How-To's - Motorola Photon 4G

How to modify your framework-res.apk
There are plenty of "How-to's" out there that I've seen for modifying the framework-res.apk. I've tried probably 20 of them...all resulted in getting stuck in a bootloop. Finally figured out a method that works.
Here goes:
THIS IS FOR LINUX BASED USERS
Go to www.jokersax.com and grab my tool.zip under Th3Bill Mods
Extract it in your HOME folder
Inside it you will find 2 versions of apktool. There is a good reason for that, which you will see later.
You also need a good xml editor like Editra (available in most distros packages)
Need an archive manager as well (I recommend File Roller)
[COLOR="green"[B][U]]Initial Setup:[/U][/B][/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE="3"]1) Open your Home folder and select to show hidden files
2) Open your .bashrc file
3) Add the following lines to the bottom of the file
export PATH=${PATH}:~/bin
export PATH=${PATH}:~/tool/reg
export PATH=${PATH}:~/tool/ics
Then save the file
4) Open your .profile file
5) Add the following line to the bottom of the file
PATH="$HOME/tool/ics:$HOME/tool/reg:$PATH"
Then save the file.
Now, on to editing
1) Navigate to the framework folder that your framework-res.apk is in.
2) Open a terminal
3) Type in "reg if framework-res.apk" no quotations and press Enter
4) Type in "reg d framework-res.apk" no quotations and press Enter Now minimize terminal (you'll use it later)
5) You should see in your file manager the folder called framework-res. This is your decompiled framework-res.apk
6) Make your edits. be careful....this file controls a TON of things in your system, and you can make some major problems for yourself if you edit things incorrectly.
7) Once your edits are done, go back to your terminal session
8) Type in the following "ics b framework-res" no quotations (where *username* is your account username) and press Enter.
9) It should recompile correctly. You'll have a framework-res.apk in the /framework-res/dist folder. DO NOT USE THIS ONE WILL CAUSE BOOTLOOPS!!
10) Open it with an archive manager and extract the resources.arsc as well as any files you edited in the xml folder.
11) Go back to your ORIGINAL framework-res.apk and open (not extract) it in your archive program
12) Add in the files you extracted from the edited framework-res.apk, placing them in the appropriate folders
13) You're done!
Cheers!
P.S. If you get a recompile error that mentions plurals, you have some work to do. Go to the values folders one at a time and look for the plurals.xml files. You will see a bunch of entries....scroll all the way down till you see a section that looks like this:
<plurals name="matches_found">
<item quantity="other">%d of %d</item>
<item quantity="one">1 match</item>
you need to edit this section to look like this:
<plurals name="matches_found">
<item quantity="other">%1$d of %2$d</item>
<item quantity="one">1 match</item>
This must be done for EACH plural.xml file...placing 1$ behind the first % and 2$ behind the second one. Save each as you go. Then recompile, and you should be good to go.
HOW TO LOGCAT PROPERLY
Here's how to logcat so that a dev can actually help fix your issue
SETUP
1) Download Android SDK from HERE
2) Place it directly in your HOME folder
3) Extract the file there and rename the folder android-sdk
4) Go to the platform-tools folder and double-click android
5) Download at least the tools and platform-tools. You can download other stuff, but that's unnecessary for this exercise.
6) Close SDK when it's done
Now to LOGCAT
1) Navigate to the /platform-tools folder.
2) Open a terminal
3) Type in either A or B depending on your system
A) (works on Ubuntu derivatives)
sudo ./adb kill-server
sudo ./adb start-server
B) (Suse, Fedora, etc)
su
(enter your password)
./adb kill-server
./adb-start-server
Now, the server should be running....leave it open!
4) Plug your phone into the PC (making sure that if it's ON, that you have android debugging enabled...or the proper edit in build.prop listed below)
5) If your phone is OFF(meaning you can't get it to boot from a rom/mod you did), follow A). If your phone is ON (meanint working but has a FC somewhere), follow B)
A) Type into the terminal the following
./adb logcat -C
and press enter. Should say waiting for device. Turn on your phone. When it gets to a section where you see a large amount of red pass by on the screen (like 8-10 lines), go to step 6
B) Be sure to turn off ALL apps that are NOT related to your FC (this makes it nice and neat for us to read the logcat)
Open terminal and type in the following
./adb logcat -C
and press enter. You should see it start to log stuff...it'll be going by really fast...don't worry about that right now.
NOW, do whatever it is that fcs (open the app, process, etc) and wait for it to FC. When it does, go to step 6
6) With the Terminal being your primary window in the PC, Press Ctrl +Z. This will stop the logcat output
7) Search through the logcat for the section with all the red (you'll see a bunch of E's). Don't cut this up on us...we may need some of the other info
8) Select about 30-40 lines ABOVE the red error section through about 10-20 lines AFTER the error section
9) Paste this into Pastebin. Please don't send us this in an e-mail...it just looks a hot mess that way.
10) Link to the Dev.
CHEERS!​

---

Blank flashable zip
For all of you out there wanting to flash an app or framework file, here is a flashable zip that is blank. It contains instructions inside it, so PLEASE
READ THE FILE LABELED "READ ME FIRST!!!!"
This will make a simple process of flashing the items you want to flash.
CHECK POST 8 FOR CORRECTED INFORMATION
Any questions...ask me

---

Could we use this to turn our phones into a space/time bending machine??
Lol jk. Thanks for the information and flash able zip!!!
Sent from my MB855 using XDA

---

tsdeaton said:
Could we use this to turn our phones into a space/time bending machine??
Lol jk. Thanks for the information and flash able zip!!!
Sent from my MB855 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't I wish...or an intelligence enhancer...LOL
Glad to share

---

th3bill said:
don't i wish...or an intelligence enhancer...lol
glad to share
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lmao! +1476930593

---

Bad ass thread buddy thanks for the how to's and blank flash zips these will surely come in handy....
MIUI/ICS for the Photon
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1536161

---

For deodexed I'm guessing.

