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Replacing Icons in framework-res.apk

I've been opening up framework-res.apk as a zip file and changing around icons for my status bar with other themes. I just replaced the signal bars icons and the 3G icons, repackaged the framework into a zip file, and applied it via rom manager. No Icon change. I've been able to replace several before, any ideas why it wouldn't work now? I reopened the file and verified the icons had been changed.

The icons you are looking for are in com.htc.resources.apk
If you have something specifically you want changed I can tell you where it is located and what the filename is. I am building some theme tutorial videos because I had a hard time finding all of this information. I want to make it easier for others. I remember all the way back in June when I got frustrated finding what files went where. I am making a list to help others out, let me know what you are looking for.

[email protected] said:
The icons you are looking for are in com.htc.resources.apk
If you have something specifically you want changed I can tell you where it is located and what the filename is. I am building some theme tutorial videos because I had a hard time finding all of this information. I want to make it easier for others. I remember all the way back in June when I got frustrated finding what files went where. I am making a list to help others out, let me know what you are looking for.
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Subscribed!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

subscribed as well, a video with some info would be great. I am definitely no developer, but not afraid to mess around a bit. I was also interested in making similar changes as OP.
In fact I am using Jerick's smooth sense mod with white letter mod by squintz, and a couple of the icons were coming up out of order. I was not cool enough to be able to repair the info that points to an icon so I found the icons in framework-res.apk and changed the names of them so that I would get the correct icon in status bar. But obvously that is not the correct fix. However this is where the icons OP is talking about. So if I can make a name change to a png can't you also replace that png. I believe that the apk has to be signed correctly after manipulating?
Anyways any basic info about doing such would be greatly appreciated

spjoneser said:
subscribed as well, a video with some info would be great. I am definitely no developer, but not afraid to mess around a bit. I was also interested in making similar changes as OP.
In fact I am using Jerick's smooth sense mod with white letter mod by squintz, and a couple of the icons were coming up out of order. I was not cool enough to be able to repair the info that points to an icon so I found the icons in framework-res.apk and changed the names of them so that I would get the correct icon in status bar. But obvously that is not the correct fix. However this is where the icons OP is talking about. So if I can make a name change to a png can't you also replace that png. I believe that the apk has to be signed correctly after manipulating?
Anyways any basic info about doing such would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to resign the apk unless you completely extract it. Then good luck trying to get a system apk to work. Just open the archive and replace needed imgs then update the archive and you're done. All depends on what os your using. Linux makes it easy to edit apks without extracting. In win you have to rename to .zip then do line I said then rename back to .apk
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Which files specifically are the signal meter? I just want to change those ones back to the stock icons.

jskolm said:
Which files specifically are the signal meter? I just want to change those ones back to the stock icons.
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Click to collapse
I can tell you later (i dont have the dump on hand) but the signal meter pngs are located in com.htc.resources.apk under /res/drawlablehdpi/ thay have a name like sys_status_cdma1 or something like that. I think if you get that far the images might jump out at you. If you want the exact ones I can tell you when I get back from work.

[email protected] said:
I can tell you later (i dont have the dump on hand) but the signal meter pngs are located in com.htc.resources.apk under /res/drawlablehdpi/ thay have a name like sys_status_cdma1 or something like that. I think if you get that far the images might jump out at you. If you want the exact ones I can tell you when I get back from work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found them. Thanks for the direction. I was looking through the folders and I couldn't find them, because they are transparent backgrounds, so the white on white blended right in. I changed out the signals for the ones I wanted and everything looks like its working now.
Thanks for your help!

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!

[Q] MORPH: getting bootloops with cyrcle battery (selfmaid theme)

Hi,
I'm working on a theme for the nigtlies for myself (is going to be released later).
It is based on a GalaS theme with lots of elements of nextheme, some sense stuff, basically a mix of what i like from every theme i once applied for different roms...
My problem:
I'm getting bootloops after i changed the battery png's to cyrcle battery even though same number of pictures....
Does anybody know what i need to do to add the cyrcle battery style to my morph? Do i need another xml file which basically tells the ui that now it is a cycle battery?
Any help is appreciated..
i'm kind of lost here...

You should make sure you are saving them with the exact name of the stock icon files. They need to be a png 32 file with a transparent bg. Also make sure the name of the theme zip file is the same as your xml file.
As long as its the same number of files with the same name you should be good. Search in the morph sticky at the top of the forum and tear a couple of battery morphs apart and compare.

