Database Develop

Edit roms before flash

I want to make my own rom based on the cyanogen rom. I want to add a few apps and remove a few that already exist.
I have tried using the adb but it wont uninstall the ones I dont want.
I would like to mod a rom before I flash it, Is there a how to for this?
Thanks,
Dubstar_04

I dont think there's a how-to, but I can type a quick one in a jiffy;
Tools;
A computer (Windows PC in this example)
7zip (google it)
The rom you wish to modify.
Either JRE or JDK (so you can run java apps) (google it)
JF's testsign.jar (google it)
Method:
Install 7zip in your computer. Also install the Java runtimes so you can run java apps through the console (ahem, command prompt).
Unzip (if it's not already) your testsign.jar and place it somewhere easy on your HDD (C:\, for example, doesn't get easier than that). Also place the rom you wish to modify in the same folder.
Open the update.zip file (or whatever it's called) with 7zip (you can do this by either using the command dialog (right click) and selecting 7-zip > Open Archive, or by going right-click > Open With > Choose Default Program and select "Always open with this program" with 7zip FM (file manager)).
Once it's open, navigate to the folder system/app and remove in there any apks you don't want in there (for example, I always remove VoiceSearch.apk, VoiceDialer.apk, SystemUpdater.apk, Talk.apk, and when available, SpareParts.apk, com.mp3.amazon.apk, and a few others). That is basically the uninstall process. If you have the apks for the apps you wish to install, you can drag them into the 7z windows at this point too (if you have hboot spl, you have a lot of space in system, so dumping them here is safe). If you don't have the apks, but you have them installed in your phone, you can use adb to get them. Just make a folder in your desktop called app (or whatever you wish) and run adb with your working directory in the desktop (C:\users\myname\desktop). The adb command would be: adb pull data/app app. This will place all the contents of downloaded apps (free ones) inside the app folder in your desktop as apks. I don't know that there's anything you can do at this point about paid apps.
Anyway, once you're done deleting and adding apks to your zip. Close the 7zip window (it saves the changes automatically, you should have kept the window open through the whole process).
Open up the command prompt again, and change your working directory to C:\ (usually cd ../..), then, if you placed all like I told you to, you can just run; java testsign updatenamewhateveritis.zip
Ofcourse, replace updatenamewhateveritisi.zip with the name of the update, but I recomend renaming it to update.zip beforehand so you don't have to type a lot.
After it's done signing, the rom is ready to flash.
Good lucks to you

Wow...Good explanation.
I have few questions.
-Do i need the jar sign thing?
-Can I create a flasheable update.zip to "add/remove" apps to a fresh flashed rom? (I mean, flash a custom rom and then apply update.zip which can add and remove apk ), or do you recommend to modify the zipped rom instead of creating a update.zip ?
Many thanks

Depending on your recovery you can just toggle on/off if you need a signed zip or not. This is a very old thread and I imagine it was much harder to push apps into /system back then or to remove /system apps for that matter. With root access there are many apps you can do this with now, or with adb or terminal emulator
What is your purpose for this by the way? I feel there may be easier ways to accomplish what you're after
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

Thanks for answer
Yeah...it's and old thread, but actually it saved me to post a similar topic thread again :good:
My purpose? Not developing anything nor cooking rom. I just found at http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Barebones that i can safely uninstall apks that i don't use. So i uninstalled some of then, and i was thinking, in case of reinstalling the rom or flashing a new version of it, how to erase the unusefull apks(for me at least) in one step.
I think the easiest way is removing them from the zipped rom before flashing.
What do you think?

yes you can unzip and rome .apks, but then you will have to sign it unless your recovery allows unsigned zipps. why not flash the rom as is, remove all the unwanted, add what you like, then make a nandroid copy of the way you like it. this can then be flashed whenever
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

Oh...the sign thing!
Anyway, there are few useless apks, so i think i can do it manually after flashing rom.
Hey. I'd like to know what nandroid is...
I use CWM recovery to backup/restore data/rom and I use Titanium Backup for the applications. So what the **** is nandroid. I mean, is an apk? Is a boot tool? And what can i do with it?
Thanks a lot dude!

