Related
I Made this tut because I was thoroughly confused when I found omapclock and TornadoPowerControl. This guide is primarily directed towards HTC StrTrk and pretty much makes it so that you can delete the start menu shortcuts and not have to worry about your overclocking ever again. I take no credit for any of these useful tools and no responsibility if your dumb ass tries to over overclock your phone.
EDIT I found out a way to make TPC not show up in your task manager. If you DONT want this then you should skip step 8.
1) Download Tornadopowercontrol14.cab and tcmdphone.cab and load.zip to Windows directory.
2) Install all on your phone
3) Using Total Commander browse to install dir of tornado power control
4) Create a shortcut and place it in the startup directory in Windows
5) Using the Total Commander browse the the startup folder and EDIT the shortcut
6) The shortcut should look something like
60#"\Program Files\TornadoPowerControl\TornadoPowerControl.exe"
7) There are several commands that you can tell the program to run on startup
'dim' starts in dim mode (display is dim)
'bright' starts in bright mode (normal operation)
'hide' hides the app at startup
'toggle' changes from previous mode ie if in bright mode before boot now in dim mode
This is what mine looks like:
60#"\Program Files\TornadoPowerControl\TornadoPowerControl.exe" bright hide
8) If you DON'T want TPC to appear in the task manager then edit your startup shortcut and add italicized characters before your existing characters. Please note, this will render your start menu shortcuts inoperable and you wont be able to get to the TPC GUI. You can even delete the start menu shortcuts (I did).
41#"\Windows\load.exe" -hide "Program Files\Tornado PowerControl\TornadoPowerControl.exe" bright hide9) Now goto your install directory and youll see 3 shortcuts named
Power_On.lnk - controls what happens when your backlight is turned on
Power_BacklightOff.lnk - when backlight turns to dim
Power_UserIdle.lnk - when phone goes into idle (screen off)10) Those 3 files are EMPTY and TPC will not do anything with them if they remain the same.
11) omapclock.exe is included with TPC install and is in the same directory omapclock will respond to command line prompts just like TPC did earlier with Step 7.
12) Delete Power_On.ink. Create a shortcut to omapclock.exe and rename it to Power_On.ink. Edit the shortcut. add '-clock XXX' where XXX is desired speed (I have read other forums where people got stable results at 252 but I elected to stay with 240 for piece of mind)
Heres Mine:
30#"\Program Files\OmapClock\OmapClock.exe" -clock 24013) Reboot and run omapclock from startmenu to make sure that speed is 240, close phone and let screen turn off and repeat
14) Enjoy
Note 1- If you want TPC to lower the speed of the processor when the backlight dims then do the same method as step 12 except replace Power_BacklightOff.ink. I dont know why you would want to slow down the phone even further but I guess you could in theory edit Power_UserIdle.ink and underclock your phone to save battery life maybe.
Note 2- Im using this on erofich's WM6 on Cingular 3125 and tested/benchmarked differences using TCPMP with a Youtube video saved in .flv and noticed significant improvement.
load.exe - props to Slavic for creating
TornadoPowerControl shortcuts
fire2050 said:
I Made this tut because I was thoroughly confused when I found omapclock and TornadoPowerControl. This guide is primarily directed towards HTC StrTrk and pretty much makes it so that you can delete the start menu shortcuts and not have to worry about your overclocking ever again. I take no credit for any of these useful tools and no responsibility if your dumb ass tries to over overclock your phone. . . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, great post! This worked perfectly on my 3125. Thanks for putting this together!
I saved the 3 edited shortcuts and zipped them up, if anyone would like them for quicker install, e.g. after a new flash, or even if this is your first time.
Once you have installed the TornadoPowerControl cab, copy TornadoPowerControl.lnk to \Windows\StartUp (this replaces steps 3-7 above), and copy Power_On.lnk and Power_BacklightOff.lnk to \Program Files\TornadoPowerControl (overwriting the blank files) (this replaces steps 9-12 above). I have overclocking set to 240 and backlight off clock set to 180 - these can easily be edited to whatever values you want, but you won't have to do the extensive t9 typing required for the full creation of these shortcuts. Will save some time if you flash frequently and/or set up multiple phones.
anyone know a good speed for the t-mobile shadow? I had it at 250 when active, but I dunno, that seems like too much...
ha85 said:
anyone know a good speed for the t-mobile shadow? I had it at 250 when active, but I dunno, that seems like too much...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i run my shadow at 276 in omap clock.
tried 276, made it hang immediately. I'm going to try 264 (stable) for a while, hope im not doing too much damage
Q9H
Has anybody used this on a Q9H?
Thanks in advance
Q9H
After installing as per instructions, all I get is an error message.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
how do you add italicized text to the beginning of the shortcut file? Changing the font within total commander makes the whole file italicized.
Thank you for great job
Btw, this is the latest version
2.0 Beta 4 - Fixed a bug causing the state of the CPU Speed Indicator not to be saved at exit. Fixed a bug that would cause the application to not fully exit under rare circumstances. Changed form behavior to only show one form at a time - The main form is hidden when another form is active.
In this post I'd like to share a small bit of Android information with you. I've discovered it while looking around at the build.prop file and did some research on it, and it turns out to be a pretty cool and powerful feature. Of course, seeing as this requires root you can probably already guess that it involves some more-than-consumer level risk, so anything you do here is your responsibility. This is not a tweak for a fairly novice user. You will need some basic knowledge on command line terminal and how to copy/edit files. I will be assuming you know how to setup and run ADB, and how to execute it and work with it in command prompt.
What's this mod do? Basically it changes your resolution (not really, but for simplicity sake we'll say it does) to a higher pixel density. What this means is everything on your screen will look smaller as if you changed your resolution on your PC to a higher setting. Now obviously we don't want to increase this too much or it will make our screen look bad and be impossible to read things, so I recommend you stick with the settings I have and only tweak it if you're daring.
Now for setup:
1: You require root access for this to work, so make sure you have it prior to doing anything else.
2: Next you will need to get your build.prop file from the /system directory. An easy (and free) way to do this is to use Astro file manager. Open up Astro, navigate to /system/ and copy the build.prop file to the sdcard.
3: Hook the phone up to your PC and enter USB Mass Storage mode. Open the drive on your computer and copy the build.prop file to the desktop.
4: IMPORTANT: make a second copy of this file, and rename it to: build.prop.BAK - accept the change to filetype and leave it alone for now.
5: Open up build.prop using notepad. Once its open you'll see a whole ton of text assuming you have Word Wrap enabled. Press Control + F and type in "density" then press enter.
6: Close out the search menu and find the number "240" to the right of "density"
7: Change the number from 240 to 200. Save the file and close notepad. (Note - higher numbers means bigger text/objects, smaller numbers means smaller text/objects allowing you to fit more on the screen)
8: Put your phone back into PC Mode, and then enable USB Debugging in Settings->Applications->Development
9: At this point I assume you have ADB setup on your PC. Copy and paste the modified build.prop file into the folder with ADB, and then open up a command prompt, change directory to wherever you have ADB installed (ex: cd C:\adb\ ), and type in "adb devices" without the quotes to start ADB and make sure your device is configured properly
10: Now you must push the modified build.prop file to your sdcard. To do so type this in:
adb push build.prop /sdcard/build.prop
11: You should see the text indicating it successfully transferred the file. Now type in "adb shell" without quotes. You should see a $: appear. Once it does, type in "su" and it should change to a #: sign.
