this might have been answered already but whats the best way to gain access to system files? I want to try to get more in depth with my modding i saw root explorer is that the only way or is there a program for windows to get on to the phones hidden files. wanting to change boot animation, sounds lock unlock, lock screen pic, ect ect. Is there a way to change sounds for different notifications like txt,email,gmail, ect ect instead of having one sound for all of them? thanks
grncivic2001 said:
this might have been answered already but whats the best way to gain access to system files? I want to try to get more in depth with my modding i saw root explorer is that the only way or is there a program for windows to get on to the phones hidden files. wanting to change boot animation, sounds lock unlock, lock screen pic, ect ect. Is there a way to change sounds for different notifications like txt,email,gmail, ect ect instead of having one sound for all of them? thanks
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Click to collapse
Just search for a guide on getting started with theming. There's several on the forums already.
Related
Yay my first post, lol.
So anyway, I've decided to move over from the iOS platform because the hardware simply does not stay up to date with Android anymore. I'm quite tired of worrying about jailbreaking; that aside I want to know how I would go about doing the simple things that I got out of iOS, even though I had to be a hacker to get my way.
Restoration (If I screw something up)
How do I restore my phone with a complete firmware file that will recover me from my own stupidity/adventures? With iOS I simply just entered recovery mode and pressed restore in iTunes. How does one download a stock i9100 restore firmware file for future use?
Themes
In iOS, I made my own themes and applied them into the rooted filesystem with no problems. I simply just replaced the files and rebooted, no problems. I've been lurking for a while now seeïng that people need to deoxdex files in order to view them or flash them or whatever. My question is this: can I simply replace system files and expect them to work? As for the many xml files in the apk's that I've been examining, I cannot seem to get a standard format of them. When I view them in various code applications, I get a load of garbage with a faint outline of what could included in the xml file. How can I convert pulled xml files to "normal" readable ones? (or do I need to use a special application that reads binary/encrypted xml's for me?) What is the proper way to replace system files for a theme (what is deodexing?), and is it possible to package my theme and put it on the android market to share with others?
Music
Do any of you guys use iTunes for your music? My iTunes library is meticulously managed to make sure that all my song info and album art are correct. Is it true that if I drag and drop from iTunes (on a mac) into the music folder of my sd card, I will copy over all the song data aswell? I highly doubt it because I cannot get this to work between my two iTunes libraries on different computers. Is there a way to make sure all my id3 tags and album art are added to all my songs so that I have an organized library in my SGS2/android?
Tapping the status bar to reach the top of a long page/form
Does this exist in android either through a tweak or android market app?
Deleting System apps that I no longer need
Is it okay to just delete apk's on my phone's system that I do not need? (Reader's hub, blockbuster, exe) I would assume that would work, but eh, I'm not making any assumptions on a completely different platform.
Launch Dæmons
On iOS, there was a folder in the system that housed all the plists of startup dæmons at booup. By deleting one, the service would completely stop and would free up RAM after the phone got rebooted. Does android have a similar place to house a bunch of services that are optionally deleted/stopped entirely to improve system performance? Things that come immediately to mind are things like debugging, syslogs, android developer tools, and other garbage that is unnecessary to certain users. (A famous example is the "CommCenter.plist"(baseband startup)/"DataMigrator.plist" (move contacts using SIM card) that always run in the background on iTouches despite not having a baseband and SIM card.)
System Button Mapping
Is there any tweak or android app that lets me set certain actions to different button presses or behaviors? For example in iOS I can use "activator" to let me swipe my statusbar horizontally to enter the camera app. I can also long press volume keys to skip/restart music being played in the music app.
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I know that's a lot of questions, but atleast try to help a newbie out =] When fist started out in iOS 4 years ago, I was the same way in nagging looking for ways to make things fit my workflow. Honestly, it doesn't take long before I start to help people out and grasp all the skills needed for a particular platform.
Hello, and welcome to XDA
I'll try to answer all questions.
