[HOWTO]Root Your Nook With Your Android Phone - Nook Color Android Development

So as many of you know, to root the Nook Color (NC) you need all of the following:
1) An external sdcard (micro sdcard to be exact--shorthand uSd)
2) An uSd reader/writer
Now many of you should have uSD's lying around like I do. And many of you should have Android phones also (I mean, you're in the xda forums...is that so hard to presume?). Now what a lot of you might lack (like me) is an uSD card reader. Being the cheap person you (and I) are, you decide to look for other ways to root the NC without having to buy an uSD reader.
My Solution: Use your android phone!
Android is based off of linux and if you paid attention, there are instructions on how to flash the Auto Nooter image with linux.
So how's it done you might ask? Heres the procedure (Make sure you thank johnnyb138, he knew all along how to do this, I'm just writting it up!)
Note: This method requires ADB to be set up and the phone to be rooted also.
1) Put in uSD into phone
2) Go to Setting->SD and Phone Storage->Unmount External SD
3) Format External SD (This will wipe everything in it)
4) Mount the External SD
5) Go to Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging (make sure its checked)
6) Now open up your terminal/command prompt and type in "adb devices" to check if ADB recognizes your phone. If not please refer to a thread/website that will guide you in the right direction
7)Now is a good time to copy the rooting img of choice: type in the following to the terminal "adb push (Location of rooting img on computer) /sdcard/*name of rooting img*"
8)a)now type in the following: "adb shell" |Now unlock the phone and make sure the screen is on when you type in the next command|
8)b)Type in: "su" |Now look at the phone and click on allow|
*Tricky Part* Once again thank johnnyb138 for this
9) type in: cd /dev/block
10) type in: ls
This command is going to list everything that is connected to the motherboard on the phone, including the external sd card.
Now you have to find which of these blocks is the one that corresponds with the external sd card. it should start with mmcblk and then end with a # eg: mmcblk1
11) Now check which mmcblk is the external sd by typing "fdisk -l mmcblk#"Try each one out.
This command will tell you the size of the drive. So if you have an 8gb sd in the phone and mmcblk2 is is 8gb in size. Bingo you got it. Watch out though cause you might have a card that is the same size as the internal memory/internal sd card. In that case, post a pic of the command prompt/terminal and we will tell you which one is the correct one
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"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
*Tricky Part done*
12)now that you figured out the correct block the rest is easy: dd if= (Location of rooting img eg:/sdcard/auto-nooter-2.12.25.img) of=/dev/block/mmcblk# (you figured out in step 11 which was the right #)
13) Done! Just take out the sdcard. Make sure you don't mount it before you do take it out (ie: don't unplug the usb until you took out the card!)
Well i tried to keep this as simple as possible. It really is not hard to do, its just a little hard to comprehend if you never touched a terminal/command prompt or if you never used linux. If you have any suggestions as to make this more clearer please don't hesitate!
Credit List:
johnnyb138 <- Just give him a good pat on the back!

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You may get better feedback in the nook dev forum than in general. But hopefully this can work!

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Thank you! I will ask the mod to move this thread.

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SprintFun said:
You may get better feedback in the nook dev forum than in general. But hopefully this can work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually did this to root my nook color. I did method two and it worked great.
I had originally tried to just do the dd command directly on my linux box with the sd card mounted but it would not work. The card would write and have all of the data on it, but the nook would not boot it. Only when I opened ADB on the linux machine and ran all of the commands directly on the android device was I able to get the nook to boot it and it worked flawlessly!

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johnnyb138 said:
I actually did this to root my nook color. I did method two and it worked great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's awesome. At least we have a confirmation. Now can you tell me what img did you use? I tried auto nooter 12.15, 12.18 and 12.25 and my nook never took them. Im getting tired of trying to get it to take but I won't give up until it works

