After many hours of reading and searching these forums for answers to various questions I had when rooting my new nook, I decided to write out all the answers the average user (like me) will wish he had known before he started. So here you go, I present all you need to know about rooting and configuring your nook from the box to the promised land of awesomeness.
This is for the Nook Simple Touch (also called NST, N2E) non-glowlight version. After you root your nook, the software advice should be the same, but if you have a glowlight version, see the post by ladykayaker below. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=36035695&postcount=2
A. Rooting
1) Backing up
--- noogie.img
--- nookmanager
--- reclaiming and reformatting your micro sd after using winimage.
2) Firmware version
--- does version matter?
--- updates
3) Touchnooter
B. First Configuration
--- what to expect
--- getting google play and web browsing to work.
--- installing apps from micro sd
C. Make it awesome
--- apps you'll need to patch missing nook functions
--- Multi-touch, fast ink modes, and kernal mods
--- Battery
D. Phone specific apps
--- whatsapp, and getting an IMEI on your nook
--- Phone contacts
E. List of current unsolved problems
--- Media scanner
--- scrolling
--- keyboards
--- video support in certain apps
--- audio
A. Rooting
Part 1. Backing up.
Q: Can I get my device back to stock?
A: Yes, if you take backups before you start.
Step 1. Take your nook out of the box
Step 2. Register for a barnes and noble account
Step 3. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142983
--- Noogie.img full partition backups ---
In English, this means you have to download noogie.img, and download winimage and use it to (CAREFULLY) write the image to a micro sd card. Boot your nook with the micro sd card. Then use winimage again to copy the physical disk (1.8gb) to a file. Now you can always go back to your stock nook, apparently.
--- Easy Backups and Restoring with Nook Manager ---
You can never be too safe. I suggest you backup with 2 methods.
Search "nookmanager for 1.21 and beyond".
Download nookmanager and write it to a micro sd card just like you did for noogie. Nook manager has a brilliant backup and restore feature and works on all versions, so boot into it and follow the menu to take a backup, it creates a second backup partition on your micro sd. So when you're done, plug in your nook and copy the backup file off and the md5 hash. Follow the previous step to reclaim your micro sd.
--- Reclaiming Your Micro SD ---
To reclaim your micro sd, on windows click start menu, search partition, and open the partition manager. Find your micro sd card which now has a small partition on it, select the partition, and delete it. Right click >> create simple partition >> fat32
Backup(s) finished.
2. Firmware
--- Firmware Version ---
Q: Does firmware version matter?
A: Yes it does, make sure you search for 1.1 update and update your version to 1.1 before rooting with touchnooter. Don't bother with 1.21 yet because all the cool things you've seen and want are done with 1.1 and 1.21 root needs more time to mature and become more user friendly (noob friendly).
To check your firmware version go into settings > device info.
--- updates ---
Q: How do I update to 1.1?
First check your firmware version, if it's 1.0.1, update to 1.1 by downloading the 1.1 firmware (it's a zip file) and moving it into the nook drive on your computer. It will update automatically. Don't wait too long to backup or move to 1.1 because it might automatically update to 1.21. You should update to 1.1 and root immediately. If your device came with 1.2, try this to flash and install 1.1: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1475613
--- touchnooter ----
Once you're on 1.1, download touchnooter and like noogie and nookmanager, make an image on your microsd with winimage and boot the device. the screen will turn black, and then you can take the card out and reboot. However, I found that after running the root once, many /most of the applications didn't function, I had to boot three times with touchnooter for most apps to work. It doesn't hurt so just do it if you have any problems.
B. First Configurations
--- What To Expect ---
Now that you're rooted and running in android, you're probably thinking, "well this sucks, the web browsers don't work and neither do the app stores...."
Calm yourself, it will get better.
--- Getting GAPPS and web browsing ---
Add a google account in gmail, sync it, sign into the same google account with youtube (nobody knows why). Then you will have to "wait a day" for it to work...
