Nook Color: sneaky Android tablet

Hextall

New Member
Mar 5, 2010
189
Edit: For wallpapers I've found that they only look decent when I'm setting them from the web.

These Honeycomb wallpapers look great if you just long press on the picture and set as wallpaper.
I could never figure out how to fix the fuzziness (you suggested the above up thread, but it just didn't work for me). The app I referenced would set the honeycomb wallpapers very clear (i tested it), while using your method just didn't work for me, I had given up until I read through the whole "show your nook homescreen" thread on XDA that suggested that app.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
I flashed Froyo onto the internal last night, but am having issues with the wifi - which is a major bummer since without wifi, the thing is pretty much useless. I will continue to look for a solution and post here if I find one, in case anybody else runs into the issue.

Other than that, I'm pretty giddy with the way it turned out. Hopefully I can fix the wifi issue.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
That's pretty sweet Hex.

Anybody use their Android phone as a wireless hotspot for their Nook?

I get mine to connect, but it's just so incredibly slow. I get better speeds when I connect my laptop. Any ideas?

Edit: For wallpapers I've found that they only look decent when I'm setting them from the web.

These Honeycomb wallpapers look great if you just long press on the picture and set as wallpaper.
I use my G2 to as my WiFi source for my Nook running CM7 with no issues at all. I have tested YouTube on that connection and get roughly the same performance as I do on my home network. I even got GPS tethering to work.
 

gingerbreadmann

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 11, 2008
750
I flashed Froyo onto the internal last night, but am having issues with the wifi - which is a major bummer since without wifi, the thing is pretty much useless. I will continue to look for a solution and post here if I find one, in case anybody else runs into the issue.

Other than that, I'm pretty giddy with the way it turned out. Hopefully I can fix the wifi issue.
I also have the same issues -- WiFi cycles on and off continuously as I watch in pure horror. It only works occasionally when I have it plugged in and set WiFi sleeping to "never when plugged in." I'm going to try CM7 or something -- this is unusable.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
I also have the same issues -- WiFi cycles on and off continuously as I watch in pure horror. It only works occasionally when I have it plugged in and set WiFi sleeping to "never when plugged in." I'm going to try CM7 or something -- this is unusable.
You have to flash an older kernel and the wireless issues go away. It didn't fix my issues, but it has worked for people that can connect to wifi initially. My issue is that I can't even get it to connect.

I'm confident that there will be a fix for this soon, too many people are having the issue.
 

Foulkey Reese

foulkiavelli
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2006
21,795
Central CT
I have to check this out this week, as I'm heading out of town next week and want to be able to use the nook. There's something about most phone's wireless tethering being an ad hoc network (I don't know what that means) and the nook has to be modified to be able to stably use those. That was my Nook task for the week... get wifi tethering to work with my phone. I'll let you know what I find out.
Get anywhere with this?
 

Hextall

New Member
Mar 5, 2010
189
Get anywhere with this?
hoping to get to it this weekend. I got a little sidetracked getting CM7 nightlies on my sdcard and the dual boot menu stuff working.

Anybody disable the ota upgrade stuff so if B&N ever updates to froyo that it won't do it automatically and break root? I tried once but then I couldn't download any books from b&n (although this might have been due to a credit card issue, so I haven't tried again).
 

zenter

indian sweet
SoSH Member
Oct 11, 2005
5,641
Astoria, NY
hoping to get to it this weekend. I got a little sidetracked getting CM7 nightlies on my sdcard and the dual boot menu stuff working.

Anybody disable the ota upgrade stuff so if B&N ever updates to froyo that it won't do it automatically and break root? I tried once but then I couldn't download any books from b&n (although this might have been due to a credit card issue, so I haven't tried again).
Hey Hextall, I feel like a dunce, but I was trying to get phiremod CM7 onto my Nook, and I don't know why, but the procedure wasn't working for me. It always booted normally. I ended up going with Nookie with the mod that Foulkey posted. Do you know what I could be missing?
 

