Friday, June 21, 2013

Rooting and Installing CyanogenMod on a Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

The newer Nook HD Tablets are getting the official Play Store via an OTA update, but the older Nook
Tablets are still left with the boring, basic Nook Store. Here are the steps I do to root and then install CyanogenMod on 8 and 16gb Nook Tablets.

You need to download a few files first:

  1. SD_ROOT_NT16or8gbV4_7.zip
  2. CWM_v6.2.7_emmc.zip
  3. Latest CyanogenMod
  4. Latest Google Apps for Jelly Bean (jb)

The first thing you need to do is extract the contents of file #1 and write the extracted img file to a Micro SD. If you are using Microsoft Windows then click the file named Win32DiskImager.exe, select the NT16or8gbV47SDimagefile.img, select your drive letter for your SD card. 

If you are using Linux, then open up the terminal and CD into the directory where NT16or8gbV47SDimagefile.img is located. Once in the correct directory issue this command to write the .img to the Micro SD:

sudo dd if=NT16or8gbV47SDimagefile.img of=/dev/sdX
You must replace the X in sdX with the appropriate letter for your SD slot.  There are many ways to get the correct letter but I use the program Gparted.

Ok, so now you have an SD card that will root your Nook Tablet. Let's boot into Recovey. Turn off your Nook if it is on, and connect the USB wire to your computer. Your Nook will now turn on and enter into ClockwordMod Recovery. Using the Volume Keys to move up and down and the N key to select, click on Install zip from SD. You will now see a zip file called Root_8gb-or-16gb-NTV4_7.zip. Highlight that file and press the N.

If all goes well, the operation will complete. You are now rooted. Press the Power button to go back to main Recovery menus and select Reboot and press the N key. Your Nook will appear normal. It is not. Press the N key and you will see a new option for Home screen. Clicking the new Home icon will take you to an Android looking desktop. Yay! We are not done yet.

Now, install ES File Explorer from the Play Store. Open the app and browse your Micro SD card. Look for a folder called Apps. In this folder you will see a file named Nook Recovery Flasher.apk. Click this file to install it. Once installed, click on Flash CWM Recovery. Now you do not need the SD card you made earlier to boot into Recovery. It is now part of the system.

Remove the SD card and connect it your computer and format it so that it is empty.

Copy the files #2, #3, and #4 that you downloaded from above to the SD card and insert it back into the Nook Tablet.

Remember how to boot your Nook into Recovery mode? Do it.

Select Install zip from SD again and install ONLY CWM_v6.2.7_emmc.zip. This will upgrade your recovery. Without upgrading, you will not be able to flash CyanogenMod. Once the operation is complete, use the power button go back to reboot the Nook. Boot it to Recovery one more time.

Now you can select the latest CyanogenMod file you downloaded to install it. After that, select the latest Gapps you downloaded. Reboot the Nook and you are good to go!!!

NOTES: If you're Nook will not boot after flashing CM in final step, boot back in to Recovery and do a factory reset. (this factory resets your new CM install) and reboot. This should let you back in.

If a file you downloaded from a above will not flash, download again.

Make sure you are downloading the correct Google Apps.

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