Related
I have a question that is more android-in-general than Nook specific. I am trying this out on my Nook first, as it is an unbrickable device, before tinkering with my target device (a phone). My phone also does not have Clockworkmod recovery support, so a bricked device would be fatal.
I am attempting to increase the memory available for installed apps. My phone has limited space, but a bunch of pre-installed junk that I thought I might be able to get rid of in order to make more space for more apps. Knowing that simply deleting these pre-installed apps from the /system folder does really nothing, I set about making and editing an image file from the /system partition, then reflashing this image back to phone. As I am trying this on the Nook first, here is what I did:
1. Adb into the Nook and dd the system partition to a system.img file on the sd card.
2. Copy the system.img file to my desktop and mount the image.
3. Edit the image, removing the LiveWallpapers.apk file (a hefty ~3M file), then save the result back out as a new system.img.
4. Copy the new system.img to the sd card, then adb back into the Nook and dd the system.img from the sd card back to the system partition.
Everything appeared to work fine. The Nook boots, runs fine, and the LiveWallpapers.apk file is nowhere to be seen. Problem is, there is no difference in the available memory on the device.
In retrospect, I suppose I should not have expected there to be a difference. I am under the impression that the system partition is a read-only partition, and that extra space on this partition is not available for installation of apps. I am guessing that in order to increase the memory available, I would need to resize the data partition.
So, ultimately, my question is whether or not this is correct. Do I need to resize the data partition in order to actually get more memory available for apps, or is there an easier way? If I would need to resize the partition, how would I go about doing this, and would I need to take this extra space away from the system partition (the extra memory would need to come from somewhere, I imagine). I would envision removing bloatware from the system partition, shrinking that partition as I would no longer need that much space, and giving that extra memory to the data partition. Bear in mind that I need to do all of this through adb as I will not have Clockworkmod recovery on my target device.
Alternatively, I could be out my gourd and none of this makes any sense. Feel free to let me know if this is the case.
Thanks!
You've got it right.
The Nook emmc has partitions for boot, rom, system, data, and media. Originally data was 1g and media (/emmc under CM7) was 5g, newer models have reversed this. Data is where apps and their data go.
There are threads here about repartitioning newer Nooks with lots of good discussion. It sounds like you are capable (or want to be capable) of creating a custom partition scheme; there's enough info there for you to do that.
Experimenting with an 8g SD card might be a good place to get familiar with the tools. The "size-agnostic" installer will use a pre-partitioned SD if it finds one IIRC.
Good luck!
Sent from my NookColor using xda premium
xdajunkman said:
I have a question that is more android-in-general than Nook specific. I am trying this out on my Nook first, as it is an unbrickable device, before tinkering with my target device (a phone). My phone also does not have Clockworkmod recovery support, so a bricked device would be fatal.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just wanted to re-iterate the importance of what you said here.
I have sent several people off to buy Nook Colors who were interested in developing for android, for this very reason.
Nothing else you can get your hands on ( to my knowledge ) is as safe of a dev-tool as the Nook Color, because of the first boot to sd-card.
It doesn't matter what you do to it, at the end of the day you'll have a working device unless you throw it down the stairs or something.
Bonus points for running an sd-install directly, because when you hose it you just reflash a new microsd card.
Can't reformat the card because windows only reads the boot partition? No problem - if you still have your Nook Color with it's stock software just boot it up and pop the microsd card in. The B & N software in the Nook Color will just format the card, without a care in the world for any existing partition schemes or whatnot.
You're on the right track for what you're trying to do, as the previous poster has pointed out, so just wanted to give you another vote of confidence letting you know you're doing all the right things for all the right reasons.
Thanks for the replies!
You know, I actually did the repartition of my Nook using the CWR zip file. I hadn't thought to go look through the original thread for the manual instructions. As you pointed out, I found the directions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13971291&postcount=110
The only problem is that his instructions require that you boot from the SD card in order to manipulate your interal memory. This is fine and good on the Nook, but not possible with my phone. Any idea what would happen if I tried to repartition the internal memory while booting from the internal memory? Seems that this would not be possible....or at least wrought with peril. I think that my phone can boot into a fastboot mode, but have not tried that...anyone know if this would help?