First of all. The galaxy s ii is almost impossible to break. If you need to re wipe your phone. Get the firmware from samfirmware.com and also get odin v1.85 from there. That is all you need to fix a broken phone. It will just need putting into download mode. (Power + home + vol down)
As for theming. All apk files contain files with the images that it uses, so in theory all can be customised. The main files to theme are SystemUI (notifications bar) found in /system/app. And framework-res (anything else theme related, battery text colours e.t.c
As for editing the xml files. Most have to be edited in a hex editor (e.g. HXD). But there are guides to show you what numbers to edit. And its not that complicated once you try it.
With regard to the music. I recommend mp3tag. Its what I use and simply copying the tracks works well for me.
For removing system apps, look on the market for system app remover, or if you are willing to pay, get root tools. Great combination of tools and uninstalling is as easy as ticking a box.
And yes, there are some apps that when you remove them your phone will bootloop. Look in this forum. I'm sure I've seen a safe system apps to remove in the sgs ii section (will look for link in a mo)
Last bit, system button mapping. I believe it can be done. But it hasn't been done yet on this phone. Different launchers give you the option for swipe gesgures (did I spell that right, doesnt look it). So you can have swiping down on the screen opens notifications and swiping up opens app drawer. If you want that. I recommned searching for ADW launcher on the marketplace (others offer the same feature, but adw is the best)
Think I'm finished now?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
that definitely helped me a lot, thanks =D One thing that was not answered was the launch dæmons bit, does a folder like that even exist in Android? As for themes though, I'm going for a complete and total all out theme of all applications. I cannot stand the blackness of this phone's UI; I'm gonna put little pieces of artwork everywhere I can fit it like I did on iOS so it looks like just a collection of art and colorful things (backgrounds, splash screens, loading screens, exe). I'd love to know though if it's possible to download the firmware from where you described and premod it then just flash my custom ROM all at once...
As for system button mapping and custom button events, that's one thing I'm definitely going to miss ='[ I had a bunch of gestures set up so that while I'm bikeriding/horseriding I can just hit a button to control music without looking at the screen. In all respects, thanks a bunch for the help.
xxhorseriderxxx said:
that definitely helped me a lot, thanks =D One thing that was not answered was the launch dæmons bit, does a folder like that even exist in Android? As for themes though, I'm going for a complete and total all out theme of all applications. I cannot stand the blackness of this phone's UI; I'm gonna put little pieces of artwork everywhere I can fit it like I did on iOS so it looks like just a collection of art and colorful things (backgrounds, splash screens, loading screens, exe). I'd love to know though if it's possible to download the firmware from where you described and premod it then just flash my custom ROM all at once...
As for system button mapping and custom button events, that's one thing I'm definitely going to miss ='[ I had a bunch of gestures set up so that while I'm bikeriding/horseriding I can just hit a button to control music without looking at the screen. In all respects, thanks a bunch for the help.
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Click to collapse
Soon enough we will enable an init.d folder.
It's there on other ROMs, we just have to enable it in the ramdisk
pulser_g2 said:
Soon enough we will enable an init.d folder.
It's there on other ROMs, we just have to enable it in the ramdisk
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Click to collapse
That's really cool, is there a github/thread where I can track the progress of this? In all honesty making my own custom gestures like longholding a volume button or the options button would be helpful (both volume buttons at once pause/play =D)
xxhorseriderxxx said:
Yay my first post, lol.
duleMusic
Do any of you guys use iTunes for your music? My iTunes library is meticulously managed to make sure that all my song info and album art are correct. Is it true that if I drag and drop from iTunes (on a mac) into the music folder of my sd card, I will copy over all the song data aswell? I highly doubt it because I cannot get this to work between my two iTunes libraries on different computers. Is there a way to make sure all my id3 tags and album art are added to all my songs so that I have an organized library in my SGS2/android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use iTunes & smart playlists. iSyncr (free) & will let you sync based on playlists, genres, and chose where each playlist gets stored (default, internal or external SD). iSyncrWifi (cheap) then adds scheduled & wifi syncing. Then pick your music player of choice. Look to see if it updates play counts (if that is important to you) I think the pay for version of Rocket (also by JRT Studios) updates play counts.