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tytdfn said:
So as many of you know, to root the Nook Color (NC) you need all of the following:
1) An external sdcard (micro sdcard to be exact--shorthand uSd)
2) An uSd reader/writer
Now many of you should have uSD's lying around like I do. And many of you should have Android phones also (I mean, you're in the xda forums...is that so hard to presume?). Now what a lot of you might lack (like me) is an uSD card reader. Being the cheap person you (and I) are, you decide to look for other ways to root the NC without having to buy an uSD reader.
My Solution: Use your android phone!
Android is based off of linux and if you paid attention, there are instructions on how to flash the Auto Nooter image with linux.
So how's it done you might ask? Well here's the deal. See that [WIP] up there in the title of the thread? It stands for Work In Progress. I have succesfully (at least thats what i think) flashed the SD with multiple images but for some reason the nook won't take it. Hence it's a [WIP] because I cannot confirmed if it worked because of my lack of sd card reader.
So now I request some help. Please take the time to answer the following questions:
1) after the image is succesfully flashed, can you tell me what the contents are? and what amount of the sd is free and what amount is there in total
See picture in the bottom of what the result of my flash is.
Now for the procedure to flash the sd with the phone.
Pre Procedure:
1) Put in uSD into phone
2) Go to Setting->SD and Phone Storage->Unmount External SD
3) Format External SD (This will wipe everything in it)
4) Mount the External SD
Method 1: (Easiest) (Windows)
5) Now set the phone to act as USB storage when plugged into a computer (Varies with phone)
6) Now go to My Computer
7) You should see the card, Now just open up Win image or what ever you're using and flash the card
8) Eject the phone from the computer (Varies with phone)
9) Viola! A uSD ready to root your NC (hopefully)
Method 2: (Medium) (Windows/Linux) (ADB required to interact with phone)
5) Go to Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging (make sure its checked)
6) Now open up your terminal/command prompt and type in "adb devices" to check if ADB recognizes your phone. If not please refer to a thread/website that will guide you in the right direction
7)Now is a good time to copy the rooting img of choice adb push (Location of rooting img) /sdcard/*name of rooting img*
8)now type in the following:
a) adb shell
b) mount
9) Here you will see all the mounted partitions. Find where your external sd card is mounted. it should start with /dev/block (for example[refer to the picture below]: mine is mounted at /dev/block/vold/179:9)
10) Now (on your phone) go to Settings->SD card and Phone Storage->Unmount External SD
11) dd if= /sdcard/*name of rooting img* of=(Mount Point) eg:/dev/block/vold/179:9
Method 3: Hardest (I don't know if root(on phone) is required for this will check tomorrow I'm very tired now (it's 1 AM here))
5) Go to the market and download the Terminal Emulator app.
6) Copy the rooting img to the sdcard of the phone
7) Open the Terminal Emulator and type in:
a) mount
8) Here you will see all the mounted partitions. Find where your external sd card is mounted. it should start with /dev/block (for example[refer to the picture below]: mine is mounted at /dev/block/vold/179:9)
9) Now (on your phone) go to Settings->SD card and Phone Storage->Unmount External SD
10) Open the Terminal Emulator and type in:
a) dd if= /sdcard/*name of rooting img* of=(Mount Point) eg:/dev/block/vold/179:9
Thats all i have to say about that....I will clean this up tomorro and hopefully shed some light on this subject. Maybe we can expand the number of rooted NC's by working together
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From your image it looks like you may be mounting the partition of the drive rather than the actual raw drive. In my scenario, the locations of the actual sd drive was /dev/block/mmcblk1 . In the attached image I ran the commands for the internal drive, which was located at /dev/block/mmcblk0 since my external was not around. I verified which was which orignally by running
Code:
fdisk -l /mmc/block/mmcblk0
to print out the partition data of the drive. Thankfully, my external drive and my internal drive were of different sizes so each one was easy to identify.
Once you know which drive you are writing to (be sure!!!) change this line to match correctly:
Code:
dd if= /sdcard/*name of rooting img* of=(Mount Point) eg:/dev/block/mmcblk1
Hope this helps.

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tytdfn said:
That's awesome. At least we have a confirmation. Now can you tell me what img did you use? I tried auto nooter 12.15, 12.18 and 12.25 and my nook never took them. Im getting tired of trying to get it to take but I won't give up until it works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used 12.25 and it worked great, see my above post for a slight modification to what you did for method two that I picked up on.

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Also, root is required on the phone to run both the fdisk command I listed and the dd command to write the image to the sdcard from the phone. So, it will be required for any of the above methods regardless.

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johnnyb138 said:
From your image it looks like you may be mounting the partition of the drive rather than the actual raw drive. In my scenario, the locations of the actual sd drive was /dev/block/mmcblk1 . In the attached image I ran the commands for the internal drive, which was located at /dev/block/mmcblk0 since my external was not around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh i see now that would make more sense. I was wondering why it was mounted on /dev/vold but initially i brushed it off because in the Galaxy S lines there are a lot of leaked firmwares and thus lots of hacked ways to get around bugs, for example, sdcards not mounting.
And yes i realized this morning root was needed to dd. It's a habit to type in su as the first command right after i adb shell XD. Im trying it out now. The sd successfully flashed and im waiting for the NC. Will update in a bit.
UPDATE: Lol Omg shame!!!!! found the card at mmcblk1p1 flashed it and tried it again but alas that again was the partition...dd-ing again. The actual drive is at mmcblk1

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So does method 1 not work and you have to use 2 or 3?

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Bobb_o said:
So does method 1 not work and you have to use 2 or 3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im gonna write up a new method right now.

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tytdfn said:
Im gonna write up a new method right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to let you know I tried rooting with method one and it worked fine.
I have an Incredible (Rooted with custom ROM) and used Win32Image

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Bobb_o said:
Just wanted to let you know I tried rooting with method one and it worked fine.
I have an Incredible (Rooted with custom ROM) and used Win32Image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so now i will put that method back into the first post. I thought it wouldn't work but i was wrong.
Sent from my LogicPD Zoom2 using XDA App

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Help...I used a 16GB microSD card on this and after that now it's only read as 39MB...how can I revert that?

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lazinase said:
Help...I used a 16GB microSD card on this and after that now it's only read as 39MB...how can I revert that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Format the SD card. I used my Incredible to do it.

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I tried your method on using my Nexus one, unfortunately no luck.

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I used windows mobile OS from my HD2 as a sdCard reader and rooted my nook color successfully. Just simply plug in and select USB Storage mode.
I wouldn't try it with HD2 running Android though...might not work.

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christiankk said:
I tried your method on using my Nexus one, unfortunately no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where was you external sdcard mounted?

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tytdfn said:
Where was you external sdcard mounted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the phone - /dev/block/mmcblk0 (free from memory)
I downloaded the image to /sdcard, extracted it on the phone and executed the 'dd' command.
Switched off the NC, plugged in the uSD card and plugged in the USB cable.
The color on the cable changes once, but the screen on the NC remains black.
Am I getting the wrong end of the stick here somehow?
PS: Thanks for your help and for posting this guide.

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christiankk said:
In the phone - /dev/block/mmcblk0 (free from memory)
I downloaded the image to /sdcard, extracted it on the phone and executed the 'dd' command.
Switched off the NC, plugged in the uSD card and plugged in the USB cable.
The color on the cable changes once, but the screen on the NC remains black.
Am I getting the wrong end of the stick here somehow?
PS: Thanks for your help and for posting this guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok sorry for replying so late but yeah you're doing it right. the screen should be black instead of the "touch the future of something blah blah". Just leave it there for like 5 min and come back. If it doesn't work take of the sdcard or else the NC will try to boot it again