I've been seeing way too many requests for this with just about every mod possible. Considering the simplicity of this mod, the easiest way to please everyone, is for all of you to know how to accomplish this mod yourself.
BTW, this is for the status bar itself, not pulldown bar or notification background.
What you need:
- Paint.NET software (or any other image editing software that you are already comfortable with, this one seems to be the easiest for setting transparency though.)
- Your framework-res.apk AFTER you have all of your other mods applied to your phone. Otherwise you will have to apply this mod again every time you add or change mods (most likely).
- 7zip
So, you should have your framework-res.apk on your computer and 7zip installed to open the apk. Open up the framework, navigate to /res/drawable-hdpi folder. In that folder, find the file statusbar_background.png. You can either pull that file out to your computer to edit it or open it straight from 7zip (which is the best way to ensure there is no issues when pushing framework back to the phone) but you must have your editing software set as the default to open .png files.
Now once you have that file open in Paint.NET, you will see the image of the status bar as you currently have it. Up on the top toolbar, you should see the option "Layers". Click that then select "Layer properties" at the bottom of the drop-down. At the bottom of the window that pops up, you should see "Opacity" and the number set at 255 with the neighboring slider all the way to the right. I suggest using the slider because as you move it you will see the transparency applied to the bar image, allowing you to slide it around to the desired transparency.
Once you have finished setting your transparency, click the little disk image at the top left to save your changes, close the program out and you should then see a box pop up in 7zip (if you made changes without unpacking the file from 7zip first) asking if you would like to apply changes to file you edited. Say yes, then close 7zip, which may or may not state that changes have been made to the apk and if you'd like to update it, which you would say yes to if it does. If you unpacked the file from 7zip, simply drag and drop the file back into its correct spot, confirm you want to replace the file, then close it up. After all of this is done, just put framework-res.apk back into the framework folder on your phone whatever way you like, turn your phone on and you have a transparent status bar.
As a side note, you can play with Paint.net to see all of the modifications you can make to your status bar like changing colors, texture, and a few other things. One piece of advice is to have a backup framework-res.apk in case you make a mistake or something.
excuse my extreme noobness, but what is the best way to transfer the apk back and forth from the phone to computer? yes I am new to this and yes I am a retard and yes I probably shouldnt even try this..
JoeyBones1 said:
excuse my extreme noobness, but what is the best way to transfer the apk back and forth from the phone to computer? yes I am new to this and yes I am a retard and yes I probably shouldnt even try this..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easiest way would be to get root explorer so you can navigate to the /system/framework folder and copy the apk from there to your sdcard, where you can just copy it to your computer. the other option would be plugging your phone into your computer, phone should be on, open up command prompt then navigate to your sdk/tools folder (get it if you dont already have it), then type "adb pull /system/framework/framework-res.apk c:\" without the quotes. the file will be in the root of your C directory. To get it back on your phone when finished, for root explorer just reverse the steps, but when moving the apk back to its proper folder, just hit the "Mount R/W" button at the top right of root explorer, copy the file back in and reboot. For alternate method, boot into recovery, mount /system partition, then in prompt after navigating to sdk tools folder type "adb push c:\insertdirectoryto\framework-res.apk /system/framework/" without quotes, then boot up and youre done.
tried this...boot looped...had to restore backup...thanks for the info though...might try again soon
BillytheKid82 said:
tried this...boot looped...had to restore backup...thanks for the info though...might try again soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try editing the file without extracting it or did you extract it and reinsert it?
Or you could edit the .png and use metamorph to push it into the framework-res.apk without moving or unzipping anything. And you could just keep the metamorph theme with that one .png on your sdcard to re-apply it whenever you flash a new rom, without altering any other theme elements you've already applied.
What do I edit to change the pull down notifications?