12: Now that you're in root access, you must mount /system as read/write to copy over the new build.prop file. To do so type this in exactly as it is, making sure to not skip any spaces or use wrong letters/characters:
mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/system /system
You should see the line repeated and that means it went ok. If you get anything else like an error, somethings not right with the text you entered. Go back and double check it.
13: Now we'll copy the file from the sdcard to the system directory to overwrite the old build.prop file:
cp /sdcard/build.prop /system/build.prop
Again, you should see the line repeat below to confirm it copied it successfully. You can now reboot the phone to make the changes happen (note: for a speedy reboot, simply type in "reboot" from the #: prompt, this will drop you out of root shell and do an automatic reboot of your phone pretty neat)
Once your phone is booted back up you should notice some pretty significant changes in appearance. Everything will look smaller much akin to the changes you see on your desktop PC when you increase the resolution from say 800x600 to 1600x1200. In case you want to change it back to the old look, simply re-trace your steps using the original build.prop file, with the pixel density set to 240 instead of 200.
Screenshots for comparison. Note how lines of text are fully exposed in the new screenshots compared to the old ones, where it has to scroll/cut off text in App names etc:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/motorola-x-roms-hacks/32035-how-resolution-tweak-req-root.html
Or you can save a whole lot of time and effort and use this app. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/lcd-density-changer-application-v3-0-released/
I think that is pretty sweet bro!! Great finding
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
njfoses said:
Or you can save a whole lot of time and effort and use this app. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/lcd-density-changer-application-v3-0-released/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been using this for a few days now. It works great. They should have released the Evo with the higher resolution from the start.
Looks great in my opinion. I lowered just slightly to 220 and i used RootExplorer to just change the Build.prop file.
Shouldn't this be in general? This is like dpi in windows lol... not resolution
rawdikrik said:
Looks great in my opinion. I lowered just slightly to 220 and i used RootExplorer to just change the Build.prop file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, root explorer is fantastic. it even creates a backup for you after you edit the file.
The interesting part about this is, I made a thread about the density change back when the EVO first launched and nobody cared lol
Just changed to 200 with the aforementioned app, the only problem I have is the main status bar and most of the popup menus and stuff look like crap. Hoping we can find some higher resolution (or whatever) pieces to use. Might be because I'm using Manup's theme.
bdoople said:
Just changed to 200 with the aforementioned app, the only problem I have is the main status bar and most of the popup menus and stuff look like crap. Hoping we can find some higher resolution (or whatever) pieces to use. Might be because I'm using Manup's theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i noticed that too....so i just went to like 215. 200 was looking good though
ro.sf.LCD_Density=240
Is that the proper value to change in root explorer?
Right below it, there is another value of 160, that's why I ask. I'm on an Evo
Poor resolution has always bugged me. On such a big screen, that number of pixels really isn't enough. This will be a great mod, just don't wanna mess it up.
Thanks.
see there's an easier way to do everything, by that i mean there is an app for that, lol.
scottspa74 said:
ro.sf.LCD_Density=240
Is that the proper value to change in root explorer?
Right below it, there is another value of 160, that's why I ask. I'm on an Evo
Poor resolution has always bugged me. On such a big screen, that number of pixels really isn't enough. This will be a great mod, just don't wanna mess it up.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The line below it (With the value of 160) has a # in front of it as that is the default value if none specified. Change the 240 to 200 or 220 or 210 or 190 etc depending on your preferences. Again, appelflap has an awesome application to easily do this for you and it provides a boot monitor as well that will check to make sure you can see the screen, and if you can't it will revert back to default setting in case you mess something up. It costs approximately $1 and is well worth it.
On my evo I am using the app and I set mine to 180. Everything looks fine so far. I don't recommend using it with the sense launcher at this level though.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Appreciate all the feedback. When it comes to system tweaks like this, I've always preferred to do them manually. Makes it easier to keep track of changes, and, if you know what's goin on 'behind the scenes'. Even with winmo, I always would opt for tweaking via registry editor, rather than some blind, hands-off tweak app.
Thanks all, though.
Edit: ok, foot in mouth. So I opened root explorer, found build.prop, opened it clicked the mount R/O toggle, but can't seem to edit it no matter what. NVM, found editor
Also, I checked out the app on the market, looked at comments and saw lots of people say that density broke certain apps, and can't get back to normal, broken phones, blah blah blah
Anyone speak to this?
Exposes lame apps
Worked great on rooted EVO running CM6.2.
Need to increase the power of my bifocals now!
Also exposes lame apps that display set screen resolutions, such as WeatherChannel. Poopnoodles!
Very cool find, not one I will be keeping though. The taskbar icons get a bit blurry, and the widget/icon spacing looks ugly.
njfoses said:
Or you can save a whole lot of time and effort and use this app. http://www.xda-developers.com/android/lcd-density-changer-application-v3-0-released/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried that. Was able to make a few changes with no problems. As soon as I tried to go back to the stock settings my phone would no longer boot past the white EVO screen. Doing a restore now
And of course the restore isn't working properly for some reason. Argh.
yeah
Yeah, I read the thread by Appleflap, about his app, and it really sounds like there are a lot of issues from doing this (at this point), some of which cannot be recovered from. And at the very least, there are apps and icons that won't scale properly, and there's no fix for that but to find new ones (from the horses mouth).
Things to be worked out by some real sharp devs.
I'm not totally convinced that this makes things anything beyond just smaller. I've been testing this a various resolutions and am not sure it really adds any new pixels...aren't "pixels" more hardware related? If it were just a software thing wouldn't everyone do it?
Just wondering if anyone is interested in this? I learned how from the original back on the Motorola Droid and have made it work for other phones. I used to be a themer but have since been spending my free time on other things. However, I still have the urge every once in awhile. For those not familiar, this will create a little looped video playing on the pull down screen.
Guide:
Instructions for Windows users... (Linux users: You should be able to follow along, as the idea is the same in both)
Things you will need:
The knowledge that whatever you do with this information is YOUR responsibility and not mine, nor the creators / developers of the mod and / or rom.
Basics -
Working computer.
Time.
Patience.
Animation images / Idea for making your own animation.
Computer Programs:
Java: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp
Apk Manager: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701
Text Editor (Suggested - Notepad++: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v5.9.6.2.html )*
Archive Managing program (ie WinZip, WinRar, 7zip) (Suggested - 7zip: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html )*
Image Manipulation program > Whether it be Photoshop, Paint.Net, or GIMP, we'll refer to it as PIMP for short from now on.
(Suggested - Dark Silent GIMP: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/PCApps/Dark_Gimp.rar )*
Batch Renamer > if you are making your own (Suggested - http://www.den4b.com/?x=downloads&product=renamer )*
You'll also need the SystemUI.apk from your favorite rom.
(Found in: rom.zip > system > app > SystemUI.apk)
If wanting to make one with images from a video, you'll need:
A short vid (if you are wanting to use one from, say, http://www.youtube.com/ then you would copy/paste that web address to a site like http://www.savevid.com/) and export the video as a file to your computer.
Video Editor (Suggested - iWiSoft Free Video Converter: http://www.iwisoft.com/videoconverter/ )*
It's easiest to export the images as PNGs.
Alternatively, you can make your own images with PIMP or kang them from someone else's already made animation (Don't forget to send them a thanks if you do!).
Common Questions:
*How big does the image need to be? - The screen size is 480 x 800.
