(How To) CM7 Bootable SD

[surfmly29]

Having some issues here.

Details:
- Using SanDisk 8GB CL4 SDCard (supposed to be one of the better options in SDCards from what I have read)
- Followed instructions in OP to the T, but had many force closures in the middle of doing different things. The FC's actually caused reboots so maybe they aren't true FC's but weird reboots and it would reboot into the internal NC ROM.
- Started over again, using SDFormatter to reformat the SDCard.
- Followed OP again, this time adding a couple things I found in other forums (XDA, etc). Such as removing the SDCard from computer and then reinstering it between #4 and #5.
- Also, I did check the checksums on the zips both times I have tried this so don't need to ask about that.
- Again, install appeared to work fine.
- Same problems with weird reboots into internal NC ROM.

Wondering if my SDCard is the problem (bad SanDisk??), but can't tell. Here are the details of it:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 10.439 MB/s
Sequential Write : 6.416 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 10.307 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.945 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.500 MB/s [ 610.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.280 MB/s [ 312.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.364 MB/s [ 577.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.248 MB/s [ 304.7 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [H: 0.0% (0.0/7572.0 MB)] (x3)
Date : 2011/07/16 14:41:47
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Not the best card in general that I have, but by far the best for Random Write (Q=32) card I have, which I understand is the most important. I have seen some SanDisk cards with 1.6-1.8 for Write (Q=32)... should I be looking to get a card that can hit the write speed that high?

Anyone know of any other tricks or tweaks to try and figure this out? I really want to get this running in a stable fashion. Was thinking I may try an RC build of CM7, but I just have to figure there is something else going on and since I have re-downloaded all zips, confirmed checksums, I feel it is something else and just can't think of anything other than the SDCard.

Thanks for any thoughts....

 

[682202]

I used Wid32DiskImager to burn the generic-sdcard-v1.2.1.img file to a 8gb sd and when it was done the sd shows only a 1.4mb of space available. I am unable to copy the CM7 files. I also tried with WinImage but ended up the same. Anybody Have any Idea what I might have done wrong?

Gordon

 

[J515OP]

I used Wid32DiskImager to burn the generic-sdcard-v1.2.1.img file to a 8gb sd and when it was done the sd shows only a 1.4mb of space available. I am unable to copy the CM7 files. I also tried with WinImage but ended up the same. Anybody Have any Idea what I might have done wrong?

Gordon

You sure it is only 1.4MB? You should endup with a boot patition a little over 100MB (114MB would be about right). That should be enough room for the couple of files you need to run the initial setup.

 

[jimmyt]

OK try one more time, doing exactly these instructions...

1 - Use SD Formatter and reformat card, setting the option to "full format" DO NOT QUICK Format.

2- Use win image32 and Right click on the executable and RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR

3- Use 7-ZIP to unarchive generic card file, Do NOT use winrar, some other programs as they may add junk to files in a lot of systems.

4- Put the image file in the computers root directory, C:\sdcard-v1.2.1.img

5- now in win32 browse to C:\sdcard-v1.2.1.img and "Write" image to the SD card

6- Download update-cm-7.0.3-encore-signed.zip (.rar or whatever extension) file (CM7 stable for Nook )

7- Download gapps-gb-20110307-signed.zip (.rar or whatever extension) file(latest Google apps for Nook )

8- Copy the two files without doing anything to them, update-cm-7.0.3-encore-signed.zip and gapps-gb-20110307-signed.zip to the SD card. DO NOT ALTER THESE FILES IN ANY WAY, JUST COPY AND PASTE THEM TO THE SD CARDs Directory, which is normally F:\ or whatever explorer says.

​

9- Remove card from PC and insert into Nook (WITH POWER OFF)

10- Power on Nook and wait for CM7 boot program to run

11- Program will say install finished “It is safe to power off now” , It may come quick and go blank, either way when the nook goes blank after the writing of Linux files, just hold the power button until it shuts down, which takes a bit, 10-20 sec.

12- Power Nook back, and you should get a blank screen for a bit, but then the image to load comes up, and the word Android should be visible

If this does not work it is either a file or a card. I left out the speed up info on purpose as it should run fast and stable as is.

Jimmy

 

[682202]

OK try one more time, doing exactly these instructions...

1 - Use SD Formatter and reformat card, setting the option to "full format" DO NOT QUICK Format.

2- Use win image32 and Right click on the executable and RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR

3- Use 7-ZIP to unarchive generic card file, Do NOT use winrar, some other programs as they may add junk to files in a lot of systems.

4- Put the image file in the computers root directory, C:\sdcard-v1.2.1.img

5- now in win32 browse to C:\sdcard-v1.2.1.img and "Write" image to the SD card

6- Download update-cm-7.0.3-encore-signed.zip (.rar or whatever extension) file (CM7 stable for Nook )

7- Download gapps-gb-20110307-signed.zip (.rar or whatever extension) file(latest Google apps for Nook )

8- Copy the two files without doing anything to them, update-cm-7.0.3-encore-signed.zip and gapps-gb-20110307-signed.zip to the SD card. DO NOT ALTER THESE FILES IN ANY WAY, JUST COPY AND PASTE THEM TO THE SD CARDs Directory, which is normally F:\ or whatever explorer says.

​

9- Remove card from PC and insert into Nook (WITH POWER OFF)

10- Power on Nook and wait for CM7 boot program to run

11- Program will say install finished “It is safe to power off now” , It may come quick and go blank, either way when the nook goes blank after the writing of Linux files, just hold the power button until it shuts down, which takes a bit, 10-20 sec.

12- Power Nook back, and you should get a blank screen for a bit, but then the image to load comes up, and the word Android should be visible

If this does not work it is either a file or a card. I left out the speed up info on purpose as it should run fast and stable as is.