Q: Wait a day? FUUUUUU
A: Just joking, you can add another google mail account and sync that, your google play will now work without the wait, but it can be a bit tricky to hit the agree to tos button.
Reclaim your micro sd, you'll need it to install apps if your Opera Mini isn't working.
Search google for opera mobile, download the apk onto your micro sd, it's on opera's website, you should also download opera mini so you can re-install the one that comes loaded if it doesn't work. Rooting several times fixed my opera mini, but if yours is broken re-installing should fix it.
--- installing apps from micro sd ---
Q: How to install apps from micro sd?
A: Find the super manager, open it up, click the button to grant super user privileges, on the second or third tab from the left there is a file manager. Go into it, click the apk, click install.
C. MAKE IT AWESOME
Now that you have opera mini/mobile, can browse the web and google play works, what next?
--- apps you'll need to patch NST broken functions ---
1. Google play search function is broken, before you can start installing apps quickly, use opera mini to search for "search market" , you'll find the google play link, click it, install it.
2. default android home screen looks bad and custom wallpaper support is broken.
Now you probably want a decent looking home screen because face it, adk looks like crap, and you probably noticed you can't set the wallpaper because the media scanner doesn't detect any media = empty gallery = can't select a wallpaper.
use search market to find legacy launcher, install it
search for "wallpaper changer" and "es file explorer", install them. You can now set the wallpaper to any file on your sd card, and your android launcher looks great. Try adusting the font size in settings and adding widgets later.
3. Gallery doesn't work because media scanner is broken.
Some apps require the gallery to work to select images.
Your solution is to download the app "Quickpic" - it will allow you to choose pictures in apps that need a gallery.
4. The default keyboard is not very good, and the nook disables all spelling suggestion bars from keyboards. This makes t9 and chinese input impossible, and can make typing a pain in any language. The solution is to download a back-port keyboard.
Jellybean keyboard is a good back-port, search and install it, it's fully functional with lots of languages. No t9 though
1/2 OF GUIDE. CONTINUED IN MY NEXT POST
This is for the Nook Simple Touch (also called NST, N2E) non-glowlight version. After you root your nook, the software advice should be the same, but if you have a glowlight version, see the post by ladykayaker below. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=36035695&postcount=2
A. Rooting
1) Backing up
--- noogie.img
--- nookmanager
--- reclaiming and reformatting your micro sd after using winimage.
2) Firmware version
--- does version matter?
--- updates
3) Touchnooter
B. First Configuration
--- what to expect
--- getting google play and web browsing to work.
--- installing apps from micro sd
C. Make it awesome
--- apps you'll need to patch missing nook functions
--- Multi-touch, fast ink modes, and kernal mods
--- Battery
D. Phone specific apps
--- whatsapp, and getting an IMEI on your nook
--- Phone contacts
E. List of current unsolved problems
--- Media scanner
--- scrolling
--- keyboards
--- video support in certain apps
--- audio
A. Rooting
Part 1. Backing up.
Q: Can I get my device back to stock?
A: Yes, if you take backups before you start.
Step 1. Take your nook out of the box
Step 2. Register for a barnes and noble account
Step 3. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1142983
--- Noogie.img full partition backups ---
In English, this means you have to download noogie.img, and download winimage and use it to (CAREFULLY) write the image to a micro sd card. Boot your nook with the micro sd card. Then use winimage again to copy the physical disk (1.8gb) to a file. Now you can always go back to your stock nook, apparently.
--- Easy Backups and Restoring with Nook Manager ---
You can never be too safe. I suggest you backup with 2 methods.
Search "nookmanager for 1.21 and beyond".
Download nookmanager and write it to a micro sd card just like you did for noogie. Nook manager has a brilliant backup and restore feature and works on all versions, so boot into it and follow the menu to take a backup, it creates a second backup partition on your micro sd. So when you're done, plug in your nook and copy the backup file off and the md5 hash. Follow the previous step to reclaim your micro sd.
