Okay I won't be using my desktop for a while for personal reasons. So I have astro file manager as my text/extracting/zipping tool. Also I have this app called zipsigner for signing my zips after I do minor edits to my zip's files.
My questions are:
What is the correct key/mode for signing zips using zipsigner so that the zip will be flashable?
Any other tools (apps) I should download or buy from market to develope my rom better than doing simple text file editting?
Can I extract apk files using my phone?
Can I extract boot.img using my phone?
Thanks everyone
I'm trying to expand my developing options from my phone from being just text file edits to something more lol
Can anyone answer any of the questions?
Related
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.
Well I haven't had much time lately to make themes but I figured i got enough time to explain how. This is how i do it in windows 7.
1) First thing i assume that you already have androidsdk on the root of your C drive. Lets go ahead and add it to your system path. If it's not called androidsdk go ahead and change it to that. Now open up your startmenu, right click computer, click properties, then click advanced system settings, in the advance system settings select environment variables. In the second box down look for path select it and choose edit. copy and paste this
Code:
;C:\androidsdk\tools
in there. Click okay.
2) download the jre and jdk from here and install them. Now you need to add them to your system path so copy paste this
Code:
;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin
to your system path just like you did in the first step.
3) Download apk manager from here. Now run it and when it says clean out all current projects click yes. Now thats ready to go.
4) Download an image editing program. I use gimp. Also if you don't have it 7-zip
your all set to go now so lets start over with the numbers
1) choose a mymode apk and extract it with 7-zip. Open up the res folder select a png that you want to change and change it with the image editor you chose.
2) when you've changed the images you want open up the original apk as an archive with 7zip. Then place the res folder of the modified unzipped apk into the archive and close the archive.
3) Now open up apk manager and place the mymode apk into the place here for signing folder click script batch choose no then type 15.
4) Now put the newly signed apk into your androidsdk/tools folder and close apk manager.
5) open command prompt and type this
Code:
cd\
cd androidsdk/tools
adb install whatever.apk
I'll update this with pics a more thorough guide.
Thanks to everyone that made this easy
reserved for themes to come
Thanks been waiting for a thread like this.
thanks, if i ever get any free-time between jobs and kid and fiancee i will look into this a little more
This is an awesome guide! I messed around with theming mytouch/g1 back when I had one.. so this will be great to make some themes for the slide..
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
ryanolson7 said:
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The nest theme is in the framework, its not an .apk like the rest, its built into the system. The rest of the mymodes themes are .apks and if you edit those they will override the stock "nest" theme. The only way it will show up different in the theme chooser is if you edit the preview snapshot to be a preview of your theme. If you wanna keep the original theme, the nest theme is it and you should edit a different theme .apk...
-BMFC
Sent from my ROOTED MyTouch3G Slide
Okay so I got the next three days off and I already got two mymode themes pretty much done well their done but I just learned of a way to change the name so they are there own standalone apk instead of using another apk name. I've been using puppypride (which by the way isn't puppies those are full grown dogs) and switching out the pngs and you couldn't have the regular puppypride now you can have both
hope you don't mind but I did a mod of your themes and took out the bubbles since some people always create threads about it
Help with following guide
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.
impimms said:
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually the guide needs to be fixed a little because i'm guessing your getting compiling errors when using apk manager? But the best way to do this is to open up the mymode theme (using 7zip) as an archive delete meta-inf folder then replace the pngs with ones of your choice as long as they are the same scale. Then resign. and install
totally lost
I've followed these directions to a T and when it comes to using the apk manager i am getting nothing, please help
You guys that are having trouble with apk manager...its honestly not necessary to use Apk Manager for this. Mymodes themes are system .apks and shouldn't be re-signed. What you need to do is forget about apk manager (for now) and drop the UNsigned .apk into the ROM update you are using, and resign the whole ROM using the autosign tool created by jesusfreke. Or just adbpush the .apk. but don't resign the .apk.
Here's the link for the autosign tool to sign ROM updates. its in the THIRD POST and its auto-sign .zip, NOT the signing.zip in the first post. you can put it anywhere you want and you just drop (a copy of) your ROM update in the autosign folder, rename it update.zip, then run the sign.bat to sign. it will create another file, update-signed.zip. you shouldnt need to wipe when flashing the same ROM over itself, but i cant guarantee this is true for all ROMs.
you can also make an update that will only flash the .apk to /system/app, and nothing else will be changed. basically just make a copy of the update for the ROM youre using, then delete everything but the /system directory from the zip. then go into that /system directory and delete everything but the /app directory, then go into it and delete all the .apks and odex file or whatevers in there. ALL OF IT. when you are finished you should have an update with nothing in it but a /system/app directory. you put your modded .apk in there in /system/app, and thats it for that.
then you must edit the update script and remove MOST of its contents so that it only does what you want it to. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Go here to learn how to create an update script. what youll need is way simpler than the examples, youll want it to look basically like this...