*How many images can I have? - I'm not sure. The one I made has 14 and there have been no issues whatsoever. I've used as many as 30 on my Atrix and didn't have any issues, but others did and the apk will get a little bloated with that many images, especially if it's not very transparent or there are a lot of colors.
*What duration should I change the animation to? - Again, this really depends on what you are going for. How the animation looks, how many images you have, etc. The default on mine is "200" Trial and error ftw!
*What kind of animation should I do? - Only you can answer that! If you are having trouble thinking of something, browse the forums and see if you can't find some ideas. Search YouTube for a cool video. Play with some creating some logos. Only limitation is your imagination.
After editing images or finding the ones you want to use...
Place your SystemUI.apk in the Apk Manager's place-apk-here-for-modding folder.
Double Click the Script.
Choose 22.
Choose the number of SystemUI.apk and hit Enter.
Choose 9 for Decompile.
Naviage to Apk Manager > projects > SystemUI > res > drawable hdpi (or drawable hdpi v4, depending on rom)>
Place your images resized and renamed as status_bar_background_animationX.pngs here. (where X is the number of the image in sequential order)
Navigate to Apk Manager > projects > SystemUI > res > drawable > and place this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/status_bar_background_animation.xml in there.
The one I posted here is just the normal one I use that has 14 images, but you can adjust for the amount of images you want and the speed of the image changes using your Text Editor. You can just go from 1 - "X" number sequentially or you can have the images go 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2 etc. depending on the style of animation or if you are trying to keep the image number down.
After that... (it really does not matter what order you do these in, but this might help you the first time or two to have a set path)
Navigate to Apk Manager > projects > SystemUI > res > layout > status_bar_tracking.xml and open with Text Editor.
Find:
com.android.systemui.statusbar.TrackingView in the second line and right after that (leave a space) add:
android:background="@drawable/status_bar_background_animation"
Make sure there is a space after this too, then save the xml.
After you have edited your images and xml and saved all of them go back to the script for Apk Manager and choose 11 to compile. After it finishes it will ask you if it is a system apk (Y/N). "Y" + Enter. It will ask you if you want to keep blah blah blah (Y/N). "Y" + Enter.
Go to the "keep" folder in Apk Manager > keep and delete the "res" folder and the resources.arsc file (this is the lazy/easy way).
Go back to the Apk Manager script and hit Enter.
The apk will be completed and named unsignedSystemUI.apk and you will find it in the "place-here-for-modding" folder. Even though it says unsigned, it is signed and you will not need to do anything else to it beyond renaming it to SystemUI.apk. This new finished SystemUI.apk will be added to a flashable zip file in this format (open zip as archive to not break the signature):
flashable.zip > system > app > replace previous SystemUI.apk
Place this on your SD card and install via ClockworkMod Recovery. You will not need to wipe data or cache for this.
The very first time you pull down the screen it will be static, but any other time it should start to animate. This is the same with every phone I have seen and not sure why this is.
Sorry if this seems crazy difficult, but I just wanted to be thorough so even relatively new people can at least see how it is made. If you need help, hit me up on Talk with my screen name. Enjoy!
*I receive no form of compensation for these recommendations. I merely suggest them as they are free, have a fair amount of support, and work well enough for me.*
I have attached for you to use/edit as you see fit:
*status_bar_background_animation.txt http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/status_bar_background_animation.xml
*14 multicolored Honeycomb images inspired / kanged from the boot animation.
*status_bar_tracking.txt - Pretty sure these are similar/same between CM7 and Stock or just use as reference guide.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/status_bar_tracking.xml
*Empty flashable zip for ClockWorkMod - Use the Archive Manager to open as archive and place your SystemUI.apk inside /system/app. Do NOT unzip and rezip as it will break the signature and not flash correctly.
es0tericcha0s said:
Just wondering if anyone is interested in this? I learned how from the original back on the Motorola Droid and have made it work for other phones. I used to be a themer but have since been spending my free time on other things. However, I still have the urge every once in awhile. I'll post a how to if there is interest. For those not familiar, this will create a little looped video playing on the pull down screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm interested, but how much does this impact the battery? Does it run while the statusbar is up? A little more info would be helpful but I'm certainly interested.
Nah, it only runs while the screen is down so the effects on the battery are negligible.
This one is NOT mine, but just so you get the idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ZD6WzwS0k
And it's built into the SystemUI.apk, not framework for our phones.
es0tericcha0s said:
Nah, it only runs while the screen is down so the effects on the battery are negligible.
This one is NOT mine, but just so you get the idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ZD6WzwS0k
And it's built into the SystemUI.apk, not framework for our phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very nice, that would be something of interest.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Alrighty then. It's dinner and movie time with the lady. I'll post it up here a little later on.
OP edited with detailed instructions!
es0tericcha0s said:
Nah, it only runs while the screen is down so the effects on the battery are negligible.
This one is NOT mine, but just so you get the idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ZD6WzwS0k
And it's built into the SystemUI.apk, not framework for our phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for negligible battery loss. I've ran this with my G2x for a few months now, only minor issues if the person who puts the animation gets too crazy.
es0tericcha0s said:
Just wondering if anyone is interested in this? I learned how from the original back on the Motorola Droid and have made it work for other phones. I used to be a themer but have since been spending my free time on other things. However, I still have the urge every once in awhile. For those not familiar, this will create a little looped video playing on the pull down screen.
Guide:
Instructions for Windows users... (Linux users: You should be able to follow along, as the idea is the same in both)
Things you will need:
The knowledge that whatever you do with this information is YOUR responsibility and not mine, nor the creators / developers of the mod and / or rom.
Basics -
Working computer.
Time.
Patience.
Animation images / Idea for making your own animation.
Computer Programs:
Java: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp
Apk Manager: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701
Text Editor (Suggested - Notepad++: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v5.9.6.2.html )*
Archive Managing program (ie WinZip, WinRar, 7zip) (Suggested - 7zip: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html )*
Image Manipulation program > Whether it be Photoshop, Paint.Net, or GIMP, we'll refer to it as PIMP for short from now on.
(Suggested - Dark Silent GIMP: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/PCApps/Dark_Gimp.rar )*
Batch Renamer > if you are making your own (Suggested - http://www.den4b.com/?x=downloads&product=renamer )*
You'll also need the SystemUI.apk from your favorite rom.
(Found in: rom.zip > system > app > SystemUI.apk)
If wanting to make one with images from a video, you'll need:
A short vid (if you are wanting to use one from, say, http://www.youtube.com/ then you would copy/paste that web address to a site like http://www.savevid.com/) and export the video as a file to your computer.
Video Editor (Suggested - iWiSoft Free Video Converter: http://www.iwisoft.com/videoconverter/ )*
It's easiest to export the images as PNGs.
Alternatively, you can make your own images with PIMP or kang them from someone else's already made animation (Don't forget to send them a thanks if you do!).
Common Questions:
*How big does the image need to be? - The screen size is 480 x 800.
*How many images can I have? - I'm not sure. The one I made has 14 and there have been no issues whatsoever. I've used as many as 30 on my Atrix and didn't have any issues, but others did and the apk will get a little bloated with that many images, especially if it's not very transparent or there are a lot of colors.
*What duration should I change the animation to? - Again, this really depends on what you are going for. How the animation looks, how many images you have, etc. The default on mine is "200" Trial and error ftw!
