Are themes on stock ROM possible at all? - Nexus One Themes and Apps

I'm rooted and have working MetaMorph. I've been told that due to ODEX files stock ROMs are not skinnable with MM at all. Is this true? I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to have
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=639556&page=5
THIS skin (with Desire Battery Icon). If it's possible and someone actually comes through, beer money will be headed your way. Flat black, all Desire Icons, works on stock if at all possible. I'm new to Android so I don't know much about this stuff unfortunately.

You can theme the .apk's but cannot change the color of the text (but you cannot change anything that would reside in a .dex file since that .dex file is now in an .odex file). If you don't have a problem with not being able to see you carrier name, clock, or date, then it is doable.

david1171 said:
You can theme the .apk's but cannot change the color of the text. If you don't have a problem with not being able to see you carrier name, clock, or date, then it is doable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drat. I guess I'll have to hit the forums to see if there's any ROMs at all that are minimal in nature but still allow the skinning. I'm not really liking all the extra stuff in CM and MoDaCo's ROMs right now. I love that they're doing the work and forwarding the platform (I used MDC's superboot/root which was fantastically easy) but I'm not into the additions, I want to make those myself. What to do (aside from dealing with the stock bars)...

level5music said:
Drat. I guess I'll have to hit the forums to see if there's any ROMs at all that are minimal in nature but still allow the skinning. I'm not really liking all the extra stuff in CM and MoDaCo's ROMs right now. I love that they're doing the work and forwarding the platform (I used MDC's superboot/root which was fantastically easy) but I'm not into the additions, I want to make those myself. What to do (aside from dealing with the stock bars)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should really look at enomther's ROMs then. They are about stock if you don't choose any of the extras that come with them. They are also amazingly stable.
EDIT:Since you do speak of making your own mods, then if you de-odex your build then you could theme it as you choose basically.
http://code.google.com/p/smali/
That will set you up on de-odex-ing your build.

Related

AOSP taskbar icon?

I'm working on a complete AOSP taskbar, however I'm having trouble with one pesky little icon (see attached). If I'm correct, then that's where the location icon should be, however for some reason it's giving me the roaming icon. Now, I'm not roaming for one thing, and for another, I have the correct .pngs in the file (sym_gpsone_[0,3]_[sprint,vzw].png in com.htc.resources.apk) but it doesn't want to use those.
Am I editing the wrong icons? Or is there another hack necessary to get it to use the correct ones?
Thanks.
What are the names of your gps icons in com.htc.resources.apk? Should be sym_gpsone_0_sprint.png and sym_gpsone_3_sprint.png. Make certain...If you can, zip up your com.htc.resources.apk and i'll take a look...
Gregalous said:
Am I editing the wrong icons? Or is there another hack necessary to get it to use the correct ones?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're positive that you know you're editing the correct .png file and that you aren't roaming, then next logical problem would be in the .xml programming of the taskbar...but I highly doubt many of actually mess with the code inside the .xml files.
Double check the icon and your network settings.
Take a look for yourself. It's sym_gpsone_0_sprint.png and sym_gpsone_3_sprint.png.
Gregalous said:
Am I editing the wrong icons? Or is there another hack necessary to get it to use the correct ones?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What ROM is this for? And where did you get the services.jar for it? I only ask because the same thing happened to me when I was puttin some **** together and used a .jar for Legend on Sprint(or the other way around I dont remember). Anyways, it looked exactly like that. So, you might want to check that first...
My ROM that I'll be releasing soon has, I think, all of the icons changed to their AOSP counterparts. (might be missing mail, since I don't use that apk) The headphone icons I had to derive from the black versions, but I think they look very good. (I couldn't find aosp icons for headphones??) I don't have the rest of the ROM exactly how I'd like it yet, so I'm not posting it yet... but if you'd like to look at (or steal) what I've got, you're welcome to, just send me a PM and I'll link you to it. It's highly based on the Gomorrahs Green Hero One theme, and he had most of them already fixed.
I'd also like to add that I've got the notification panel AOSP themed too, minus the carrier text color.
gomorrah said:
What ROM is this for? And where did you get the services.jar for it? I only ask because the same thing happened to me when I was puttin some **** together and used a .jar for Legend on Sprint(or the other way around I dont remember). Anyways, it looked exactly like that. So, you might want to check that first...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point, I snagged the services.jar from one of the posts in the themes thread, I think it was for one of the earlier Fresh ROM's...
I'll try a different one and see if I get different results. Thanks for pointing that out!