Code:
assert compatible_with("0.2") == "true"
show_progress 0.1 0
copy_dir PACKAGE:system SYSTEM:
show_progress 0.1 10
this update script will copy ANYTHING in the /system directory to /system on your device, regardless of subdirectories. that means anything in /system will go in /system, anything in /system/app will go to /system/app, etc. but since you only have one .apk in there it wont mess with anything but what you put in there. this way, you have a NOWIPE update for...well, whatever you want to put in it.
so you just drop the new shortened update-script in /META-INF/com/google/android/
and then use the autosign tool to resign your new update then flash away! This also takes less time cus its only flashing one file instead of flashing a whole ROM just to replace that one file...
hope this helps...
-BMFC
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo
Tbrewer80 said:
So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having issues with this as well... After I do the whole signing apk thing, it installs fine, but when I go to MyModes, the preview is black and when I select it, the MyModes app force closes. I don't get it.
I'm a noob at this... I searched the forum but couldn't find any information.
Could someone more knowledgeable explain to me how to decompile and recompile apk's?? More specifically the framework-res??
I read that you can't simply unzip and then rezip... so what do I have to do?
The apk's are zip files that contain the resources (icons, bitmaps, sounds, etc.) as well as the code compiled in a classes.dex file. You can replace the resources after deodexing, but I don't think you will be able to change the compiled code in classes.dex unless you have the source code.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
So for instance... if I have a clockwork flashable battery mod... and I unzip that... and edit colors of icons in the framework-res.apk, then can I just save the files, recompress and it will still flash properly?
And another thing.. if you have a clockword flashable .zip how do you change it so that you can flash via stock recovery? I know that simply renaming it to update.zip and trying via stock will not work. Is it a hard process, do I need a special program on my pc??
make your life easier..
search xda for Apk Manager
jslee1020 said:
So for instance... if I have a clockwork flashable battery mod... and I unzip that... and edit colors of icons in the framework-res.apk, then can I just save the files, recompress and it will still flash properly?
And another thing.. if you have a clockword flashable .zip how do you change it so that you can flash via stock recovery? I know that simply renaming it to update.zip and trying via stock will not work. Is it a hard process, do I need a special program on my pc??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure about editing apk's. To create a flashable zip file through stock recovery, you need to have the META-INF folder correctly created with a working updater script and the manifest and certificate files that you get by signing the zip file. Look into playing with the HTC android kitchen on the chef central section here to automate that process.
hello
I just installed froyo 2.2 and I want to do some mod for framework and twframework. However, all I can find in root dir is twframework-res.apk but I don't see any Framework-res.apk
Any idea where I can find it?
thanks
They should be in /system/framework I believe..
a) open the files with WinRAR (don't extract them, just drop new files in the right places and then close, it will automatically save)
or
b) extract the files with WinRar or something similar, modify what you need, then find a program that will repackage apk's for you, I know theres one floating around on the forums somewhere but not sure where to be honest.
hey thanks for helping. I found it using the Root Manager but I don't why I can't find it using Droid Explorer. The Program I will use is call APK manager.
Holla amigos...
I need help........again.
See, I'm creating my own rom and my base uses blackhawk. I want to change this to firekernel. I searched xda and Google but I couldn't find anything. All they talk about is how to flash another kernel. I want to know how to include it in rom before flashing. And also, could someone tell me the .XML that is used for Modding the lock screen.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda app-developers app
Inside the flashable zip (any flashable zip) you'll find several folders and files. To see where each file gets flashed to, look inside the META-INF folder and search for a file called "updater script".
Its the updater script the one that indicates where each part of the zip will be flashed, so open it with a text editor, take notes where each file ends up, and copy them to their location inside your rom.
dxppxd said:
Inside the flashable zip (any flashable zip) you'll find several folders and files. To see where each file gets flashed to, look inside the META-INF folder and search for a file called "updater script".
Its the updater script the one that indicates where each part of the zip will be flashed, so open it with a text editor, take notes where each file ends up, and copy them to their location inside your rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And at the start, through dsixda kitchen updater script was converted into update script. Is it the same? Okk. And what about including scripts, I want adrenaline engine. I downloaded the zip. Ignored the Meta -inf and copied the system folders inside the system folder of the working project....Am I right?
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda app-developers app
If you're using the kitchen its OK, you can add any flashable zip that way, copying the files and folders to their respective location inside your Project. Checking the updater script is only necessary when in doubt of where each thing goes.
Don't use kitchen's updater script and binaries.They won't work,could even brick the device.To change kernel,download firekernel and replace the boot.img in that pack with the one in your rom.Boot.img is the kernel.Scripts go in init.d
Prawesome said:
Don't use kitchen's updater script and binaries.They won't work,could even brick the device.To change kernel,download firekernel and replace the boot.img in that pack with the one in your rom.Boot.img is the kernel.Scripts go in init.d
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. Thanks for that. Please help me out here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28891130#post28891130