Database Develop

Launcher.apk not being installed in He-aero theme

Can someone help me figure out why the Launcher.apk does not get installed to the phone when applying the zip? Everything else seems to get installed fine.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=538762
FYI - It installs fine on my G1, but getting reports from some users that the Launcher.apk is not changing for them.

Its probably the user
I'ma dl and flash. and edit this post with my findings
EDIT: no idea why but it did not install on mine either
only thing i see in the logcat regarding launcher (which is probably a bad thing)
11-10 13:44:58.401: WARN/WindowManager(142): Force clearing freeze: AppWindowToken{439374a0 token=HistoryRecord{438d2338 com.android.launcher/.Launcher}}
Will investigate more and see what I can do. I took a quick look at the scripts but they seem fine.

Ok so something is messing with the launcher because the stock launcher doesnt have cyans settings (they only have 4 icons across)
pushing the launcher.apk works fine
Also, its not just launcher.apk
I dont have the themed power bar or google search bar. powerbar is in settings.apk
EDIT: None of the system apk's installed
everything is stock with the exception of framework-res.apk
there is something wrong with the install script
EDIT2: changing install script to copy_dir PACKAGE:app SYSTEM:app
EDIT3: worked on replacing launcher and dialer...but the search and power widget are still unthemed. they dont appear to be themed in the apks however
so just go to META-INF>com>google>android and open update-script in notepad++
and change the last line to
copy_dir PACKAGE:app SYSTEM:app

wow...thanks for the good info...what I plan on trying next is just taking someone else theme and using theirs as a template(since there is no generic template). The only issue I'm seeing is that the directory structures are different in a lot of different themes. So I don't really know which one to use.

Well its very easy to edit that script so I can help you out with it if you like.
basically
copy_dir PACKAGE:app SYSTEM:app
tells the recovery to open the package (the update.zip) and copy everything in the app folder in the .zip to the SYSTEM partition, app folder
You can just mess around with that and get it to work with whatever structure the base template has. If you need anymore help, just pm me

Editing APK's w/ Mac and Betterzip?

Ok so i've been easing into learning how to edit apk's, theming I guess you can call it. I'm in the exploratory early stages, here's my question. I use BetterZip on my Mac to edit the apk's (zips). So I copied the facebook.apk from Super D 1.10.3 (built in?) and move the apk to my sdcard and renamed it with a .zip extension. Edit some png's, save it. Return to Root Explorer and rename with the .apk extension again, and install. Install comes back successful but my image changes do not show up? I havent gotten creative with it because I want to know the steps first before getting creative. So i just turned random icons black and such and they remain the same. It "overwrites" the FB app that is installed initially in system/app, should there not be two apk's around? prob not right? If someone could just briefly tell me their steps, and obviously you'd have to have a mac to help. Thanks.
And for the record, i've checked out other threads about editing apk's on a mac and its just too difficult it seems, creating keystores and whatnot? I feel like my method is pretty close, I'm just missing something.

joe.kerwin said:
Ok so i've been easing into learning how to edit apk's, theming I guess you can call it. I'm in the exploratory early stages, here's my question. I use BetterZip on my Mac to edit the apk's (zips). So I copied the facebook.apk from Super D 1.10.3 (built in?) and move the apk to my sdcard and renamed it with a .zip extension. Edit some png's, save it. Return to Root Explorer and rename with the .apk extension again, and install. Install comes back successful but my image changes do not show up? I havent gotten creative with it because I want to know the steps first before getting creative. So i just turned random icons black and such and they remain the same. It "overwrites" the FB app that is installed initially in system/app, should there not be two apk's around? prob not right? If someone could just briefly tell me their steps, and obviously you'd have to have a mac to help. Thanks.
And for the record, i've checked out other threads about editing apk's on a mac and its just too difficult it seems, creating keystores and whatnot? I feel like my method is pretty close, I'm just missing something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know much about mac's but I'm pretty good at theming. How are you signing your modified .apk files? If you don't sign them then they will fail to install.