Well i tried that, no luck so far. Gonna compare some battery morphs later on.
tr.slate said:
You should make sure you are saving them with the exact name of the stock icon files. They need to be a png 32 file with a transparent bg. Also make sure the name of the theme zip file is the same as your xml file.
As long as its the same number of files with the same name you should be good. Search in the morph sticky at the top of the forum and tear a couple of battery morphs apart and compare.
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Click to collapse
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

[Theme] Spearoid's Clean and Blue

I have finally taken the time to try to get my icons the way I want them to look on this phone. I stopped developing my tweaking skills in the days of WinMo 6.5, but I decided to tinker with a framework-res.apk in one of Trailblazer's mods to swap out all the icons I wanted to change.
After sifting through many other themes mostly made for the Fascinate, I have repacked the file with the icons I wanted. I also blanked out the Ticker History button and the "No Data" button for the Weather on the Ticker. See Screenshot.
I am sure there is a better way to install this file, but I took the framework-res file out of Trailblazer's Touchwiz Accurate Theme, replaced all the icons I wanted in the file and then I copied it back into his .zip file. I was then able to flash the .zip file in Recovery. I am sure you can use Root Explorer or some sort of file manager program to replace the file, but I haven't had the best of luck replacing files that way so I went with what I knew would work.
I figured I would share my work in case anyone else has wanted a different look for their Continuum.

spearoid said:
I have finally taken the time to try to get my icons the way I want them to look on this phone. I stopped developing my tweaking skills in the days of WinMo 6.5, but I decided to tinker with a framework-res.apk in one of Trailblazer's mods to swap out all the icons I wanted to change.
After sifting through many other themes mostly made for the Fascinate, I have repacked the file with the icons I wanted. I also blanked out the Ticker History button and the "No Data" button for the Weather on the Ticker. See Screenshot.
I am sure there is a better way to install this file, but I took the framework-res file out of Trailblazer's Touchwiz Accurate Theme, replaced all the icons I wanted in the file and then I copied it back into his .zip file. I was then able to flash the .zip file in Recovery. I am sure you can use Root Explorer or some sort of file manager program to replace the file, but I haven't had the best of luck replacing files that way so I went with what I knew would work.
I figured I would share my work in case anyone else has wanted a different look for their Continuum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome! I have one question for you though... You stated you "blanked out the Ticker History button and the "No Data" button for the Weather"... Are the blanked out so if your finger/hand/palm, what ever touches those areas, it doesn't open the damn address search (for weather) or the ticker history? If that is the case, I have been wanting something like this for a while, I just haven't had the time to dive into exploring this, and TrailBlazer seemed to have been working on it, so I figured I'd wait for him. Thanks dude!

I've been working on my batch so that it actually removes the buttons, like totally (not just blank images)... Finished it yesterday, just need someone to test it any volunteers? Lol
You can choose the clock color, softkey images, button remaps, hide/show history and/or weather icon.....
Sent from my SCH-I400 using xda premium

trailblazer101 said:
I've been working on my batch so that it actually removes the buttons, like totally (not just blank images)... Finished it yesterday, just need someone to test it any volunteers? Lol
You can choose the clock color, softkey images, button remaps, hide/show history and/or weather icon.....
Sent from my SCH-I400 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im off early today and setting up a my rom kitchen... ill give her another try... in irc to boot

Spearoid, I tried using root explorer to replace the apk from blazers theme with the one you posted. No luck.
Blazer, I would be more than willing to volunteer to try your batch out.it includes all the things I want to change.

turboblue385 said:
Spearoid, I tried using root explorer to replace the apk from blazers theme with the one you posted. No luck.
Blazer, I would be more than willing to volunteer to try your batch out.it includes all the things I want to change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've had little luck doing file replacements on vital system files that way.
I took the .apk in the OP and overwrote that file in Trailblazer's Touchwiz Accurate theme .zip file.
I open Trailblazer's zip file with a program like WinRar....then browse to the system/framework folder...and drag and drop my new .apk into that folder....it overwrites...and I copy the zip file to my SD card and flash from recovery.
all is good from there
I wish I knew how to take files like these and put them in a new flashable zip file. I'd probably be more inclined to do more tweaking if I could

And Moon Shadow, they are just transparent png files. The buttons still function.
But I'm with you, I'd much rather have them be invisible AND non-functioning

Trailblazer, post up the link. Now that I have this thing working right, again, I'll beta

Looks great. Just got it working last night. I really like the blue. And three battery icon is bigger which makes it easier to see. Great work!

turboblue385 said:
Looks great. Just got it working last night. I really like the blue. And three battery icon is bigger which makes it easier to see. Great work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet, I'm glad someone likes it!
The battery icon was my primary motivation for making the new file. The white text on green was almost impossible for me to see.