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
thx a ton got it
transparent, transferring back to phone now..we will see
edit ..boot loops too..
i used root explorer ..extracted framework-res.apk to my sd card ,,then on my computer i opened paint.net and edited the statusbar_background.png file and then
zipped back up the framework-res and renamed to apk then copied back to my framework folder and it the forced closed and went into boot lopes...
i know im close to getting this right ..what step am i skrewing up?
i edited the file w/out extracting it...using root explorer i copied the framework res to my sdcard...plugged my phone in to comp, opened the framework res w/ 7zip, edited w/ gimp, saved all changes...unmounted phone, used root explorer and copied the new edited framework, then navigated to the original framework res and pasted the new one there to overwrite the original...then it force closed so i tried to paste it again, then the phone rebooted and boot looped? not sure if i did something wrong
Gahh Its Lee said:
What do I edit to change the pull down notifications?
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That file is a .9.png file. editing these is ridiculously difficult and ill-advised.
chrisloveskaos said:
thx a ton got it
transparent, transferring back to phone now..we will see
edit ..boot loops too..
i used root explorer ..extracted framework-res.apk to my sd card ,,then on my computer i opened paint.net and edited the statusbar_background.png file and then
zipped back up the framework-res and renamed to apk then copied back to my framework folder and it the forced closed and went into boot lopes...
i know im close to getting this right ..what step am i skrewing up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BillytheKid82 said:
i edited the file w/out extracting it...using root explorer i copied the framework res to my sdcard...plugged my phone in to comp, opened the framework res w/ 7zip, edited w/ gimp, saved all changes...unmounted phone, used root explorer and copied the new edited framework, then navigated to the original framework res and pasted the new one there to overwrite the original...then it force closed so i tried to paste it again, then the phone rebooted and boot looped? not sure if i did something wrong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I JUST remembered that I think you need to be running a deodexed rom to allow modifications. I've always used deodexed roms and forgot that it might be a requirement for things like this. Do either of you know if what youre running is deodexed or not?
mixedlemon said:
Or you could edit the .png and use metamorph to push it into the framework-res.apk without moving or unzipping anything. And you could just keep the metamorph theme with that one .png on your sdcard to re-apply it whenever you flash a new rom, without altering any other theme elements you've already applied.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
metamorph is definitely more useful. I just have never created anything to run with it so I don't know the process of doing so.
im running skyraider vanilla, i tried to look on the thread to see if it is deodexed and i couldn't find if it is or not...may not be...thanks for your help
mb02 said:
I JUST remembered that I think you need to be running a deodexed rom to allow modifications. I've always used deodexed roms and forgot that it might be a requirement for things like this. Do either of you know if what youre running is deodexed or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
running new skyraider 3.3 and im sure it is
Yea it seems they are both deodexed, and btw I didn't know skyraider 3.3 was so awesome I'm tempted to switch over to it. But yea, I'm not sure why your phones aren't allowing the modifications to the framework. I might as well load SR 3.3 and see for myself what's up. I'll get on that later tonight when I have time and let you guys know if i figure anything out.
Use this with metamorph. It will work on any rom (tested on skyraider 3.3) except those that still use the "drawable-hdpi-v4" folder in the framework-res.apk. If your rom uses that folder, simply rename the folder it puts on your sdcard in /sdcard/AndroidThemes/HalfTransparentBar/
If you'd rather have a different transparency just replace the .png in the folder with yours.
In fact, if you want to edit ANY graphic on your rom, just put the .png in the /sdcard/AndroidThemes/xxxxxx/framework-res/res/drawable-hdpi/ folder with the same file name as the one you want to replace. And of course, do a nandroid backup just in case.
EDIT: As Berzerker7 pointed out, this file probably wont make anything transparent unless you have a modified services.jar. oops.
mixedlemon said:
Use this with metamorph. It will work on any rom (tested on skyraider 3.3) except those that still use the "drawable-hdpi-v4" folder in the framework-res.apk. If your rom uses that folder, simply rename the folder it puts on your sdcard in /sdcard/AndroidThemes/HalfTransparentBar/
If you'd rather have a different transparency just replace the .png in the folder with yours.
In fact, if you want to edit ANY graphic on your rom, just put the .png in the /sdcard/AndroidThemes/xxxxxx/framework-res/res/drawable-hdpi/ folder with the same file name as the one you want to replace.
edit: and of course, do a nandroid backup just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well then that simplifies a lot of things lol. Thanks for putting that up for us, makes everything even easier.