Ed
Mother of god you had to wake up the dead??? its more then a year old!
hey guys. is it possible to hide the status bar from the lockscreen? I'm good with .xml, .smali or any other kind of edit. i just need to be pointed to where I would need to go.
I tried searching and came up empty handed. i'm trying hard to like the lock screen. i already changed the backgrounds (much better now), currently working on a custom lockring, last thing would be to hide that ugly status bar...it's only showing me what the lockscreen already shows anyways.
thanks for the info.
Download the app Widget Locker...U can remove taskbar and also a lot of customization to your style
I'm a big WidgetLocker fan, with my own custom themes made and all that when i was on the Evo 3D. i'm trying to move on with the times and use this nifty sense lockscreen. just has a few kinks to work out.
but if i dont end up fixing it to my liking soon enough i'll download widgetlocker again.
anyone else have any ideas as to how to get this done?
If you go into titanium backup, and freeze statusbar, it will do what you want, it will also remove in regular screen, possibly decompile lockscreen.apk and see if you can do it there.
life64x said:
If you go into titanium backup, and freeze statusbar, it will do what you want, it will also remove in regular screen, possibly decompile lockscreen.apk and see if you can do it there.
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Click to collapse
that is not what I want to do at all. I don't want to make the status bar unavailable everywhere in the system. just within the lockscreen.
if I knew where to go, I can make .xml and .smali edits or whatever else. I just don't know how to search for things from scratch :-(
Max_Pain said:
that is not what I want to do at all. I don't want to make the status bar unavailable everywhere in the system. just within the lockscreen.
if I knew where to go, I can make .xml and .smali edits or whatever else. I just don't know how to search for things from scratch :-(
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Click to collapse
I'm just guessing, so this could be a useless thought, but... I think checking in idlescreen base would be a good start. You wouldn't probably want to mess with this in system UI because that would likely just hose the whole bar. Team d3rp seems to have maybe figured out making the bar transparent, which would leave the icons and if course be clear everywhere else too... but it's still finicky across the roms, so not quite done yet. pstevep is the man, and maybe could help? See what you can find and then maybe send him a pm.
bumpity bumb
bump, bump, bumpity bump.
any way to do this?
i would say edit lockscreen.apk (decompile and fish around) and also look in a androidpolicy.jar probably some lines of code your could remove/add to make it happen.
clever idea by the way. i am still trying to resolve issues with my idea of clearing notifications from the lockscreen by double tapping the home key. had it figured out for a little bit but it was causing apps to force close :/
again i like your idea... i probably wouldn't use it myself simply because i wouldnt be able to see important details or notifications etc without unlocking the phone
Bump
It there s clear lock screen slider of there for the X2. I love that look and miss it from my X.
If not how would one go about making it clear? Don't mind learning how to do so my self.
Never owned an X.. I need a screenshot to either A) tell you if its possible and/or B) tellyou how to make one.
There are hundreds of options including clear sliders for widgetlocker.
Sent from my DROID X2 using XDA App
I am envisioning a "floating button" that will move across the screen with no background thats visible.
Well I don't have a X anymore to take a screenshot. So ill try to explain it the best way possible.
After pressing the lock button to wake your device at the bottom are the sliders to unlock and turn sounds off. When I say clear lockscreen sliders Im talking about those being there and functional but being completely invisible. It gives the phone a much nicer and cleaner look without loosing those function. Once you get used to it its very nice. I have a X2 now but had it on my X and old Droid. People made it as an zip that you could flash or incorperated it in there rom or theme.
Its quite nice. Hope that helps.
Those are 9png files. If you dont know anything about decompiling, recompiling, etc.. then you don't care so this will make your process easy. Normally, you wouldnt break a 9png files guides but since you wont be able to tell in this case, it wont really matter. Use 7zip or something and go into your ROMS system/framework folder.. find framework-res.apk. double click on it and go into the res/drawable-hdpi folder. Drag out all the jog-tab-xxx.9.png file to your desktop or into a folder. Don't worry, draggin them out will not remove them from the framework. Now, find the ones you want and use Gimp or paint.net to make the images fully transparent. (color to alpha). Use 7zip to stick them back into the same folder you took them out of. DO NOT.. unzip your ROM. install the ROM again without wiping data. good to go.