[Q] Background Colors - SMS, Conversation History...

I know this is probably petty, but for me it's sort of a big deal.
I like light characters on a black screen, especially at night. There are flashlight apps to turn the screen white because it's bright and at night I would prefer to have a black screen.
Is there a way to change the conversation history to black, and lso for the background behind the balloons in an SMS?
Is there a ROM that has an option for this?
Thanks for the help!

Go sms. Totally customizable. Backgrounds, fonts, font colors, etc
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

Ends said:
Go sms. Totally customizable. Backgrounds, fonts, font colors, etc
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Handcent will let you do this too.
If you get GoSMS Pro, grab the Theme builder in the market as well. It will allow you to totally create your own theme.

liquidzoo said:
Handcent will let you do this too.
If you get GoSMS Pro, grab the Theme builder in the market as well. It will allow you to totally create your own theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have included that I've tried all those. Yes, they're good and very customizable. But I've not been able to get them to work seamlessly and to replace the stock messaging. One of those my keyboard does't display properly with and simple other things. Plus I really like how I can go to messages and slide to the right to call. That's the easiest way to call people. That's my favorite feature and no one else has that.
What's so hard about changing the stock messaging to black with white text? lol At one point there was a night mode that made the conversation history black, but not now.
One question... For example a lock screen. There are different ones to install. Is there a different messaging to install to replace stock that someone has added things to? I don't even know if it's possible to replace messaging or not. I don't really want to install another app... I've just not had the best luck with them having the right feel.

Firstly, are you on GB or ICS? And which ROM?
If GB, you could swap out the AT&T mms.apk with the Rogers version, as they use a dark charcoal background behind matte blue and yellow bubbles (was always my favorite). Or you could try the mms.apk that Sean used to include in his GB ROMs. It was basically stock, but came with 5 themes. If you're on NexusMod GB, somewhere in the thread R4INS posted a CM7 mms.apk which has a light and dark theme.
If you're on an AOSP ICS (which I know you're not since you mention swipe to call), you could try the inverted mms.apk, which is black. If you're on stock ICS, the only thing I can think of is to just decompile the apk and use Gimp to change the colors as you'd like them (which goes for any apk really), although I think the important images are *.9.png's which are tricky. Or since you like TouchWiz, see what the T-Mobile mms.apk from their leak looks like? And if it works? As I don't know the answer to either.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

I'm running ICS that I just flashed. I put in SKYICS also.
Thank you for getting back to me. I'm new to this and starting to figure things out. I opened the mms.apk with WinRar and found most of what I want to change. I've not used Gimp. For colors I usually use Office Picture Manager. I'll have to check out Gimp. I'm starting to understand a little about the xdaAutoTool. I suppose I have to decompile the mms.apk , modify what I want, then recompile it, zip it all back up, then install it through CWM. I can't get the adaAutoTool to run because of the OCX thing and I don't know how to register the files. I wish I knew someone that could decompile the apk, let me change some of the .png files and recompile it for me. I want to change the editor box from this almost black to black beause it looks incredibly grainy at 1% gray or whatever it is. The hard thing for me would be figure out how to change the text color to white if I had to on the conversation list. I think I'll do as you suggested and look for another mms.apk.
You said I like TouchWiz... I'm not exactly sure what that even is. Isn't that something to do with the buttons and how they look at the bottom?
You mentioned the CM7 something. I'm not exactly sure what the CM is. I have CM5 and it said I have a mismatch when I tried to restore my original ROM that I backed up. it was 2.3.6 I think.
Thanks for the help and I'll be back. I'm going to look for another mms.apk...

