I've made some aesthetic changes i like to my GO Launcher EX apk, which is a non system apk. The change I made was to some dock images, which did not have the .9 extension. Everything goes smoothly until I try to install my compiled .apk. If i leave it unsigned, it won't install, but if i sign it, it will. However, when i open it, the screen flickers constantly and will not respond. I'm out of ideas.
FYI, I compile/decompile with Apkmanager and edit with Gimp.
If you're not doing any thing with 9 patch images than there is no need to decompile in the first place. Get 7zip on computer. Right click apk/7zip/open archive and you can navigate to Res/drawable-hdpi and you can extract the drawable-hdpi folder to desktop and do what you need to with the images (non 9's) and drag new edited images into the open 7zip window in the proper place close 7zip window. Once done you only need to use apk mananger to sign the apk and push back to device.
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EDIT: Figured it out.
Care to share?
Yeah, will be nice if you could share this information with others
aitorTheRed said:
Yeah, will be nice if you could share this information with others
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Man, I hate it when people do that...
1. Search for APK Manager in XDA and install it on your PC
2. Download and Install the Android SDK kit on your PC
3. Follow the instructions for APK Manager and place the APK file in the modding folder
4. Open APK Manager and select Decompile APK (Your APK file will be placed in a separate folder for you to work on)
5. Change what you want to change in the APK
6. Recompile the APK and sign it (unless it's a system file like framework, those are not signed)
A lot more is involved in modding an APK file and you really should know something about how the files inside the APK work before you go changing things, but in a nutshell, that's the basics.
Hope that helps!
What I have learned.
I had a specific question, but here is what I can tell you.
1. Setup APK Manager, it saves a lot of command line typing.
2. Pretty much always use option 9 and 11, never 1 or 3.
3. If you are simply changing graphics and not smali or XML files, don't use this, open it in 7zip and drag the files. Decompiling changes the image darkness sometimes.
4. Unless you are working on your own apk file, always say yes to 'is it a system apk', when it asks you to keep existing files, say yes. Delete from the 'keep' folder what you edited.
5. If you edit XLM files, delete resources.arsc from the file, this is where they all get compiled to.
6. You can use this for jar files, just rename to apk then back to jar when finished.
7. If you get an error try using option 20 to increase the memory to 1024.
8. If you edit jar files, delete classes.dex in the 'keep' folder when compiling.
9. Treat all files as signed system files (as noted above) and you will be much safer. If the file has a signature on it, this will save it.
Thanks for the info
Is there anything that can install system files. They won't install with ap manager so does it have to be pushed?
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Anyone mind sharing a link or some directions on skinnning themes?
I've had someone give me these instructions:
1) extract/Decompile the .apk file you want to MOD or make changes to. Use m10 editor for this.Select the option "decomplie all"
2) Minimize the m10 editor, and open the folder where you m10 editor is installed. There you would find a folder with the name of the .apk file you just decomplied. Go to folder assests>"base theme name">drawble>shared folder.
3) now select the .png files you want to edit. Install Paint.net, and edit with them, it was easy process for me. Remeber to "flip image vertical" after you are done with editing.
4) now go back to m10 editor, and Save the file.
5) You should have AndroidSDK installed.If not, do it. Then go to the folder where you have installed it. open the "autosign" file. It will open command prompt. There select the option to sign the file manually. Give the path for the file. It will sign it then. Exit from that program.
6) you are done, you can install it now.
I've gotten this far, but i can't find out how to change these 3 things below:
In de-compiled files changes have to b made in three places.
1. Androidmanifest.xml (name of package). how do u change this?
2. Res\values\strings.xml (name of theme). how/where do u change this?
3. Assets\shared(change this to theme name) h0w/where do u change this?
Also everytime I replace the background images, when I recompile it, my background images don't stay.