Possible theme that improves upon stock HTC Sense

I just recently moved from iOS to Android, and I like it so far but it looks kind of... cheap. I'm talking about HTC Sense specifically, stock/AOSP Android is well design but albeit dull to some (although I don't agree, I prefer the minimalistic design). Some of it is okay while other parts don't make a whole lot of sense or just look plain amateur. Most of all, I think it's way over exaggerated. I hate looking at the browser bar and seeing a heavily glossed bevel with a near near flat text input and a inset button. Why would a button be even inset?
Anyway, I like some of Sense's additional features, and since Cyanogen isn't stable yet, I'd like to re-design Sense to be more subtle and just better designed. I'm a well established UI/UX designer but always have a lot of work on hand. So if someone who is knowledgeable with the graphic files that make up Sense (preferably in the new Froyo build) and is willing to identify and send the files (preferably in a zip of organized folders so I could just re-design and leave as is which could then be easily turned into a usable update file by someone), I'd get started ASAP.
The EVO is fine as is, but improving the appearance of Sense would go a long way in calming my OCD mind Attached is a quick example of how it would look like. It's the "to" contact bar in the HTC messaging app - the top is default, the bottom is my redesigned version.
My main beefs with the default graphic are:
a. It's too glossy making the outset depth of the bar appear high, problem is that a flat element (the text input box) is laid on top of it thus making it look weird and unnatural. Plus it makes it look like cheap plastic.
b. The button is inset. Why? Have you ever seen a inset button? Maybe once or twice. Looks more like a active selection than a button. the lighting is also off and just plain looks terrible.
c. The corners are rounded, but why? It looks out of place and loses fluidity with the rest of the layout. One thing I noticed is that HTC likes to throw in rounded corners in just about everything they can.
Like I said, this will be a very subtle theme but I think it will help make the stock Sense theme better. So if anyone wants to help identifying the files or knows a known resource (which I doubt since Froyo must have changed things a bit), just PM me.
I second this request. I wish I could help.
I totally agree with you in that the Sense theme needs to be more subtle.
I have always wondered why it has taken so long for someone to come up with this theme.
that would be nice
I like the idea!
Heres what I have so far.
In framework-res, I have included everything I think you will need. You'll have to let me know how much theming you intend to do. ie buttoms/selections (everything with a stock gloss?) or not.
I will continue to dig up more of what you need once I hear how deep you're looking to go. I included the taskbar icons because those will need to be changed to fit whatever the taskbar changes too so they will match. Obviously I have yet to include the signal ones along with 4g, as well as the individual app status bar notifications.
I'll wait to hear back before I progress much further.
Again, very nice looking.
Edit: Updated my post to add more.
I want to fix as much as possible. Anything you send, I'll theme. I'll commit to that.
But at the least, I want to redesign buttons and major UI elements like the example I showed. I definitely would like to redesign selections -- I'm not sure why they are "crystal-like", I much prefer a AOSP-like selection but of course in green for Sense.
I'll look through these and see what I'll do with them.
Award Tour said:
I want to fix as much as possible. Anything you send, I'll theme. I'll commit to that.
But at the least, I want to redesign buttons and major UI elements like the example I showed. I definitely would like to redesign selections -- I'm not sure why they are "crystal-like", I much prefer a AOSP-like selection but of course in green for Sense.
I'll look through these and see what I'll do with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, don't know if I edited my post before or after this, but I added more to the framework-res folder with an updated zip. It now includes everything from there you should/could need from that particular file. See what you can do with those. I'm not 100% sure if any of the files used in froyo have changed (what gets used in those folders and what doesn't) so bare with me. But for the most part it shouldn't be that difficult to dig up the rest of the important stuff.
I just pulled it now so it should be the latest files.
I just pushed that sense folder to my work server, once something is in there, they get done. I'll update the folder as I get more items.
barnacles10 said:
Ok, don't know if I edited my post before or after this, but I added more to the framework-res folder with an updated zip. It now includes everything from there you should/could need from that particular file. See what you can do with those. I'm not 100% sure if any of the files used in froyo have changed (what gets used in those folders and what doesn't) so bare with me. But for the most part it shouldn't be that difficult to dig up the rest of the important stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright so this is what I'll do. I'll theme these current files and when I'm done I'll post some previews and then you or someone else who is willing can send a new batch of files. That way it can be done in waves and can be easily managed.
So I'll finish these and post back soon.
Award Tour said:
Alright so this is what I'll do. I'll theme these current files and when I'm done I'll post some previews and then you or someone else who is willing can send a new batch of files. That way it can be done in waves and can be easily managed.
So I'll finish these and post back soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, well this has totally got me pumped, so I went through and did more for you. I've included the other files out of ease, so what I have done is labeled all the folders which have new files (new from that one posted above) and added "contains new" at the end. Then within each folder i have created "new" folders for what I have added. That way you don't have to go through and figure out what you have done and whats been added.
This should keep you busy as I'm done for the night. This is a lot of the major stuff though. I will report back with anything else I find later on.
Award Tour, just curious, do you have experience with .9.png's?
Barnacles, I noticed you pulled stuff out of framework-res, did you toss him the stuff from com.htc.resouces.apk too?
nebenezer said:
OP, just curious, do you have experience with .9.png's?
Barnacles, I noticed you pulled stuff out of framework-res, did you toss him the stuff from com.htc.resouces.apk too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the second file I posted here has pretty much everything he needs to start. Most everything from resources, and framework as well as other stock apps
nebenezer said:
Award Tour, just curious, do you have experience with .9.png's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not yet, but I understand them now I think. I noticed immediately that some of the files had to scale somehow and from your post just noticed that those files are the .9 files you speak of. I'll look into it but I'm just gonna assume that they have some sort of meta info in them for now. I'll work on those last so I can read up on the file format.
barnacles10 said:
Yeah the second file I posted here has pretty much everything he needs to start. Most everything from resources, and framework as well as other stock apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, sorry to interrupt, just wanted to make sure
Award Tour said:
Not yet, but I understand them now I think. I noticed immediately that some of the files had to scale somehow and from your post just noticed that those files are the .9 files you speak of. I'll look into it but I'm just gonna assume that they have some sort of meta info in them for now. I'll work on those last so I can read up on the file format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah they have invisible guides that tell the OS where to stretch the image to suit whatever purpose it needs.
When you open, edit and re-save them the guides disappear so you'll have to redraw them. You will find plenty of info on .9's.
The search bar you did looks much better than Google's version, I'm sure this will end up being a pretty sweet theme
This is no small undertaking or I would jump in on it and help out.
There are tons of people here who are more talented and experienced than I but if you have any questions you're welcome to pm me.
Hey guys. I am up for the night and addicted to flashing **** so let me know if you need a beta tester.
Once you finish what's there feel free to send them back to me and I can throw em back where they need to go and make a morph for the changes to test them out.
ok so are those .zips flashable? any screens of what you have done? it looks nice on the first picture
magicalan said:
ok so are those .zips flashable? any screens of what you have done? it looks nice on the first picture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only spent like 20 minutes on it today during work but I should do a hour or so more later tonite.
I finished some of the status bar but I was disappointed to see that the background image for a notification item was missing. I still designed it but if anyone knows how I can throw it in sense (maybe a simple file with the right name? maybe check a AOSP build because it should be in there) let me know.
Here it is for those that are interested, I will probably refine it further but this is what I got so far:
The aim, if you haven't already noticed, is to combine stock AOSP Android with a Sense-like look.
Award Tour said:
I only spent like 20 minutes on it today during work but I should do a hour or so more later tonite.
I finished some of the status bar but I was disappointed to see that the background image for a notification item was missing. I still designed it but if anyone knows how I can throw it in sense (maybe a simple file with the right name? maybe check a AOSP build because it should be in there) let me know.
Here it is for those that are interested, I will probably refine it further but this is what I got so far:
The aim, if you haven't already noticed, is to combine stock AOSP Android with a Sense-like look.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks good! Ill look for the notification bg image for ya when I get home tonight.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
magicalan said:
ok so are those .zips flashable? any screens of what you have done? it looks nice on the first picture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are not flashable. Sorry for double posting but can't multiquote. They are simply folders. Had to zip them up to attach them is all
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Try to send me a new batch as well, I *think* I'll be done with this in a hour. If you can, send me the froyo ones.

Flipping Animations for Us too?!

I was browsing around and found this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=813162
and tried pushing and pulling the anim folder and all worked great, except everything!
the flip animations worked, but every app FC'ed.
so i basically only saw the flipping during the fc screens!
looks great, but doesn't work.
i have NO CLUE how to make it work.
what needs done to the files to get it to work?
and i MAY need the stock anim folder from our phone please!
by MAY i mean i do badly!
thanks!
:scooter:
Back when I was running Zen-ROM I was using Envynet's Elegant Envy theme, seen here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=768540
It had very similar animations to what I saw in the video...hopefully you can pull something from that.
i'm going to look into that.
thank you very much
Just wanted to say first time I pulled com.htc.resources.apk and pushed to that (made a backup before I modified) so after I pushed it nothing happened..
Then I pulled framework-res.apk and ploped the anim files in that.
Well now I get some really cool flip style transitions on my status bar up top, but no flip clock... Or is this what it's about? BTW, I got NO fc's on this either. If you want the framework-res.apk file, i'll post it.
Either way at least the flip style status bar will make a great addition to my roms
i could only get the ones from the dark to actually work.
all others wouldn't unzip.
so i'm giving them a go now.
i'll keep you posted.
sure, let me have what you got.
i'll toy around with them a little too.
thanks
so, the aria dark framework-res didn't work.
same thing.
force closes, but they flip!
by the way,
i'm using cm6 with adw launcher.
andro green theme.
i'm going to try LP instead of adw.
I believe envynet has did this before with his Envy Aria theme as I remember the flipping animations when i used that rom and his theme.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=768540
i tried those from Envy.
no avail.
still the same FC's as before.
rideascooter said:
sure, let me have what you got.
i'll toy around with them a little too.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my framework-res.apk file:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1xdbf9w9308cwe2
All I did was pull the original from my phone, merge the anim directories with the file you provided and pushed back and voila! flips animations (between screens)
....
I just noticed you said your using cm6...
Well, I guess I better warn you.
I am using HTC Stock 2.1(base). And I am on Cellular South not Sprint, so definitely make a backup of your current framework-res.apk file before pushing this one.. dunno if it will work or not but hope so.
Thanks Hex:
Still gettting FC's.
i'm guessing it doesnt like AOSP.
i haven't had any luck with anything i've come across.
but they have ALL been from sense based roms. i think ....
i think i'm going to need some help on this.
anybody?!
Man this would be cool
it looks great,but ....
i can only see it on the FC screens!
Sounds to me like the xmls in that anim folder have settings pointing to various Sense related stuff (as I am finding out the hard way on my minimalist rom atm)
What you would need to do is decompile the xmls from cm6, and the xmls from the flipping anim folder and go through one by one merging just the flip code related to the animations and remove any sense related links... Which if I remember correctly are going to be addresses AND memory pages. This may prove to be quite tough to decipher.
Yeah I just think the .zip you found doesnt like aosp. I got it to work on my sense rom thanks to Hex. Now I like the animations.
Thanks man, always glad to help!
and how do i edit / decomplile these?
point me in the right direction, and i'm on it.
i want this to happen.
i'll probably hate it after a while, but i keep getting teased with the fc screens.
so for now, i want it!
what do i use to view xmls to edit them?
bump this up for a little help?
Shoot man, mah bad. I was meaning to help you.
#1 you need apktool:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=640592
This decompiles apks. I have never used it so... ymmv, but I have heard this is the best tool to do so.
Alternatively you can use xmlprint:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=514412
This decompiles apks to text files, however it does it 1 by 1 and does not re-compile them into native bytecode, however at the same time since it's just one folder you may prefer this to apktool for decoding (but you still need apk tool to recompile them)
For CM6, instead of decompiling all of them, it may be better to just go grab the source for CM6. You can get that here:http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Compile_CyanogenMod_for_Hero_CDMA
This wiki also gives a howto for compiling the code afterwards. The upside is you can tweak CM6 to your liking. The downside is... compiling the whole thing.
If you find a fast easy way of compiling just the files you need, you can just merge them with your current cm6 install.
DO A NANDROID FIRST SO IF YOU MESS IT UP YOU CAN GO BACK!!!!!
Hope this helps man!

metamorph themes for incredible

does anyone know where, on here, can i get some mods for my notification bar? like wifi and 3g and signal bars? i need to be able to use metamorph to apply them cause i am not too good at this stuff. i have done the search but have only came up with batts. any help would be appreciated.
What rom?
sent from dinc
Clockwork recovery
mills23 said:
Clockwork recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not a ROM, but since you dont know that, I'm going to assume that you have the stock rom. Just look in this forum, theyre all over the place.
Lol yeah im not sure what I got! That's part of why I'm looking for easy ways to do mods.
Don't worry: we all had to start somewhere.
With that said, if you don't yet know the difference between recovery and a rom, I'd shy away from jumping into MetaMorph themes for your notification bar for now.
First, I'd recommend you do a bit of reading on the terminology: roms, recovery, kernels, etc. Then familiarize yourself with how to make a nandroid backup and how to restore it: this is going to be critical once you decide to move forward with theming. Finally, people may disagree with me on this last point, but I'd recommend you educate yourself on how MetaMorph is working and how apks store their icons.
If you are semi-proficient with computers, none of the above should be too hard. In fact, you'll probably be surprised at how easy it ends up being. With a little bit of reading, and trial-and-error, you'll be able to find almost any theme you like, pull only the png files you want, then make your own MetaMorph theme.
You can open any apk file (like a copy of your system's framework) using a zip program (like 7zip) and see what png icons it contains. MetaMorph does nothing more than replace these png files with new files that you give it. A MetaMorph theme will have an XML control file that instructs it where to place the png files, which will also be dictated by the folder structure.
Jumping straight into MM themes without an understanding of these concepts is a bit of a risky move. Since signal/wifi/etc icons are part of the framework-res.apk, it's quite easy to throw yourself into a bootloop.
Again, I know some people will disagree with this advice: it's just my personal opinion. I know you are eager to tweak your device, but without a decent understanding of what you are doing, you could find yourself trying to fix a problem that takes a lot more time than my suggested path of first learning.
I agree! Read read read, then flash
sent from dinc
I just don't have alot of time with a 18 month old runing around. So I was just looking for something easy.
Droidpirate.com
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
mills23 said:
I just don't have alot of time with a 18 month old runing around. So I was just looking for something easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Understood; some of us definitely have more time than others when it comes to tinkering.
I'll make you a deal: if you find a theme that you like (doesn't have to be MetaMorph... could just be a rom that visually appeals to you), point me to the link. If I'm able to, I will make a MetaMorph theme file for you to try. For simplicity's sake, find something that would use the same number of icons as your current setup. In other words, if you are currently running a rom that uses a 4-bar signal icon (which is most likely the case), let's avoid the 6-bar signal icons. If the theme you want is solely visual in nature (i.e. no functional changes, like the 4 -> 6 bar change), then I should be able to make the MM pack and give you instructions on its use.
Ok great thank you! I will get them together and pm them to you.

