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NookColor Making system partition Read-Write

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Getting rw access to the /system Partition

Ok, so you have your fancy new nook, which you rooted using the instructions at NookColor Rooting and you want to try some android software, removing the nook-specific software, or maybe try to install the Enable_the_Android_Market, etc... However, the system defaults to mounting /system to read-only. You can certainly still install apps (they by default get installed to /data/apps), but what if you want to tweak the launcher?

Warning: If you make the system partition re-writable, there is nothing preventing you from bricking your devices. The community does not currently have a re-flash utility to restore your NookColor to baseline condition.
Make backups, be careful, and whatever you do is entirely at your own risk.
Even though the page at https://nookdevs.com/Flash_back_to_clean_stock_ROM seems to give instructions...

The android docs say you should simply run "./adb remount" to set the partition as writable, but on the nook this fails (I suspect because the default android install uses a different filesystem yaffs2 vs ext2).

Anyway, it is fairly simple to remount the /system partition, once you know what you have to do.

With the NC connected and powered on, and with ADB enabled on the NC:

  • Run (for windows users Run -> cmd. At the command prompt: adb shell)
    ./adb shell
    to connect to the nook.


  • On the nook, run
    mount
    • It should respond:
rootfs / rootfs ro 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /sqlite_stmt_journals tmpfs rw,size=4096k 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /rom vfat rw,sync,noatime,nodiratime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0117,dmask=0007,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system ext2 ro,errors=continue 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 /data ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,errors=continue,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 /cache ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,errors=continue,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block//vold/179:8 /media vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
    • Here we see that the system partition is read-only: "/dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system ext2 ro,errors=continue 0 0"
    • If your nook is configured differently, DO NOT CONTINUE
  • Now, we want to remount the /system partition, which is on the device "/dev/block/mmcblk0p5" ro is an abbreviate for read-only
    • Therefore, we run
      mount -o rw,remount -t ext2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system 
    • It should run with no messages or response.
  • Now, to confirm changes, run
    mount
    again
rootfs / rootfs ro 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /sqlite_stmt_journals tmpfs rw,size=4096k 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /rom vfat rw,sync,noatime,nodiratime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0117,dmask=0007,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system ext2 rw,errors=continue 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 /data ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,errors=continue,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7 /cache ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,errors=continue,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block//vold/179:8 /media vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0

Success! The system partition is now mounted "rw", or read-write! You can now modify the system applications, including removing the nook-specific software in it's entirety.

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