Perhaps I am just playing with fire here and need to settle for cramped memory space on my phone. I am just too accustomed to my 5GB of available app space on my Nook.
Thanks again.
Well, after some more Googling, I think I might abandon the repartitioning bit. I think I am likely to brick my phone, even though I think I could do it manually on the Nook. In addition, it appears that many phones are set up so that the kernel resets the internal memory partitioning on boot....so I might also need to mess with the kernel to get this to stick. This is beyond my skill set and really not worth my turning my phone into a paperweight.
I thought of a bit of a workaround, however. As I can extract and edit the image of the system partition, I will simply install the apps that I will eventually want on my phone on my Nook instead, extract the apk's from the Nook, then insert them into the system image file from my phone. Reflashing the system image then puts these apps into the system partition instead of the data partition, effectively saving me hoards of space on my data partition. A bit laborious, but for several core apps that I know I will want and that are memory hogs, I think it will be worth it.
Anyone see any problem with this approach?
Hi,
I have a problem that hopefully can be easily fixed. Heeeelp!
After rooting with SalsichaNooter3 , unrooting, re-rooting. Well, basically trying everything (for fun), I’m ending with a Nook that have no storage space available. At one point, my Nook was connected to the same PC where I was doing a Wi32Image with SalsichaNooter to the SDCard. The image might have been written to the Nook instead of the SDCard (here I’m not sure). The Nook would not boot, so after different manipulation, I can now boot the Nook with original recovery firmware 1.0.0 but there is no storage available. I can download from B&N shop, read, do all of what is expected from this device but the NOOK folder doesn't appear when connected to the PC. If I look at ‘Available storage’ in the settings menu, I get ‘0. 00B free of 0.00B’
I tried ‘erase, reset Nook’ from the menu, also the recovery with the power-left,right bottom buttons. I tried with n2T-Recovery 0.1 and 0.2. All seems to properly do their job but the storage partition still doesn’t seem to be available.
I suspect that the ‘boot’, ‘rom’ and ‘firmware’ partition are proper since I can boot, register and use the device so I tried with Partition Wizard to adjust the ‘*:NOOK’ and ‘*:userdata’ partition (formatting, change ID, etc), without success.
I don’t have a valid backup – I did my original backup using the drive ref. instead of the physical disk (I know, I should have read more - sniff).
Below is the screen shoot of Partition Wizard. Does anyone have an idea? Have none left. Maybe replacing the NOOK partition from a valid image using Partition Wizard would work but I don’t have access to such image.
Thanks.
For those interrested in my solution.
Inspired by this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=16818990
I recreated the image partitions under linux with dd and sfdisk and repopulate the boot, factory, rom and empty name partition with my broken backup.
Write image to Nook using Noogie and RoadKill Disk Image.
Did a factory restore with power+2 lower side button method to be on safe side.
Seems to work nicely with extra space for sideloading (used the same space assigments as describe in the above thread).
Now, my recovered 1.0.0 version doesn't seems to apply the updates - but that's another story.
Cheers,
GM
I was able to update my Nook touch to 1.1 by resizing the partition. Seems that the system needs more space in the ./factory area (I think) to apply an update. The resizing modification specified in the above didn't left enough space.
Thanks.
You should take the time to update your title with [Solved]
ros87 said:
You should take the time to update your title with [Solved]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ha! ok. Done
Dear Members!
I did the stupid thing of using a tool, not completly knowing what it does.
After using TouchEraser.zip I installed Alpha-FormatTouch-2.zip using clockwork.
I tried to boot the device, no luck...
Clockwork says:
can't mount /cache/recovery/log/log
can't open /cache/recovery/log/log
can't mount /cache/recovery/log/last_log
can't open /cache/recovery/log/last_log
Please help!
Stupidly enough I don't have the devices own factory image.
What to do now?
ok , first boot with noogie image and lets see what partion u got , if u have got rom partions so take a copy all files from it and take backup from the whole nook and do this steps in this post
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30722156&postcount=2
but u must try to recovery ur nook partition rom especially cuz very important ..... before do anything above .... i will keep continue active in this thread
good luck
only one partition on on gParted...
