I wanted to put up a bit of information on Barnes & Noble (B&N) Nook Color (NC) and rooting them. I have a few links to xda site where all the info comes from.  Link to XDA

The Nook Color makes a great e-reader/Android Tablet when rooted.

There are a number of ways to root, I will mention a few. Keep in mind, this (well internal rooting) will likely  void your warranty)

I am including a link to OverClocking (OC) the kernel also (The latest CM7 has this) it helps a good bit.

NOTE: I have never seen or heard of a "bricked" Nook Color, I have a link to how to restore them to the Stock OS below, but use these at your own risk.

Look at the Rooting, Rooting, Rooting!  Forums All About Rooting and Rooting Help and Support

ClubNOOK has a great post with links to video's for rooting here

They also have a good thread on what rooting is here

There are a few ways to root the NC:

1) Use an uSD card to boot from (Not really rooting it as this does nothing to the NC OS)

This allows you to get a feel of how it works as a Tablet, it does not work as fast as when you root the eMMC (Internal Memory).

2) Use ManualNooter link below or just click on it here) to modify the Stock B&N OS. This has the advantage of using your NC

in a way that it will be able to run as a stock NC or as a rooted NC. You can install the Nook Home app and anytime you want the stock look and feel just run that app. I like this best because I have apx 360 Books, and I like to have BookShelves. When you root with CM7 or Honeycomb, you have to run the B&N Nook app, and it does not have BookShevles.

You have access to both the full Android Market, and The B&N App store this way. When you replace the B&N OS with CM7 or Honeycomb, you will not be able to get to the B&N App store.

3) Install CM7 or Honeycomb on the eMMC (internal Memory) and replace the B&N Stock OS. I like the look and feel of this the best, BUT I want bookshelves, so I use ManualNooter. This is REALLY sweet though, and really shows how well the NC is at being a Android Tablet. It runs faster/snappier than a ManualNootered NC IMHO.

Links:

CM7 (modified) and Honeycomb on a uSD Card Dual Booting to uSD (Actually triple booting when the Stock OS in counted)

ManualNooter

CM7 Nightlies on eMMC replacing the B&N OS (Nightlies are the latest and greatest updates to Cyanogenmod 7)

Note: You do not need uboot with the latest CM7

How to restore Nook Color to Stock B&N OS You will need to make a CWR uSD first see below

This is for 1.0.0 and 1.0.1

How to restore a NC that came with 1.2.0

You might also try this link

How to make a uSD with CWR Follow steps 1, 2 and 3 to make your CWR Bootable uSD

Dalingrin's OC Kernel (Included in Latest CM7) for ManualNootered NC

Some files people seem to have a hard time getting:

CWR 1gb_clockwork-3.2.0.1-eyeballer.zip (the latest CWR) MD5 of .zip: 1319739d33642ed860e8044c3d55aa56

Google Apps gapps-gb-20110613-signed.zip  md5: 87ffe96c5e94531d96d018e09c701581

generic-sdcard-v1.2.1.img.gz  No MD5 given

generic-sdcard-v1.3.img.gz <-- Updated file from this post on XDA No MD5 given

winima85.exe  WinImage 32 Bit Windows Systems

wima6485.exe WinImage 64 Bit Windows Systems

MiniTool Partition Wizard for 64 bit or 32 Bit Windows
 

Feel free to email me with any questions and suggestions.

charlie dot alexander at gmail dot com