*What kind of animation should I do? - Only you can answer that! If you are having trouble thinking of something, browse the forums and see if you can't find some ideas. Search YouTube for a cool video. Play with some creating some logos. Only limitation is your imagination.
After editing images or finding the ones you want to use...
Place your SystemUI.apk in the Apk Manager's place-apk-here-for-modding folder.
Double Click the Script.
Choose 22.
Choose the number of SystemUI.apk and hit Enter.
Choose 9 for Decompile.
Naviage to Apk Manager > projects > SystemUI > res > drawable hdpi >
Place your images resized and renamed as status_bar_animationX.pngs here. (where X is the number of the image in sequential order)
Navigate to Apk Manager > projects > SystemUI > res > drawable > and place this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/status_bar_background_animation.xml in there.
The one I posted here is just the normal one I use that has 14 images, but you can adjust for the amount of images you want and the speed of the image changes using your Text Editor. You can just go from 1 - "X" number sequentially or you can have the images go 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2 etc. depending on the style of animation or if you are trying to keep the image number down.
After that... (it really does not matter what order you do these in, but this might help you the first time or two to have a set path)
Navigate to Apk Manager > projects > SystemUI > res > layout > status_bar_tracking.xml and open with Text Editor.
Find:
com.android.systemui.statusbar.TrackingView in the second line and right after that (leave a space) add:
android:background="@drawable/status_bar_background_animation"
Make sure there is a space after this too, then save the xml.
After you have edited your images and xml and saved all of them go back to the script for Apk Manager and choose 11 to compile. After it finishes it will ask you if it is a system apk (Y/N). "Y" + Enter. It will ask you if you want to keep blah blah blah (Y/N). "Y" + Enter.
Go to the "keep" folder in Apk Manager > keep and delete the "res" folder and the resources.arsc file (this is the lazy/easy way).
Go back to the Apk Manager script and hit Enter.
The apk will be completed and named unsignedSystemUI.apk and you will find it in the "place-here-for-modding" folder. Even though it says unsigned, it is signed and you will not need to do anything else to it beyond renaming it to SystemUI.apk. This new finished SystemUI.apk will be added to a flashable zip file in this format (open zip as archive to not break the signature):
flashable.zip > system > app > replace previous SystemUI.apk
Place this on your SD card and install via ClockworkMod Recovery. You will not need to wipe data or cache for this.
The very first time you pull down the screen it will be static, but any other time it should start to animate. This is the same with every phone I have seen and not sure why this is.
Sorry if this seems crazy difficult, but I just wanted to be thorough so even relatively new people can at least see how it is made. If you need help, hit me up on Talk with my screen name. Enjoy!
*I receive no form of compensation for these recommendations. I merely suggest them as they are free, have a fair amount of support, and work well enough for me.*
I have attached for you to use/edit as you see fit:
*status_bar_background_animation.txt http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/status_bar_tracking.xml
*14 multicolored Honeycomb images inspired / kanged from the boot animation.
*status_bar_tracking.txt - Pretty sure these are similar/same between CM7 and Stock or just use as reference guide.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/status_bar_tracking.xml
*Empty flashable zip for ClockWorkMod - Use the Archive Manager to open as archive and place your SystemUI.apk inside /system/app. Do NOT unzip and rezip as it will break the signature and not flash correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I use Clockmod Recovery to flash the MultiColored Honeycomb Animation.zip or is there something else I need or need to do?
The Honeycomb zip ONLY has the 14 images of the animation. It won't do anything if you try to flash it. And, to get those to work, you'd have to follow the guide in the opening post. It's pretty thorough. If you get stuck, let me know.
Hi, I'm extremely interested in getting this working.
I spent a good four hours designing a custom set of frames to match my current background, all before I realized that for some reason my current ROM's SystemUI.apk will not decompile correctly, and therefore won't RE-compile correctly. I spent a couple hours trying different versions of APKtool and aapt, all proving the same result. Finally I felt stupid when I tried it out on a random APK I had from a backup, decompiled and recompiled perfectly...
Has anyone tried this on an MIUI ROM? If so, I'm really interested in finishing this half-a-day project I've just started and could use some help xD
If you want, hit me up on Talk using my screen name.
Sent via telepathy
k4p741nkrunch said:
Hi, I'm extremely interested in getting this working.
I spent a good four hours designing a custom set of frames to match my current background, all before I realized that for some reason my current ROM's SystemUI.apk will not decompile correctly, and therefore won't RE-compile correctly. I spent a couple hours trying different versions of APKtool and aapt, all proving the same result. Finally I felt stupid when I tried it out on a random APK I had from a backup, decompiled and recompiled perfectly...
Has anyone tried this on an MIUI ROM? If so, I'm really interested in finishing this half-a-day project I've just started and could use some help xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would be awesome on MIUI.
k4p741nkrunch said:
Hi, I'm extremely interested in getting this working.
I spent a good four hours designing a custom set of frames to match my current background, all before I realized that for some reason my current ROM's SystemUI.apk will not decompile correctly, and therefore won't RE-compile correctly. I spent a couple hours trying different versions of APKtool and aapt, all proving the same result. Finally I felt stupid when I tried it out on a random APK I had from a backup, decompiled and recompiled perfectly...
Has anyone tried this on an MIUI ROM? If so, I'm really interested in finishing this half-a-day project I've just started and could use some help xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The key to decompiling certain system apps with MIUI is using apktool and then installing the framework from the MIUI rom as a dependency.
Windows Users (Linux Users - if you can use Linux, you probably know how to use the CMD Prompt well enough to follow these directions for your system too):
1) Place the framework-res.apk and SystemUI.apk from the rom in the folder where your apktool is located.
2) Open CMD Prompt and navigate (change directories / cd) to your folder with apktool and apps.
3) apktool.jar if framework-res.apk
4) apktool.jar d SystemUI.apk
5) This will create a subfolder in the main folder that will be named SystemUI.
6) Make your edits following the guide in the OP.
7) When finished, compile the apk with this:
apktool.jar b SystemUI
8) This will build the app for you and you will find it located in the subfolder Dist inside of the SystemUI folder.
I threw one together here*: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9903887/MIUISystemUI.apk
This SystemUI is from the stock based MIUI rom ported by stormageddon posted here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1421713
It has:
1) status_bar_background_animation.xml added to res/drawable (14 image version)
2) 14 Honeycomb themed images in /res/drawable-hdpi
3) status_bar_tracking.xml edit in /res/layout
4) This version IS able to be decompiled without errors by Apk Manager, so if it doesn't work, at least you can decompile and make the needed edits.
* I have NOT tested this. I am not currently running MIUI as I NEED wifi calling and my SIM card will not work with it. I purchased another SIM card from some suggestions I have seen around the forum, but unfortunately was not paying close enough attention and purchased the same one I already had instead and am not interested in spending an hour with a nandroid backup, flashing MIUI, testing, then nandroid restoring back to my current rom. So, good luck and let me know if I can help any more.
Thank you es0triccha0s!
That got me to decompile and compile correctly! Yes I am on Linux, and yes it was the if (install framework) command. Got a new problem though, the animation doesn't show. I noticed a few things though..
For one, I'm using a Galnet MIUI based of ICS. Inside the Res folder is a "drawable-hdpi-v4" folder, not sure if that v4 is going to mess anything up with this mod. I'm going to nandroid and then test with a GB version right now.