it is the backup you make in your recovery, you will make either a nandroid backup or bart backup. depending how it is done it will be an exact copy of your rom, apps, call log, etc. any thing stored to you phone @ that "recovery" point
it gets its name from nand (the nand flash memory) and android, some recoveries may just call it a backup
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

Need help installing apps from zip file

When I look in my sdcard, some of the apps that I've backed up end up as zip files. According to search, I should be able to just rename it from .zip to .apk
I did that, and tried to install, but it keeps giving me a warning that says this app cannot be installed on the phone.
Why? and how can I fix this so I can install these apps back?
Thanks

maybe because changing extension names on files makes them unstable. look in app private. im sure the zips came from the apps folder it happens like i said look in appsprivate folder

"Application not installed" - frustrating error

Mods please delete. I figured out my errors and all is well.
If anyone is having trouble with this as I was, please refer to these instructions. I'm sorry, I forget who posted them but credit to whoever you are. Big help.
1. Transfer the apk from your phone to your computer. It's probably in a place like data/app or data/data or the like
2. Open the apk with 7zip. Do not extract the whole thing, just open it. Inside you'll see a folder called "res"; transfer that somewhere on your computer.
3. Inside the res folder you'll see a bunch of folders. The images you want to edit are usually in a folder labeled "drawable", but you may have to look elsewhere
4. Find the background image you want to edit. It might be labeled widget_bg or something helpful like that.
5. Edit it how you want. In the case of transparency, you want to delete the background and make it entirely transparent. Save it in the same format and do not change the name. (Note- if your file has .9.png in it, you have to open your edited version using draw9xpatch or whatever in the Android SDK and save it through that as well)
6. Drag the res folder with your modified images back into the archive, using 7zip. You might want to use a duplicate of the apk, just to have the original on hand in case something goes wrong.
8. Place the modified apk into the place-apk-here-for-modding folder in the APK Manager folder
9. Open up script.bat. Select your project using option 22.
10. Do the following things- Extract APK (1), Zip APK (3), zip as regular apk (2), sign apk (4)
At this point you should have a signed version of the apk in the place-apk-here-for-modding folder. You can transfer it to your phone now and install it. Or install it directly onto your phone through apk manager if you have ADB enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!

Wait a minute, you click on the application from your file manager, opening it in your App Manager, and it says Application not Installed?
That makes no sense at all. The only time I've encountered that is when I've tried using an app that was stored on my SD card, which wasn't put in. That app was on my homescreen too.

I'll have the .apk on my SD card somewhere and I'll try to install in through a file explorer with the error message above.
I tried installing through Dropbox, but that also gets me the error message. I've uninstalled all applications of the same name because that's what you're supposed to do. It's weird, I know. I'm trying to work through it right now.

see OP
10char

Same problem
Hello gentlemen, i have some problem with installing "slide it keyboard" and others applications. The messages is: application not installed. I tried everything, but nothing works... Please help me.
HTC desire 2.2 froyo