CodeRedDewd said:
I'm running ICS that I just flashed. I put in SKYICS also.
...
I'm going to look for another mms.apk...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I may have just come across a solution for you. Did you see this post in the SkyICS thread?? I'd look into that one first before attempting any of the above.
---------- Post added at 05:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 PM ----------
CodeRedDewd said:
I'm new to this and starting to figure things out. I opened the mms.apk with WinRar and found most of what I want to change. I've not used Gimp. For colors I usually use Office Picture Manager. I'll have to check out Gimp. I'm starting to understand a little about the xdaAutoTool. I suppose I have to decompile the mms.apk , modify what I want, then recompile it, zip it all back up, then install it through CWM. I can't get the adaAutoTool to run because of the OCX thing and I don't know how to register the files. I wish I knew someone that could decompile the apk, let me change some of the .png files and recompile it for me. I want to change the editor box from this almost black to black beause it looks incredibly grainy at 1% gray or whatever it is. The hard thing for me would be figure out how to change the text color to white if I had to on the conversation list. I think I'll do as you suggested and look for another mms.apk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I'm no expert on this or anything and haven't done much research on it, so I don't know everything you're talking about. But when I manually swapped out battery icon images from framework-res.apk, I didn't do any unzipping, rezipping, decompiling, recompiling. All I had to do was *open* the archive with 7zip (NOT unzip). Delete the images in there I wanted to replace. Then drag and drop the new images into the archive. As long as they were the same names and I wasn't adding or removing any images, there was no need to change any of the XML files. And it all worked fine.
As I said though, if I recall (as I actually looked into trying to do this myself with the help of another guy -- I wanted to make the AT&T mms.apk look like the Rogers mms.apk) the background image and maybe the bubble images too are 9-patch files, which are the image_name.9.png files. They require a very special process for editing. So that might require a bit more work.
---------- Post added at 05:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ----------
CodeRedDewd said:
You said I like TouchWiz... I'm not exactly sure what that even is. Isn't that something to do with the buttons and how they look at the bottom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha something like that. TouchWiz is the graphical overlay (UI skin) Samsung puts on top of "vanilla" Android, or AOSP. Every manufacture does it. Motorola's is called MotoBlur. HTC's is called Sense. And so on. The Nexus line of phones is the only one to get stock, vanilla Android (AOSP). So it's the reason all android phones from the same manufacture look somewhat the same.
TouchWiz does consist of those buttons at the bottom and how they look (I assume you're talking about the docked apps - Phone, Contacts, Email, Apps). But it's also the system apps (Messaging, Email, Phone, Contacts, Settings, etc.) and how they look and act. The swipe right to call / swipe left to message is a feature of TouchWiz, which is why I said you liked TW because you like that feature.
---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------
CodeRedDewd said:
You mentioned the CM7 something. I'm not exactly sure what the CM is. I have CM5 and it said I have a mismatch when I tried to restore my original ROM that I backed up. it was 2.3.6 I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM stands for CyanogenMod and consists of a more AOSP feel, unlike Samsung's TouchWiz. So it doesn't have the swipe to call feature; usually just tap the contact picture inside Messaging and it gives you the option to call. CM7 was their Gingerbread build. CM9 is their Ice Cream Sandwich build.
Basically CyanogenMod has created a replacement/aftermarket firmware to replace Google Android (AOSP). It's sort of different than just a custom ROM because a custom ROM is usually just built with one phone in mind (whichever one the developer owns). CM is a firmware built the same way, with the same features, for as many phones as they can support. So your specific phone still needs to be supported and have its own specific build, but once you have it on you phone, it will look and feel just like any HTC, Motorola, etc. that is also running CM.
So it's based off of Google Android (AOSP), it's completely self-contained as its own operating system (somewhat anyway).
We have an unofficial alpha of CM9 in the development section if you want to give it a shot! (Unofficial means it's not being built by or currently supported by the actual CyanogenMod team. Just a private individual is using their source code to make it work with our Skyrocket.) It works rather well and is like 99.5% a daily driver.

Wow, thank you for that information. Some of the fuzzy things are a little clearer now but not much. lol
What you said about replacing a png - I opened the ROM in 7Zip, clicked down to the Mms.apk. I right clicked and copied to desktop. I opened that in 7Zip and dragged and dropped the png into that. I changed the file extinsion to .zip and put in on my phone. When I tried to install it though CWM touch it just aborted.
I'm not 100% sure, but I edited the png in paint. I magnified it 800 times and could see a perfect rectangle inside of this other stuff. I only made the perfect rectangle black and saved. The one I'm doing is textfield_default_dark.9.png. I don't quite think I edited it wrong since it wouldn't even install. My editing wrong would make it FC or not show right?? I don't know how to troubleshoot.
In the meantime I'm going to check out some of your other suggestions. However I would LOVE to be able to fix what I want. Why make a black that's not black and can't be displayed right by the display because the pixels are just barely on?
Suggestions on my proceedure? I read somewhere earlier that there has to be some something done to the png for permission or something strange....
I checked out the dark themed Mms.apk you mentioned at the top. This is what it says.
This is not flashable. what you'll need to do is navigate to system--> app, rename your current mms.apk to something like "mms.apk.old" or "mms.apk.bak". Then paste the attached into the same folder. Reboot your phone and voila.
I lost root access and cannot get it back when I installed SKYICS. I'm running UCLD2. I haven't been able to put together what to do about this. I tried to install my original backup and it said CM5 mismatch or something. I do believe I need root access to navigate to the system folder because I can't find it?