Hextall

New Member
Mar 5, 2010
189
Hey Hextall, I feel like a dunce, but I was trying to get phiremod CM7 onto my Nook, and I don't know why, but the procedure wasn't working for me. It always booted normally. I ended up going with Nookie with the mod that Foulkey posted. Do you know what I could be missing?
I've only messed around with other ROMs that install to the sdcard, so I'm not too sure what's different about installing to internal memory. I think CM7 requires a more up to date clockworkmod... something to do with an extra partition (ext4) that CM7 uses. Have you tried flashing the most recent clockworkmod recovery through rom manager?

There might be some repartitioning or adding partitions that only the newest CWR can do (I'm only guessing...).

Until someone makes a stock Rom that can boot via the sdcard, I'll probably only run the others from the sdcard.
 

Hextall

New Member
Mar 5, 2010
189
Get anywhere with this? (This being tethering nok with phone)
I tethered successfully with my incredible and the wireless tether app in both the stock rom and cm7 build 30 (running of the sdcard) with no slow downs that I could see (I watched the download speed, and it stayed pretty constant whie doing some surfing for about 10 minutes). The only odd thing that happened is that after a while the app stopped tethering, but this wasn't on the nook's side but my phone's (I have had this happen before, I'm finding it to be a finicky app).

Sorry I couldn't be more help.



 

zenter

indian sweet
SoSH Member
Oct 11, 2005
5,641
Astoria, NY
I've only messed around with other ROMs that install to the sdcard, so I'm not too sure what's different about installing to internal memory. I think CM7 requires a more up to date clockworkmod... something to do with an extra partition (ext4) that CM7 uses. Have you tried flashing the most recent clockworkmod recovery through rom manager?

There might be some repartitioning or adding partitions that only the newest CWR can do (I'm only guessing...).

Until someone makes a stock Rom that can boot via the sdcard, I'll probably only run the others from the sdcard.
I have the newest CWR, so not sure what the deal is. I have only been flashing over ROMs, not running from SD, so I don't know how that experience is working.

I'm finding nookie froyo to be somwhat buggy. It sometimes freezes and then eventually FCs random stuff. Market Enabler doesn't appear to hold its settings, and relatedly, I can't find Firefox Mobile in the market. I was able to install FF Mobile just fine when I was on rooted stock ROM. Wifi is strange - often, wifi keeps turning on and off and I can't connect. Hasn't happened at home, but happens at work and at my mom's in Boston. Weird.
 

TFP

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
20,380
Got this upgraded to the Nookie Froyo last night, going to dive in a bit tonight while watching the Bruins. Any suggestions for an Android noob as to what the big differences are between the stock root OS and this?
 

zenter

indian sweet
SoSH Member
Oct 11, 2005
5,641
Astoria, NY
There were two issues - the first issue was that it was cycling on and off, which was fixed by installing an earlier version of the kernal. The second was that I was entering the wrong password for my router, that was fixed by realizing I'm a baboon and putting the correct password in.
How do I go about installing an older kernel? I'm having the wifi cycling issue intermittently, and it's frankly tiring.
 

TFP

Moderator
Moderator
SoSH Member
Dec 10, 2007
20,380
Ok, so I have 2 separate issue I could use help with.

1. When playing around with Titanium Backup to backup Flash 10.1, uninstall, then try to download 10.2, I accidentally deleted my backup of Flash 10.1 while it was uninstalled. So I have no flash on my device. I go to look for 10.2 in the market and nothing appears (it detects it on my Nook somehow). Any thoughts?

2. My battery is getting drained pretty bad. I go to Settings - About Phone - Battery use and it says about 70% of my battery usage is cell standby, which obviously shouldn't be happening. Any ideas how to get the device to stop looking for a cell signal? I'm clueless here.
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
You need to make sure your wifi never sleeps. Go to settings > wireless and hit the menu button and go to advanced settings and change the wifi sleep setting to never sleep. This will help when your nook is idle.
 