Double post - sorry

Have you seen this thread - it's a droplet for your mac to sign apks.....maybe it will help?

yeah I have that droplet app to sign apps. Maybe it's just a bad apk to start with? I used the FB apk and edited it, signed it, and tried installing it on a fresh install of Superfast (facebook isn't included in system apps) and it still says "This program will overwrite a system blah blah blah" So maybe i'm just messing with the wrong apk? I haven't tried anything else, I just really wanted to tweak the FB widget, haha. Any advice?

[GUIDE] How to make mymode themes

Well I haven't had much time lately to make themes but I figured i got enough time to explain how. This is how i do it in windows 7.
1) First thing i assume that you already have androidsdk on the root of your C drive. Lets go ahead and add it to your system path. If it's not called androidsdk go ahead and change it to that. Now open up your startmenu, right click computer, click properties, then click advanced system settings, in the advance system settings select environment variables. In the second box down look for path select it and choose edit. copy and paste this
Code:
;C:\androidsdk\tools
in there. Click okay.
2) download the jre and jdk from here and install them. Now you need to add them to your system path so copy paste this
Code:
;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin
to your system path just like you did in the first step.
3) Download apk manager from here. Now run it and when it says clean out all current projects click yes. Now thats ready to go.
4) Download an image editing program. I use gimp. Also if you don't have it 7-zip
your all set to go now so lets start over with the numbers
1) choose a mymode apk and extract it with 7-zip. Open up the res folder select a png that you want to change and change it with the image editor you chose.
2) when you've changed the images you want open up the original apk as an archive with 7zip. Then place the res folder of the modified unzipped apk into the archive and close the archive.
3) Now open up apk manager and place the mymode apk into the place here for signing folder click script batch choose no then type 15.
4) Now put the newly signed apk into your androidsdk/tools folder and close apk manager.
5) open command prompt and type this
Code:
cd\
cd androidsdk/tools
adb install whatever.apk
I'll update this with pics a more thorough guide.
Thanks to everyone that made this easy

reserved for themes to come

Thanks been waiting for a thread like this.

thanks, if i ever get any free-time between jobs and kid and fiancee i will look into this a little more

This is an awesome guide! I messed around with theming mytouch/g1 back when I had one.. so this will be great to make some themes for the slide..
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App

ryanolson7 said:
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The nest theme is in the framework, its not an .apk like the rest, its built into the system. The rest of the mymodes themes are .apks and if you edit those they will override the stock "nest" theme. The only way it will show up different in the theme chooser is if you edit the preview snapshot to be a preview of your theme. If you wanna keep the original theme, the nest theme is it and you should edit a different theme .apk...
-BMFC
Sent from my ROOTED MyTouch3G Slide

Okay so I got the next three days off and I already got two mymode themes pretty much done well their done but I just learned of a way to change the name so they are there own standalone apk instead of using another apk name. I've been using puppypride (which by the way isn't puppies those are full grown dogs) and switching out the pngs and you couldn't have the regular puppypride now you can have both

hope you don't mind but I did a mod of your themes and took out the bubbles since some people always create threads about it

Help with following guide
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.

impimms said:
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually the guide needs to be fixed a little because i'm guessing your getting compiling errors when using apk manager? But the best way to do this is to open up the mymode theme (using 7zip) as an archive delete meta-inf folder then replace the pngs with ones of your choice as long as they are the same scale. Then resign. and install

totally lost
I've followed these directions to a T and when it comes to using the apk manager i am getting nothing, please help