Simply swapping a file won't work. It's the same reason simply swapping a transparent image for the notification pull-down doesn't work. Opacity is controlled on another level by services.jar. You need to modify the values there, as well as swapping out for a transparent image.
Btw, this didn't work for me on SkyRaider 3.3. (Metamorph or swapping the file).
It makes the background black but not transparent on virtuous 3.0.1
mixedlemon said:
Use this with metamorph. It will work on any rom (tested on skyraider 3.3) except those that still use the "drawable-hdpi-v4" folder in the framework-res.apk. If your rom uses that folder, simply rename the folder it puts on your sdcard in /sdcard/AndroidThemes/HalfTransparentBar/
If you'd rather have a different transparency just replace the .png in the folder with yours.
In fact, if you want to edit ANY graphic on your rom, just put the .png in the /sdcard/AndroidThemes/xxxxxx/framework-res/res/drawable-hdpi/ folder with the same file name as the one you want to replace.
edit: and of course, do a nandroid backup just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Berzerker7 said:
Simply swapping a file won't work. It's the same reason simply swapping a transparent image for the notification pull-down doesn't work. Opacity is controlled on another level by services.jar. You need to modify the values there, as well as swapping out for a transparent image.
Btw, this didn't work for me on SkyRaider 3.3. (Metamorph or swapping the file).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I must have already installed a theme that modified it, then.
WOOOT!
SO can't wait to try this!
Wow... epic fail on my part... edited the image, repackaged, compared to original, file sizes/compression were similar enough, so I copied it onto my SD card and went in to Root Explorer... Mistake number 1)forgot to do a nandroid OR a titanium, Mistake number 2)Renamed the framework-res.apk to framework-res.bak BEFORE I copied the new file to the /system/framework. As soon as I did that, everything went haywire so I did a battery pull and went to do it the ADB way from recovery. Thought I did that right, so I rebooted into a bootloop... Finally gave up so I decided to do mistake number 3)full nandroid restore of a backup that was admittedly a few days old (See mistake 1 lol) after which I had rearranged a few things and added more apps etc... Now on to the important stuff...
MAKE SURE YOU DO STEP 1 BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY OF THIS AND IF YOU RUN INTO PROBLEMS, DO STEP 2 SO YOU DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID!
Step 1)For the love of all that's holy, do a Nandroid and Titanium backup first!
Step 2)In Clockwork Mod Recovery, do NOT do a full restore, instead go to advanced restore and simply restore the system (the part that you were messing around with to do this mod lol I realized this gem just as I clicked "Yes" in CWM, I still have the palm print on my forehead... haha
Hopefully you folks will have better luck than I did, but if not, hopefully I can save you some of the headache I went thru...
Is there a way to take certain themed apks from different theme zips and apply them to a rom without using metamorph? I am trying to take just the dialer and contacts themed apk from incognito thus bypassing the framwork to apply to a ruby rom?
http://www.mediafire.com/?ll51ycclfv7l9vy
down load this zip. extract it in your pc.
then get the app folder from the rom you want to port and put it in the "old" folder.
then put the app folder from the rom you want to mod and put it in the "new" folder.
run the script, and it will mod all your apps to the new folder. but only matching apps will mod.
now get the app folder from the "new" folder and adb push to your phone. (sytem/app)
this program is actually for porting themes. you put the framework folder and app folder from a theme not compatible with your phone or rom into the "old" folder, and the framework and app folder from the rom you are running in to the "new" folder, and run the script. it will theme all matching apps and framework. but they have to be matching systems (2.2-2.2 and 2.1-2.1). this is not my work so i take no credit for this!!! this is all Daneshm90 from the G1 forum......
ill give it a shot thanks!
No luck my phone boot loops is there another way of pushing the dialer and contacts from one them to a rom?
Hi, I'm a long time reader, but first time poster. I was hoping someone could help me with this. I'm running a stock deodexed rom and i've changed my battery icons and several others so far, but i'm looking for this exact set of battery icons that I can install through recovery. I'm not sure how to go about making these icons into a zip file to install through recovery or I would do it. Is it possible for someone to make these into icons I can install or else point me to where I can find the file to install? Thanks!
