[How To] Resolution Tweak (req. Root)

**DaRkL3AD3R** · 08-31-2010, 06:38 PM

Greetings folks!

In this post I'd like to share a small bit of Android information with you. I've discovered it while looking around at the build.prop file and did some research on it, and it turns out to be a pretty cool and powerful feature. Of course, seeing as this requires root you can probably already guess that it involves some more-than-consumer level risk, so anything you do here is your responsibility. This is not a tweak for a fairly novice user. You will need some basic knowledge on command line terminal and how to copy/edit files. I will be assuming you know how to setup and run ADB, and how to execute it and work with it in command prompt.

What's this mod do? Basically it changes your resolution (not really, but for simplicity sake we'll say it does) to a higher pixel density. What this means is everything on your screen will look smaller as if you changed your resolution on your PC to a higher setting. Now obviously we don't want to increase this too much or it will make our screen look bad and be impossible to read things, so I recommend you stick with the settings I have and only tweak it if you're daring.

Now for setup:

1: You require root access for this to work, so make sure you have it prior to doing anything else.

2: Next you will need to get your build.prop file from the /system directory. An easy (and free) way to do this is to use Astro file manager. Open up Astro, navigate to /system/ and copy the build.prop file to the sdcard.

3: Hook the phone up to your PC and enter USB Mass Storage mode. Open the drive on your computer and copy the build.prop file to the desktop.

4: IMPORTANT: make a second copy of this file, and rename it to: build.prop.BAK - accept the change to filetype and leave it alone for now.

5: Open up build.prop using notepad. Once its open you'll see a whole ton of text assuming you have Word Wrap enabled. Press Control + F and type in "density" then press enter.

6: Close out the search menu and find the number "240" to the right of "density"

7: Change the number from 240 to 200. Save the file and close notepad. (Note - higher numbers means bigger text/objects, smaller numbers means smaller text/objects allowing you to fit more on the screen)

8: Put your phone back into PC Mode, and then enable USB Debugging in Settings->Applications->Development

9: At this point I assume you have ADB setup on your PC. Copy and paste the modified build.prop file into the folder with ADB, and then open up a command prompt, change directory to wherever you have ADB installed (ex: cd C:\adb\ ), and type in "adb devices" without the quotes to start ADB and make sure your device is configured properly

10: Now you must push the modified build.prop file to your sdcard. To do so type this in:

adb push build.prop /sdcard/build.prop

11: You should see the text indicating it successfully transferred the file. Now type in "adb shell" without quotes. You should see a $: appear. Once it does, type in "su" and it should change to a #: sign.

12: Now that you're in root access, you must mount /system as read/write to copy over the new build.prop file. To do so type this in exactly as it is, making sure to not skip any spaces or use wrong letters/characters:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/system /system

You should see the line repeated and that means it went ok. If you get anything else like an error, somethings not right with the text you entered. Go back and double check it.

13: Now we'll copy the file from the sdcard to the system directory to overwrite the old build.prop file:

cp /sdcard/build.prop /system/build.prop

Again, you should see the line repeat below to confirm it copied it successfully. You can now reboot the phone to make the changes happen (note: for a speedy reboot, simply type in "reboot" from the #: prompt, this will drop you out of root shell and do an automatic reboot of your phone pretty neat)

Once your phone is booted back up you should notice some pretty significant changes in appearance. Everything will look smaller much akin to the changes you see on your desktop PC when you increase the resolution from say 800x600 to 1600x1200. In case you want to change it back to the old look, simply re-trace your steps using the original build.prop file, with the pixel density set to 240 instead of 200.

Note that this isn't a perfect change and some apps will use the old pixel density. But it works just fine and makes navigating things like the Market or the Settings menu much easier as it shows a lot more info on the screen at once. Enjoy and please post any questions you may have!

Screenshots for comparison. Note how lines of text are fully exposed in the new screenshots compared to the old ones, where it has to scroll/cut off text in App names etc:

Old:..........................................................New:

**gafly** · 08-31-2010, 06:45 PM

From the pictures it appears the tweak causes some color banding. Is there actually color banding or is it just the picture?