Jimmy

Thanks for the instructions, the SD Formatter was able revive the card back to 8gb but unfortunately I haven't had the time to try rest. I will download 7-ZIP (I used WinRAR) and give it a go. Will let you know what happens. Thanks again for the quick response.

Gordon

 

[jimmyt]

Thanks for the instructions, the SD Formatter was able revive the card back to 8gb but unfortunately I haven't had the time to try rest. I will download 7-ZIP (I used WinRAR) and give it a go. Will let you know what happens. Thanks again for the quick response.

Gordon

I bricked an Eken M001 by using winrar, same file using 7-zip was no problem.

 

[surfmly29]

Question.... When I try and reformat my sdcard with sd formatter I select full format but when it runs it ends up doing quick format and says it could not do full. Wonder if this is my problem. I will also use 7-zip this time around but wanted to make sure the formatting was done right. I any other format tools I could try?

Thanks

Sent from my NOOKcolor via Androidtablets forum app

 

[surfmly29]

UPDATE: Just thought I would re-download SD Formatter and use 7-zip to unzip and then install. I then ran it as Admin (Win7 machine) and tried full (erase) format. Did same thing saying "Flash Erase" operation has been canceled because this device didn't support it" and ends up just doing a QUICK Format.

Once done with that I tried the "overwrite" format option and this one is now running (it appears it will take a number of minutes to finish now). So I'll let that go, maybe try the base full/erase format again just to see if that does work finally and then I'll follow the instructions from Jimmy above.

Will keep you posted.....thanks

 

[jimmyt]

UPDATE: Just thought I would re-download SD Formatter and use 7-zip to unzip and then install. I then ran it as Admin (Win7 machine) and tried full (erase) format. Did same thing saying "Flash Erase" operation has been canceled because this device didn't support it" and ends up just doing a QUICK Format.

Once done with that I tried the "overwrite" format option and this one is now running (it appears it will take a number of minutes to finish now). So I'll let that go, maybe try the base full/erase format again just to see if that does work finally and then I'll follow the instructions from Jimmy above.

Will keep you posted.....thanks

Your card may have a defective media point, so if you right click on F:\ (or whatever it is) and select properties-tools-error checking and run it so it fixes it automatically. It may fix it so you can lay a full format on it.

Jimmy

 

[surfmly29]

Your card may have a defective media point, so if you right click on F:\ (or whatever it is) and select properties-tools-error checking and run it so it fixes it automatically. It may fix it so you can lay a full format on it.

Jimmy

Ahhh... I'll give this a try just to see if it does find a problem.

I can say that going through the install last night went well, but then once I was in CM7 making a few of the tweaks that is noted at the end of the OP it shut down and tried to reboot into the internal memory again (I just held down power to shut it down completely). So I was thinking it was having issues again....

However, I saw in another thread that setting CPU Performance to 'on demand' caused some issues so I set it to 'performance' and set Max CPU back down to 800 (from 925) since it seemed like it always had issues once I made those tweaks (per the OP). Once I did that I was able to play around with it 2 different times throughout the evening for probably about 2 hours total time without any further FC's/reboots. I was able to download a few apps from the market, set up a few other things, and just generally play around (essentially not doing too much seeing if there were going to be any further FC's).

However, I still may go down the path of doing it all over again since it appears the card is having some issues with it not doing a full format.

I am also looking to get a new card just to see if that will help. As mentioned I have the 8GB Sandisk, Class 4, but will be looking to get 16GB sandisk (probably CL 4 again) so that if I can get it working good I'll have a bit more space to add more 'stuff' while running CM7 from the sd card.

I'll let you know how it goes, as I haven't seen any other thoughts on the formating issue so your suggestion above sounds good to me.

 

[J515OP]

This definitely sounds card related. Bad or slow cards are know to have the FC issues. Generally speaking the SanDisk are the better cards for the Nook and I believe you posted the card specs earlier. I'll have to go back and look at those. In any case maybe it isn't the performance specs that are the issue here but maybe you just got the 1 in 1000 that is a bum card for whatever reason. I'm curious to see if you can get it formatting properly or just trying another card to see if these issues will go away.

 

[surfmly29]

So something weird is going on. I just realized I had another card I could play with, this one a 16GB CL2 SanDisk from an older Blackberry (have backed up all info off the card I cared to keep). I went ahead and tried to use SD Formatter v3 to do a full erase format and it had the same problem. Here is what I have in SD Formatter and what it says after it runs:



I have uninstalled and reinstalled SD Formatter more than once to ensure it was a good install, so I am at a loss now.... I am running Win 7 Home Premium x64 in case that matters. I have ran SD Formatter as Admin (right-click run as admin) just to be sure that wasn't the issue and it doesn't help....

Since it appears the Full (Overwrite) option works (but takes a long time), do you think that is good enough or should that work as well as a Full (Erase) option?

Any other SDHC formatting tools I can try?

 

[jimmyt]

what are you connecting the sdcard to the pc with? I have had bad adapters in the past. sd formatter has worked on a slew of sd cards for me without a glitch. make sure the write switch is all the way off protect.

 

[surfmly29]

I have actually tried 2 different micro SD to SD card adapters which plug right into my SD card reader on my tower (not external reader). I am pretty sure I always make sure the lock switch is all the way, but maybe.... I'll try playing around my SD card reader on my laptop as well to see if it is the reader on my desktop tower.

 

[J515OP]

It does sound like it might be the SD port itself which I have heard of problems with both for internal and external readers. Do you have an aversion to formatting the card in the Nook itself? Just boot to your rooted Nook, insert the card, go to settings and unmount then format. Fresh clean card no hassel.

JP