yeah. you need root. you dont really need to "flash" in CWM. Just replace the original in the system. But you do need root. Reboot into recovery and flash superuser

I did that a few times and nothing. I gave up on rooting for a while then now I'm rooted. Titanium, when I opened it, asked for permission. It wouldn't do that yesterday. I'm just going to have to say okay I'm rooted.
I'm trying to find the system directory right now...

CodeRedDewd said:
I'm not 100% sure, but I edited the png in paint. I magnified it 800 times and could see a perfect rectangle inside of this other stuff. I only made the perfect rectangle black and saved. The one I'm doing is textfield_default_dark.9.png. I don't quite think I edited it wrong since it wouldn't even install. My editing wrong would make it FC or not show right?? I don't know how to troubleshoot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea so like I said, since it's a 9-patch file (*.9.png), I'm not sure if you can just edit the image and throw it back in there. I'm guessing that Paint only recognizes it as a *.png, and so saves it as such. 9-patch images need to be recompiled, as far as I know. So that might've screwed you up, even if you installed it right.
CodeRedDewd said:
What you said about replacing a png - I opened the ROM in 7Zip, clicked down to the Mms.apk. I right clicked and copied to desktop. I opened that in 7Zip and dragged and dropped the png into that. I changed the file extinsion to .zip and put in on my phone. When I tried to install it though CWM touch it just aborted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So about installing it. Everything above sounds like the correct process EXCEPT for changing the file extension. A CWM flashable zip isn't just any old zip file. It's has a certain structure to it and includes a script file that tells CWM exactly what to do with the information contained inside the zip. With a system apk, all you need to do is get the file on your phone somehow (microSD, USB cable, Dropbox, etc.), and then copy and paste it into the /system/app directory, afterwards setting its permissions to rw-r--r--. To do this, yes you will need root access. It shouldn't be that hard to just root again if you lost it somehow. Or judging by your last post, you may have successfully rooted again.
CodeRedDewd said:
I checked out the dark themed Mms.apk you mentioned at the top. This is what it says.
This is not flashable. what you'll need to do is navigate to system--> app, rename your current mms.apk to something like "mms.apk.old" or "mms.apk.bak". Then paste the attached into the same folder. Reboot your phone and voila.
I lost root access and cannot get it back when I installed SKYICS. I'm running UCLD2. I haven't been able to put together what to do about this. I tried to install my original backup and it said CM5 mismatch or something. I do believe I need root access to navigate to the system folder because I can't find it?
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Which brings us back to this mms.apk. Definitely give this app another shot using the above method once you obtain root again. You will need an app such as Root Explorer, which can be downloaded from the Market.
As far as restoring your backup, the error you received was an MD5 checksum mismatch error. You can Google what MD5 means, and possible reasons why CWM gave you that error. I think it gives it to you sometimes when you rename a backup file and put a space in the file name.

I'll have to research that MD5 thing...
I got the Mms.apk copied to the right directory and my changes worked. I have to use something other than paint that allows me to keep white as the transparant color. This is pretty awesome... Maybe I'll post my result when I figure out what's going on. I'm thinking the text field is a box within a box. I got a black box with a very dark gray one in the middle... But it's progress! Thanks for your help!

CodeRedDewd said:
I'll have to research that MD5 thing...
I got the Mms.apk copied to the right directory and my changes worked. I have to use something other than paint that allows me to keep white as the transparant color. This is pretty awesome... Maybe I'll post my result when I figure out what's going on. I'm thinking the text field is a box within a box. I got a black box with a very dark gray one in the middle... But it's progress! Thanks for your help!
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That's awesome man, good job! Wanna post a screenshot for me? A before and after if you have it?
But if you need something better than Paint, I'd look into Gimp. It's what most of the guys on here use. It's basically the Linux version of Photoshop. And being Linux, it's free and open source... and has been ported over to Windows. It works great for quick image editing. Just takes a bit of Googling to learn all the buttons haha.