Maybe I could give you a little tutorial? I have manually changed lots of icons in my framework like this. But I started with Jericks smooth sense icons framework, You might need a modified framework to start with and this is a good one because the most modified part of it is the battery. I would pull your framework as instructed below and make sure the appropriate files are there first.
1. Nandroid!
2. Use your file explorer and navigate to system/framework and copy the framework-res.apk to your sd card and then to your computer.
3. Use 7-zip to open it up and navigate to res/drawable-hdpi-v4
4. If you see in this folder all of the same files as in the zip you posted? Then you may proceed by deleting all of those files from your existing framework and then copying the new battery icons into the folder in their place. When you exit from the apk it will ask it you want to update it, do so.
5. Go to this site http://circle.glx.nl/ and select flashable zip only, upload your newly modified framework-res.apk, select next to upload and create your new zip which you can download.
6. Place on sd card and flash through recovery.
Thank you so much! This looks a lot easier now that you explained it. I really appreciate the help!
Sent from my HTC Droid Incredible using Tapatalk
I sent you a PM on Droid Forums, but I'll post it here too. This is the smooth sense icons with the blue circle battery that you wanted. Make a backup first. Let me know if you have any problems.
You can get it here.
After using CM 6.1.2 RC2 for a day, I find that I miss certain things that come in the shipped MT4G ROM and I'm wondering if there's a way to get them into the custom ROM. In no particular order:
1. Contacts App
I really like the shipped ROM contacts app over this one. I did an adb pull /system/app for both the shipped ROM and CM 6.1.2 RC2. The shipped ROM has htcContacts.apk and htcContacts.odex, but no Contacts.apk. CM 6.1.2 RC2 has Contacts.apk. Could I transfer htcContacts.apk and htcContacts.odex to the sdcard and install them? Will this give me the shipped contacts app? Or are there other things not included in CM 6.1.2 that are necessary for the shipped Contacts app to function?
2. Calendar and calendar widget
Essentially the same question as #1. In this case, both ROMs have a Calendar.apk, and the shipped ROM additionally has htccalendarwidgets.apk and htccalendarwidgets.odex. Can I replace CM's Calendar.apk with the shipped ROM's version and add the calendarwidgets?
3. Icons and sound files
I'd like to grab some of the icons and sound files that come packaged in the shipped ROM. If they're on internal memory, I just need to do an adb pull and place them on the sdcard, and from there I can access them through the launcher. Does anyone know where those files might be?
Thanks in advance
1. Contacts App
Based on HTC Framework. By the time you're done importing necessary libs/framework resources you're going to end up with Sense rom. However, there many replacement apps on the market, some are very similar to Sense, try them out.
2. Calendar and calendar widget
Same thing as #1.
3. Icons and sound files
This is too general to answer exactly but
You can put sounds on your sd card using following folder structure
sdcard/media/audio/ringtones
sdcard/media/audio/alarms
sdcard/media/audio/notifications
They will show up along with included ringtones/alarms/notifications after reboot
As far as icons - not sure what you mean.
This thread screams Q&A section.
The contacts, calendar, and Widgets are closed source HTC apps so you wont find them in CM..try launcher pro plus...it has some very nice Widgets that u might like. And for sounds and icons you can use metaporph to change icons and create a folder called media in your SD card with the sound files u like
@face_melter on twitter
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Thanks for the responses. It appears I need to do some more research with regard to the contacts and calendar apps.
Let me try to rephrase #3: The shipped ROM had icons and sound files already loaded onto the device when it came out of the box, probably part of HTC Sense. For instance, the icon for the Messages app is not the green android speech bubble, it looks more like a rolodex card. The icon for the contacts app is different as well. The notification sound I used was pre-loaded on the shipped ROM but is not included in CM. And so on.
I have a backup of the shipped ROM. If I know were these files are located, I can flash back to shipped, adb pull the files I want to my PC, reflash back to CM, and go from there.
Hope that makes sense (not Sense ). I'm happy to do the legwork so long as I know what I'm doing.
Please do not post discussions in Development section.