You guys that are having trouble with apk manager...its honestly not necessary to use Apk Manager for this. Mymodes themes are system .apks and shouldn't be re-signed. What you need to do is forget about apk manager (for now) and drop the UNsigned .apk into the ROM update you are using, and resign the whole ROM using the autosign tool created by jesusfreke. Or just adbpush the .apk. but don't resign the .apk.
Here's the link for the autosign tool to sign ROM updates. its in the THIRD POST and its auto-sign .zip, NOT the signing.zip in the first post. you can put it anywhere you want and you just drop (a copy of) your ROM update in the autosign folder, rename it update.zip, then run the sign.bat to sign. it will create another file, update-signed.zip. you shouldnt need to wipe when flashing the same ROM over itself, but i cant guarantee this is true for all ROMs.
you can also make an update that will only flash the .apk to /system/app, and nothing else will be changed. basically just make a copy of the update for the ROM youre using, then delete everything but the /system directory from the zip. then go into that /system directory and delete everything but the /app directory, then go into it and delete all the .apks and odex file or whatevers in there. ALL OF IT. when you are finished you should have an update with nothing in it but a /system/app directory. you put your modded .apk in there in /system/app, and thats it for that.
then you must edit the update script and remove MOST of its contents so that it only does what you want it to. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Go here to learn how to create an update script. what youll need is way simpler than the examples, youll want it to look basically like this...
Code:
assert compatible_with("0.2") == "true"
show_progress 0.1 0
copy_dir PACKAGE:system SYSTEM:
show_progress 0.1 10
this update script will copy ANYTHING in the /system directory to /system on your device, regardless of subdirectories. that means anything in /system will go in /system, anything in /system/app will go to /system/app, etc. but since you only have one .apk in there it wont mess with anything but what you put in there. this way, you have a NOWIPE update for...well, whatever you want to put in it.
so you just drop the new shortened update-script in /META-INF/com/google/android/
and then use the autosign tool to resign your new update then flash away! This also takes less time cus its only flashing one file instead of flashing a whole ROM just to replace that one file...
hope this helps...
-BMFC
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App

So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo

Tbrewer80 said:
So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having issues with this as well... After I do the whole signing apk thing, it installs fine, but when I go to MyModes, the preview is black and when I select it, the MyModes app force closes. I don't get it.

APK files and swype keyboard

OK.. so I want to change the keyboard colors on my phone and I've been reading for a while on apk files and just want to make sure I have it right
I took the original swype apk (after backing up a copy) and changed it to a zip file and unzipped. Went into where the keyboard png files live and changed the color of the text to my liking.
I took the original backed up swype.apk and used the apk package manager to decompress it (files were in projects folder). I copied over my keyboard pngs over the originals and then use apk manager to package it back up I'm pretty sure but
1. Is swype a system app?? Apk manager warns about keeping the signature or not
2. Does my new swype apk have to have the same name?? I now have a unsignedswype.apk file in my "place-apk-here-for modding" folder probably because I chose that
Was planning on using sideload wonder machine to put it on the phone, just wanted to make sure I had everything correct before screwing something up royally

I've played around a bit with Swype themes. MetaMorph is an easy way to apply your theme. I've also had no problems with copying my Swype.apk from /system/App, opening it with Astro, deleting the files I changed, and pasting in the replacements. Then I just overwrite the original apk with mine using Root Explorer.
Let me know if you need any more help, can also show you how to hex edit the lib to change the trail color (mine is green).
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

modifying easy answer button app??

Ok so i just downloaded this app the other day and really like it....
http://www.appbrain.com/app/easy-answer-button-free/org.nsd.easyanswer
the only thing i dont like about it is the look of the buttons. so i went into data/app and copied out the app to my computer. opened it up, looked at the drawable folder and found the images i wanted to replace. there were only 4.
so i found out their size (400x120) and made 4 new images that i wanted to use, used Astro to put them back into the app, deleted the original app in data/app, pushed the app to system/app, and changed permissions, then rebooted.
now i have done the widgetlocker mods using this method and had success. however, widgetlocker is a .apk, where as this app is a .zip file. so i figured, OK, lets try it in the data/app since that other way didn't work...still a no go.
just wondering how to modify these .zip apps, and get them to work.
any help is greatly appreciated.