Rooting B&N revision 1.4 to 1.7 on any hardware

service adbd /sbin/adbd
    disabled

Change 'disabled' to 'enabled,' and save the file.

Getting root access

You got the web browser to launch adbd, but you only have the privilege level of the web browser's user - system. To install software and to start adbd when the Nook reboots, you need root access. Rage Against the Cage will give you root access. Next, you'll restart adbd, and push the modified init.rc back to the nook. After that, reboot the nook and you're done!

1. Download [ratc.zip].
2. Extract it to the same directory that adb is stored in, then go back to the command prompt:

adb push ratc.bin /sqlite_stmt_journals
adb shell
$ cd /sqlite_stmt_journals
$ /system/bin/chmod 777 ./ratc.bin
$ ./ratc.bin

(several lines of output follow -- don't do anything, a few seconds later adb will disconnect you.)

Keeping root access

If everything went well, you should have root access on the Nook. However, the Nook is now relatively unstable and may stop working at any point, so work quickly!

The nook may crash - just reboot, then restart the process from scratch. (Remember, you don't need to pull init.rc again.)

First, you need to stop your PC's ADB server. It still thinks that it's connected to the nook.

adb kill-server

Second, extract this [batch file] to the same directory as ADB. It automatically issues the following commands, reducing the chances of the nook crashing before init.rc has been pushed to it. (Note: I wrote the batch file after rooting, so it's untested. It won't do any harm, but it may not work. Feedback?) Feedback: when I try the batch file it crashes my browser permanently, making it so I have to restore to stock.

adb connect 
adb push init.rc /

Run it by typing:

push.bat

It will prompt you for your nook's IP address, then try connecting. Every few seconds, ADB will complain that it can't connect to the nook. Let's fix that.

Perform the browser crash procedure again. After each attempt, check if the computer successfully transferred init.rc. If it did, you're done!

If the nook crashes before the transfer completes, go back to "Enabling adbd". You can skip "Pull and modify /init.rc", but do the other steps. If the adb push gives a "permission denied" error, redo the "Getting root access", and try again. You may have to do this quite a few times until the whole process succeeds.

Your rooted Nook

Assuming everything worked, you now have a rooted Nook with adbd running on reboot, with root access. You should be able to adb connect into it without jumping through any other hoops.

What's next? Browse the applications, and install to your heart's content.

Suggestions:

• Mynook.ru Launcher A polished replacement launcher. You must replace the launcher to access additional applications with the nook.
• Trook A RSS feed reader for the nook, and much more! It can install applications, too. Just go into the nookdevs feed.
• NookLibrary A replacement library for the nook. If unifies sideloaded books with Barnes & Noble content, and offers other improvements.
• NookMarket A program that allows you to easily install everything on nookdevs. Trook offers more functionality (imho)
• Games There are a few games on the applications page.

There's also a Python script to automate the process: root-nook-eink.tar.xz (Updated Jun 6 , 2011)