then press the up key and enter to repeat the last command. The new device will show up as sdb, sdc, sdd or sde. each new device gets a higher letter. Note this newly plugged in device.(ie. /dev/sdc)
    5. Use the following command to make your new SDCard, where "sdc" is the name of your SDCard device.
      Code:
      sudo dd if=./AdamOutlerUbuntuTotalReFlash of=/dev/sdc bs=4096; sync
      Wait 5-20 minutes (depending on SDCard speed) until the image burning completes.
    6. Shove it in your nook and turn it on by inserting the USB cable(do touch the power button, just insert the usb cable). Your nook will boot Ubuntu and perform a total factory restore. The process will take 15 minutes to complete with a Class4 micro SDcard.

    Pro-tip: to copy and paste easily in Ubuntu, highlight text in the browser, then press the middle mouse button on the terminal.
    Pro-tip: The tab key will auto-complete filenames.


    Windows Instructions
    Thanks to cyberma007 for Windows instructions.
    • Extract AdamOutlerUbuntuRecoveryImage with Winrar
    • Rename the resulting file to Add the .img extension to the filename
    • Download and open Win32 Disk Imager. note: The open source project can be found here: https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer
    • Choose the drive letter of your SD Card from Win32 Disk Imager
    • Click the Write button
    • Turn of your nook and put in the SD Card and turn it back on.

    Your Microsoft®™ Windows©®℠ computer sucks at reading anything except Microsoft formats. It cannot read the Open Source Linux EXT4 format. You will only see one partition after creating the SDCard but it will work fine. If you want to inspect the contents, install a Linux distribution on your computer.

    znq6ur.jpg


    Theory of operation
    how it works
    When you insert the SDCard and turn on the device this is what happens.
    • The device boots from SDCard.
    • The Ubuntu GUI will load. Personally, I recommend that you do not touch anything
    • You will be presented with a 100 Second countdown
    • If you wish to stop, press and hold power for 10 seconds before flashing has started
    • You will be presented with a progress bar status update only. Closing this will not affect the process. the only way to stop is to turn the device off.
    • At this point, the flashing process will begin
    Flashing Process
    After Ubuntu has booted here is the procedure which takes place
    1. MLO partition will be written with all zeros, then flashed
    2. U-BOOT partition will be written with all zeros, then flashed
    3. RECOVERY partition will be written with all zeros, then flashed
    4. BOOT partition will be written with all zeros, then flashed
    5. BOOTDATA partition will be written with all zeros, then flashed
    6. BOOTDATA is mounted and a command is sent to factory reset the device upon next boot.
    7. FACTORY partition will be written with all zeros, then flashed in two parts to work around a 120 second filesystem operation bug.
    8. A sync operation takes place to ensure all data is written to the device
    9. SYSTEM partition is wiped with all zeros
    10. SYSTEM partition is recreated as a blank EXT4 filesystem
    11. CACHE partition is wiped with all zeros
    12. CACHE partition is recreated as a blank EXT4 filesystem
    13. SDCARD partition is wiped with all zeros
    14. SDCARD partition is recreated as a blank FAT32 filesystem
    15. A sync operation takes place to ensure that all data is written
    16. You are notified to press and hold power. When the screen goes black remove your SDCard
    note: Using a Class4 SDCard, the screen timeout will be aproximately 30 seconds after the entire operation has completed. Do not confuse screen-timeout (blank screen) with turning off the device (black, unilluminated screen). Turn the device off and then remove the sdcard or risk corrupting the data on the sdcard.

    It's my intention that this may help someone. This will at least be one more method for people to try before giving up on restoration to 1.4.0. I generally receive 5-10 PMs per week requesting support on the acclaim_update.zip. Hopefully this will reduce those and give people another option to try.

    Ubuntu isn't ready for daily use yet, but this recovery tool is more thorough than any other recovery method out there. I need some help porting the 3.0 kernel to the Nook Tablet.
    10
    Note: to neuter recovery and just use ubuntu, remove the file called /root/recovery from the sdcard before loading into your Nook.
    10
    Here is the rehosted file and new instructions. Let me know if there are any problems so I can redo the first post.


    You will need:

    Instructions:
    1. Open a terminal in Ubuntu by typing "terminal" in the search bar then hit enter
    2. uncompress the Downloaded SDCard Image
      Code:
      cd ~/Downloads
      tar -xvwzf ./AdamOutlerUbuntuTotalReFlash.tar.gz
    3. type "ls" to get a file listing and locate the name of the new file. (ie AdamOutlerUbuntuTotalReFlash).
    4. With the SDCard or reader removed from the computer, get a list of all disks
      Code:
      ls /dev/sd?
    5. Insert your sdcard or usb sdcard reader, then press the up key and enter to repeat the last command. The new device will show up as sdb, sdc, sdd or sde. each new device gets a higher letter. Note this newly plugged in device.(ie. /dev/sdc)
    6. Use the following command to make your new SDCard, where "AdamOutlerUbuntuTotalReFlash" is the name of the uncompressed file and "sdc" is the name of your SDCard device.

      Code:
      sudo dd if=./AdamOutlerUbuntuTotalReFlash of=/dev/sdc
      Wait 5-45 minutes (depending on SDCard speed) until the image burning completes.
    7. Shove it in your nook and turn it on. The process will take 15 minutes to complete with a Class4 micro SDcard

    Pro-tip: to copy and paste easily in Ubuntu, highlight text in the browser, then press the middle mouse button on the terminal.
    Pro-tip: The tab key will auto-complete filenames.
    4
    Which kernel branch did you try to build?
    I've tried several. The problem is in configuration. I eventually settled for the stock 2.6 android_4430BN_defconfig. It seems to function best for this until we have a proper 3.0 kernel.
    4
    Thanks Adam very nice work. Question what if we want to revert to 1.4.0 or 1.4.0 is it possible or we will be stick it lol. Can this be supported for dual/multi boot?

    ~ Veronica

    Sent from XDA premium using my Nook Tablet :p
    Thats what this does. It reverts you to 1.4.0. It uses Ubuntu as a dedicated recovery. If you would like to dual boot, just remove the /root/recovery file. You can boot Ubuntu or normal by inserting and removing the sdcard. But like i said, the touchscreen is wonkey and there's no way to fix most of the problems without a 3.0 kernel.



    Very good work Adam.
    I have one trivial question... Why on all your projects do you use Ubuntu and not any other distro?

    I use Ubuntu on my desktop. I like Ubuntu because it has a large user base and if i come across a problem, it is easier to correct or has generally at least been discussed. For a mobile device, it makes more sense than other Linux distributions because newer versions have been optimized for touchscreens. In general, i find Ubuntu supports more things than other Linux distributions.