Database Develop

Tux App bar

Ok, maybe I'm going a little overboard here, but I jailbroke the phone just yesterday. I thought that it was time to see what all I would be able to do with it. So i got to looking around trying to figure out what I could skin. /system/app/Launcher.apk provided what i needed to redo the app bar. Here are my results.
I didn't do any modification to the xml files yet. I would like to get where I can edit the images out of those files as well. I removed the up/down arrows, but it was more of a replace with a 1x1px png. you get errors if the files are not put back with the right names or if files are missing. So I'm sure in the xml you would be able to edit it out.
One last thing. There really isn't much space on the /system mount. even when coping the file back up after repacking, I would ofter get not enough space on disk error. Trying again resulted in a success.
How about something else. I am not the best artist or graphics person. I'm sure that my files are larger then they should be. I had to do a 255 index on the color to get the image files down small enough. I'm sure with proper programming on my part, I wouldn't need the bar image, just the tux image. /shrug. I'm tired and going to be.
Enjoy.

Impressive. What does it look like with the apps menu expanded?
Oh, and how do you take screenshots?

It looks like it would noramally but with a tux on it instead of the grey bar. I will have to gt another image up.
The program to take screen shots is ddms (i think). It is in the tools directory of the sdk. Sorry, I just woke up for work.. not much sleep. But I do know if you are running linux it has to be on a 32bit os. It wouldn't run on my 64bit ubuntu.

a question I received
kron2 said:
can you help me i am new to linux and would like to edit some off the images in the app folder on the G1 my phone is jailbroke and i have the files to resign the apk's but don't no how to use them i no how to remove the files from the phone and edit them with rar. and thin i put the files back and rename the file apk but don't no how to resign it i have the emulator and ddms plus eclipse working i would think i resign it after i edit it but don't no where to put the files or how to use signapk.jar thx for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how much help I can be with the jar tool. I can tell you what I did though.
I used adb to get the /system/app/Launcher.apk file. The I extracted the file. So now I have the .apk file and a folder with all of the files in it. I then copied the .apk file to make a backup of it, just in case I needed to push it to the device.
Ok now I am set to do the editing of the files. I use Linux so I started gimp up editing an image. Then saved the image, keeping it the same size (56x295 - something like that) as the previous file. The files size (k/mb) will change. You need to keep this as small as you can.
I then started up Archive Manager, I think that you said that you use winrar or something. You might want to try 7zip, not sure though. Onward. I opened the .apk with the archive manager. The allowed me not to have repack the archive. I then dragged and dropped the edited .png file into the same folder I edited it from, into the same folder browsing though the archive manager. This did nothing more than update the .apk archive with the edited file.
then I pushed the file back to the droid. I hit the end button to turn the screen off and then menu x2 to get into the interface again. This refreshed the interface. and my edits were there.
That is about it. I'm going to copy and paste this reply in the forum so others will benefit from your question.

Tutorial For building custom rom for G1

Can any body post tutorial for building a custom rom for G1 and Hero?

wrong area to post this... probably should take it off.

were should i put this thread then

Q&A buddy.

I wrote a few how-to's on compiling your own android build from source, i recommend starting here:
http://robblue2x.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-set-up-ubuntu-virtual-machine.html
it is a bit out of date now because android moves so fast, its incredibly hard to keep up to date!

robblue2x said:
I wrote a few how-to's on compiling your own android build from source, i recommend starting here:
http://robblue2x.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-set-up-ubuntu-virtual-machine.html
it is a bit out of date now because android moves so fast, its incredibly hard to keep up to date!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just visited this link But how do modify the existing files of android OS ?

If you have to ask how to change the files then you probably shouldn't be messing with the code for an OS. There is alot to it. You need to know how to set up linux, Git, repo, sdk, emulator, learn java,maybe some C++, edit xml files, and compile the edited code just to name a few.
read this
If you get that working then all you need is a text editor to start changing code.
Good luck!

