Tips and tricks
From nookDevs
Contents |
Forcing Software Update
- Turn off nook
- Turn it on
- Quickly hold 2 buttons on either side (not all 4 as previously said)
- A screen will appear on the eInk display that says updating and the lower screen will show "Mounting partitions" and then "Checking for updates"
Force Reset nook
WARNING: THIS WILL RESET YOUR nook TO FACTORY SETTINGS. YOU WILL HAVE TO REREGISTER IT!
At the home screen, press the nook button and the power button at the same time
How to restore nook to the state you got it from the store
This procedure will reset your nook to the software that you had when you bought your nook, including original firmware version that your nook had when you bought it:
1) Turn off the nook.
2) Press and let go the power button.
3) The second it flashes a black screen, hold down the power button for 12 seconds.
4) Perform Step 2-3 an additional 5 times(total 6)
5) Then restart normally. The nook will then start the standard software update procedure, restoring the stock firmware.
How to find our your nook's IP address
You can of course check the router to find out nook's IP address, but you can also do it right on nook:
- Press 'n' to go to the top menu on the nook
- Select Settings
- Make sure Airplane mode is off and if not, switch it off
- Select Wi-Fi
- Make sure you're connected to WiFi and then select the second line (Wi-Fi Hotspot ....)
- Select the WLAN you're connected to (should be the second line)
Now you will see your connection details (Status, Speed, Signal Strength, Security and the IP address) on the e-ink screen.
Buttons Swapping
You can swap/remap nook buttons (useful to those who would have preferred prev/next buttons remapped) by following instructions here.
Advanced WiFi Settings
Nook uses wpa_supplicant for its wireless authentication, so you can actually connect to wireless networks that use EAP extensions, like PEAP. Doing so requires that you've rooted your nook.
EAP-PEAP
Instructions taken from CodeAlias
- Convert your wireless certificate to .pem format.
- If your cert is in .p12 format:
openssl pkcs12 -in example.p12 -out cacert.pem -cacerts -nokeys
- If your cert is in .p7b format:
openssl pkcs7 -in example.p7b -out cacert.pem -inform DER -text -print_certs
- Push your certificate to the nook:
adb push cacert.pem /system/etc/wifi/
- Pull your wpa_supplicant.conf file to your computer.
adb pull /system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf .
- Add an entry for your network to the end of that file:
network={
ssid="YOUR-SSID"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
eap=PEAP
identity=""
password="YOUR-PASSWORD"
ca_cert="/system/etc/wifi/cacert.pem"
phase1="peapver=0"
phase2="MSCHAPV2"
}
- Just be sure to fill in YOUR-SSID, XXXXX, and YOUR-PASSWORD, and replace cacert.pem with the name of your certificate file.
- Push the conf file back to the nook:
adb push wpa_supplicant.conf /system/etc/wifi/
- Reboot your nook.
When your nook boots up, your PEAP-secured network should appear in the list of available networks.
If it does not appear there, you may need to tell the nook to autoconnect. In the network configuration above, add the line "priority=99" before the closing brace.
EAP-TLS
Instructions taken from CodeAlias (Note: This method has not been tested)
- Extract the appropriate data from your wireless certificate. If it's in .p12 format:
openssl pkcs12 -in cacert.p12 -out cacert.pem -cacerts -nokeys openssl pkcs12 -in cacert.p12 -out cert.pem -clcerts -nokeys openssl pkcs12 -in cacert.p12 -out key.pem -nocerts
- Push those files to your nook:
adb push cacert.pem /system/etc/wifi/ adb push cert.pem /system/etc/wifi/ adb push key.pem /system/etc/wifi/
- Pull your wpa_supplicant.conf file to your computer.
adb pull /system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf .
- Add an entry for your network to the end of that file:
network={
ssid="YOUR-SSID"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
eap=TLS
identity=""
ca_cert="/system/etc/wifi/cacert.pem"
client_cert="/system/etc/wifi/cert.pem"
private_key="/system/etc/wifi/key.pem"
private_key_passwd="YOUR-PASSWORD"
}
- Just be sure to fill in YOUR-SSID, XXXXX, and YOUR-PASSWORD, and replace cacert.pem, cert.pem, and key.pem with the names of your certificate files.
- Push the conf file back to the nook:
adb push wpa_supplicant.conf /system/etc/wifi/
- Reboot your nook.
When your nook boots up, your TLS-secured network should appear in the list of available networks.
If it does not appear there, you may need to tell the nook to autoconnect. In the network configuration above, add the line "priority=99" before the closing brace.
EAP-TTLS
Instructions taken from CodeAlias (Note: This method has not been tested)
- Extract the appropriate data from your wireless certificate. If it's in .p12 format:
openssl pkcs12 -in cacert.p12 -out cacert.pem -cacerts -nokeys
- Push that file to your nook:
adb push cacert.pem /system/etc/wifi/
- Pull your wpa_supplicant.conf file to your computer.
adb pull /system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf .
- Add an entry for your network to the end of that file:
network={
ssid="YOUR-SSID"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
eap=TTLS
identity=""
password="YOUR-PASSWORD"
ca_cert="/system/etc/wifi/cacert.pem"
}
- Just be sure to fill in YOUR-SSID, XXXXX, and YOUR-PASSWORD, and replace cacert.pem with the name of your certificate file.
- Push the conf file back to the nook:
adb push wpa_supplicant.conf /system/etc/wifi/
- Reboot your nook.
When your nook boots up, your TTLS-secured network should appear in the list of available networks.
If it does not appear there, you may need to tell the nook to autoconnect. In the network configuration above, add the line "priority=99" before the closing brace.
Restoring WiFi config
If you messed up your WiFi config and your nook can no longer connect to WiFi you can't adb to it either and that could be a problem. Thanks to JesusFreke you can now use this file to restore nook to its default WiFi settings (clean slate).
- Make sure your nook has sufficient battery to complete the procedure without turning off (at least 20%).
- Download this file.
- If you haven't already, insert a microSD card in your nook (see Inserting extra storage in your nook if you need help with that).
- Plug your nook into your computer via USB. You should see two drives appear: a "nook" drive (this is your nook's pre-installed, internal drive) and one more.
- Copy the file you downloaded, which should be named "bravo_update.dat", to the nook's external drive identified in the previous step.
- Eject/unmount both drives: the one for your external card, and the internal "nook" drive.
- Unplug your nook from your computer.
- Turn off your nook by holding in the sleep/power button on top until the screen turns blank.
- Press and hold the upper page-flip button on the right-hand side of your nook (the one marked with a < pointing towards the middle of the e-ink screen).
- While continuing to hold the page-flip button, press and release sleep/power button on top. Don't let go of the page-flip button.
- Continue holding the page-flip button until the e-ink screen displays a "checking for update" message. Release the page-flip button within a couple seconds of when you see this message.
- Timing is key. If your nook displays the typical "Starting Up" screen, you've missed it—wait until it starts up, then turn it off and try again.
- Wait for your nook to finish running the updater (the touchscreen will show the progress).
- That's it! You've restored default WiFi settings for your nook.
International Tips
Thanks to :D ominik from mobileread forums for posting precise instructions.
Setting Date & Time
- Get the root access thru Softroot
- Install the Busybox
- Set the system date/time
-
- adb shell /data/local/busybox date MMDDhhmmYYYY.ss
-
Example: if you want to set it to 2010-01-22 13:59:27 you will use
- adb shell /data/local/busybox date 012213592010.27
-
- Set your hardware clock using system time (otherwise your setting get lost after reboot):
-
- adb shell /data/local/busybox hwclock -w
-
ps. Please note that the date and time has to be UTC date/time (do not set to your local time). For example, my local time is 11:00am and my time zone is UTC+7, I have to set time as 04.00am.
Workaround for Registering Problem
Set the current date/time as explained above to be able to successfully register nook.
System SD Card Manipulation
Check out the SD_Card_Cutout if you need instructions how to make a cut-out for easy access to your System SD Card and SD_Card_Restore page for information how to restore your System SD Card from the original B&N 1.0.0 image file.
Customization
Install New Fonts
Existing fonts can be replaced with other truetype (ttf) fonts. See Font Changes for instructions.
Wallpaper & Screensavers
- Wallpaper images should be 600x760 JPG, GIF, or PNG. 4-bit grayscale is best (16 colors).
- Wallpaper is slightly smaller than the standard, because of the top menu bar - You should scale or trim images from other sources, like the Kindle.
- Screensaver images should be 600x800 JPG, GIF, or PNG. 4-bit grayscale is best (16 colors).
- Amazon Kindle wallpapers work great:
- Where they go
- If you plug in your nook via usb you will see several key directories on the drive that can be mounted:
- my documents
- my screensavers
- my wallpapers
- etc...
- Just dump your screensavers or wallpapers in the appropriate directories to make them available.
- For wallpapers, the filename will be the option available in the Display-Wallpaper menu.
- For screensavers, you must make a directory inside "my screensavers" and that directory's name will be the option available in the Display-Screensaver menu. If you do not make a subdirectory inside "my screensavers" there will be no option for your new files in the Screensaver menu.
- If you are messing with the nook via the adb shell, you will find these directories under /system/media/sdcard
- If you plug in your nook via usb you will see several key directories on the drive that can be mounted:
Running SSH from a Rooted Nook
WARNING: Modifying su will allow any app to run as root
Step 1: Install Busybox and Dropbear from Applications
Step 2: Install Better Terminal Emulator Magic. This is a terminal emulator that seems to work without problems on the Nook. There are details about configuring the font at NonNookApps
Step 3: Grab the modified su utility (ZIP)
Step 4: Push the new su to the Nook
- adb push su /data/local
Step 5: Connect to the Nook's shell
- adb shell
Step 6: Move the old su and replace it with the new one
- cd /system/xbin
- mv su osu
- cat /data/local/su > su
- chmod 6755 su
Start up Better Terminal Emulator Magic, gain super user access (by running su), then run ssh.