Do You think theres any way to fix it? how?
If CWR came up that far then the /rom partition must be ok.
All we know is that the /cache partition has a problem.
That's a disposable partition, you can format the /cache partition.
Be careful, don't make anything worse.
auerg said:
Do You think theres any way to fix it? how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as Renate say ..... dont make anything more worth .... so can u type fdisk for ur nook to see all ur partition table info???
Pretty screwed...
speedman2202 said:
as Renate say ..... dont make anything more worth .... so can u type fdisk for ur nook to see all ur partition table info???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did but what it listed is ONLY ONE 1,8 gb partition. Toucheraser probably wiped the whole table (
I'd need a tool to restore the original filesystem or a factory image ( I don't have my own...).
I found one for glowlight, but probably I shouldn't write that to my mormal NST.
Alpha-FormatTouch-2.zip using clockwork.didn't work.
I'm pretty screwed...
Get Clockwork Recovery working on an SD card.
Get ADB setup and connected to CWR.
Run nookpart.sh from a shell (download the script from my signature).
This will recreate the partitioning without formatting or writing any of them.
You can then see if/what you can mount.
Use either the mount options in CWR or the mount command in ADB.
U kidding with me. Did u format the whole partition.? I suggest u try again and boot ur nook with noogie image and the all sevsen partition will show to U?
Tru agan man. Good luck
Sent from my NOOK using xda app-developers app
resurect nook
Renate NST said:
Get Clockwork Recovery working on an SD card.
Get ADB setup and connected to CWR.
Run nookpart.sh from a shell (download the script from my signature).
This will recreate the partitioning without formatting or writing any of them.
You can then see if/what you can mount.
Use either the mount options in CWR or the mount command in ADB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I even can`t do that!,"my" nook simple are "dead" after, i delette all the memorie intern with MINI TOOL PARTITION WIZARD, without make backup or copy room, very nervius then, with CLOCKWORK RECOVERY in a sd card y instal a program call ALPHA FORMAT TOUCH2, after that my nook are iresponsive .no sd card function
any more no usb conection just charge, ¿can is posible resurrect it by some way?
dummy56 said:
...
i delette all the memorie intern with MINI TOOL PARTITION WIZARD, without make backup or copy room,
...
¿can is posible resurrect it by some way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way I can think of to quasi-resurrect your Nook is if you can obtain a full image backup of another Nook (e.g., boot it up with noogie and read/save its entire drive as an image file) then write the backup image file back to your Nook (after booting it up with noogie) -- but then the two Nook devices will have identical device-specific data (e.g., encryption keys, WiFi MAC address, etc.), which can cause Internet access/communication problems of various sorts.
The batery are charged but it won't power on , after i install ALPHA FORMAT TOUCH2
maybe i kill him.
Wow, this is an old thread!
The Nook Simple Touch was/is a simple device.
With its SD card it's almost completely unbrickable.
Add in the stuff we've learned in the last few years about booting over USB and it's almost unsinkable.
First, whenever somebody says "dead", it's never clear what the state is.
Until you get to the point where the screen is initialized you don't know what's going on.
If you have Windows where it goes "bong" when you plug in a USB device, see if it "bongs" when you connect/power up/power down.
As said above, you'll probably need to find a full NST image somewhere.
similar to this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2322762
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
the batery are charged the machine have no image and whent i plug in a usb, no screen are inicialized just windowsXP said "OMAP3630 - No driver found". :silly:
Dear Renate, may I kindly ask you to provide the command prompt syntax here for dummies like me: "Run nookpart.sh from a shell (download the script from my signature)"? I know how to use adb, but with a ready syntax only.