Secondly, in the scripts you provided in the OP, in the file status_bar_background_animation.xml you have all the images referenced as status_bar_background_animationX, but also in the OP, you mention we should place our created pngs into the drawable-hdpi folder as "status_bar_animationX". I simply removed all "_background"s from the file and it compiled, but I'm not sure if that is causing them not to be seen.
I'm gonna check a few things and report back.
Okay I put it on the Galnet 2.16 MIUI build. Made sure verything was as it should be as far as mod instructions are concerned. It booted, but there is NO status bar whatsoever.. Do you think its a permissions issue or something? Next thing I'm going to try is manually pushing it to the phone with ADB. This is just a test ROM, I have my actually useful nandroid backup when I get tired of this. Once again, will report back.
k4p741nkrunch said:
Thank you es0triccha0s!
That got me to decompile and compile correctly! Yes I am on Linux, and yes it was the if (install framework) command. Got a new problem though, the animation doesn't show. I noticed a few things though..
For one, I'm using a Galnet MIUI based of ICS. Inside the Res folder is a "drawable-hdpi-v4" folder, not sure if that v4 is going to mess anything up with this mod. I'm going to nandroid and then test with a GB version right now.
Secondly, in the scripts you provided in the OP, in the file status_bar_background_animation.xml you have all the images referenced as status_bar_background_animationX, but also in the OP, you mention we should place our created pngs into the drawable-hdpi folder as "status_bar_animationX". I simply removed all "_background"s from the file and it compiled, but I'm not sure if that is causing them not to be seen.
I'm gonna check a few things and report back.
Okay I put it on the Galnet 2.16 MIUI build. Made sure verything was as it should be as far as mod instructions are concerned. It booted, but there is NO status bar whatsoever.. Do you think its a permissions issue or something? Next thing I'm going to try is manually pushing it to the phone with ADB. This is just a test ROM, I have my actually useful nandroid backup when I get tired of this. Once again, will report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for pointing out the _background deal. Missed that in my proof reading stage. I'm going to update the OP in a bit. The drawable_hdpi vs drawable_hdpi-v4 thing seems to be dependent on either the apktool version or rom, not entirely sure. Have seen it on other phones / roms I have worked with, but seems random. Never really delved into the whys and hows. However, not really sure why the status bar disappeared on you. It might have something to do with update.zip's update script. I haven't messed with theming MIUI in a long time and am not sure if there needs to be any changes made to the update script that would be different vs. AOSP or CM7. It will almost certainly not work adb pushing the SystemUI though. That always messes things up, from my experience. Since it is just your test rom, try to put the SystemUI into the rom zip with an archive manager via opening as an archive (do not unzip, add, then rezip) and reflash.
I liked this idea. went ahead an made my own blue flames, and it looks nice (although I may mess with it a bit to get it a little smoother).
Just a note though: Unless you also remove the reference to shade_bg in status_bar_tracking.xml, you'll end up with both an animated and non-animated background.
Also, I'd recommend you have people only delete the resources.arsc and the status_bar_tracking.xml files from the keep folder when compiling. Otherwise, it's not uncommon that certain decompiling errors will transfer over to your finished product and give issues like the previous poster was having.
I'm not sure why I had never though of doing this before, but I'm glad you brought it to my attention
Okay, I'm trying something new tonight.
I went and checked every XML file and did some manual comparisons to see if I could find what was causing it not to show. For one, I think the Animation Flasher zip isn't doing the job so from now on I'll be packing it into the MIUI zip. Secondly, I noticed a lot more references to other status bar BG files in status_bar_tracking.xml. I replaced every reference of background="@drawable/blah blah bg" to background="@drawable/status_bar_animation"
I'm gonna see how this goes, will report back xD
Edit: Okay, so DON'T do that xD. At least I know my edits are recognized. Going back and removing the unnecessary edits, then packing it into the ROM Zip again, will report back.
Edit2: Okay, I'm very close to having this working with MIUI. Now that I've included it into the ROM ZIP, the statusbar is appearing completely white with the animation going on behind it. I can barely see the animation at the bottom of the status bar. Something is drawing that white background on the status bar, perhaps a default theme. I think that may be what is causing the general incompatibility with MIUI, the built in theming. I'm gonna fiddle around with the themes, see if I can find a way to use NO status bar theme. Will report back.
k4p741nkrunch said:
Okay, I'm trying something new tonight.
I went and checked every XML file and did some manual comparisons to see if I could find what was causing it not to show. For one, I think the Animation Flasher zip isn't doing the job so from now on I'll be packing it into the MIUI zip. Secondly, I noticed a lot more references to other status bar BG files in status_bar_tracking.xml. I replaced every reference of background="@drawable/blah blah bg" to background="@drawable/status_bar_animation"
I'm gonna see how this goes, will report back xD
Edit: Okay, so DON'T do that xD. At least I know my edits are recognized. Going back and removing the unnecessary edits, then packing it into the ROM Zip again, will report back.
Edit2: Okay, I'm very close to having this working with MIUI. Now that I've included it into the ROM ZIP, the statusbar is appearing completely white with the animation going on behind it. I can barely see the animation at the bottom of the status bar. Something is drawing that white background on the status bar, perhaps a default theme. I think that may be what is causing the general incompatibility with MIUI, the built in theming. I'm gonna fiddle around with the themes, see if I can find a way to use NO status bar theme. Will report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you need to delete android:background="@drawable/shade_bg"
It's possible that MIUI calls it something different like statusbar_background or status_bar_background. Either way, it needs to be deleted, not modified.
MWBehr said:
I liked this idea. went ahead an made my own blue flames, and it looks nice (although I may mess with it a bit to get it a little smoother).
Just a note though: Unless you also remove the reference to shade_bg in status_bar_tracking.xml, you'll end up with both an animated and non-animated background.
Also, I'd recommend you have people only delete the resources.arsc and the status_bar_tracking.xml files from the keep folder when compiling. Otherwise, it's not uncommon that certain decompiling errors will transfer over to your finished product and give issues like the previous poster was having.
I'm not sure why I had never though of doing this before, but I'm glad you brought it to my attention
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't think about the shade_bg as it's not linked to that in every rom. You don't have to actually remove it. You can also do this instead:
android:background="@android:color/transparent"
Also, I am of the school of thought that if the app decompiles with errors then you shouldn't use that as your base. I've done a ton of theming and I just won't use an app that decompiles wrong. It usually only happens if you are trying to decompile an app that has already been modified by the dev. Best to find a "stock" base framework or SystemUI to work with.
Easy
Can anyone make a flashable zip?
Of what and/or for what?
Sent via telepathy
Is anyone else having issues with stock auto brightness? It's usually too dark until light is shining right on it, and then it is painfully bright. I am currently using Lux with manually linked samples to some degree of success.
Since I'm on my third Infinity due to build issues/defects, I'm wondering if this is something related.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app
darkmuffin said:
Is anyone else having issues with stock auto brightness? It's usually too dark until light is shining right on it, and then it is painfully bright. I am currently using Lux with manually linked samples to some degree of success.
Since I'm on my third Infinity due to build issues/defects, I'm wondering if this is something related.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a way to "tune" the auto-brightness (assuming you are rooted) - this has worked very well for me - hopefully it will be useful to you as well:
You'll want to edit the values in this file to tune the auto-brightness (in my case, it would always set brightness all of the way down when at home):
/system/etc/config/brightness/brightness_config_04.xml
There are separate config files for both with and without IPS+ enabled (I've only tuned the values with IPS+ disabled since I don't use IPS+ mode).