What about modding existing roms?
Here is what I know so far...
system apps are not individualy signed
Rom must be packaged in zip having 3 root directories.
data (holds apps normaly)
META-INF (holds some kind of build files... and android manifest)
system (holds the OS and scripts and such.)
Also boot.img in the root dir.
The update.zip needs to be resigned if repackaged.
=) that is it all that I have gathered after hours of searching.
I dont want to recompile a kernel as I dont need to modify one. I would rather leave that to the more experienced DEVs. All I want is to remove/replace few apps...
My questions:
How do you sign a file... (tried the sign java thing in ubuntu and I get some king of error... could not find library and what not...)
There is a windows batch file floating around I have not tryed that.
I have some basic understanding of code language and I can flollow instructions even if I have to find my way around some stuff... but this rom building is like black magic... Everyone is doing it no one wants to explain how its done... If its too damn hard then so be it. I can modify it on the back end after installing. I just believe in clean simple installs.
What generates the META-INF directory and the files in there. Seems like there is some instructions on setting permissions for certain files and (manifest) seems like signiture keys..
Is that generated when the file is signed?
is it manualy generated?
is can those files be modified?
I know if this is answered it would be helpful in letting people optimize the builds for their own needs.
Sorry for the long post. I hope this gets explained or I dont care if I have to read, give me a bunch of homework (links).

zambezy said:
What about modding existing roms?
Here is what I know so far...
system apps are not individualy signed
Rom must be packaged in zip having 3 root directories.
data (holds apps normaly)
META-INF (holds some kind of build files... and android manifest)
system (holds the OS and scripts and such.)
Also boot.img in the root dir.
The update.zip needs to be resigned if repackaged.
=) that is it all that I have gathered after hours of searching.
I dont want to recompile a kernel as I dont need to modify one. I would rather leave that to the more experienced DEVs. All I want is to remove/replace few apps...
My questions:
How do you sign a file... (tried the sign java thing in ubuntu and I get some king of error... could not find library and what not...)
There is a windows batch file floating around I have not tryed that.
I have some basic understanding of code language and I can flollow instructions even if I have to find my way around some stuff... but this rom building is like black magic... Everyone is doing it no one wants to explain how its done... If its too damn hard then so be it. I can modify it on the back end after installing. I just believe in clean simple installs.
What generates the META-INF directory and the files in there. Seems like there is some instructions on setting permissions for certain files and (manifest) seems like signiture keys..
Is that generated when the file is signed?
is it manualy generated?
is can those files be modified?
I know if this is answered it would be helpful in letting people optimize the builds for their own needs.
Sorry for the long post. I hope this gets explained or I dont care if I have to read, give me a bunch of homework (links).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my advice for signing files would be to read through this thread. stericson says that JF's autosigning tool will work in linux. if you still can't get it pm stericson, he is a very nice member and should be able to help you

Thanks... That worked in windows.
Im getting some FC's but I can at least work on that now...
I did remove everything from the MANIFEST before signing just in case something did not get overwriten correctly.

I don't mess with the manifest files, so try not touching them and see if that helps

Can any body describe what does these files do while building a theme and how to edit these files:
android.policy.jar
framework.jar
services.jar
build.prop
build.sapphire.prop
build.trout.prop

sabin123 said:
Can any body describe what does these files do while building a theme and how to edit these files:
android.policy.jar
framework.jar
services.jar
build.prop
build.sapphire.prop
build.trout.prop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the prop files are configuration files and should NOT be replaced if your making a theme.
the .jar's should only be messed with if your adding stericsons lockscreen. you will have to decompile them for it to work

How to decompile the services.jar files?

Check out my theme thread. It's from when I was porting Android but most of these questions are explained in pretty good detail with links for more info. That should help you out quite a bit:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=578421
Go to the second post

Thanks for the link..

[help] how to make a update.zip???

hey does anyone know how to make a update.zip for a apk???

you need to create an update-script that basically tells the flashing app where the file of your apk goes in the live system.
zip and sign and you're done.
if your next question is "how do I write an update-script" I would suggest you download any of the roms available, extract their script and have a look at it.
its quite basic, not much more difficult than writing a batch file on DOS.
there are a couple of threads that give a few pointers as well but they are somewhere in xda, not necessarily in the nexus section.
search for update-script and you'll see.

nmesisca said:
you need to create an update-script that basically tells the flashing app where the file of your apk goes in the live system.
zip and sign and you're done.
if your next question is "how do I write an update-script" I would suggest you download any of the roms available, extract their script and have a look at it.
its quite basic, not much more difficult than writing a batch file on DOS.
there are a couple of threads that give a few pointers as well but they are somewhere in xda, not necessarily in the nexus section.
search for update-script and you'll see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks mam ill give it a try

Remove the .txt extension or use the META-INF folder in the .zip that already has the same update-script in it or finally, you can use the empty update.zip which already has all the components in it, you just need to add your .apk's and .jar's to it.
This is a basic update script that works well for themes (or at least for me it does). In your .zip have META-INF (for the update-script) folder (take one from a ROM or theme) and an app and a framework folder and it will work.