And I have a spare completely bricked NSTGL, it was brought to me bricked already, managed to write an image from my current NSTGL using MiniTool Partition Wizard, and was able to open it in Windows Explorer, could see all files and folders, could add, copy and delete anything, but never succeeded in seeing any sign of life at the Nook's screen (nothing at all, never), and tried everything with a battery - disconnected it, pressed the switch button at the mainboard for some time, charged fully etc., then one unhappy day I have tried to overwrite it with a new image, but forgot to delete all partitions first and it crashed during the writing process in MiniTool Partition Wizard and now it is recognized by Windows (bang) and shown as a (some) drive but I cannot open it. Obviously I have damaged the partition table, and since then was unable to restore it, and now came across your messages here. Although, I am afraid restoring the partition table will do me no good, as it already showed no sign of life with a healthy image onboard. And I would appreciate it if you provide here a syntax for adbsync too
Mnurlan said:
Dear Renate, may I kindly ask you to provide the command prompt syntax here for dummies like me: "Run nookpart.sh from a shell (download the script from my signature)"? I know how to use adb, but with a ready syntax only.
...
And I would appreciate it if you provide here a syntax for adbsync too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think a simpler, more expedient alternative to any adb-based method would be:
Use a disk-imaging tool (such as win32diskimager) and write to SD-card the image Noogie.img
Boot your live NSTGL off the Noogie SD-card and connect it to your PC via USB
Use the disk-imaging tool to read/save the NSTGL drive image to a file on your PC
Disconnect your live NSTGL from your PC
Boot your bad NSTGL off the Noogie SD-card and connect it to your PC via USB
Use the disk-imaging tool to write the file containing previously saved image of the live NSTGL drive to the bad NSTGL drive.
When writing out a disk image, make sure that you select the correct target drive (in particular don't select by mistake your PC "C:" drive).
Afterward you will have to figure out how to resolve the issue of the two Nook devices having identical device-specific data (e.g., encryption keys, WiFi MAC address, etc.), which can cause Internet access/communication problems of various sorts.
@Mnurlan I think @digixmax has it about right.
Just copying a whole image over is probably the easiest way.
If you have a raw image of the whole disk then the partitioning comes over just like all the other data.
@dummy56 if your device is IDing as OMAP3630 then what you have there is the bootloader.
The easiest thing to try would be just like above, with noogie and a full 2GB image from a friend.
Depending on what got overwritten, you might be able to fix things with just a recovery and ADB.
2 digixmax and 2 Renate
This is exactly what I did, remember I said that I received the "bad" NSTGL bricked already, so of course I took an image of my healthy (live) NSTGL FW1.2.0 to overwrite (re-write) whatever was left on "bad-dead" NSTGL, and I know in details how to write-read-save an image with win32diskimager, just during the second attempt I forgot to delete all partitions first and that resulted in damaged partitions - that is my educated guess. I would like to point out that my first attempt was successful (I have copied a healthy image of my live NSTGL to a bad one) and I was able to read-see-delete-add anything to NSTGL in Windows Explorer whenever I connect that dead NSTGL to PC directly, without a Noogie.
I am afraid, the screen has been damaged somehow (although it looks visibly intact), as it never showed any sign of life, no matter whatever I've tried.
And now the problem is that no Nook's partition appears in the MiniTool Partition Wizard window, only SD-card with Noogie, so I have nowhere to write an image. This is why I thought the culprit is - a damaged partition table. I have tried to use the GParted Live CD, but my notebook failed to boot on it, so I just postponed it for a while, as I had to leave for my rotation. Currently I am away from home and I left that "bad" NSTGL at home, and won't be able to do anything about it until I am back on Feb. 18.
And having two Nook devices having identical device-specific data is the least of my problems as I am pretty sure that I can easily do without W-Fi functionality of that Nook should I manage to revive it somehow, which I doubt.
Mnurlan said:
This is exactly what I did, remember I said that I received the "bad" NSTGL bricked already, so of course I took an image of my healthy (live) NSTGL FW1.2.0 to overwrite (re-write) whatever was left on "bad-dead" NSTGL, and I know in details how to write-read-save an image with win32diskimager, just during the second attempt I forgot to delete all partitions first and that resulted in damaged partitions - that is my educated guess.
...
And now the problem is that no Nook's partition appears in the MiniTool Partition Wizard window, only SD-card with Noogie, so I have nowhere to write an image. This is why I thought the culprit is - a damaged partition table.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since Wiin32DiskImager can read/write from/to a raw physical device, there is no need to clear/fix the partition table of the bad NSTGL using MiniTool or GParted before re-imaging it.