Bucknahs Bum Ankle

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2003
8,487
Taintopolis
Awesome. I'm going to get on that froyo install this weekend. Any tips or cautionary tales for a someone of limited technical prowess? Just follow that xda thread and it works fine or is there anything else I need to do? I'm fine with step by step instructions and managed to get it rooted without much difficulty, but it seems like there may be a couple of extra steps involved here. Thanks!
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
How do I go about installing an older kernel? I'm having the wifi cycling issue intermittently, and it's frankly tiring.
Go to this link and download update-Froyo_CM7-dalingrin-OC-emmc-022511.zip

Drop above zip on the root of your SD card

Put said SD card in your nook

Turn on said nook

Open Rom Manager on said nook and reboot into recovery

Clear cache from partition

Go to advanced > Clear Dalvik Cache

Press power button, go back to main menu > Install zip from SD card

Select Choose zip from SD card

Choose the above zip that you put on your SD card

Reboot your nook

Done!
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
Awesome. I'm going to get on that froyo install this weekend. Any tips or cautionary tales for a someone of limited technical prowess? Just follow that xda thread and it works fine or is there anything else I need to do? I'm fine with step by step instructions and managed to get it rooted without much difficulty, but it seems like there may be a couple of extra steps involved here. Thanks!
To get this install working properly, you need to do the following things after putting Froyo on the nook:

1. Watch the video that Foulkey posted to get the market working properly
2. Follow my post above to put an older kernel on the nook to get wifi working properly
3. Download youtube from the market
4. Download Titanium backup - backup flash 10.1 - uninstall flash 10.1 - download flash 10.2 from market
5. Enjoy
6. Go to hell
 

Bucknahs Bum Ankle

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2003
8,487
Taintopolis
Thank you! As for step 6, please have a cold beer waiting for me upon my arrival (I assume you've already managed to access the double secret cryogenic level of that particular realm).
 

FL4WL3SS

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
14,913
Andy Brickley's potty mouth
If you need any help, let me know - I've pretty much done this 3 times, once for myself and I've helped out two friends and all of our nooks are working perfectly. One friend can't get flash to work, but I'm pretty sure it's user error. He's not very bright.
 

SpiffyRob

New Member
Apr 19, 2010
4
Heh, never thought I'd have to make my very first post on my SoSH lurker account to talk about Android Hacking. :p

Has anyone actually got MLB.TV working through At Bat on the Nook? I've had no luck with either CM7 or running Froyo. Tried spoofing build.prop to be a Tab, which is supported, but no dice.

It seems to read the device type and only show if it is one of the supported devices. (Only the ones listed in the market description.)

There are people asking on XDA and other places about the Nook and other devices, no clear solution yet.
 

OrlandoMerced

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 23, 2005
198
Closer than you'd like
Heh, never thought I'd have to make my very first post on my SoSH lurker account to talk about Android Hacking. :p

Has anyone actually got MLB.TV working through At Bat on the Nook? I've had no luck with either CM7 or running Froyo. Tried spoofing build.prop to be a Tab, which is supported, but no dice.

It seems to read the device type and only show if it is one of the supported devices. (Only the ones listed in the market description.)

There are people asking on XDA and other places about the Nook and other devices, no clear solution yet.


I've been looking for this answer as well. Best I've been able to do is use PlayOn, which streams the video from my laptop to the playon app on the Nook. It actually works well, but it seems so unnecessary.

 

SpiffyRob

New Member
Apr 19, 2010
4
Well, glad to know I wasn't crazy, even if that wasn't the answer I was looking for.

MLB.tv is also loadable through the stock web browser, as well as Opera. Doesn't work great, but its acceptable.

With such a restrictive supported devices list, I'm hoping somebody will get it figured out for something, and we can port as needed.