TW5 for CM9 (Solved)

I am looking for a working port for CM9 for our die-hard Ace. I ooked for several days and I found only a few threads that even remotely gave me some hope. Is there any such thing at all? Have I overlooked something? I know there is a version for CM10 that is working great.
I stumbled upon this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1667854
I flashed the file and it worked but the resolution was too high so the apps were overlapped by the dock.
I would ask a good modder/themer if he could resize the launcher to the resolution needed for our Ace. Btw, I am usin Maclaw's AOSP ICS final.
Thanks in advance.Cheers!

Solved!
After some more research I stumbled upon a post that put an end to my misery!
I got TW5 working on Maclaw's final AOSP version with this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1724553
You have to follow the steps and everything will be just fine.
A few little hiccups there are though, namely in step 1 of maxx35000's post you have to go to his other post and download the file called "seclauncher2mdpiV1.10_Signed.apk". Although it is stated in the thread I made the mistake of using "seclauncher2_Signed.apk" and the launcher had not the desired resolution for our Ace. I jut note this so people do not get confused as silly me did. Also, the files "AccuweatherDaemon_Signed.apk", "AccuweatherWidget_Main_Signed.apk", "AccuweatherWidget_Signed.apk" and aforementioned "seclauncher2mdpiV1.10_Signed.apk" go into the /system/app folder. Just change the permissions and reboot, no need to install anything.
Another thing is that people might have doubts about to where put the files. All files got the /system folder. So, if the post says that you should put a certain file in "lib", it is meant that you put the file in /system/lib. For example, upon copying the extracted files of "system.zip" (there should be 3 folders in the system folder of the zip, namely "lib", "framework" and "etc" and some files in those folders as well) onto your SD card, the files in the "framework" folder have to be copied to /system/framework.
If you follow the steps in the OP,everything will work out just fine.
I did not develop/compile any of this, I just posted a link with some more detailed instructions (for noobs like me). All the credit goes to maxx3500. He deserves the thanks, not me!
Cheers!
P.S. Mods may remove the thread if deemed unimportant

compressing file on Windows

J.Michael said:
I don't think that's too big to post without compressing -- just attach the file.
Are you using Windows on your PC?
Did you copy "recovery.log" to your PC?
Did you look at "recovery.log" in a text editor?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AquilaDroid said:
No longer relevant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I asked those questions, I had no interest in seeing the log file. I wanted to pursue what I thought were strange problems doing something that should have been simple.
Spiralling out from the middle, I didn't understand the "file not found, or no read permission". I wanted to pin down whether Windows Explorer was manipulating a file on your phone, which might (although I don't know why) explain the problem.
I asked about you looking at the file just to get confirmation that you had succeeded in copying the file to your PC.
Maybe it has something to do with where you put the file. The context menu option to compress a file is convenient, but gives me no control. (I think it was quite nice in Windows XP; not so nice in Windows 8 or 10.)
The way I remember it, you select the files, but you can't tell it where to put the ZIP file. Maybe the way you copied the file from phone to PC had enough privilege to put it where you put it, but later, in Windows Explorer, you did not have enough privilege to put the ZIP file in the same directory. (And maybe the error message is less than accurate, and it is not "Read" privilege that is lacking.)
If you want to pursue the ability to make ZIP files:
move the file somewhere else and try again. I don't know exactly where you put it the first time, so I can't suggest a clearly different and safer choice. I would think that the personal directory Windows wished on you (maybe C:\Users\Aquiladroid) would be safe.
Look into 7zip: There's a free version. It has both Windows GUI and command line "apps".

{Mod edit: Quoted post has been deleted}
This thread was a sidebar to another thread, to avoid cluttering the other thread with material I thought was off-topic.
You do not describe your 7 GB file, or what you consider "not very effective". Not all files compress "well" (to me, large reduction in size). I expect 7zip has options to control the trade-off between time spent compressing, and amount of compression achieved.
You should start a new thread, asking for advice. There are a lot of people who will notice a new thread, but who do not "watch" this thread.