I'm using Gimp because it keeps the transparant background. I had a big white box around my box from paint.
Update: When I used paint, it seemed things worked correctly besides the white box around the editor. The transparancy was lost. In Gimp, if I change 1 pixel I get a whole distorted image for the editor. In paint, I made the blue line gold and the box black. That looked great. Nothing seems to be working right with Gimp. Wait, in Paint I did notice one thing. The box was a true black, but with a lighter black, wide stripe in the middle from end to end, as if it was another png inserted into it. Hmmm... In Gimp it looks like nothing is getting inserted and the small image is stretching all the way across with the thin blue line getting super fat. I didn't jack the image up. I only changed one pixel to red in the middle of the black. I'm thinking there's more to this. Someone posted something about a decompiled image that had extra dots around the edge and one a one pixel line on two sides or something. I didn't break anything, because I put in an untouched png and it fixed things, so it's just the image.
Any ideas? I'm headed out to watch a movie, but I'm determined.

Look for a brush diameter or feathering option in Gimp and change it to the smallest one you have. I've had to do that in both Photoshop and Gimp before to get the apk changes I've made to look right and not have that outlining that you're referring to.

I understand what you mean, but this is different.The .9.png looks exactly the same when I edit it. I'm just making it darker. The .9.png files are made of 9 sections taht are stretched individually so the image is not distorted. In my case, Gimp is destroying that ability and the image is getting stretched the wrong way when displayed. For example, if you stretch a line along its lengt it still looks like the same line only longer, which is what they do. But if you stretch it across its width, it becomes this fat line, which is what is happening in my case.
I think you're editig just .png and not .9.png files?

CodeRedDewd said:
I understand what you mean, but this is different.The .9.png looks exactly the same when I edit it. I'm just making it darker. The .9.png files are made of 9 sections taht are stretched individually so the image is not distorted. In my case, Gimp is destroying that ability and the image is getting stretched the wrong way when displayed. For example, if you stretch a line along its lengt it still looks like the same line only longer, which is what they do. But if you stretch it across its width, it becomes this fat line, which is what is happening in my case.
I think you're editig just .png and not .9.png files?
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Do you think some information in this tutorial could be of any help? There's also a video tutorial available.

Yes it's possible that would be very helpful. I found either that or another tutorial last night. It was interesting how the .9.png files are sectioned. I conda figured that out on my own, because it would have to be to get bigger and not distort fine lines. I'll have to find that tutorial itself, because that post you linked has no links in it. I went to a 9patch website or something that had all the stuff, but it got too deep pretty quickly. In the short time I studied it, I had no clue how to even begin to install and use the program.
What baffles me is how Paint didn't screw up the .9.png. It worked fine with my edits, only it had no transparency so there was a white border. It was able to scale fine to landscape and portrait. It looked great. I totally though I had it figured out. :/ Have you looked at how to do .9.png files?

CodeRedDewd said:
Yes it's possible that would be very helpful. I found either that or another tutorial last night. It was interesting how the .9.png files are sectioned. I conda figured that out on my own, because it would have to be to get bigger and not distort fine lines. I'll have to find that tutorial itself, because that post you linked has no links in it. I went to a 9patch website or something that had all the stuff, but it got too deep pretty quickly. In the short time I studied it, I had no clue how to even begin to install and use the program.
What baffles me is how Paint didn't screw up the .9.png. It worked fine with my edits, only it had no transparency so there was a white border. It was able to scale fine to landscape and portrait. It looked great. I totally though I had it figured out. :/ Have you looked at how to do .9.png files?
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The tutorial is contained in the OP of that post I linked to. It contains links for all the tools you need and a short description of the process to follow. And then I think the video tutorial might just guide you through the OP of that first link.
But yea, that's really interesting how Paint worked so well. Did you happen to take any screenshots of the Paint-edited apk running on your phone?
And no, I actually have never looked into editing .9.png files. Didn't really even know how they worked until you explained them a little bit in one of the above posts.

I attached an image. I'm not sure if it's going to show up in the post as an image; we'll see.
There is a white box around what is suppose to be shown as the editor. In the center of the black box it's not true black as the black surrounding it that I changed in the .9.png. The center must be another image.
I'm thinking I'm just going to make the white black, find the other gray images the buttons are on and make that one black. Who needs transparancy when it's all black, which is what I want anyway. lol
I'm going to look into the 9patch some more... It just seems so complicated with how to install and get working. It would be nice to work with someone who is actively editing .9.png's to get me on track....
Do you have an interest in editing those png's? lol