[Nook Color Android Development] pryonix:
UPDATE May 25, 2011: This thread is now deprecated/obsolete. Please go to http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1045018 as racks11479 has created a new image that incorporates the latest Phiremod 6.2, 1.1Ghz OC Kernel, latest HC version from Divide Madcat, alsa update and j4mm3r's boot menu.

Please note however that the latest update incorporates a 1.1Ghz OverClock Kernel, and not the 1.3Ghz OverClock Kernel which I used in this thread. To update to the 1.3 Ghz OC Kernel, do the following:

1. Go to Rack's thread and install his 5/24 update following his instructions on his thread.

2. Return to this thread and perform steps 21-26 to update your install with the 1.3 Ghz OC Kernel.

For those of you who are concerned w/ regards to the stability of running the nook at 1.3Ghz, I have been running my nook and playing games (and yes, even tegra games) almost continuously at 1.3Ghz and I have yet to encounter any major glaring issues (not even minor ones), so yes, the kernel is very stable even when overclocked to 1.3 Ghz.

Again, overclock at your own risk :P I'm just stating what I've experienced on my end.

Have fun and don't forget to thank Racks! Thanks to those who sent me private messages :)

----------------------------------------------------

THIS THREAD IS NOW OBSOLETE. PLEASE SEE NOTE ABOVE!!!

----------------------------------------------------

Hi,

After spending almost 16 straight sleepless hours and various trials and errors, and thanks to the awesome people on this forum, I have been able to run racks11479's dualboot PhireMod+HC with a few slight improvements.

I decided to make a noob's guide to doing this because 24 hours ago, I did not even have any idea what "CWM" means.

This is the guide for people who:

a. want to have an awesome and extremely usable android OS on Nook Color - PhireMod 6.2

b. want to play around with honeycomb - Divine Madcat's HC RC2

c. do NOT want to root/void their Nook Color OR are just not brave enough to risk bricking their devices (that's me - I live in the Philippines and they don't sell the Nook here. I had to have a relative of a friend buy it for me in the US so if I brick my NC, that's it for me)

d. want to harness the potential of their device at the speed of 1.2 Ghz

e. have the luxury of being able to choose between using the stock NC 1.2, PhireMod 6.2 or HC RC2.

f. do not want to have to read through seemingly bazillions of threads on XDA like I did​

---

Why I'm doing this:

Simple. Racks' awesome dualboot phiremode+hc combo does not have an OC option (past 925 Mhz) once you upgrade to phiremod 6.2 :(

I got the idea of doing this from dsf3g's comment on http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1089005 (but I think he/she was running phiremod on emmc instead of sd).

---

This guide improves upon racks11479's dual boot distribution.

I will frequently refer to the Nook Color as NC and to Honeycomb as HC.

---

LET'S BEGIN:

1. Buy a SanDisk Class 2 or Class 4 microSD card that is at least 4 gigabytes. No OTHER brand or speed will do. It has to be SanDisk Class 2 or Class 4. Why? It seems that the speed of running android on your microSD card is VERY LARGELY dependent on the random write speed of your microSD (instead of the sequential write speed on which the class rating is based). People in the general forums have been extensively testing and contributing information on different brands and speeds of microSD cards and only SanDisk Class 2 and 4 microSD's have been consistently faster on random write (by as much as a factor of 100) even when compared against Class 10s.

Please read this thread for more information. --- http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=12964262

2. Download these three files from this thread (this is racks' original thread for creating dual boot on SD) http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1045018 :

File A: ph-hc-dualboot-sd.img.zip

File B: phiremod6.2-SD_Dualboot-Update.zip

File C: update-HC-rc2-Dualboot-SD-a.zip​

3. Insert microSD card into your desktop/laptop (I would recommend a dedicated card reader/writer as some built in card reader/writers are unable to correctly read multiple partitions).

Unzip File A. Once unzipped, the file will be around 3 gigabytes. This file is called the image. Burn the image into your SanDisk microSD card. This step is extremely easy for Windows users. This will install a bootable version of PhireMod 6.1 and Madcat's HC RC1 on to your sd card.

Additionally, this step will also create several partitions on your sd card. This is important to note because windows will only be able to read the first partition (named "boot") but you will need to be able to transfer files to and fro into the partition named "sdcard" (which is invisible to windows) but more of that later.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using a microSD card that has a larger storage capacity than 4 gigabytes, you may notice that Racks in his original thread advised using EASUS Partition Manager to extend your sdcard partition. I did this the first few times and although I cannot verify if extending the partition is the cause, the HoneyComb OS kept hanging on me so I would advise you to skip this step for the mean time.

IMPORTANT NOTE: j4mm3r's boot menu (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=962708) will conflict with (yet again) the HC installation. DO NOT install at this stage.

4. Power down your Nook Color and insert microSD card into the slot. Power it up normally.

5. If things go well (and they really should at this point), you should be seeing the splash animation of Phiremod. Don't fret. This usually takes a couple of minutes when it first boots into Phiremod.

6. Yes, Phiremod 6.1 is pretty, but we're not done yet. Power down your device by pressing the power button for around 5 seconds. Once it has completely shut off, wait a few seconds then press and hold the large N button and while still pressing the large N button, power up your device by pressing the Power button for more than 5 seconds until the Android splash appears.