[Tool] Inject Apps to ROM for Installation

If you're like me, you probably have installed a new ROM at least once a week. I usually use Titanium Backup to restore all my Apps, but it takes quite a long time since I use a lot of Apps. Also, if you don't have the Pro version of Titanium Backup, you will need to click through the Install button for every App you want to install.
This program is a simple way to fix that. What it does is it injects you Apps as part of the ROM when you install a new ROM. This way, as soon as you install your ROM, your Apps will already be installed as part of the ROM.
I have only tried this with the latest Team Whiskey Onyx ROM, but it should work with most, if not all ROMs.
Also, not all Apps can be installed this way, especially if you try to include the data. YMMV.
INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare your computer
1. Install Java JRE and SDK.
2. Install 7-Zip. It can be found here: http://www.7-zip.org/
3. Download Testsign.jar. It can be found here: http://www.robmcghee.com/android/creating-an-android-update-zip-package/. Download the file "Testsign.zip" and extract it. Testsign.jar should be in there. You will need this later.
4. Set up your windows Path Environment.
a. Go to your Control Panel and open "System."
b. For Windows 7, you will need to click on "Advanced System Settings."
c. Go to the "Advanced" tab.
d. Click on the "Environment Variables" button.
e. Under "System Variables" find "Path." Select it and click on the "Edit" button.
f. A window should pop up a field for "Variable value." In there, you will want to add your 7-Zip and Java SDK bin path. At the end of "Variable value," add (without the quotes)
";C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin;C:\Program Files\7-Zip"
It might be slightly different for you if you're not using a 64-bit Windows. Basically, this step is to allow you to run the Java and 7-Zip command-line tools from anywhere in your system.
5. Reboot your computer.
6. Test to make sure you can run the Java tools and 7-Zip tools. Do this by running "cmd." A command-line prompt should appear. In there, type "java" and hit enter. The usage info for running java should appear. Now type "7z" and hit enter. The usage info for 7-Zip should appear. Your computer is now set up to run my batch file.
Prepare your Apps
WARNING: Not all Apps work using this method, and not all data can be restored using this method. If it doesn't work, you can restore it using Titanium Backup and it should work fine. Once you find that a certain App doesn't work, you should probably remove it from your App/Data folder (read below) so it doesn't install next time using this method.
1. Get all your APKs and data. The easiest way I know how to do this is by using Titanium Backup to make a backup of all my Apps.
2. Use Titanium Backup and back up your Apps.
3. Inside your SD Card, you should have a TitaniumBackup folder. All your Apps and data are in here. Every App you have backed up in Titanium should have 3 files. A .properties file, a apk.gz file, and a tar.gz file. The apk.gz file will contain your APK. The tar.gz file will contain your data. You can extract these files using something like WinRAR.
4. Extract your APKs and put them in a folder called "data\app". Extract your App's data and put them in a folder called "data\data". Your "data\data" should look something like this "data\data\com.appname".
5. Once this is complete, you can use this APK/data set for any future ROMs.
Create your ROM with your Apps
1. Put AppToROM.bat, testsign.jar, your data folder, and your ROM's zip into the same folder.
2. Drag your ROM's zip onto AppToROM.bat.
3. The batch file will now start creating your new ROM for you. It will do the following steps:
a. Extract your ROM.
b. Copy your data to the extracted ROM folder.
c. Zip everything back up.
d. Sign the new Zip.
4. When everything is done, you should have a "NewROM.zip" file. Use this new Zip file to install your ROM like you normally would.
Disclaimer:
I take no responsibility for any harm that this may do to your device. All of the tools here, except the bat file, I did not write. I just created a bat file that puts all the tools together to make it easier to install your Apps after installing a new ROM.

or you could just open your update.zip and place your apks in system/app re-zip and flash. Done this multiple times and it works. just need to keep a copy of your apks on your computer. ill try this method tonight. thanks

If you put it into "system/app" it will install it as a System app, and I believe you can't uninstall it regularly (kind of like how you can't install the bloatware). You will need to use Titanium Backup to uninstall it.
Also, I remember reading that some people were not able to install the ROMs after zipping it up because it's not signed.
This script is very simple. It basically just unzips the ROM, copies over your apps, zips back the ROM, and then signs it. Once you have your Windows set up, you can just drag and drop the ROM to the .bat file and it'll do all that for you.
Is this useless? Maybe. But, the same could be said for something like RyanZA's OCLF. You can sit there, type in all the commands to convert to EXT2, wait for it to convert, and reboot, or you can just run OCLF (which is basically just running a script for the conversion, to put it simply).

blackerwater said:
or you could just open your update.zip and place your apks in system/app re-zip and flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not just put them into data/app instead?

or you could just...
Or you could just download a pro version of titanium backup so that it can restore all your apps without you needing to click. There are plenty to be found online. The latest version, the better, as it would be more stable with froyo

So doing things this way... since it will be signed, i can also take other things out form other roms that i like and toss them in this rom??

I have titanium paid version. Just run it and it does everything
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Dude it's called WinRAR. Open up the zip. Drop your apps into the data/app folder.
Then flash it. Simple.
Want certain apps to stay even after hard resetting? put them in system/app
This tool is completely unnecessary.

That's really a good idea. I like the method very much, it give me more free time to do some other things when flashing...Thanks !