Here is my modified config file if you want to use these values as a starting point:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
**
** Copyright 2009, The Android Open Source Project
**
** Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License")
** you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
** You may obtain a copy of the License at
**
** http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
**
** Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
** distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
** WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
** See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
** limitations under the License.
*/
-->
<brightnessconfig>
<!-- for auto brightness -->
<array name="autobrightness_SuperIpsOn">
<value>37</value>
<value>58</value>
<value>83</value>
<value>86</value>
<value>90</value>
<value>93</value>
<value>96</value>
<value>100</value>
<value>103</value>
<value>106</value>
<value>110</value>
<value>113</value>
<value>116</value>
<value>141</value>
<value>166</value>
<value>191</value>
<value>212</value>
<value>255</value>
</array>
<array name="autobrightness_SuperIpsOff">
<value>15</value>
<value>25</value>
<value>35</value>
<value>45</value>
<value>45</value>
<value>50</value>
<value>50</value>
<value>66</value>
<value>70</value>
<value>73</value>
<value>76</value>
<value>80</value>
<value>83</value>
<value>108</value>
<value>133</value>
<value>158</value>
<value>183</value>
<value>255</value>
</array>
<!-- for manual backlight -->
<item name="manual_backlight_SuperIpsOn_Max">255</item>
<item name="manual_backlight_SuperIpsOn_Min">37</item>
<item name="manual_backlight_SuperIpsOff_Max">161</item>
<item name="manual_backlight_SuperIpsOff_Min">5</item>
<!-- for manual backlight power consumption-->
<item name="config_enable_ManualBacklightPowerConsumption">1</item>
<item name="config_power_manualBacklightSetBrightPointA">45</item>
<item name="config_power_manualBacklightSetBrightPointB">55</item>
<item name="config_power_manualBacklightPwmBrightPointA">25</item>
<item name="config_power_manualBacklightPwmBrightPointB">26</item>
</brightnessconfig>
/ #
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Doing that resulted in my tablet hanging at boot. I forgot to mention that in Lux I used the Android Debug option to see what Android thought the actual ambient brightness was. It fluctuated like crazy. I think I might have ANOTHER defective device. I'm getting really tired of this.
Sorry to hear you had issues with this mod - just curious - what exactly did you do/change? Certainly, changing the values in this file should not cause a hang at boot. Did you change one value, two values, replace the entire file, etc?
You may be correct that you have yet another faulty unit - Asus QA is really bad (and seems to have gotten even worse with the TF700 if some of the threads here are any indication).
I do feel for you! I was pretty lucky with my first unit - just some minor light bleed that is only noticeable at boot-up...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Like this?
Well, I've never monitored the actual values being returned by the sensor itself, so I can't comment on that (yet).... I can say that the values that I've modified seem to make the auto-brightness work really well. You might even notice that I have the same value duplicated for more than one "brightness level" - simply because the value would "teeter" between the two while at work, so I do think that the sensor is very sensitive, at the least.
However, what you guys are reporting sure sounds a little different and may in fact be a hardware issue, as you've eluded to.
I'll install an app to read the sensor directly and report my findings.
Thanks.
EDIT: FYI - I just installed AndroSensor (monitors *all* sensors - pretty nice actually) and while my light sensor DOES go back and forth between 0 and 6 lux constantly while in my normal "sitting position", they are the only two values reported as long as I didn't change the lighting level. So, it definitely is very sensitive, but the problem that you guys are having sounds much more dramatic that what I'm seeing. Would you agree?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Thanks, jtrosky. Once I manually edited the file it seems to work. Before I just copypastad the code into the file, but when I manually just changed the values, it did work. Maybe you could have ROM developers include this tweak? I'm new to XDA and now sure how that would work.
EDIT: Does your autobrightness ever turn down on its own without turning off the screen? It's driving me crazy.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app
Actually, that's probably my bad - I should have mentioned not to copy and paste it - it seems that the forum "interpets" certain characters in that output and "hacks it up" a little. So, I can understand why copy and pasting could cause a hang at boot. I thought that there was a way to paste text as "code" so that it doesn't try to interpret the text, but I couldn't find that option for some reason....
Anyway, glad to hear that it's working better now. Good luck tuning it to your specific needs/environment!
By the way, I really don't understand why Asus doesn't allow you to "customize" these values - you should just be able to adjust the auto-brightness levels by moving the brightness slider while in autobrightness mode (kinda like iOS devices do it). Obviously, it can be done on the TF700... Oh well, maybe in a future update!
EDIT: Regarding the brightness level going down - I *think* that it will eventually lower the brightness automatically, but I think it takes much longer than than the brightness increases for some reason. Might be wrong about that though - maybe it doesn't ever go down (it should do that if it doesn't already though!)
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
I'm interested in trying this. i can get current lux value for different situations from androsensor. what's the best way to get current brightness values so i can log them and know what levels i want to put in?
There is no need for this.
When you feel the brightness is to high or low in a situation set the desired level and link it.
I have never "pre"-set any levels.
redheadplantguy said:
I'm interested in trying this. i can get current lux value for different situations from androsensor. what's the best way to get current brightness values so i can log them and know what levels i want to put in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you trying to set the auto-brightness levels with the brightness_04.xml file (or whatever the name is) or with the "Lux" app from the Play store?
If you are just setting the levels in the .xml file, just start messing with levels - you'll quickly find levels that suit your needs - I posted a list of the levels I used earlier in this thread - just start with those and fine-tune as-needed....
With the TF700, there really is no need for the "Lux" app anymore if you are rooted. The number of different "levels" are already defined in the .xml file - you just need to adjust the brightness for the levels by editing the .xml file - it's really pretty simple. I've found that it works really well without the need of a third party app...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Is there also some way i can modify build.prop or something to lower minimum brightness on manual adjustment? often at night, i can't sleep. i like to use my tablet in the dark, and even minimum is far too bright for my eyes.
i DO LOVE the super ips+ display, however. i have seen friends with tablets that were impossible to see outside in sunlight.
but in a dark room, i need it down farther. thanks.
redheadplantguy said:
Is there also some way i can modify build.prop or something to lower minimum brightness on manual adjustment? often at night, i can't sleep. i like to use my tablet in the dark, and even minimum is far too bright for my eyes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A quick check reveals that the brightness slider goes down to 10, but you can set the brightness manually down to 3 and still see something (below 3 it's completely black).
Type this into a root shell:
Code:
echo 3 > /sys/devices/platform/pwm-backlight/backlight/pwm-backlight/brightness
_that said:
A quick check reveals that the brightness slider goes down to 10, but you can set the brightness manually down to 3 and still see something (below 3 it's completely black).
Type this into a root shell:
Code:
echo 3 > /sys/devices/platform/pwm-backlight/backlight/pwm-backlight/brightness
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks. I'm thinking of using Rom toolbox to make a script I can run when necessary.
is the "echo 3" part the number 3 setting? say I wanted minimum brightness at 5. would I change it to read " echo 5"?
redheadplantguy said:
thanks. I'm thinking of using Rom toolbox to make a script I can run when necessary.
is the "echo 3" part the number 3 setting? say I wanted minimum brightness at 5. would I change it to read " echo 5"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind that if you want to permanently lower the minimum (or maximum) brightness, you can do so by editing this file:
/etc/config/brightness/brightness_config_04.xml
In this file, you can set min/max brightness (for both manual and auto-brightness) as well as "tune" the auto-brightness levels.