In the meantime, we'll just pray that the Tribe hasn't learned to rock the long ball as well as Texas, I suppose. :/
 

Foulkey Reese

foulkiavelli
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2006
21,795
Central CT
Cyanogen 7 blows Nookie Froyo out of the water. Got a Quadrant score over 1600. This thing is flying now. More details to come.

Edit: And I can finally hook up to my wireless tether!
 

SpiffyRob

New Member
Apr 19, 2010
4
MLB has whitelisted devices. So you are kind of hosed, unless you can spoof something on the list.
Oh, no doubt. :)

Tried spoofing the ro.build.fingerprint in build.prop to be a Verizon Galaxy Tab, which is compatible. Once spoofed, tried both to run the already-downloaded app, and then also to download it anew while spoofed (in case the market serves up different versions.) Neither worked. Someone in the XDA thread also tried pushing the .apk from their Droid 2 (which is supported) to the Nook. No dice there either.

I pulled a logcat while it was opening, and then after I selected a game, and I didn't see anything obvious in the output. There was something in there about "media capabilities", which seems like it could be relevant, but I don't know enough about the guts of Android to pursue any further.

I would certainly love to have it working on the Nook, as I'm sure the hardware could handle it, but may need to bow out gracefully and hope that one wiser than I can figure it out.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
Cyanogen 7 blows Nookie Froyo out of the water. Got a Quadrant score over 1600. This thing is flying now. More details to come.

Edit: And I can finally hook up to my wireless tether!
Not sure which CM7 you're using but if you're not using Mad Murdock's tablet tweaks ROM you are doing yourself a disservice (it's build off the the latest CM7 code every time there's a build so you stay current until it get rolled into CM7 general). Also, if you're not using dalingrin's latest OC kernel you are doing yourself an even greater disservice. With my Nook overclocked to 1.1Ghz using the Interactive governor I consistently get 1800-2000 Quadrant scores (1922 on my latest run). Now that you've got WiFi tethering working I suggest you try TGPS too. It sends your GPS signal from your phone over the wifi tether so you can use your Nook with Google Maps navigation and have a nice 7 inch GPS.

BTW, wanted to say thank you for starting this thread. I never would have gone down this route without it and now I've got 4 Nook tablets that I've put CM7 on for people. It's truly an amazing device for $250. When HC or IC come out in June-ish it will be near perfect.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
Is this installed on the internal or run from an SD card?

edit: also how's the battery life?
I have mine installed on internal and overclocked to 1.1Ghz. With medium to heavy usage I'll easily get a full day out of it. With some precautions like turning brightness down to 60% I can make to the end of the day with > 50% battery life. Today I'm going to test battery life with video playback to see how long I get under the heaviest usage.
 

Hextall

New Member
Mar 5, 2010
189
Now that you've got WiFi tethering working I suggest you try TGPS too.
Is tgps an app (tethergps is the only one I could find in the market)?

How do I set this up? Install the application on my nook then tether? Seems pretty cool, and I would love to give it a try.

If I have no problems tethering on stock, this should work, right? I am running the tablet tweaks cm7 off my sdcard if it has to be cm7, but suspect it doesn't.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
Is tgps an app (tethergps is the only one I could find in the market)?

How do I set this up? Install the application on my nook then tether? Seems pretty cool, and I would love to give it a try.

If I have no problems tethering on stock, this should work, right? I am running the tablet tweaks cm7 off my sdcard if it has to be cm7, but suspect it doesn't.
Yeah, sorry, the app is called TetherGPS (the icons just say TGPS). I think it's 2.95 for the full version but there's a trial version to make sure it works. You install the TetherGPS server on your phone and the client on your Nook. There is a app for configuration (none is needed) but you need to add them as widgets to use them. Just add the TGPS Client Widget to your Nook and the TGPS Server Widget to your Phone. Once you have them:

1) Connect to your phone's WiFi tether
2) Start the TGPS server by touching the TGPS Server widget on your phone
3) Start the TGPS client by touching the TGPS Client widget on your Nook

That's it. You have to have GPS enabled on your Nook for Google Maps but it will prompt you to turn it on if it's not already when you start it. The notification bar will tell you whether or not it's receiving GPS data.