**DaRkL3AD3R** · 08-31-2010, 06:53 PM

Yes, the color banding is caused by the increased pixel density. Hadn't noticed it until you mentioned it, but I could see how if you looked for it it'd distract your attention. Like I said, it is slightly buggy as its not "optimal" density. It all comes down to preference and whether the negatives (graphics glitches, mostly) outweigh the positives (increased visibility on the entire OS)

**gafly** · 08-31-2010, 06:57 PM

I'm kinda OCD on color banding (my Storm makes me cringe sometimes lol and the color banding in the 2.2 Gallery drives me nuts too). Hum... I'm going to watch the President and contemplate whether or not to tweak.

**doctorlove316** · 08-31-2010, 07:03 PM

Saw this over on XDA but decided to pass on it.

Especially since it has color banding. I can't stand that at all.

It is a cool tweak though.

I'd also point out that if you have Root Explorer, this may be easier...

Method 2 - Root Explorer

1. Copy the build.prop to the root of your SD card
2. Long press on build.prop
3. Select "Copy"
4. Navigate to /system
5. Click R/W in the top right corner
6. Paste, and overwrite
7. Reboot

original post and file to DL .
from LexusBrian400 over at XDA.

**DaRkL3AD3R** · 08-31-2010, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by avlfive

Saw this over on XDA but decided to pass on it.

Especially since it has color banding. I can't stand that at all.

It is a cool tweak though.

I'd also point out that if you have Root Explorer, this may be easier...

Method 2 - Root Explorer

1. Copy the build.prop to the root of your SD card
2. Long press on build.prop
3. Select "Copy"
4. Navigate to /system
5. Click R/W in the top right corner
6. Paste, and overwrite
7. Reboot

from LexusBrian400 over at XDA.

Yeah Root Explorer makes this significantly easier and user friendly. You pretty much don't even have to copy files, just edit the file right there in /system/ with Root Explorers file editor. However I chose to neglect it since its a paid app and I wanted this procedure to be 100% free all around. Plus its a learning exercise for some

good practice makes perfect.

Thanks for adding it though, for those with Root Explorer already it should help those who already paid.

**doctorlove316** · 08-31-2010, 07:13 PM

It's a great app to have too. A must DL for root users, IMO.

Are you planning on keeping the tweak on your device?

**DaRkL3AD3R** · 08-31-2010, 07:31 PM

Yep. The color banding doesn't phase me at all as its only noticeable if you look for it.

Root Explorer... ehhh to me its nothing more than a GUI of what I can already do in ADB, and I like command line

But I have heard nothing but good things for RE so maybe someday I'll get lazy and take the quick and easy way

**gafly** · 08-31-2010, 07:50 PM

For the record, weatherbug elite widget does not like the "increased resolution" the forecasts are now overlapping

FIX (SORTA): Disable background.

**DaRkL3AD3R** · 08-31-2010, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by gafly

For the record, weatherbug elite widget does not like the "increased resolution" the forecasts are now overlapping

Shame

At least I can say that Beautiful Widgets works fine with it.

Visual glitches are to be expected though. It's just not designed to do certain things.

**GTvert90** · 08-31-2010, 08:07 PM

who wants to explain color banding? Thanks

**doctorlove316** · 08-31-2010, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by GTvert90

who wants to explain color banding? Thanks

**gafly** · 08-31-2010, 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by GTvert90

who wants to explain color banding? Thanks

Go take a look at the pictures in the first post - specifically the pictures of the market. Look at the grey header for the market. The headers in the pictures on the left look very smooth where as the headers in the pictures on the right do not look smooth (you can see various grays in the header).

**dkelle4** · 09-01-2010, 10:36 AM

Definitely easy with Root Explorer.

