Hey gang....looking for a little help with Phiremod

[CSmithMD]

Here we go ,

     I am currently rooted on Nook OS 1.0 (still) and I am attemtpting to do the Phiremod install to give my NC some Gingerbread treats but I am having no luck thus far. I have clear cut instructions that even I can follow without difficulty but I keep getting the dreaded "Installation Failed" message. I have copied the latest (version 6.2) Phiremod onto my SD card. I am using the Rom Manager app from the market but I can never get into clockwork recovery mode. I am following Qunxy's how to guide. I started at step 2 since I am already rooted. I want to install to my NC hard drive. Here is a link to the guide:

http://quinxy.com/2011/04/14/complete-guide-to-phiremod-cyanogenmod-7-install-and-configuration-on-n...

Anyway, So thus far I have:

1. Copied the latest version of the Phiremod zip file onto my sd card

2. I have installed the ROM Manager App from the market.

3. Within ROM manager I have "flashed" the latest ClockworkMod Recovery

4. Rebooted (per instructions I found elsewhere) supposedly it's critical at this point

5. Gone back into ROM manager and selected reboot into recovery

--now at this point according to the instructions :the NC should reboot into ClockworkMod Recovery Mode so that I can manually install the phiremod zip from the SD Card and format  system and format data etc. but this is where I get stuck. It starts the rebooting process but,

I never actually get into CWR mode. I get the "installation falied" message after it goes through some of the boot animations. I have tried a couple of different SD cards and tried reinstalling the phiremod zip onto the sd card several times but I still get the installation failed message. I tried flashing back to the old versions of ClockWorkMod recovery that are available in ROM manager to see if that makes any difference; but it does not. Installation still fails no matter what I do. Sorry to be a pest; but does anyone here have an idea where I might be going astray? 

Thanks bunches, 

Clif

[CSmithMD]

Nevermind.  I have solved the problem. I needed an image on the SD card in addition to the Phiremod zip file. That was never pointed out anywhere. Just one of those "assume you would know" kind of deals. Anyway....this Phiremod is ridiculous!! And I mean that in the best possible way!! I am in love with my Nook Color all over again. I never knew it could be so fast!!! So beautiful!! Gingerbread (CM-7) Phiremod ,whatever you want to call it is totally awesome! It's as if I was driving an old Chevy Cavalier and thinking I was doing pretty well but then; all of a sudden someone dropped a Lambourghini off in my driveway!!! Man, what a difference. It goes way beyond being a tablet.....I'm never going to put it down now.... Well... gotta go play some more.......... cheers.

[gogirlEH]

did you lose any of the barnes and noble regular features by loading phiremod?

[cmpetronelli]

There is site coughguy.would that be easer. What were the exact step you did as you can hear I am a novice. Please help

[roustabout]

@gogirl:  you lose the library, shop and BN-only apps (ie, epicurious for nook color) by moving to phiremod.  There's a different (more complex, but far more complete) settings control panel. You also lose the excellent power management that is under the hood in the BN stock OS. 

However, you can install the Nook app for Android, which gives you a better reader, IMO (real night mode, landscape mode) and which you can use to shop from.

I don't know how well the N for A supports video books/read to me at this point.  I t apparently just started offering magazine support. 

There are two big ways to use phiremod:  by completely overwriting your internal storage, which is what it sounds like the OP is trying, or by running from an SD card.  The advantage of running from SD is that you can test it to see if you like it.  If you don't, you just power down, yank the card and reboot and you're back using the BN stock software. 

the disadvantage is that many folks find running off SD cards to be slow, better for test-driving than for day-to-day use. 

AFAIK, battery life in Phiremod is not yet as good as in the stock OS. 