My motto has always been.. if you cant remove it, make it invisible!
Is it possible to use root explorer and do this using phone? Or must it be done via PC?
i think you are going to want to do that one on the pc.
I looked at the steps to make them just seems a little complicated to me. I have looked at plenty of threads through the forum and they just seem to not have any easier steps to do this. I am wanting to make this my boot animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV6eyHOUrio&feature=related
I would really appreciate it if someone that knows how to make animations from videos could make this into a bootanimation.zip.
here you go download here
Thanks I probably would have never been able to compile it correctly. I should be able to compile a boot up sound myself shouldn't be too difficult.
Ok I extracted the audio and set it as my boot animation but it isn't in sync is there a way I can fix this?
well if u have knowledge of photoshop than u can get it done just click - import- video frames to layers and use ur desired audio edit it as per ur need by any editing software maybe mp3 cutter may do.
I have no clue how to do that. Sounds like something you would do to a flash movie add sound in layers so then you can have a voice and background music and background sounds and stuff.
mak.3736 said:
here you go download here
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Click to collapse
You should compress the images next time, they load faster.
What software can I use to end up getting these images? Any software I find puts a watermark on them which is undesired.
willmon22 said:
What software can I use to end up getting these images? Any software I find puts a watermark on them which is undesired.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you be a tad more specific?
I hated the lock, and unlock sounds, so i dug into it a bit. This is what i did. You have to be rooted. With Root Explorer i navigated to System/media/audio/ui. This is where all the ui sounds are located of course. U will see all the ui lock, and unlock sounds. I first tried renaming crystal lock unlock sounds(the one I use) with an x at the end of the name, basically getting rid of it as far as the ui is concerned. This did not work cause if it doesnt find the sound its looking for, there is a default sound it falls back on in the apk. So u will see a sound in this folder named silent ring. I copied this sound within the same folder. Root explorer names this copy, with copy at the end. Then i took the original sound file for the unlock style i use, and did a rename with x at the end, that way i still have the original safe. Then i renamed silent_ring-copy, to crystal_unlock and crystal_lock. Now i have no goofy sounds when i lock, and unlock my G2. Works great...
canecbr600 said:
I hated the lock, and unlock sounds, so i dug into it a bit. This is what i did. You have to be rooted. With Root Explorer i navigated to System/media/audio/ui. This is where all the ui sounds are located of course. U will see all the ui lock, and unlock sounds. I first tried renaming crystal lock unlock sounds(the one I use) with an x at the end of the name, basically getting rid of it as far as the ui is concerned. This did not work cause if it doesnt find the sound its looking for, there is a default sound it falls back on in the apk. So u will see a sound in this folder named silent ring. I copied this sound within the same folder. Root explorer names this copy, with copy at the end. Then i took the original sound file for the unlock style i use, and did a rename with x at the end, that way i still have the original safe. Then i renamed silent_ring-copy, to crystal_unlock and crystal_lock. Now i have no goofy sounds when i lock, and unlock my G2. Works great...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, unchecking the sounds within settings didn't work for you??
OMG...... I completly missed that..... i feel like a dumb a$$..... lol.....
canecbr600 said:
OMG...... I completly missed that..... i feel like a dumb a$$..... lol.....
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Click to collapse
If it makes you feel better, your way is much cooler
canecbr600 said:
OMG...... I completly missed that..... i feel like a dumb a$$..... lol.....
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Click to collapse
Funny Also, the lock/unlock sound is different for each Screen Wipe Effect for the lockscreen. But, I am with you, silent is better.
I guess to save face, this could be used for custom lock/unlock sounds! LOL!!!!!!
Sent from my LG-D800 using XDA Premium HD app
Any app that lets me set my own unlock/lock sounds?
Are these files in a format that I can use for notifications? I want to use the Crystal unlock sound for text notifications.