A lot easier would be to download a stock rom then extracting nandroids (unthemed iced glacier would be a perfect rom to do that)
All ringtones are loacated in /system/media/audio - you can just copy the whole media folder to the root of your sd card or get individual rings.
All apps are located in /system/app/ To get your icons - you need to open up each individual apk and look in "res" folder. Somewhere in either "drawable" or 'drawable-hdpi" subfolders you will find icons. Or you can download espresso icon pack for the market and extract all icons from there (if there's s such a thing.)
Good luck.
borodin1 said:
A lot easier would be to download a stock rom then extracting nandroids (unthemed iced glacier would be a perfect rom to do that)
All ringtones are loacated in /system/media/audio - you can just copy the whole media folder to the root of your sd card or get individual rings.
All apps are located in /system/app/ To get your icons - you need to open up each individual apk and look in "res" folder. Somewhere in either "drawable" or 'drawable-hdpi" subfolders you will find icons. Or you can download espresso icon pack for the market and extract all icons from there (if there's s such a thing.)
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks borodin1, I did manage to get those audio files via ADB. About the icons, what do I use to open up an apk?
jdkoren said:
Thanks borodin1, I did manage to get those audio files via ADB. About the icons, what do I use to open up an apk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
7zip is good and will open .apk out of the box but any zip utilities will open up apk files, just have to know how to work them... I think that if you use WinZip you have to rename file to .zip and it will work just fine. No sure about others.... I use 7zip because it's free and works great.
Good luck.
The perfect way to achieve what you want is install Launcher Pro Plus on your CM rom. You get the sense like widgets such as the calendar app and you can change the icons of the messaging app and replace it with the "rolodex card" look that you wish. And You can unzip an iced glacier rom and extract the audio files from there and put it on your Sd card under media then notifications, that's what I did to keep my text and call sounds that came with the phone.
Anyways, hope that helped!
What if I want the screen share app dose the same method applys?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
krazy_smokezalot said:
What if I want the screen share app dose the same method applys?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen share is available in the market, search for twonky.
So I'm using running MIUI 1.23.9 and I'm using metamorph to change my wifi signal bars. I'm using a modified version of Akoe101's bars (unzipped, changed images, rezipped). After applying in metamorph and rebooting, my wifi bars are still the same... What gives? I've tried twice, I looked in /system and the files are in the res folder, but I still get the normal wifi bars.
i dont think this will work<<<
now i could be wrong. and maybe cause its miui, but in most roms you can just edit the systemui.apk to have different wifi images.
you just have to resign it and all.
make sure to always have back ups of your original. worst thing that happens is system ui crashes, when this happens you can just hold the search button down, and usually if you get into google search, it wont require the status bar. then you can search for your root explorer app, and edit the file back and reboot.
sorry im not that much help, good luck.
there is probably a tutorial online that shows you how to make a miui theme
i know there are tutorials on changing systemui.apk
MiUi is not like most Roms......i dont think you just go pulling images from theframework.res or Ui images either....
LG would be the one to ask he seems to be able to make Miui Themes and turn them into MTZ files so u just have to put in the proper folder and Bam miui does the rest.
but Ninja/MetaMorph......Dont work here.
you will only get bootloops, OR just nothing will happen.
Okay so if the mtz theme your using already has modded wifi signal bars the easiest way to exchange them if you insist on using your phone is to use root explorer download both the mtz you want to use and the one that you just want the wifi bars from. Rename the one you want to use to to zip by renaming the file form .mtz to .zip extract all go to extracted folder when you open is it will either have a bunch of files "if there files at the end of systemui and extract" or folders if there folders than just find systemui go to drawable-hdpi and check to see if the wifi bars are there if so back up to were the other mtz is the one you want the wifi bars from. repeat the process now once they are both extracted go into the drawable-hdpi folder that has the bars you want use multi-select to select all the images then go to the folder you want them in click paste and hit yes to over write. now in the folder you just out the files in re-zip go to zip extension when prompted rename it and take the zip out it should now turn into a file again move the com.systemui file or systemui folder back into the theme zip the theme go to zip when prompted rename to mtz and place this in your miui theme folder if you need more help pm me but once you do this a few time it will get easier and easiest if you use a computer...