[Miscellaneous Android Development] thegh0st:
thanks for the reply.

thought I should update this as it has been quite the experience and might save someone some trouble in the future if they come across this thread.

so going the method of doing the OTA updates BEFORE starting anything else got the nabi 2 to Android version 4.4.2 (Kit Kat) as expected. however this created issues with all of the above files downloaded to get root accomplished. at the time these issues were unknown. the unknown issue involved nothing seeing the nabi 2 except the Win7 Ult 64-bit computer it was hooked to. tried multiple drivers and someone left an unknown device. all custom root kits said no driver installed. I even tried a Vista Ult 32-bit computer in case it was a 64-bit driver issue (still might be as I never went back to the Win7 Ult 64-bit computer. it is possible it might work now also though. didn't bother to verify). launching adb manually and using custom commands would show the device but state it was not connected. and I couldn't force a manual connection. UGH! was driving me crazy. (NOTE: it's been about a week so I could be not typing the message exactly as it was but hopefully the information comes across and is still helpful)

I tried multiple drivers and came across another piece of software I was unaware of, NetLabGUI. this software might work now but did not verify it either. however I would like to state it seems to be a very easy to use piece of software. it's only issue it that it is a web install so I had to locate the actual installation files to manipulate them. it also was the only piece of software to actually detect the nabi 2 SOMETIMES. it would try to update it also but failed. this was expected as sometimes it didn't detect the driver also.

I tried

PdaNetA4180.exe

and even downloaded an updated version. this software is unnecessary. at least I found it so once everything was done. I even tried downloading directly from google and using the android SDK software.

the driver I went with comes with NabiLabLite.zip. the person who created this installation package customized the driver (it's a google driver if I recall correctly) with a windows certificate and customized it to actually label the device as a Fuhu Nabi and not just an android device.

after trying multiple drivers and landing on the drivers from NabiLabLite.zip, I learned this was only half the battle. the fact that the nabi 2 is now Android version 4.4.2 (Kit Kat) bombed out all of the adb's/fastboot.exe's that come with the previously mentioned custom software installation kits. I only learned this after multiple searches I couldn't even begin to type up all the forks or recall them. it was one of those internet walk-abouts (sp?) that starts on one path and through multiple forks leads you to an unexpected destination. apparently Kit Kat has new permissions/requested access commands the older adb/fastboot.exe versions don't include. possibly something to do with how Kit Kat hosed sdcard access also. for this I downloaded fastboot_adb(1.0.32)_071114_r21.rar. once extracted I replaced the following:

adb.exe

AdbWinApi.dll

AdbWinUsbApi.dll

fastboot.exe

in all of the previously listed custom software kits: jmzrootpackage.zip and mn2ri-v1.5.0-beta2.zip. once this was done both detected the nabi 2 with Kit Kat (Android version 4.4.2) on the Vista Ult 32-bit computer. I ASSUME (we all know about assuming) this would cause

NabiLabLite.zip

or

NetLabGUI

to work also but did not verify. whether this works on the Win7 Ult 64-bit computer

was NOT

verified. not yet anyways.

I was able to use both custom kits without errors or driver not found messages. you will also get a distinct popup on the nabi 2 for permissions request to allow the computer running access requests (either the custom installation kits or adb directly).

further note, I could not get the version of TWRP that comes with the custom installation kits to update to twrp-recovery-KKNV7AUS-285v2.zip through custom recovery (forget the version. I believe it was TWRP 2.3.3). to correct this I extracted TWRP version 2.8.5v2 and renamed the recovery file to recovery.img and renamed the recovery.img file that comes in the custom installation kit to recovery-old.img then copied the 2.8.5v2 recovery.img into the folder where recovery-old.img is located. probably an easier way to describe this but if you know windows (other OS's) and folder/file structures this should make enough sense. after this running mn2ri-v1.5.0-beta2.zip now updated TWRP to the latest version I've found used with nabi 2. there is a newer version. whether it works or not I do not know.

what option I chose was to install the recovery and root option. forget the number this choice is as I looked at different custom installation kits. after this it was a matter of installing SuperUser and verifying root. I actually got an error verifying root which lead me to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp63AzGkqbQ (collecting file UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.46.zip from https://download.chainfire.eu/696/Sup ) fixed my problem right up and was able to verify root and start removing and customizing. also was able to apply a write to sdcard fix which as far as I can tell there is no issues with apps writing to an ex_sdcard as Kit Kat is known for.

hope everything has been covered and is understandable. feel free to ask questions and good luck to anyone else attempting to custom a nabi 2.

Aftermath:

POSSIBLY just installing the already stripped down Kit Kat version might have been easier. removing apps is quite the manual process.

installing a custom launcher and golocker is one way to get rid of the nabi 2 stuff. there is another thread here involving compiling and customizing the default nabi 2 lockscreen. wasn't for me as that was too intensive. could not find a way to remove the lockscreen but removed launcher (Launcher-com.android.launcher-19-v4.4.2-US.apk). maybe this is just the Kit Kat launcher? perhaps just golocker is needed to get rid of the nabi 2 lockscreen. however the nabi 2 lockscreen kept defaulting on reboot until I set a 3rd party launcher as the default (always) launcher. now when the nabi 2 is restarted the golocker screen defaults after bootup.

also of note, the above custom installation kits might have still worked prior to OTA updates to Android version 4.4.2 (Kit Kat) but being as the desired end result was to have Kit Kat not sure that matters and is not relevant to myself but might be to someone else.