Yes, I know. You'd have to have the dexterity of an elf to be able to do the above but you'll get used to it.

Summary of step 6:

Hold and press N button while your device is powered off.

Hold and press power button until the device powers on and the screen flashes briefly.

Release the power button but DO NOT release the N button

Keep pressing on the N button until the pretty Android splash screen appears

Now you know how to boot into Honeycomb

7. Honeycomb RC1 will load now. It's slow and clunky and it has a lot of bugs (especially in portrait mode) that it's not even worth telling your apple fanboy friends about it at this point (although you have to realize that Google has still not released the source code of honeycomb and it's half a miracle that people have figured out a way to run an emulator version of it on NC).

8. Once you have confirmed that you can run both Honeycomb RC1 and PhireMod 6.1, it's time to upgrade.

Summary at step 8:

You can run PhireMod by powering on the device normally and letting it boot properly.

You can run HoneyComb by holding down the N button while powering on the device.

You can run your pristine and undisturbed Nook Color 1.2 OS by removing your SD card and powering on the device normally.

9. You need to be able to copy Files B and C (from step 2) into the "sdcard" partition of your microsd. There are so many ways to do this, but the easiest way I was able to do this as a windows user (and yes, a lot of Windows users really did get frustrated at this step because it's just so counterintuitive) was to:

9.a: boot into PhireMod

9.b: connect your NC to your computer via the NC's usb cable. Once you do that, you will get a notification on your device asking if you want to turn on USB Mass Storage.

9.c: Choose Yes on the NC and wait until the android logo turns orange (you'll know what I mean when it happens)

9d. Your computer will detect new hardware. Wait for it to finish detecting everything. Once it's done, open Windows Explorer and browse My Computer, and you should have two new removable drives.

9e: The first removable drive is the internal memory of your Nook Color. You really don't care about that at this point in time. The second removable drive is the "sdcard" partition of your microsd.

9f: Copy files B and C (from step 2) into the 2nd removable drive. DO NOT UNZIP. DO NOT PUT IN A SUBFOLDER. Copy them as is.

9g: Once you are done copying, find the icon on your system tray to safely remove the removable drives from your laptop/desktop.

9h: Turn off USB Mass Storage mode on your NC. The android logo should return back to either blue or green.​

10. Power down your nook color and prepare your fingers, the next step is even trickier.

11. While pressing BOTH the volume up and volume down keys at the same time, press the power button the device flashes briefly. Release the power button but continue pressing the volume up and volume down keys.

12. You will enter a special mode called Recovery. Press the volume up and volume down buttons to go up and down the menu. Press the power button to go back to the previous menu. Press the large N button to select a menu option.

13. Choose "install zip from sdcard", and then choose "choose zip from sdcard." If you did step 9 correctly, you should see both Files B and C (from Step 2).

14. Choose File B and run it. Recovery mode will now update PhireMod 6.1 to PhireMod 6.2. This is called "flashing". Wait for it to finish.

15. Once it's done, go back by pressing the power button until you reach the option "reboot system now". Select that option.

16. Allow your NC to reboot normally until it reaches PhireMod 6.2. You will know that PhireMod 6.2 has been installed when the splash animation changes into the uber kewl blue android logo with a ring of glowy fire going around him.

17. Once you've verified that you are able to go into PhireMod 6.2, power down your device. It's time to install Madcat's HC RC2.

18. Repeat steps 11 to 15, but this time choose File C in step 14.

19. Boot into HC by holding down the N button while powering on the device. HC RC2 is vastly (though still very much buggy) improved from HC RC1.

20. Make sure you send a thank you note to racks11479 and Divine_Madcat at this point.

21. Go to this thread http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=998861 and download the file "CM7 - 4/24 1.3ghz Test Kernel".

22. Using steps previously mentioned in Step 9, copy this file into the "sdcard' partition of your microsd. Again, DO NOT UNZIP and DO NOT PUT IN A SUBFOLDER.

23. Go into recovery mode.

24. Select "wipe cache partition".

25. Once that's done, select "advanced" and then "wipe dalvik cache"

NOTE: Your NC may hang at this point (mine did). If this happens, press the power button down for around 8 seconds and your device will power down. Once it's off, go into recovery mode again.

26. Flash the zip file of "CM7 - 4/24 1.3ghz Test Kernel" and then reboot normally into PhireMod 6.2

CONGRATULATIONS!! You are now the proud owner of a Nook Color that can run 3 versions of android :P

To gain the immediate benefit of overclock in PhireMod, go to settings > PhireMod > Performance > CPU Setting.

-Set governer to INTERACTIVE

-Set Max CPU frequence to 1200 Mhz

-Die with amazement at how fast your Nook Color is.

HoneyComb, as pretty and revolutionary as it is, is really not yet that usable in its current form. On the other hand, PhireMod can do things you could never have dreamed doing on a 250 USD e-reader. :P

-----

I'm not done playing around with this combination yet. :P

TO DO:

1. Flash racks' version of CM7/Phiredmod - Alsa Update. Does anyone know how I can verify if the alsa update has taken effect?

2. Flash racks' version of madcat's HC RC3

3. Attempt to expand partition of "sdcard" without impacting both HC and PhireMod

4. Attempt to integrate j4mm3r's boot menu (my fingers are aching what with having to hold down on the volume keys just to get into recovery :()