Go to /System
Enable R/W
Long Press on build.prop and select open in File Editor
Change the value (its not hard to find just look for 240)
Hit the back button, it saves and automatically creates a backup file for you

**mabmarc#WP** · 09-01-2010, 10:42 AM

I am using multicon to get more icons on each home screen. It makes the icons smaller so 4 or more icons fit in a single icon space. I can get 64 icons on each screen now. It doesn't help on the other screens like the market and such. It doesn't require hacking or rooting. Multicon is in the app store.

**belogical** · 09-01-2010, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by dkelle4

Definitely easy with Root Explorer.

Go to /System
Enable R/W
Long Press on build.prop and select open in File Editor
Change the value (its not hard to find just look for 240)
Hit the back button, it saves and automatically creates a backup file for you

After you made the changes, did you disable the R/W access on the system folder? When I do, mine reboots the phone and loses the changes.

Doesn't seem to like this tweak on the HTC Incredible...

UPDATE: Even leaving the R/W alone, rebooting takes it back to 240 every time.

**pjjanak** · 09-01-2010, 01:09 PM

You can also just do this through a terminal emulator if you're feeling feisty and your particular build has a text editor (like nano) installed...

Code:

$ su
# mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/system /system
# nano /system/build.prop

Edit file.

Code:

# reboot

Enjoy

Peter

**gerardo** · 09-01-2010, 02:34 PM

OK this is how I did it without pluging the phone
Neccesary apps
Rooted (W/busybox installed)
Astro (optional)
Superuser Permission

(All free)

With Astro

Copy file /system/build.prop to /sdcard/build.prop
Make a second copy to a second location in sdcard for backup purposes
edit build.prop in sdcard and change parameter as indicated
Save changes

from terminal

$su
wait for #
# busybox cp /sdcard/build.prop /system/build.prop
Restart
DONE

Without Astro

Open Terminal

$ su
Wait for #

# busybox cp /system/build.prop /sdcard/build.prop
# busybox cp /system/build.prop /sdcard/build.prop.bak

Edit build.prop in SD CARD with any Text Editor installed and change line
ending in "density=240" to density=200
Save

from terminal again
$ su

# busybox cp /sdcard/build.prop /system/build.prop

Restart
DONE

**gerardo** · 09-01-2010, 02:50 PM

In Samsung Vibrant (Rooted) with Touchwiz
Density in 200, Other than the Widget issues (not biggie) icons align to left but it does not allows toadd extra row of icons (vertical or horizontal lines) making it look not very nice....
I tried with 180 without success.
If possible to change the size of the Touchwiz config and resize de screens it would work nicely i guess at 200
at 180, letters in some apps (Terminal for example) are just too small (although I can read it i have 20/20 vision)

**PreGk** · 09-01-2010, 02:51 PM

LCD density in the market does this...much easier than editing the file yourself.

**Ky1e.YC** · 09-01-2010, 03:08 PM

sweet tweak, but, honestly, i kinda gave up after trying for a few hours. yes, pro is text sharper, screen bigger (since everything gets smaller). But....cons are little more than pros here. for text on the menu, most of cap letter could be cut both top and bottom, widgets looks not fully filling in the screen(e.g, Beautiful Widget, looks not that good with 200 density, no animation for weather then). Personally, i back to 240 now, cannot give up widget looks.

NOTES, a few friends tried LCD_Density app, if you decided to refund, you still have to manually change build.pro. So backup, backup, backup before any mod.

**El Poblano** · 09-01-2010, 04:43 PM

So has anyone seen graphical artifacts in widgets besides beautiful widgets? I like this idea...

**DaRkL3AD3R** · 09-01-2010, 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by El Poblano

So has anyone seen graphical artifacts in widgets besides beautiful widgets? I like this idea...

It's not so much a graphical artifact with BW, its the fact that you lose functionality in pressing the weather icon and loading up the 5 day forecast. It vibrates on the first press but for some reason doesn't load when you have the dpi modded. I DID notice that when I set LauncherPro to 5 row icons and in landscape mode, the dpi mod fixes Beautiful Widgets overlapping things beneath it.

So this hack seems very situational. If I find any other artifacts I'll post up.