[CSmithMD]

Thanks Roust,. I couldn't have said it better myself. All of those points are precise. To me, I don't feel as if I lose any Nook functionality. The Nook app for Android seems to have more features than the native application so I am pleased, especially wth the ability to read books in landscape mode. My reading Apps including the Nook app, Aldiko reader, etc. all want to use the SD card for storeage by default so I had to get a bigger SD card until I figure out how to change that. No big deal though. Yes, I do have Phiremod on my Nook "hard drive". Just a personal choice for me, I don't like hasseling with SD cards for booting. I just want to pop one in for storeage purposes and forget about it. Phiremod just gives new life to my NC. The difference is night and day as far as the capabilities of the original NC versus my new Phiremoded version. Now, B&N just feels like one of many parts of my tablet computer whereas before, with the original set up, B&N dominated the device. Now it feels like it is really mine and I love it.! The speed difference is incredible. I love all of the new system tweaks that I am able to do as well. I am quite saitisfied with the change in case you couldn't tell already!

cheers,

Clif

[CSmithMD]

Thanks for asking. I am a novice at this myself but I get adventurous at times and I like to take a risk or two, sometimes to my own detriment. As others might remember about a month ago I played around with Honeycomb on my NC and I thought I had it bricked but eventually I got things back to normal. I rooted my NC early but again I like to make things interesting at times.

Anyway, this is what I did. Keep in mind that I am a novice so if I can do it anyone can do it:These are the steps that worked for me: My NC was already rooted on Nookie 1.0 BTW.

1. Downloaded the ROM manager app from the Android market to my Nook Color

2. Downloaded the latest version of Phiremod zip file to my PC

3. Write an image file to a micro SD Card (the image file I used came from a file called the "128mb rootpack" I found that somewhere on the XDA dev board. I used a program called WinImage to do that. (Win32DiskImager works also, I think).

4. Copied the Phiremod zip file to the same Micro SD card that I put the image file on. (That's a must that I learned the hard way!) All you need to do is drag it to the drive that you have the micro sd card in on your PC (no need to unzip the Phiremod zip file).

4-1. Insert micro SD card into NC

5. Turned on my NC

6. Opened the ROM manager app mentioned in step one.

7. In Rom Manager near the top choose, "Flash Clockword Mod Recovery" You will get a message after it's done saying that it was completed successfully. It takes a couple of minutes.

8. Reboot your NC at this point. (critical)

9.Go back into the ROM manager app choose "boot into recovery"

10. This puts you into clockwork recovery mode. hooray!! In clockwork recovery mode you use the volume buttons to move from file to file. The 'N' button selects, and the power button takes you backwards through the menus.

11 Within clockwork recovery mode; navigate to format system. Select it and execute it; using the volume buttons to navigate and 'N' button to select.

12. Still in clockwork recovery mode, navigate to format data, select it and execute.

13. Still in clockwork recovery mode choose "install update from sd card", navigate to the Phiremod file that you put on the card. select it then choose install file.  You will be doing a lot of navigating within clockwork recovery mode but it is simple and straightforward. Each time that you make a selection, you will see code running and you will get a message telling you that the action was successful (or not successful)

14: Still in Clockwork recovery mode navigate to "wipe Dalvick cache" and execute as before; also navigate to "format cache"  and do the same thing, execute as before.  I think these two options were under advanced options. Anyway, navigating in clockwork recovery is simple as I said. You can navigtae easily to find these options. If you don't find the options mentioned just don't execute anything. Keep going until you find the correct options. The hardware buttons are your friends.

15. After all that: reboot: you will know you were successful when you see a blue android robot with a circle of cold swirling around him then blinking green lights across the side of the NC that spell out "Android".

16. Next thing you know: you are playing with a little piece of blue Gingerbread heaven!

This is what worked for me. I hope it helps a little. Again, I am a pure novice at this stuff so if I can do it, just about anyone can.  

Cheers and good luck,

Clif

[roustabout]

Between step 10 and step 11 of the process Clif is outlining, I would highly, highly, highly recommend that you navigate to the Backup and Restore menu in CWR and make a backup of your installed system. 

In step 11 you are erasing everything that was stock and configured on your NC.  If you decide that you don't like Phiremod, you can boot from the SDcard you used in this process, get back into Backup and Restore, and roll back to your working Nook OS.  (I like to use 4G cards or larger when I'm doing this stuff, so I have enough room for a backup as well as for the installation file, which is typically a zip file in the 175M range.) 

Also, just in case anything goes horribly wrong with your attempt to install phiremod, you have a rollback option on the card if you do the backup. 

(edit:   the followup below does not make sense because Clif fixed something, so I'm not asking about a reversal any longer.  the current workflow looks good.)

[CSmithMD]

Roust, You are right! Sorry about that. Those two steps are reversed. I will make the change in the post so as not to mess up anyone else's attempts.

Cheers,

Clif