---

Th3Bill said:
For all of you out there wanting to flash an app or framework file, here is a flashable zip that is blank. It contains instructions inside it, so PLEASE
READ THE FILE LABELED "READ ME FIRST!!!!"
This will make a simple process of flashing the items you want to flash.
If you wish to flash other items, you simply need to make sure that the item you want is in the folder it would be in within your phone, so if you want something to go into /system/lib, make sure that you create a folder /lib inside the /system folder in the zip and put the file inside that folder.
Any questions...ask me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, I should add that I forgot something in the explanation for this file. Wherever you are putting the file you're flashing (app, framework), you will need to adjust the permissions portion of the updater-script to show that file. Otherwise, you will set your entire /system to those permissions and you will get wonderful boot-loops
So, for app Music.apk, that line would look like:
set_perm(0, 0, 0755, 0644, "/system/app/music.apk");
Here is the updated file with the corrected instructions inside it Sorry for any issues fellas!
Blank CWM2.zip
Go to the site to download the file
Cheers!

---

TOOLS
Who doesn't love tools?
I've seen a lot of confusion over which versions to use for decompiling. Magic values being off with the current version of Android being pushed to 4.0.4.
Here's a helpful little tool kit. Disclaimer: It's for Linux based systems(save for the Androidsuite). I will try to find all these for Windows at some point, but with MIUI for Photon and Atrix, CNA for Photon, and Kitchen Sinks for both Photon and Atrix, I'm spread a little thin for some of these how-tos. I will post more soon once Kitchen Sink is Beta.
Tool.zip
Go to the site and download the file.
There's a small file inside with an explanation of each tool. NOTE: I put that Android suite works in Wine. It does not. It will OPEN and look like it might work, but does not recompile or decompile anything. It's a windows only wonder...LOL

---

Is there any way you'd be able to write up a How-To on how to use Diff/Patch in the laments terms, with Android specific type files directions cuz I'm trying to figure it out but since all the info I find is for applying it to everything other than Android. I'm on a mac and have it all setup correctly but I fk shyt up cuz I lose a step or something.
By the way, thanks for this How to also. Awesome.
MoPhoACTV Initiative

---

moonzbabysh said:
Is there any way you'd be able to write up a How-To on how to use Diff/Patch in the laments terms, with Android specific type files directions cuz I'm trying to figure it out but since all the info I find is for applying it to everything other than Android. I'm on a mac and have it all setup correctly but I fk shyt up cuz I lose a step or something.
By the way, thanks for this How to also. Awesome.
MoPhoACTV Initiative
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you trying to do? You looking to do rom porting? Try to change some features? Change colors in a menu? Need a bit more info. Depending on what you're wanting to do will determine what the steps will be.

---

Idiots guide to porting ROMs for Photon, now THAT would be great. Sure it'd be a PITA and 3/4 to make though lol, great work on keeping up this how-to thread and all your ROM work!

---

w0lf215 said:
Idiots guide to porting ROMs for Photon, now THAT would be great. Sure it'd be a PITA and 3/4 to make though lol, great work on keeping up this how-to thread and all your ROM work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
<<<[----RECOGNIZED CONTRIBUTOR now
I feel bad that I haven't written more "how to's" in a while, but with 6 downloads I'm currently doing (MIUI Photon, MIUI Atrix, CNA Photon, Kitchen Sink Photon, Kitchen Sink Atrix, TabletUI Photon), I'm being spread pretty thin....LOL. It's all good. I love doing this stuff.
I promise to write more of these as I get a chance. I like to have more people help with stuff.

---

Th3Bill said:
<<<[----RECOGNIZED CONTRIBUTOR now
I feel bad that I haven't written more "how to's" in a while, but with 6 downloads I'm currently doing (MIUI Photon, MIUI Atrix, CNA Photon, Kitchen Sink Photon, Kitchen Sink Atrix, TabletUI Photon), I'm being spread pretty thin....LOL. It's all good. I love doing this stuff.
I promise to write more of these as I get a chance. I like to have more people help with stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that a little while ago, Congrats on the new title thats whats up.
btw check your pm

---

moonzbabysh said:
I noticed that a little while ago, Congrats on the new title thats whats up.
btw check your pm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check yours...got a book in there for ya...LOL

---

Updated OP How Tos.....Framework-res edit and Logcatting

---

Th3Bill said:
Updated OP How Tos.....Framework-res edit and Logcatting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just setting up on pc. Ready to try this. You may be hearing from me! LOL