--- Reclaiming Your Micro SD ---
To reclaim your micro sd, on windows click start menu, search partition, and open the partition manager. Find your micro sd card which now has a small partition on it, select the partition, and delete it. Right click >> create simple partition >> fat32
Backup(s) finished.
2. Firmware
--- Firmware Version ---
Q: Does firmware version matter?
A: Yes it does, make sure you search for 1.1 update and update your version to 1.1 before rooting with touchnooter. Don't bother with 1.21 yet because all the cool things you've seen and want are done with 1.1 and 1.21 root needs more time to mature and become more user friendly (noob friendly).
To check your firmware version go into settings > device info.
--- updates ---
Q: How do I update to 1.1?
First check your firmware version, if it's 1.0.1, update to 1.1 by downloading the 1.1 firmware (it's a zip file) and moving it into the nook drive on your computer. It will update automatically. Don't wait too long to backup or move to 1.1 because it might automatically update to 1.21. You should update to 1.1 and root immediately. If your device came with 1.2, try this to flash and install 1.1: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1475613
--- touchnooter ----
Once you're on 1.1, download touchnooter and like noogie and nookmanager, make an image on your microsd with winimage and boot the device. the screen will turn black, and then you can take the card out and reboot. However, I found that after running the root once, many /most of the applications didn't function, I had to boot three times with touchnooter for most apps to work. It doesn't hurt so just do it if you have any problems.
B. First Configurations
--- What To Expect ---
Now that you're rooted and running in android, you're probably thinking, "well this sucks, the web browsers don't work and neither do the app stores...."
Calm yourself, it will get better.
--- Getting GAPPS and web browsing ---
Add a google account in gmail, sync it, sign into the same google account with youtube (nobody knows why). Then you will have to "wait a day" for it to work...
Q: Wait a day? FUUUUUU
A: Just joking, you can add another google mail account and sync that, your google play will now work without the wait, but it can be a bit tricky to hit the agree to tos button.
Reclaim your micro sd, you'll need it to install apps if your Opera Mini isn't working.
Search google for opera mobile, download the apk onto your micro sd, it's on opera's website, you should also download opera mini so you can re-install the one that comes loaded if it doesn't work. Rooting several times fixed my opera mini, but if yours is broken re-installing should fix it.
--- installing apps from micro sd ---
Q: How to install apps from micro sd?
A: Find the super manager, open it up, click the button to grant super user privileges, on the second or third tab from the left there is a file manager. Go into it, click the apk, click install.
C. MAKE IT AWESOME
Now that you have opera mini/mobile, can browse the web and google play works, what next?
--- apps you'll need to patch NST broken functions ---
1. Google play search function is broken, before you can start installing apps quickly, use opera mini to search for "search market" , you'll find the google play link, click it, install it.
2. default android home screen looks bad and custom wallpaper support is broken.
Now you probably want a decent looking home screen because face it, adk looks like crap, and you probably noticed you can't set the wallpaper because the media scanner doesn't detect any media = empty gallery = can't select a wallpaper.
use search market to find legacy launcher, install it
search for "wallpaper changer" and "es file explorer", install them. You can now set the wallpaper to any file on your sd card, and your android launcher looks great. Try adusting the font size in settings and adding widgets later.
3. Gallery doesn't work because media scanner is broken.
Some apps require the gallery to work to select images.
Your solution is to download the app "Quickpic" - it will allow you to choose pictures in apps that need a gallery.
4. The default keyboard is not very good, and the nook disables all spelling suggestion bars from keyboards. This makes t9 and chinese input impossible, and can make typing a pain in any language. The solution is to download a back-port keyboard.
Jellybean keyboard is a good back-port, search and install it, it's fully functional with lots of languages. No t9 though
1/2 OF GUIDE. CONTINUED IN MY NEXT POST
Last edited:
