Database Info

A few questions to all you chefs out there

I have been toying with the idea recently of brewing a ROM that is entirely my own, something that fits my needs perfectly. However, I am having trouble figuring how to go about doing so.
1. Basically, what I want to do is to start with a stock AT&T ROM, strip everything out of it, then only add back in what I use. It would seem simple enough, however what gets me is that when I extract the AT&T ROM, most of the applications seem to be contained within the OEMAPPS folder, with no simple way to sort through it. Sure I could just delete the folder and re add what I want, but thats not exactly what I had in mind. I would really like to pull out all the apps from that folder into their own individual folders so that I can keep anything if I feel like it while not having to keep everything. Does anyone know how to do this, or if there is any way other than doing it manually?
2. If I want to have registry tweaks installed on the ROM, what is the best way to go about doing so?
3. I have been searching and searching, but I cannot seem to figure out where the image that appears after the device splash screen is stored. Can someone point me in the right direction? I know Alex has his own custom image. EDIT: I am referring to the Welcome Screen.
4. When I previously cooked ROMs using the kitchen, it seems to retain the version number of the ROM that I based mine off of. Does anyone know the reason for this?
Yeah, a lot of questions I know, but once I get my ROM finished, I'll be sure to release it here.

Best thing I can recommend to you is try Alex's ROM Cooking tutorial. His ROM is AT&T ROM stripped. All apps are in OEM format so you can re-add as needed. The process of stripping the OEM apps is complicated and you need to find all files associated with a certain program.
Alex already did this so why do it again? You get a fully stripped ROM.
For the registry tweaks take a look at the OEM Packages included with Alex's ROM Cooking tutorial. There are several registry tweaks he has included so you can take a look at it and create you own from that.
The splash/welcome screen is called welcomehead.96.png. It's in the \Windows folder. You can cook your own by replacing the file in "SYS\Redist_dpi_96_resh_240_resv_320" folder if you use Alex's ROM tutorial. It's probably the same for other ROMS if you extracted your own but I haven't tried this. I replaced it so each time I create a ROM it's already there.
As for the ROM version you can change it (I think). In the OEM folder there's an OEMVERSION that contains a .provxml file. You can edit that and you'll see a version number.
Hope that helps.

Right, I know Alex has already released a completly stripped down version, but I really just want to cook something entirely of my own. Not that I dislike Alex's package, but I really would just like to do the work entirely by myself so that I can know all of the changes that were made, and how they were done. It gives me the kind of flexibility that I would like. Also, Alex has made some of his own changes to his UltraClean, so I don't have the level of control that I want.

How do i make my own m2d themes???

i need to know what program i need to make my own themes from scratch...

Moving to the Q&A section. In the future please post questions here.

M2DCT files
Hi
The formula is simple. Put all the required files, which is the image files and the settings xml into a folder with the preview then add them all to a .zip archive. Once you've done this simply rename the .zip extension to .m2dct. .zip archives do actually work in M2DC anyway.
So really you just need any image editing/authoring software and a text editor, oh and a compression utility if this isn't build into your OS.
Cheers
andrew-in-woking

Is there a program to quickly edit themes?
I am not familiar with XML type.
Thanks

xed23 said:
Is there a program to quickly edit themes?
I am not familiar with XML type.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no software pack , like ThemeGen , for M2d themes, what I do is what a lot of other people do. Just take an existing theme, and replace all the files one by one with your own image files and text files.
Find the thread on editing the xml , it is in dev and hacking I think, and edit the HomeSettings xml until you have every \thing placed where you want it.
It is not easy, but it is not hard. It is time consuming which makes it the accomplishment that much more satisfying.
Just go here and follow the links to helpful tutorials and tools
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2636185&postcount=1

Modifying a ROM

Hi guys, I was wondering how you would go about personalizing ROMs for your own use. Nothing code-wise, but installed programs and such. Opening up the zip files of downloaded ROMs I see the apk files and the system apk files - is it really as easy as just removing those you don't want and plotting in the ones that you do?

If this rom is from the same board as you, can say so.
But, .. you still need to run a linux terminal the code to sign the package that you previously made with same special files..
Just the search tools and you'll find it!
...You can easily too start porting rom's too...

Files to theme MIUI 4

Hi ive seen some things on making miui themes but they require having the sdk and all these things that i think only work on pc and im on mac. Im a professional graphic designer of over 10 years and would like to start contributing to the theming community. Can anyone provide a zip with all of the image files that would be extracted so i could edit them in photoshop to make my own themes and then get them to someone to recompile everything? Im using miui V4 on my g2x so the files for version 4 would be great as ill probably stay on it waiting for the rest of the cm9/cm10 issues with drivers to finally be resolved.
Thanks in advance if anyone can help out.

Ive done this before.
thegoochking said:
Hi ive seen some things on making miui themes but they require having the sdk and all these things that i think only work on pc and im on mac. Im a professional graphic designer of over 10 years and would like to start contributing to the theming community. Can anyone provide a zip with all of the image files that would be extracted so i could edit them in photoshop to make my own themes and then get them to someone to recompile everything? Im using miui V4 on my g2x so the files for version 4 would be great as ill probably stay on it waiting for the rest of the cm9/cm10 issues with drivers to finally be resolved.
Thanks in advance if anyone can help out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download a full theme from the miui themes app. It saves to a folder on your sd card (miui/). Keep a copy of the original unzipped theme file as you will need it later. Unzip the theme file. In there you will find a bunch of system apps. Each of these can be unzipped. Then look for a folder in each one called res. in there you will find all the images you are looking for. It's important that you keep the image file names the same and in their respective res folders. Once you have finished changing all the images you want it's time to copy the images back into the original unzipped theme file. Message me when you get to this point.

[Q] Any option to detect changes in apk files

Hello guys.
I am wondering if there's any option/programme/app that can detect changes in apk files.
For example:
A dev releases a mod for something, let's say swaps a .png files to a custom .png and shares the mod in a thread.
And i want the same mod but in a different .png.
Now i can ofcourse ask the dev to do it, which is easy but i wont learn anything.
So i decide to try to make it for myself, but having no past experience with android i don't know how to do it.
And here's where the app/programme comes in (if there is one, ofc). A software that can detect any kinds of changes after decompiling apk files. Now many of you know that apk files have several folders inside, and inside those folder are various files.
So this software (if it exists) could be able to detect changes in the modded apk compared to my unmodded apk, and tell me where exactly the change(s) have been made.
In this way i don't need to bother a dev, and i maybe start to learn how to mod special areas of my phones UI.
Thanks for any reply!
Good day!