So, you could, for example, make it so when it's completely dark that the brightness will automatically be lowered to it's lowest possible value (which is lower than the slider allows).
The file is commented pretty well. Just make *sure* that after saving this file, that the permissions are "rw-r--r--" or else you will freeze at boot-up (guess how I know that! )
EDIT: you will need to reboot after making any changes to this file (in order to make the changes take effect).
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
jtrosky said:
Keep in mind that if you want to permanently lower the minimum (or maximum) brightness, you can do so by editing this file:
/etc/config/brightness/brightness_config_04.xml
In this file, you can set min/max brightness (for both manual and auto-brightness) as well as "tune" the auto-brightness levels.
So, you could, for example, make it so when it's completely dark that the brightness will automatically be lowered to it's lowest possible value (which is lower than the slider allows).
The file is commented pretty well. Just make *sure* that after saving this file, that the permissions are "rw-r--r--" or else you will freeze at boot-up (guess how I know that! )
EDIT: you will need to reboot after making any changes to this file (in order to make the changes take effect).
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOUR AWESOME!
I ran the script with rom toolbox, went to bedroom and shut off lights, its perfect! i will be doing the permanent adjustment to it.
I think that reply was meant for @_that!
@sbdags and @_that are awesome - not me! I'm just a Unix system admin by trade - that's the only reason that I know anything about Android (since it's unix-like)!!
Anyway, glad that we could help you find a solution - please let us know how things work out or if you have any questions about the values in that file.
Good luck!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
jtrosky said:
Keep in mind that if you want to permanently lower the minimum (or maximum) brightness, you can do so by editing this file:
/etc/config/brightness/brightness_config_04.xml
In this file, you can set min/max brightness (for both manual and auto-brightness) as well as "tune" the auto-brightness levels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange that the file says the minimum manual brightness is 5, but reading /sys/devices/platform/pwm-backlight/backlight/pwm-backlight/brightness at the minimum position of the slider yields 10. But the other 3 limits are exactly correct.
_that said:
Strange that the file says the minimum manual brightness is 5, but reading /sys/devices/platform/pwm-backlight/backlight/pwm-backlight/brightness at the minimum position of the slider yields 10. But the other 3 limits are exactly correct.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that I read somewhere that you *can* set the brightness to a lower value manually via this file than you can with the brightness slider...
I've never tried it personally though.
Can anyone confirm?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
redheadplantguy said:
Is there also some way i can modify build.prop or something to lower minimum brightness on manual adjustment? often at night, i can't sleep. i like to use my tablet in the dark, and even minimum is far too bright for my eyes.
i DO LOVE the super ips+ display, however. i have seen friends with tablets that were impossible to see outside in sunlight.
but in a dark room, i need it down farther. thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! You guys are waaay to technical for me. I only edit files when I need to. I just use an app called Screen Filter to filter the stock brightness levels down a bit. Its got a slider function for filtering light levels. Works great for night reading and night light functionality. Any stock setting can be filtered from 0 to 100%.
A long, long time ago, in a land far far away...
...there was a king of an empire on a peninsula near what we today call China. He had great scientists that made devices that let you magically talk with people in other places.
However, one of those devices annoyed the king. The king brought in his chief scientist and said, "How dare you make a magic box like this! Whenever I turn it on, the screen flashes bright when it is dim, or dim when it is bright. What do you have to say about this grave mistake of yours?" The chief scientist began, "Your honor, it is an issue with the start up of the GP2A sensor. You see, during the first 50,000 nanoseconds..." The king grew furious and interrupted him, "I don't want to hear about stinkin' nano-whatevers." He waved the chief scientist off and looked at the court jester. The jester smiled and said, "You could always just turn off auto-brightness." The king laughed and proclaimed, "Bring in my best consultants!"
In came the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker.
The king explained the problem to them and each thought carefully before responding.
The butcher said, "I'd just modify the kernel and only have it send out an event when the light level was very stable for 20 seconds."
The baker said, "I'd look at six samples, throw out the high, throw out the low, and return the average of the other four."
The candlestick maker said, "I know a little about light, you see. I'd throw out the first four samples, then just use wide bands so the light doesn't bounce around much."
The king listened to all three and looked at the jester. The jester said, "Don't look at me, it's all gobbledegook, but it all sounds good!"
The king proclaimed, "You heard the jester. Make it so!"
So the butcher hacked the kernel driver, as did the baker, and the candlestick maker hacked libsensors and the framework.
The jester laughed to himself, "What a hack job! Put in all three, that is going to be a mess and a half." Thankfully for the jester, the king didn't hear him.
The people awaited something from the king that would compete with the iPhone (yes, they had Apple Stores back then) and it came forth, named for the stars, the Galaxy S4G. And the people flocked to it. They were frustrated as its auto-brightness didn't work very well. It didn't flash bright and dim, but it took 20 seconds or more to adjust, and sometimes never did. So they took the advice of the jester, they turned auto-brightness off.
Then came the excitement. The pastry chefs were cooking up ice cream sandwiches. But their first results had the same problem as the gingerbread and the frozen yogurt. The people were disappointed. Again, they turned off the auto-brightness.
Thankfully, a magician from another court sent them a message that he had solved their problems. He had a phone that the auto-brightness worked well for him, to the point he forgot that auto-brightness was even on. He checked it for several days and tweaked it a bit for his personal preference.
This is that message.
Source has been committed to the TeamAcid repository that should resolve the auto-brightness issues with the SGS4G. New builds of CM9 and AOKP (and ROMs that use the TeamAcid code base) should soon see these changes after a repo sync is done.
For those assembling ROMs rather than building from scratch, you are likely to need:
Kernel with updated GP2A driver
Updated libsensors
Changes to framework to use the new values to set brightness
I can't say if one of the libsensor objects from one ROM can safely be used in another.
If you want to change the light levels and brightness, CM9 (and perhaps other ROMs) let a user select System settings > Display > Automatic Backlight and adjust the settings by checking "Use custom" and then clicking "Edit other levels..." I did not turn on the "Light Sensor Filter," but did select "Allow light decrease" and set "Decrease hysteresis" to 0%.
{
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Edit -- I have since added an intermediate step at 180 brightness starting at 1750 lux to better handle overcast mornings/evenings.
If you're not familiar with lux and perceived brightness, the eye sees a doubling of light level as "one step" in brightness. The difference between "50% gray" and "white" is a doubling of light level. You'll see in the framework that for one of the steps the screen brightness varies by 0.7 -- half a "doubling" step -- to reduce big "jumps" at low brightness levels.
Here are some typical light levels in lux:
9 lux -- lower limit of output of sensor to Android code
50-150 lux -- typical home "living room" illumination
300-500 lux -- typical office illumination, sunrise or sunset
1,000 lux -- overcast day
10,000 lux -- indirect light on a sunny day
100,000 lux -- direct sun
These changes do not, unfortunately, resolve the soft-key light issues, nor do they seem to allow auto-brightness to set the brightness lower than the "20" that seems to be the "dim" level.
Very nice. About the only bug in CM9 that would these phones work. Hope this gets pushed to CM9 for us soon.
Great fix and one of the better reads I've had hear in a while. Oh and here's a log:
hechoen said:
Great fix and one of the better reads I've had hear in a while. Oh and here's a log:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Made me lol. I'm submitting the same log I guess
No, you guys are doing it wrong. This is what devs want. Right?
