Preface:



I am by no means an Android Expert or programmer of any sort. And with the exception of where I express my personal experiences and opinions, pretty much everything in this article and it's subsequent posts is the fruit of other peoples hard labor and efforts. I will attempt to thank each and every one of them, but if I miss someone please accept my pre-apologies and let me know so I can update.





OK, so you bought a NOOKcolor (NC) and now you are considering the possibilities beyond the stock Barnes & Noble (B&N) software. Well, there are a lot of options and a ton of benefit to going there. There are also risks involved, and you will certainly void your warranty. However, the wonderful engineers and designers of the NC made certain that unless you have a physical failure your NC can be fixed no matter how badly you mistakenly mess it up. But just because you can fix something doesn't mean that process is always easy and simple. In fact, breaking the device is almost always easier than fixing it. But that was what prompted me to create this article and compile all the information that I have included. There is no reason that with a little preperation you can't be prepared for any disaster and be ready to bounce back quickly. So here is my version of how you should approach the world of Rooting a NOOKcolor:





Assumptions:



Throughout this article I will assume as little as possible, and as such will outline as much as I can. To begin with, in order to do any of the things below you have to have purchased a NC. It's hard to root a device you don't have. I am also going to assume that you have at least two (2) micro SD cards. I am going to assume that you have a working computer (PC in my case) that will allow you internet access and some form of card reader for the mSD. I am going to assume that you have never rooted anything before, if you have then some things will seem trivial, but pay attention anyway because the NC is a different device than your phone.





Definitions/Glossary:



This is something that I think should probably deserve its own thread but I am going to leave that to someone else for now. I am going to try to include every term, accronym, etc that I use in this article. Please help if I missed one.



NOOKcolor : your device, it's awesome (IMHO) and is also known as 'encore' by some developers. Also referred to as NC, nook, tablet-of-the-financially-impaired-gods

ROM : Common term that encompasses the entire operating system. Can be either an entirely new version of the system (ie. Windows 98 v. OS-10) or a new edition of a system (ie. Windows 98 v. Windows XP) or even a themed and customized version of a system (ie. i got nothing here, anyone got a good example?)

Root(ing) : This is simply giving the user (you) administrative rights to the operating system of the device. A basic root of the NC will appear the same as it did before you started, but you have the ability to change system level things now. Thankfully, there's a lot of people that enoy creating whole packages of changes to throw on top of the rooting process so you don't have to get dirty with the coding level.

Clockwork : The recovery software of choice for our beloved device. Also referred to as ClockworkMod Recovery, CWR, CMR, and 'thank-the digital-heavens-you-exist'

Flash(ing) : This is the act of installing something new to the device via a recovery software (ie. Clockwork).

Burn(ing) : This is the act of taking an image file (.img) and placing the image onto a micro SD memory card. A program is required to do this, and I recommend Win32DiskImager.

bootable SD : A micro SD card that has a bootable image burned to it, can be either a full ROM or just a bootable recovery system.

NAND/nand : Common term that refers to a Nandroid Backup. The original (iirc) utility to backup the Android system installed on a phone.

mSD : My shorthand for micro Secure Digital memory card

b_SD : My shorthand for a bootable mSD

OOBE : Acronym for 'Out Of Box Experience' - the initial set-up walk-through the NC does when turned on for the first time. This will register the device to your B&N account and connect to wifi.

AOSP : Acronym for 'Android Open Source Project' - "Android is an open-source software stack created for mobile phones and other devices. The Android Open Source Project (AOSP), led by Google, is tasked with the maintenance and further development of Android." (About AOSP)

"Android is an open-source software stack created for mobile phones and other devices. The Android Open Source Project (AOSP), led by Google, is tasked with the maintenance and further development of Android." (About AOSP) eMMC : Acronym for 'embedded MultiMediaCard' - This refers to the internal hard drive of the NC, and is where the system lives. As well as the internal storage area (that 5gb of storage). (about eMMC)

Willing & Unsuspecting contributors from here:

Rico2001, Darmeen, Stelv, LocalStain, avi, AnimaTechnica, lifeisfun, gadgetrants, others I am sure I forgot



Willing & Unsuspecting contributors from XDA:

dalingrin, nemith, thecubed, brian21, samuelhalff, phiredrop, deeper-blue, Decad3nce, shad0xf0x, xawen



Updates:

03-06-11 - added definitions

