Barnes and Noble have been selling 2 different version of their popular 8GB Nook Tablet, here is how to root your 8GB 512mb RAM, Nook tablet, and (best of all) get the Android Market on your Nook Tablet!Like many of your thought when buying your low cost Nook tablet with 8GB storage and 512mb of RAM, we believed these where to only differences between this model and the more expensive 16GB 1GB RAM version, but we were wrong.
There are actually other subtle differences between the 2 tablets, which means you can root your 8GB Nook Tablet the same was as the 16GB version.
However, thanks to a developer over at the XDA forums, rooting your 8GB Nook Tablet is super simple!
Why would you want to root your Nook Tablet?
While Android is a very open operating system, this hasn’t stopped companies coding their tablets and phones with versions of Google’s mobile OS in the attempt to try and force users in to their eco system.
Rooting your Android tablet will allow you more freedom with what you can and can’t do, plus you can make use of excellent back up tools such as Titanium backup!
Oh yeah we almost forgot! Rooting your Nook Tablet with these instructions and using the linked download tool will also install the Android Market on your Nook tablet!
How To Root and install Android Market on Nook 8GB
Instructions for option 1 – burning a pre-built microSD card image
0. Before you proceed, know that THIS IS EXPERIMENTAL SOFTWARE THAT PROBABLY VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY AND MAY PERMANENTLY OR TEMPORARILY BRICK YOUR TABLET. Even though it worked for me, it may not work for you, and worse, it is quite possible that it could cause your tablet to boot-loop or die. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY POSSIBLE DAMAGES TO YOUR TABLET / ANYTHING ELSE CAUSED BY THIS METHOD. BY USING IT YOU AGREE TO ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS.
1. You need a microSD card. The image itself is ~55MB, which means any card above 64MB will work. Backup anything you have on that SD card because THIS WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON YOUR microSD CARD.
2. Download this image
3. Burn downloaded image to microSD card. This page explains how to burn an image on Linux, Mac and Windows. Ignore the Nook Color-specific stuff, don’t download the Nookie Froyo image, and replace the nookie froyo image with the image you’ve just downloaded. THIS WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON YOUR microSD CARD.
4. Turn off tablet.
5. Put the microSD card with the burnt image into the Nook, and power on.
6. After you hit the “READ FOREVER” screen, WAIT ABOUT TWO MINUTES. Even though nothing changes on the screen, a script is copying over root and Google stuff onto the /system partition.
7. After two minutes, hold down on the power button until the tablet turns off.
8. Take out the microSD card and power on again.
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Instructions for option 2 – manual setup
0. Before you proceed, know that THIS IS EXPERIMENTAL SOFTWARE THAT PROBABLY VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY AND MAY PERMANENTLY OR TEMPORARILY BRICK YOUR TABLET. Even though it worked for me, it may not work for you, and worse, it is quite possible that it could cause your tablet to boot-loop or die. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY POSSIBLE DAMAGES TO YOUR TABLET / ANYTHING ELSE CAUSED BY THIS METHOD. BY USING IT YOU AGREE TO ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS.
1. Create a 50MB vfat partition with boot and lda flags set, as explained in this video. I followed the instructions on the page referred to by the video at the very beginning.
2. Download this zip file, and extract contents to root of the 50MB microSD card partition.
3. Turn off the tablet.
4. Put the card into the tablet and power on.
5. After you hit the “READ FOREVER” screen, WAIT ABOUT TWO MINUTES. Even though nothing changes on the screen, a script is copying over root and Google stuff onto the /system partition.
6. After two minutes, hold down on the power button until the tablet turns off.
7. Take out the microSD card and power on again.
Source: XDA Forum