Any help would be much appreciated...
okay so i hate to tell you to download something else but i use .apk manager and it is a lot more straight forward.
decompile the apk using that.
go into the projects folder, you will see the Androidmanifest.xml
what are you trying to change in there exactly? if its just icons things like that those are easy but if you are trying to change the packageID it will just cause FC's
strings.xml hangs out in the following
projects->*.apk(this will be the name of what you decompiled)->res->values->strings.xml
then go into the xml and it will have a line with the name of the apk that you can change
assets has it's own folder i haven't hung out in there at all i haven't really had a need but it is in the same file tree with the res folder
now the issue upon recompiling, when doing the recompile in apk manager press y and y to the 2 options, it will create a keep folder go into that and delete the classes.dex if you messed with any images in the drawable folders, and the resources.arsc if you changed any of the xmls. then go into the keep directories sub folders and delete the items you changed then finish the compiling
sorry if i am not the best at explaining this
Yes, what exactly do you want to change? Taskbar and other icons are very easy to do, however, I haven't done any M10 files, yet.
In the manifest you need to change the name of the apk to what you are naming it. you will see a line which will have package="com.htc.skin."apkname".
So for my zombie skin example my line says "com.htc.skin.zombie"
Also to that point what ever you name it you need to navigate to the foler that holds the m10 file and change the folder to the same name or the m10 file wont be used.
jkrough0728 said:
In the manifest you need to change the name of the apk to what you are naming it. you will see a line which will have package="com.htc.skin."apkname".
So for my zombie skin example my line says "com.htc.skin.zombie"
Also to that point what ever you name it you need to navigate to the foler that holds the m10 file and change the folder to the same name or the m10 file wont be used.
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exactly the same, boy did that drive me nutty for a few days!!
jkrough0728 said:
In the manifest you need to change the name of the apk to what you are naming it. you will see a line which will have package="com.htc.skin."apkname".
So for my zombie skin example my line says "com.htc.skin.zombie"
Also to that point what ever you name it you need to navigate to the foler that holds the m10 file and change the folder to the same name or the m10 file wont be used.
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using apk manager are u guys decompiling using option 9 or 10 and if ur using option 10 what framework are u dragging into it?
keedog said:
using apk manager are u guys decompiling using option 9 or 10 and if ur using option 10 what framework are u dragging into it?
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I use apktool but if your using manager it would be 9.
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i want to change the colors on a couple widgets.
if i took the .apk file from the /data/app/ and copied it to my computer, renamed it from .apk to .zip, opened it and edited/changed the .png files, saved it, rezipped it and named it back to .apk and put it back in /data/app/ folder and overwrote it would that work?
GandhisEvilTwin said:
i want to change the colors on a couple widgets.
if i took the .apk file from the /data/app/ and copied it to my computer, renamed it from .apk to .zip, opened it and edited/changed the .png files, saved it, rezipped it and named it back to .apk and put it back in /data/app/ folder and overwrote it would that work?
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I tried to do just that with SystemUI.apk and had issues. I haven't tried with any other apps. I got around it by using 7zip. Within 7zip you can look in the apk and just drag and drop you're new pngs into the apk without actually extracting and re-zipping anything.
If your not familiar with 7zip. It's a free compression app just google it.
i've heard of 7zip, not sure if i've actually ever used it before though.
do you know is /data/app/ the right place to pull the .apk file from?
Yep, I think that's right the right place for apps that you've installed. System apps are in /system/app.
Sent from my DROID X2 using XDA App
that will definitely not work. Go get 7zip... never never unzip an app. use 7zip to open the app and find your image folders. drag only those to the desktop.. or a new folder.. then edit and stick those images back into the app using 7zip.
hello all
I was trying to edit the framework-res.apk which can be found in system/framework/framework-res.apk
this file holds alot of images that you can edit (e.g slider, incoming call, icons etc...) framework-res.apk\framework-res.apk\res\drawable-mdpi folder
i edited the png's jog_dial_bg_rev_down.png and jog_dial_bg_rev.png
they are the call slider revamped (just removed the shadows so it doesnt cover the incoming call)
i have used apk edit, Apk manager, APK sign and everytime i build the framework-res.apk and move it to the system/framework/ folder
everytime i move the file my phone either gets bricks, bootloops or get tons of force close down of some apps
has anyone got any solutions how to edit framework-res.apk without all this bricking bs?
i have uploaded the edited images for the sliders on Slider_Revamped.rar
When you sing apk than you need to replace :
Meta-inf and recourse.so from original framework-res.apk.
You just open both frameworks with 7zip and drag from original to edited
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Eyama said:
When you sing apk than you need to replace :
Meta-inf and recourse.so from original framework-res.apk.