[Needed] Custom Dark Themes for Stock Roms

I wanted to know if anyone out there has got a custom theme installed for stock roms.
I seen some for CM..
I want my menu's to be dark background based but not after have a custom rom to do it.
I looked through this sub forum and seen nothing related..
Thanks if anyone has any suggestions or ideas on how i can start patching it myself.
If i knew where the stuff is controlled form that would help.
I have experience doing all kinds of thing such as making a Rockbox Theme.
I don't think anyone has done any yet, I've done AOSP signal cluster and navbar mods but haven't touched the theme yet. If you use xposed "lollipop themer" seems to be popular for theming stock ROMs.
Here's a great guide and its always evolving and improving...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2978121
[Guide][How to theme lollipop roms with ease]
Interesting thanks.. 230 pages on that link wow LOL
Sadly it seems you would have to decompile a lot of apk's.
I wasn't sure if there was just some settings somewhere (in 1 place)
You would think the Android dev's would at least support some basic color theme changes right ?
I am surprised there is no built in support for this idea.
I have no doubt a lot of people out there want dark backgrounds like me.
xpmule said:
Interesting thanks.. 230 pages on that link wow LOL
Sadly it seems you would have to decompile a lot of apk's.
I wasn't sure if there was just some settings somewhere (in 1 place)
You would think the Android dev's would at least support some basic color theme changes right ?
I am surprised there is no built in support for this idea.
I have no doubt a lot of people out there want dark backgrounds like me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The majority of the system can be pretty easily themed. Its framework, systemui, settings, dialer and phone. Then there's guys like team black out who do a lot of 3rd party apps and gapps. If there were more interest from the stock ROM users I'd do a dark system theme but I've done a few mods here and people don't seem to interested because of all the custom ROMs we have.
thanks for more info.. never heard of Team Black no idea what that is about but i love it already LOL
i am bonkers for patching everything i can so it's black
i'm an Android noob and getting my crash course done ahha
i had a Samsung Galaxy S3 way back for a while then broke it..
i pulled up and broke the digitizer under the glass and had to sell it for parts on ebay.
listed honestly as broken i still got $60 though
I even threw in the unused glass repair kit i had ready.
So my interests are cracking, modding / patching software usually on windows.
i have experience going back 15 years on linux but i drop it and forget lots by the time i go back to Nix.
i also have a passion for graphics modding.. i am good at editing graphic UI's and pic's etc
I did a popular Rockbox theme for the Fuze+ PMP too called Carbon.
I have the same theme on that as my Windows desktop theme and WMC theme and even on my phone. (on my old 2008 phone and wallpaper on my Moto-E)
A whole suite of digital devices that all have a theme i made
But hey guy of you get motivated and have the time go for it i bet many of us would like some black'ness
Projects can eat up a lot of time.. my Fuze+ Rockbox theme took me months.
I created icon sets and statusbar icons many i made by drawing out 1 pixel at a time with Fireworks.
anyway lol
yeah many of us use the stock rom (often with Squid's custom kernel + TWRP)
I have looked at CM and others and felt it was just too much.
i appreciate their work though even if i choose not to use it.
A lot of people do a lot on the web and share it all for nothing in return.. respect for them !
i found this place hacking an old phone back in 2008 and recently came back for Android..
Check this out...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2283828
Sounds like a job for LuckyPatcher and thanks for the link

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