There's no requirement for CM7 that I know of but I've only run the client on my Nook.
 

Foulkey Reese

foulkiavelli
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2006
21,795
Central CT
Not sure which CM7 you're using but if you're not using Mad Murdock's tablet tweaks ROM you are doing yourself a disservice (it's build off the the latest CM7 code every time there's a build so you stay current until it get rolled into CM7 general). Also, if you're not using dalingrin's latest OC kernel you are doing yourself an even greater disservice. With my Nook overclocked to 1.1Ghz using the Interactive governor I consistently get 1800-2000 Quadrant scores (1922 on my latest run). Now that you've got WiFi tethering working I suggest you try TGPS too. It sends your GPS signal from your phone over the wifi tether so you can use your Nook with Google Maps navigation and have a nice 7 inch GPS.

BTW, wanted to say thank you for starting this thread. I never would have gone down this route without it and now I've got 4 Nook tablets that I've put CM7 on for people. It's truly an amazing device for $250. When HC or IC come out in June-ish it will be near perfect.
I'm using that kernel and will check out Mad Murdock's tweaks. I have it installed on the internal memory. Very easy, no additional tweaks really needed if you follow the directions on Cyanogen's website.

Battery life has definitely improved. Used it a shit ton today and just plugged it in at 20% or so.

But christ this thins flies now. It's really like a new device.
 

Hextall

New Member
Mar 5, 2010
189
That's it. You have to have GPS enabled on your Nook for Google Maps but it will prompt you to turn it on if it's not already when you start it. The notification bar will tell you whether or not it's receiving GPS data.


Gave this a shot and it worked on CM7 just as you said it would. I got an error in the notification pane with the stock rom though. I didn't troubleshoot it too much (I had downloaded a widget to turn on gps called gps onoff as I don't think there's a way to turn on the gps in stock... still didn't work). Very cool. I was thinking about getting one of those gps bluetooth devices to maybe play around with it... but this is fine for the goofiness I'll use it for.
 

jercra

No longer respects DeChambeau
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
3,147
Arvada, Co
I'm using that kernel and will check out Mad Murdock's tweaks. I have it installed on the internal memory. Very easy, no additional tweaks really needed if you follow the directions on Cyanogen's website.

Battery life has definitely improved. Used it a shit ton today and just plugged it in at 20% or so.

But christ this thins flies now. It's really like a new device.
The tablet tweaks are really to do things like move the navigation to the bottom, add persistent home, back, menu and search buttons since the Nook only has the one button. It's been a much more pleasant experience since moving to the Tablet Tweaks ROM and that's saying something since CM7 nightlies were alreay awesome.
 

Huntington Avenue Grounds

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 17, 2008
1,899
Lunenburg, MA
The tablet tweaks are really to do things like move the navigation to the bottom, add persistent home, back, menu and search buttons since the Nook only has the one button. It's been a much more pleasant experience since moving to the Tablet Tweaks ROM and that's saying something since CM7 nightlies were alreay awesome.
Sounds like it resolves the annoying issues I have with my initial Nook rooting, going to have to try this out.


 

FelixMantilla

reincarnated mr hate
SoSH Member
Jan 30, 2001
12,894
Foxboro, MA
Finally installed froyo using the huskermania video. Everything seemed fine and got the little blue robot to appear.

Under "setting" I went into the "wireless & network settings" and made sure my wi-fi was connected. However, I can't connect to the internet to set up my market account. This is the message:

"Can't establish a reliable date connection to the server."

Any ideas what is going on?

MORE TODAY: Now the damned thing won't turn on at all. I just get the "Touch the Future of Readiding" screen. Did I brick the thing?