Anderdroid said:
Dude it's called WinRAR. Open up the zip. Drop your apps into the data/app folder.
Then flash it. Simple.
Want certain apps to stay even after hard resetting? put them in system/app
This tool is completely unnecessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto. This seems way more complicated then the method I've been using. You say it's simple that there are like 20 steps.

yeah and CWM has the option to toggle signature verification.. so you can flash unsigned apps on the vibrant.. but if you use 7zip it doesnt mess with the sig...

epakrat75 said:
Why not just put them into data/app instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or that should work. And as for signing problems I us ubuntu and ive never had that happen but I guess with windows anything is possible.
Sent from my vibrant

Etrnaly said:
If you put it into "system/app" it will install it as a System app, and I believe you can't uninstall it regularly (kind of like how you can't install the bloatware). You will need to use Titanium Backup to uninstall it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
$adb shell
$su
#rm /system/app/CrappyBloatwareAppOfChoice.apk
Done.
No need for titanium.

Sorry for the noob question
Anderdroid said:
Dude it's called WinRAR. Open up the zip. Drop your apps into the data/app folder.
Then flash it. Simple.
Want certain apps to stay even after hard resetting? put them in system/app
This tool is completely unnecessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say your apps do you mean your .apks thanks

need (my files) app on captivate

does anyone know if there is a .tar file or something so i could flash the my files app on my cappy that usually comes on the cappy with the official firmwares? i just need some kind of file to do that because i dont like astro and es file manager, etc. even a link to somewere where this has been done before would help, thanks.

Why use that when the others have a **** ton more functionality? Like root file exploration.
Do you have any .tar stock firmware package? Open that archive with 7zip and go to /system/app and drag it out...then use a root file explorer (lolz oh the irony) to drop it in /system/app
Or use adb to push it there
Or get a theme cwm zip package and delete all the files out of the folders (not touching the meta-inf folder) and drop it in /system/app and flash that.

studacris said:
then use a root file explorer (lolz oh the irony)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did indeed LOL

hmm...i think im gonna get the cwm package and just do that, do you have any link on one of those, if not then how can i get or look one of those up?

any theme zip will do, just not a ROM zip that has a kernel and modem in it you don't need top flash the theme zips ate just system apk files you can delete out and add your apk in. Make sure only that apk is in it though.
Hold on...I'll hey you a link where i posted a test zip you can use.
Edit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22271929&postcount=1403
In that post is a cwm zip, open that archive with 7zip go to /system/app delete what's there and drop that apk in. Then flash that in recovery.

ya well it didnt work..

Ya well you give more detail we can help.... "It didn't work" isn't very helpful for trouble shooting...

it said that the installation was aborted

What version of cwm do you have?
Or are you on an aosp ROM?

Just use a root explorer, go in and unzip any file that has it in it, then go to the extracted folder, long press on it and hit COPY, then back out until your at SYSTEM and paste it, then look for the file in SYSTEM and long press on it and choose permissions, then change it so it matches the SAME PERMISSIONS in SYSTEM/APP, then once you have the permissions correct long press on it and move it into SYSTEM/APP and hit PASTE. them REBOOT the phone and it will be in there and working. NO NEED to try flashing it in cwm. This MAY sound like a lot of work but it is VERY EASY AND FOOL PROOF.
Sent from MY SPH-P100 running ICS

OI File Manager. Looks almost exactly like my files.

Ok rockratt...first of all...when i tried putting the file in system...
It said failed, and also what do you mean to fix the permisions?
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

It failed because you need to mount that partition r/w instead of the default r/o...should be an option for that on the root file explorer you used.

juggalo4life760 said:
Ok rockratt...first of all...when i tried putting the file in system...
It said failed, and also what do you mean to fix the permisions?
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As studacris said make sure to set it to read/write. When using ROOT EXPLORER you will see a button towards the top the probably says MOUNT R/W click on it and then paste it to SYSTEM( the reason I say to paste it to SYSTEM first so you can change the apparently permissions before moving it into SYSTEM/APP since it will ask to overwrite a version of itself if it is already there. To change the permissions just long press, choose permissions, then click the appropriate boxes to make it have the correct permissions before placing it in.
Sent from My KickAss CM7 Captivate

Pasting to /system and Changing permissions shouldn't be needed.
And if it is..boot into recovery, go to advanced, and fix permissions