You just open both frameworks with 7zip and drag from original to edited
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i had same issue.. thanx will try
Download "NinjaMorph" off of the market, it decompiles any APK, TAR whatever and allows you to replace any file (including XMLs if you like) from the APK with those on your SD. What I do is decompile the APK then plug my phone in and navigate to where NinjaMorph decompiled the APK to on the SD, which is "AndroidThemes", do the editing on my PC then disconnect the phone, recompile the APK and it automatically pushes the APK to wherever you pulled it from. I've used it many times when I've been messing with frameworkres, it works every time.
Does this method also work with .9.patched files?
christophermaisch said:
Download "NinjaMorph" off of the market, it decompiles any APK, TAR whatever and allows you to replace any file (including XMLs if you like) from the APK with those on your SD. What I do is decompile the APK then plug my phone in and navigate to where NinjaMorph decompiled the APK to on the SD, which is "AndroidThemes", do the editing on my PC then disconnect the phone, recompile the APK and it automatically pushes the APK to wherever you pulled it from. I've used it many times when I've been messing with frameworkres, it works every time.
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I got this figured out already, sorry about that.
Who ever thanked me, I wasn't posting a guide but a question.
I am trying from a fresh firmware base to learn from scratch but no idea how to get that framework to compile correctly.
did you install framework first?
Code:
apktool if framework-res.apk
Easy
I had problems with the apk tool and recompiling. The way I ended up doing it is:
I didnt decompile the framework-res.apk.
rename the file framework-res.apk.zip
open it with 7zip.
Extract the files you are wanting to work on
Do what ever work on the files you need done
Drag and drop the files back in the directories they go into while file is open in 7zip
Close 7zip
Rename file back to framework-res.apk
push to phone with adb
No decompile or recompile.
Hope this helps
Chadw1985 said:
I had problems with the apk tool and recompiling. The way I ended up doing it is:
I didnt decompile the framework-res.apk.
rename the file framework-res.apk.zip
open it with 7zip.
Extract the files you are wanting to work on
Do what ever work on the files you need done
Drag and drop the files back in the directories they go into while file is open in 7zip
Close 7zip
Rename file back to framework-res.apk
push to phone with adb
No decompile or recompile.
Hope this helps
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If you just want to modify one of the 'normal' XML files or an image then that approach will work fine. The problem is he wants to edit the bool.xml file and that is contained in the 'resources.asrc' file and you need to decompile it first.
I am in the same situation although someone managed to edit the file for me and recompile it so I got there in the end, just not by doing it myself.
I followed the instructions you describe and the file never recompiled properly - or at least my device never booted with the one I recompiled
Try it like this:
1. Place APK in "place-apk-here-for-modding"
2. Choose "9" to Decompile
3. Grab resource "resources.arsc" from framework-res.apk
4. Do my edit in projects\framework-res.apk\res\values\bools.xml
5. Compile - Yes (system app) - Yes (copy files)
6. Go to "keep" folder and delete "resources.arsc" and the bools.xml file
7. Press any key
8. Either push by ADB or Root Explorer or Flash
nickiberli said:
Try it like this:
1. Place APK in "place-apk-here-for-modding"
2. Choose "9" to Decompile
3. Grab resource "resources.arsc" from framework-res.apk
4. Do my edit in projects\framework-res.apk\res\values\bools.xml
5. Compile - Yes (system app) - Yes (copy files)
6. Go to "keep" folder and delete "resources.arsc" and the bools.xml file
7. Press any key
8. Either push by ADB or Root Explorer or Flash
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I have tried exactly like this and it didn't work for me. I downloaded lots of different APK tools and tried them all - there were comments about using older versions of apktool.jar etc. I kept getting different sizes of the output file depending on which one I used. I gave up in the end as someone edited the file for me and it was only one specific entry in bool.xmls I wanted changing. As far I could tell we were both doing exactly the same thing.
The last thing I said I was going to do was wipe the PC I was attempting to do this on. I never got round to doing it... I'd be interested to know why I could never get this working though
Andy
Give me the framework and tell me what u want to do.
I will do that for u
Btw is the framework ICS based?
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You have resigned?
Greets!