[Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet] cfoesch:
I've been spending a long 3~4 days working on an install process to make applying /system changes quick, easy, painless, and automated. It then occurred to me that I could wrap it into a rooting process, and automate nearly the whole thing, to ensure that people don't accidentally trip up somewhere, and send their Nook Tablet into a bootloop, or lockup, or something like that.

The process was because a number of binaries that are typically standard with CM7 are not included in any of the roots so far. Having them around helps out a lot during development. (Like parted, vim, bash, sqlite3.)

So, I present to you the culmination of my work so far: Snowball-mod (thanks to dj_segfault on IRC for coming up with the name)

This borrows heavily from Indirect's Nook&Zergy root process. He deserves a ton of thanks for setting it all up, and bringing things together, and figuring stuff out. 100 internets to Indirect. (Don't kill me for stealing so much of your process, and .BAT coding wizardry. ... I stand upon the shoulders of giants.)

BIG WARNING:

THIS IS A FULL MOD, IT WILL REMOVE ALL BARNES & NOBLE CONTENT, DO NOT APPLY IT TO SOMEONE ELSE'S NOOK, OR A SHARED NOOK WITHOUT PERMISSION!​

They really probably will freak out that their Nook Tablet looks far more like a CyanogenMod7 tablet than a Nook Tablet anymore. Especially, when they can't access their B&N content anymore. Don't say I didn't warn you, the process even warns you itself!

First, install the ADB drivers on your machine as has been explained in various other posts. Snowball-mod will work with Windows, Linux, or Mac. (I have not tried the later two, but if NARS works for you, then Snowball-mod should as well.)

Features:

* Installs extra packages from CM7

* Installs extra commands from CM7

* Installs busybox, with links. (BusyBoxInstaller.apk is also installed so you can update the binaries later, it can also be uninstalled.)

* Installs revcompgeek's hack that makes the soft buttons to always stay on, and the n button works as home, without homecatcher, and without bringing up the bar.

* Uses kenblat's hack to mount into the 12GB data area so you can recover some of that space for your own use. (/data/usrdata hack) It shows up at /mnt/internal (NOTE! Most apps still don't recognize this mount's existence.)

* Optionally, using my own hack, the command "setup-sd-ext" will let you setup a card image that is FAT32 formated, and appears at /mnt/sd-ext, similar to a secondary SD Card. (NOTE! Most apps still don't recognize this mount's existence.)

* Fixes the invisible submenus with white text on a while background

* Automatically applies OTA blocking to change your Version to report as 9.9.9 No further action required on your part to apply this.

* Supports both Windows, Linux and Mac with nearly the same process.

* Sets your browser homepage to "about:blank", and deselects "Remember form data" and "Remember passwords". (I think these are way more sane values.)

Includes:

* ADWLauncher (You can replace it the same as any CM7 install.)

* Android Terminal Emulator

* Button Savior

Needed files for root:

You need drivers first:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15069134/usbdrivers.zip

Here is an app to pull up usb debugging menu

http://li362-167.members.linode.com/gapps/non_google/tgps_launcher.apk

<robertely> Also note, that while that box will remain checked, the setting is not persistant.
<robertely> So you have to flick the top 'Usb Development' box twice to get it working.

Download Link for rooting script:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/54958574/snowball-mod.zip

MD5SUM: 7f0090051e6141d6bfeb280355a04b18 *snowball-mod.zip

Instructions to root:

0. Make sure that you have a 1.4.0 Nook Tablet. If you don't, then find one of the posts to recover to 1.4.0, and start from there. The less interference from Barnes & Noble involved the better... they've already done plenty enough.

1. Download the "usbdrivers" zip

2. Download the "snowball-mod.zip"

3. Extract both to a folder C:\ntroot\

4. Now you should see the following files and folders inside c:\ntroot:

5. Run "runmefirst.bat" and follow the instructions.

6a. When the batch file opens the device manager, If you don't see a broken device icon next to "NOOK Tablet" then you may have some other generic drivers taking over. Not sure how to remove them so you will have to move to another PC that has never had a tablet hooked up and start over.

6b. If you do see NOOK Tablet with a broken device icon.. then right click and choose "update driver". Choose "Let me specify where the driver is" and browse to the c:\ntroot\usbdriver folder and hit ok. It should install and you can click "OK" to the warning about unsigned drivers.

7. Run "snowball.bat" and follow the instructions

7a. If you see a long string of numbers/letters it's your device

8. After the rooting process is complete, your nook tablet will reboot, and should start up straight into ADW Launcher.

Want to install your own apps, too?

The rooting scripts will take care of all that needs to be done if you just put your .apk files into the "apks/" directory of the snowball-mod directory. They will be installed automatically at the end of the rooting process.

Should I install this?

I really wouldn't recommend this rooting process for anyone who wants to keep any Barnes and Noble apps on their Nook Tablet. Also, if you've been using your tablet for awhile already, then it might not be a good idea to install this root process as well. It is intended for a clean and fresh Nook Tablet, and I cannot take responsibility for it wiping out something important. You have been warned that this is a drastic full modification.

Instructions to update:

1. Download snowball-update.zip from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/54958574/snowball-update.zip

MD5SUM 572793e71a0715185e03de4248c09aa2 *snowball-update.zip

2. Extract onto your computer.

3. Plugin your Nook Tablet with USB debugging mode activated

4a. On Windows double click "update.bat"

4b. On Linux/Mac/Cygwin open up a Terminal, cd to the directory, and enter "sh ./update.sh"

5. If you see "INSTALLATION SUCCESSFUL", then it's all done, and updated. :)

Screenshot

Someone wanted to see a screenshot. Rather than reroot just to get it a silly picture of an empty stock ADW launcher, I just recreated the screen to the best of my ability. The background is weird, I don't think it's scaled right, and for some reason, it's showing up as purple here. But it's just the same blue background as your nook had at the first install.