So... can I get an ETA on when jeffsf will be the next official member of Team Acid?
Seriously though, your research and contributions to our community have been amazing. Thanks for all your hard work.
This has been a long standing major issue.
My thanks do not go lightly! I really do appreciate your work on this!
IS there is a way I could rip the files from say the AOKP that has the auto-brightness and try it in another ROM I already have flashed. I could do a backup before in case it mucks something. I just like the look of Remic, the touchwiz, the dialer, all of it. I keep going back to it, but I like auto-brightness. lol.
getochkn said:
IS there is a way I could rip the files from say the AOKP that has the auto-brightness and try it in another ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you find the auto-brightness changes working for you.
I'm not an expert on assembling a ROM from various bits and pieces, but the changes are detailed in the Team Acid repositories on github.
If I were to guess as to what to try, it would include:
boot.img for the kernel
/system/lib/modules/bcm4329.ko
/system/lib/libsensorservice.so
Changes to framework to provide the new auto-brightness levels in overlay/frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/config.xml
If the ROM in question doesn't use the same "layout" as CM9, then you might need to adjust other things, such as where the WiFi configuration information is found.
Thanks. way over my head. lol. Sure I could figure it out or wait till Remics gets updated.
Is anyone using custom levels? If so what values.
I find that the stock top level being set to 5000 is much to aggressive to be good for battery life.
Here are the values that I am testing now
What are yours?
Edit: these values seem to flicker a little between 3500 and 5000 lux (screen goes to dim before timeout and comes back up). Might need to edit a little or find values that are more exponential than linear
Also auto needs to be off for setting to stick and allow lights to decrease needs to be set to on or the levels will not come down from the highest levels
Note to trolls, this thread does not indicate that you can't post settings here. This feature is still "in development" and this type of feedback is welcome.
As a little help for those trying to come up with "midpoints" between things, if you have a level X and another level Y, the middle for perceived brightness is sqrt( X * Y)
For example, the "middle" of 600 and 5,000 is sqrt( 600 * 5,000 ) ~ 1,732
TrenchKato said:
Also auto needs to be off for setting to stick and brightness moving average filters needs to be set to on or the levels will not come down from the highest levels
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, interesting. I don't have "Light Sensor Filter" enabled, but do have "Allow light decrease" set. I also have the "Decrease hysteresis" set to 0%.
I think that it might be the "Decrease hysteresis" setting that may be causing the effect you see. If there is 50% hysteresis on a level of 10240, I am guessing it won't "shift down" until you get to 5120. I haven't checked the code on that.
I'm hardly saying my settings are "optimal" -- I intentionally turned off filtering and hysteresis so that I could get rapid response to see how the various brightness levels "worked" (at least for me) in different lighting conditions.
Edit: Kato, what kind of light levels do you have in, for example, your office or home? Your breakpoints seem very high compared to what I would expect.
I'm running:
(0) - 1
50 - 32
75-45
150 - 64
600 - 128
1750 - 180
5000 - 255
I just realized that it its the light decrease setting that is causing the brightness to stay at high level... and it makes sense that a 50% hysteresis world cause flicker given that 50% world move thru 3 brightness.. I also have my dim set to 1...
I am actually outside... I didn't take that into account... however it is my preference to use the lowest values possible inside... so my values may be biased in that way.. especially when outside lux reads well above 10240 anyway (on AOKP)
That why I'm thinking using exponential set of values would work better in both conditions than just cutting values in half
Ya so thank to Jeffsf that we have Auto Brightness working now...so...not to hhijack this thread but for those who are a zip-jockey like me or who dont want to wait til your rom be updated (miui, remics, cna,...bla bla bla) and wanna do some experiment, here is what to do:
jeffsf said:
Glad you find the auto-brightness changes working for you.
I'm not an expert on assembling a ROM from various bits and pieces, but the changes are detailed in the Team Acid repositories on github.
If I were to guess as to what to try, it would include:
boot.img for the kernel (from AOKP build 5)
/system/lib/modules/bcm4329.ko (from AOKP build 5)
/system/lib/libsensorservice.so (from AOKP build 5)
If the ROM in question doesn't use the same "layout" as CM9, then you might need to adjust other things, such as where the WiFi configuration information is found.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Afterward, use apktool (recommend the latest 1.5.0 version) to decompile YOUR rom's framework-res:
Code:
$ apktool if framework-res.apk
$ apktool d framework-res.apk
and looke for the file: /res/values/arrays.xml
Scroll down to this:
Code:
<integer-array name="config_autoBrightnessLevels">
<integer-array name="config_autoBrightnessLcdBacklightValues">
<integer-array name="config_autoBrightnessButtonBacklightValues">
And change whatever values of those to this:
Code:
<integer-array name="config_autoBrightnessLevels">
<item>50</item>
<item>75</item>
<item>150</item>
<item>600</item>
<item>5000</item>
</integer-array>
<integer-array name="config_autoBrightnessLcdBacklightValues">
<item>1</item>
<item>32</item>
<item>45</item>
<item>64</item>
<item>128</item>
<item>255</item>
</integer-array>
<integer-array name="config_autoBrightnessButtonBacklightValues">
<item>255</item>
<item>255</item>
<item>255</item>
<item>0</item>
<item>0</item>
<item>0</item>
</integer-array>
After that, compile back the framework-res.apk
Code:
$ apktool b framework-res
And open the ORIGINAL framework-res and the /dist/framework-res by winrar in Windows or zip manager in ubuntu and copy the resource.arsc from /dist/framework-res to the ORIGINAL one and copy the modified original framework-res.apk back to the zip (that now contains boot.img, /lib/modules/* and /lib/libsensorservice.so) under the path: /framework and ya...flash it ^^ (you can use the hefe 0.8.1 for the package template and replace files under needs)
Hi Dao
Thanks. I tried that on MIUI.
I see the team acid kernel was updated but I don't think auto brightness is working. I see no change when choosing it on quick toggles.
How can I know that it really works?
10x
sent from me
itzik2sh said:
Hi Dao
Thanks. I tried that on MIUI.
I see the team acid kernel was updated but I don't think auto brightness is working. I see no change when choosing it on quick toggles.
How can I know that it really works?
10x
sent from me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works in FB's latest AOKP release, I tried it and saw it work fine, so jeff's changes work. Exactly what needs to be used to bring it to another ROM though, ???
itzik2sh said:
How can I know that [auto-brightness] really works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see any logcat evidence in the version of CM9 I am currently running. Using ddms and watching frameworks/base/services/java/com/android/server/PowerManagerService.java (or its equivalent) would be my suggestion.
Thanks. I had some other non related FCs. Now that they're fixed I can see it is working. Ghanks guys!
Updating HebMIUI ROM.
sent from me
daothanhduy1996 said:
Ya so thank to Jeffsf that we have Auto Brightness working now...so...not to hhijack this thread but for those who are a zip-jockey like me or who dont want to wait til your rom be updated (miui, remics, cna,...bla bla bla) and wanna do some experiment, here is what to do:
Afterward, use apktool (recommend the latest 1.5.0 version) to decompile YOUR rom's framework-res:
Code:
$ apktool if framework-res.apk
$ apktool d framework-res.apk
and looke for the file: /res/values/arrays.xml
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried to do this on your ROM and I get W: Cant find 9patch chunk in file: "drawable-hdpi/switch_thumb_pressed_holo_dark.9.png". Renaming it to *.png.
Not sure I want to continue if I get errors.