As long as your bad NSTGL when booted on Noogie appears as a raw physical drive in Win32DiskImager's drive-selection menu, you can re-image the bad NSTGL using the raw drive image of the good NSTGL.
NSTGL in question appears as (some) drive in Windows Explorer window, but does not appear in the Wiin32DiskImager's drive selection window, and I run it As Administrator
My Nook Simple Touch (1.1.2) is now not working because I wiped ALL the partitions before attempting to restore a backup (which I didnt know was bad at the time)
Notes
1. I have two backups:
a) the first is 239mb which contains my ebooks and pdfs
b) the second is the boot partition (77mb) - I backed up again when when noogie was on micro SD
2. So basically (both backups) I backed up the NST without selecting the whole physical drive.
3. After a failed root, I tried to restore the backup (and seeing it fail), I decided to wipe the whole partition before attempting to restore again :crying:
4. Are there any restorable backup images that can be downloaded online? Or anything which can restore the partition table including the ROM partition with the serial address etc.
5. Please help me restore the Nook back to factory or any working state. Cos AFAIK i've bricked the device.
p.s. I have tried touchnooter and installed touchformatv2 but all I get now is a Read Forever load screen. N2Tsecurity doesnt work without the ROM partition.
Please Please Help Me Im so sad (I know this is down to carelessness on my part but I really need help)
Did you really wipe all the partitions (like write zeroes over the entire physical drive)?
Or did you just try to repartition it?
The question is whether you truly wiped out the /rom and /factory partitions.
Sometimes partitioning them correctly you can rediscover the file system.
The /rom partition is necessary, even ClockworkMod needs to be able to see it.
The /rom info is replicated in /factory/rombackup.zip
Renate's solution may work.
Also, there is a tool called testdisk available for linux that I've used to recover data and partition layouts before; I would expect that it may work a champ for situations like yours.
To use it, you would need a linux box or find a windows port and boot the NSTG or NST from the noogie disk.
Testdisk can recover deleted partitions automatically, including the all-important /rom partition.
That one's important because it contains device-specific info for your NST. It'll do it automatically, but you do need to read up on what commands to give it. You can also rebuild the table manually using fdisk (and I've done so successfully before.)
A windows file recovery utility might let you recover /rom as well (or the files from it.)
You most need the contents of /devconf, and there are lots of files there. I am not sure which ones are absolutely required.
Hello,
we already have 3 Nooks in the family, all of them rooted. One with Touchnooter on 1.1 about a year ago, two of them with Nookmanager on 1.2 and 1.2.1.
There are more to come for friends, so I wanted to know if there is a possibily to use the Nookmanager backup and change the B&N and Google account setting later on ?
I did them individually so far, as from memory I thought they are individual to some degree, but it get's a bit inefficient.
A) Is cloning in my case possible?
Another thing:
B) Could I update from 1.2 to 1.2.1 without going through the whole process again ? I tried making a backup with Nookmanager, reset to factory, manual update, restore backup - but after restoring the backup it shows 1.2 again. Maybe it's not worth the hassle (?)
Thanks for your help !
It's certainly possible, but I haven't done it so take this advice with a grain of salt.
Before you try any of this, please take a complete backup of the your device with NookManager so if you completely mess up your partitions, you'll still be able to restore your device to a working state. As you've noticed, NookManager does a complete backup of the entire Nook memory, so restoring a backup will take your device back to the exact state it was in at the the time of the backup, including firmware version, partition table, user data, etc. No matter how messed up your Nook is, your backup will get you back in the clear. You do not want to restore a backup made with NookManager to a different device, so with multiple devices make sure you've got your backups identified.
The Nook's internal memory is divided into seven partitions (1-7): boot, rom, factory, system, userdata, cache, and data
What you're looking to do is a backup/restore of selected partitions, which is do-able but you'll need to get your hands dirty. You'll want two SD cards, one with the NookManager, and one for your 'clone' backups.
I think you'll probably want to backup/restore the boot, rom, and system partitions while leaving factory, userdata, cache, and data alone.
