How to Root Nook Glowlight plus 7.8 BNRV700

The Nook Glowlight plus BNRV700 is a fantastic e-ink reader with a 300 dpi resolution in a 7.8 screen. It is also waterproof and battery lasts so you can read for weeks on a single charge. It has Wi-Fi connection and you can copy eBooks from your computer to the internal 8Gb storage. And there is also audio you can stream to an external speaker or your car to connect a wireless headset or connect a wired headset via the audio jack.

You may want to root it to install other applications and use it as a tablet for it runs under Android 4.4

What you need to root

adb (Android Debug Bridge) installed (https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/)

rootGLP.zip (https://xdaforums.com/t/how-to-root-and-set-up-a-new-nook-glowlight-3.3802331/)

Before you start the process, you should keep in mind that rooting the Nook very likely voids the warranty. When you make after-market modifications to the embedded software on a consumer electronics device, there are always risks. In this case, there is a possibility that you could brick the device. Rooting also exposes the user to greater risk of potential security issues. So, from now on it is your responsibility.

Ubuntu Linux adb

If you have Ubuntu you can easily install adb

sudo apt install android-tools-adb

Check ADB version

adb version

Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 28.0.2-debian
Installed as /usr/lib/android-sdk/platform-tools/adb

Enable debugging on NOOK

Open the stock Nook reader app, then opening the top-down curtain and clicking Settings. From there, go into the About menu and click the Nook icon about a dozen times to get into the debugging screen.

Get to the debugging screen

Click Disable Mass Storage, then click Allow Debugging then
click on the second button (Android development settings) and tick the USB debugging checkbox. Ensure Developer options on the top of the page is set to ON

Enable debugging and access to development settings
Select USB debug

Connect the NOOK Glowlight to your computer

Connect the NOOK to your computer and type

adb devices

List of devices attached
XXXXXXX unauthorized

XXXXXXX is your serial device number and here is unauthorized. This means you need to allow debugging. To do so make sure you disconnect storage from computer

Unplug the USB, plug it back in, in NOOK settings click on ALLOW DEBUGING

Back in the command prompt, type adb devices again. This time it should see the device and simply say "device" where it used to say "unauthorized". Congratulations!

Extract RootGLP and update script

Download the root folder RootGLP and its contents in your home directory.

total 16
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 févr.  9 18:38 bin
drwxrwxr-x 2 user user 4096 févr.  9 18:38 files
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 1531 févr. 27  2019 rootnook.cmd
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  941 janv. 18 23:23 rootnook.sh

Open file rootnook.sh to change the NOOK model from BNRV520 to BNRV700

Update the line

ANDROID_SERIAL=adb devices -l | grep BNRV520 | sed 's/ .*//'

TO

ANDROID_SERIAL=adb devices -l | grep BNRV700 | sed 's/ .*//'

So the model is now BNRV700.

Root

Launch the root script as follows

./rootnook.sh

Output

files/: 9 files pushed. 1.3 MB/s (7413987 bytes in 5.599s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/.nookrooter/eu.chainfire.supersu.apk
Success
Restarting adbd as root...
Rooted.

That's it!!!

Install some apps

You will need a launcher, I have found E-Ink-Launcher very light and it works very well

adb install E-Ink-Launcher-v0.1.8.2_einkcn.com.apk

Output

Performing Push Install
E-Ink-Launcher-v0.1.8.2_einkcn.com.apk: ...ushed. 1.3 MB/s (310064 bytes in 0.231s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/E-Ink-Launcher-v0.1.8.2_einkcn.com.apk
Success

This is how you see the launcher once installed

E-Ink Launcher

E-ink launcher is a very light and efficient launcher which gives you access to its home page from which you can launch or uninstall programs.

You can choose to always access to the Home launcher or the B&N home page. In my case I have set the E-Ink-Launcher as default because when rebooting the reader it got stuck on the loading page. Then I understood that the Nook had problems deciding which launcher to take to start.

Copy files from your computer to the NOOK

Connect NOOK to computer and set USB mode. If it is the first time you transfert files, use Calibre to push a book into the device so the new folder structure will be created:

NOOK > My Files

From then on when connecting with the USB in the My Files folder you can copy files from your computer, even create folders

Copy files from computer

After Root

Install more applications

Find apk files compatibles with Android 4.4.

Using the command adb install install a file browser like Astro. Then you can connect the Nook to the computer and enable USB access to storage. Copy the apk file to the storage. Disconnect the storage from the computer. Browse to the apk file using Astro, for example, when clicking on it Astro will launch the installer.

Recommended applications are:

  • Astro as File Browser
  • Button Saviour, to go back from menu options.
  • AIReader, reads many file types.
  • Jota Text editor, for writing.

For some apps go to https://www.apkmirror.com/ and download applications for android 4.4

Nook Glowlight with applications

Rooted Nook Glowlight Plus Stuck In Loading

I had this problem after rebooting the Nook Glowlight the start system could not decide which launcher to use, if Nook or the new E-Ink launcher. So here is how to solve this:

  1. Disconnect from Computer and plug to the charging
  2. Press Nook Button and power at the same time
  3. Launcher dialog appears
  4. Choose launcher quickly
  5. NOOK Starts

Uninstall software

If for some reason you have no launcher this is how to uninstall software from the command line.

Connect NOOK to the computer and list packages:

adb shell pm list packages -f

package:/data/app/com.neverland.alreader-1.apk=com.neverland.alreader
package:/data/app/jp.sblo.pandora.jota-1.apk=jp.sblo.pandora.jota

Uninstall a specific package

adb shell pm uninstall -k com.neverland.alreader

Do only install the minimum applications you need to always keep the Nook Glowlight Reader at the best performance.

And that is all! Enjoy



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