[HOWTO] Make a skin for your tattoo. - Click Themes and Apps

Hi,
This is a tutorial to explain how to make a theme with some APKs modified.
Note : This HOWTO is for people who have a minimum knowledge in informatic, i will not answer to questions like "what's a CMD?" etc.
FACULTATIVE STEP
The first thing we have to do, it's set up a working folder, this will help you to make your theme easily
Create a folder "Skin blabla", like you want.
After, create 3 folders like this screen :
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
We will make a backup of ALL APKs of your tattoo (if you do a wrong modification & you brick), make a copy of this backup into "Modded APKs" (there will be the modified APKs), and "Decompressed" will be the folder which has all PNGs.
SOME EXPLICATIONS
The only risk is Android, all APKs which are using on android have to be signed, if one of your APKs isn't signed, you will semi-brick your Tattoo and have to go on recovery and push the original APK.
Note : You have to have (woh) a custom recovery, if you don't and you semi-brick your tattoo, the only way to restart it is the GOLDCARD.
So, the only way to keep your APK signed is to use the drag&drop.
FIRST STEP : Backup
Connect your device. (with USB debug)
Open a CMD.
(We say your skin's folder is on c:\Skin to make it simple, if you choose an other destination, change what i have writed after)
adb shell pull /system/app/*.apk "c:\Skin\Original APK"
adb shell pull /system/framework/*.apk "c:\Skin\Original APK"
copy "c:\Skin\Original APK\*.apk" "c:\Skin\Modded APK"
You can delete the APKs you will never modify on Modded.
It's finished, we can start
SECOND STEP : Drag & Drop
I'm using WinRAR.
Like i said before, we have to keep our APKs signed.
Select which APKs you want to modify of "Modded" folder, right click, and select "extract...".
Select "Decompressed" folder, and extract all APKs.
You will have many folders with the name of which APK. (Rosie, framework-res, etc etc)
Modify all PNGs you want to modify on which folder. (Note : All images are on res/drawable*)
Then, return on modded folder, open which APKs you modified on the other folder, and open framework-res.apk for example, let the APK open with WinRAR. Open "Decompressed"s folder, select some folders/PNGs you have modified (we will select "drawable" for example), drag&drop it in WinRAR. (of course, you have to be on /res folder in winRAR, the folder have to match...)
Copy the modified APK with : adb push blabla.apk /system/originaldirectoryoftheapk
Some advices
- All notifications icons are on framework-res.apk & com.htc.resources.apk.
- The only APKs which are on /system/framework/ are the both APKs one line before. All others are on /system/app/.
- Rosie.apk is HTC Sense.
- Some notifications icons are on Calendar.apk (1), HtcContacts.apk (1), HtcLocationService.apk (1), HtcMusic.apk (2+), HtcTwitter.apk (1), Mail.apk (1), Mms.apk (1+), Talk.apk (1).
- If you modify Rosie.apk, or some others APKs, Sense will be strange, wait or reboot the device.
- ...

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Hi JoOoSs
I have modified Browser.apk, but when I try
Code:
adb push Browser.apk /system/app/Browser.apk
I receive the next message:
Code:
failed to copy 'Browser.apk' to '/system/app/Browser.apk': Out of memory
Also, before this I was receiving this message:
Code:
failed to copy 'Browser.apk' to '/system/app/Browser.apk': Directory not empty
Any ideas about what could be the problem?
Thanks!

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It's a problem with your ROM.
Modaco ? Fyodor ? Stock ?

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I have the MoDaCo ROM, the weird thing is that yesterday I installed your Black skin, and today I tried to do it again and have the above errors.

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At each reboot you have to do:
adb shell
insmod /system/lib/modules/tattoo-hack.ko
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

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JoOoSs said:
At each reboot you have to do:
adb shell
insmod /system/lib/modules/tattoo-hack.ko
mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I did it.
I've noticed something really weird. I flashed a fresh ROM (MoDaCo), then I pushed your files (from Black Skin) and some mine, everything worked perfect. But, later, when I try to push another file (yours or mine), I get this error:
Code:
adb push WorldClock.apk /system/app/WorldClock.apk
failed to copy 'WorldClock.apk' to '/system/app/WorldClock.apk': Directory not empty
I don't know what is happening

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I think you lose the RW when you exit your CMD, did you retry to mount /system ?
If it's yes, i don't know it works in my Modaco Oo

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Thanks JoOoSs
I don't know why this was happening, but I installed the stock ROM and everything works perfect know! Regards!

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It would be nice to have default android skin on our tattoo. Do you think is it possible?

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Yep, you have to flash 2.1 ROM which is on Dev forum, backup all PNG from his ROM & re-insert them on an other ROM.

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JoOoSs said:
Yep, you have to flash 2.1 ROM which is on Dev forum, backup all PNG from his ROM & re-insert them on an other ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you don't need to flash the 2.1 rom, remember that is a .zip, so just extract the apps from /system/app directory and then extract the pngs...

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In the zip there are only the *.img ?
We have to uncompress boot.img etc it's more long!

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So...what we could do to have a default 2.1 lock screen and skin and nothing else?
Please help us poor noobs

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JoOoSs said:
In the zip there are only the *.img ?
We have to uncompress boot.img etc it's more long!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really, I downloaded the update.zip file from the 2.1, and it doesn't have .img files... I've changed all my apps icons using the 2.1 version.

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Is there anyone that can answer to my ask?

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HTCDevil said:
Is there anyone that can answer to my ask?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, actually, change all the skin and the lock screen is going to be almost impossible, I changed all the main apps icons, but the skin itself is more complex, we have to go through all system APKs and find the png files related with the skin, but even doing that the change is complex.
This is how my icons looks like:

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Can you upload icons & the wallpaper ?

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yes, wallpaper please

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Thank you arturo
I'd like also the only white bar rather than black

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APKs with eclair icons and wallpaper
Hello all,
Here are the modified apk files with the eclair icons and also a nice wallpaper.
I highly recommend to do a nandroid backup before replace the apk files (we never know ).
APKs: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GG7LPC9C
Enjoy it!