To backup select partitions from your 'master' Nook, insert your 'backup' sdcard and use adb to run the following commands:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 of=/sdcard/p1
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 of=/sdcard/p2
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 of=/sdcard/p4
This will create three files on your sdcard: p1 p2 and p4 containing the data from the boot, rom, and system partitions, respectively.
Use the NookManager card to boot the Nook you want to clone to, enable wireless and enable adb. Make a backup now if you do not already have one for this Nook. Remove the NookManager sdcard, insert the backup sdcard, and run the following commands with adb:
mount -t vfat /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /sdcard
ls /sdcard # make sure you see the p1 p2 and p4 images
umount /system
umount /data
umount /cache
umount /rom
dd if=/sdcard/p1 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1
dd if=/sdcard/p2 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p2
dd if=/sdcard/p4 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4
umount /sdcard
sync
reboot
If that works, your Nook should reboot and be very similar to your master device. If this is something you plan to be doing regularly, you can work the backup/restore procedures into scripts, and run them as a custom plugin for NookManager (details here). That way you'll just need the one SD card and you won't have to fuss with all the adb commands.
Good luck, and be sure to post your results when you've got this working.
Thanks a lot for that. I will get my sisters Nook on Thursday. She wants an update to 1.2.1, Relaunch and NoRefesh anyway. So I will make a Nookmanagerbackup, then update to 1.2.1 and then copy the partitions you suggested. I will let you know how that goes.
I have do admit that I already bricked a NSG, but the mistake was not doing my noogie backup correctly. With Nookmanager I fell a lot safer doing all this.
As I'm leaving user data alone I hope to keep the connection to google play and B&N intact with the old settings.
Hello. I have a problem. I've rooted my NST and after 2 months i wanted to get back it to stock so I've deleted all partitions on my Nook and then i realized my backup is wrong (it has only 245mb). Now i have intetnion to buy a 2nd NST and fix 1st one. How I can do it? Can I simply make a (proper) backup new NST and restore using it my old NST? I've readed other post and i know there might be a problem with registatrion. Is there any way to fix my nook using backup from antoher device and how cen i do this? Plese help and sorry for my english.
darksd87 said:
Hello. I have a problem. I've rooted my NST and after 2 months i wanted to get back it to stock so I've deleted all partitions on my Nook and then i realized my backup is wrong (it has only 245mb). Now i have intetnion to buy a 2nd NST and fix 1st one. How I can do it? Can I simply make a (proper) backup new NST and restore using it my old NST? I've readed other post and i know there might be a problem with registatrion. Is there any way to fix my nook using backup from antoher device and how cen i do this? Plese help and sorry for my english.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi darsd87,
Yes you will be able to fix your nook using the 2nd.
But, have another way to do this.
I do the same mistake, but my device is a NST Glowlight. I think you can do a backup of your nook now and try to recover using NSTG just in case. In the worst case you can overwrite your backup.
Considering what I do to recover, I sugest you do this steps:
1. create a image backup of NST.
2. recover the ROM partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard
3. write the NSTG backup image
4. copy the ROM partition to NSTG image
5. do a hard reset
The instructions and the backup image of NSTG are available in:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2104145
If some post a image of NST without the rom partition would be better.
But, i think the only "problem" you will have is a useless glowlight button in the nook menu.
Best luck!
PS: sorry for my english... i´m from Brazil.
Thank you very much You saved my nook. I didn't have room partition so i've just used NSTG-backup-norom.img and then made a hard reset. I've registered my nook and now it stuck on the glow light screen "Give it a try" I'm pressing n button for 2 seconds but nothing happen co i can't move on. I can only turn on screensaver or turn off device. Is there any way to skip this screen? I think this is the last step of registering because when i restart nook the registration process starts again (only this time skips logging)
Edited.
I skiped registration using "Oobee method" and when I go to device info menu --> About Your NOOK it seems to be registered on me. Now the only thing what doesn't work is Screen menu, when I tap the screen button the screen flash once and nothing happen. Also i don't have internal storage but I think I can fix it using this method: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1374777. I have one more question. How I can unroot my nook? Hard reset doesn't work. My nook is still rooted. (I have *Development menu in settings and access to android launcher)