Changing Hero Application Icons?

[fixxxer1022]

i want to know how i can make a flashable icon theme that i can flash with recovery, sort of like a rom. im also not interested in a home screen replacement. i have the 2.1 icons i want to use, i just have no idea how to get started. by the way im rooted and running fresh 1.1 rom.

 

[fixxxer1022]

can this be done?

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Great topic

Here's the skinny -
The icons themselves are stored inside the individual apk files. You need to open each one, swap out the icon and reassemble it. It's not nearly as hard as it sounds.

1. Tools you need -
7zip
Download the appropriate version for your PC. Don't grab the beta, the release (4.65) works just fine.

The original copy of the Fresh ROM you7 used to flash your phone.

The icons you want to change.

2. Create a working folder on your PC.
3. Using 7zip, open the Fresh ROM zip file. Navigate to the system/app folder inside the ROM. Highlight ALL the .apk files, and drag them into your working folder. Close the Fresh ROM zip file.
4. Decide on which icon you want to change first. I'll use the Browser as an example.
5. Use 7zip to open the Browser.apk you pulled out of the Fresh ROM. Once open, look for the res/drawable folder inside the apk.
6. Inside that folder, look for an .png file named ic_launcher_browser.png . That's the icon that the app uses.
7. Have your new icon ready. It should be 48x48 and a .png file. Make sure it's named ic_launcher_browser.png .
8. Drag the NEW icon into the open 7zip window that's showing the res/drawable folder. Choose yes if it asks you about overwriting the original file.
9. Close 7zip.

The Browser app has now been changed and will show your new icon in the drawer, and on the homescreen if you paste a shortcut. Do the same for each of the apps you want to change the icon of. The icon will always be in /res/drawable, and be named ic_launcher_ **app name**.png

Once you have changed all the icons, you'll have a set of apk files with your new icons. You can push these to the phone one by one from the terminal, or you can create your own update.zip

To push them to the phone (once again Browser.apk will be our example)
1. In your Android SDK/tools folder, make a new folder called icons.
2. Copy the Browser.apk file to the folder you just created.
3. Open the windows command prompt, and navigate to the Android SDK/tools folder. NOT the new folder you just made.
4. Enter the following commands one line at a time:

adb remount
adb push \icons\Browser.apk /system/app/Browser.apk

5. Do the same for each of the apk files you edited, changing the name Browser.apk to the name of the file you're pushing to the phone.
6. Reboot the phone.

To create your own ROM to flash them.
1. Attached is a file called META-INF.zip . Download it. Open with 7zip and drag the META-INF folder into your working folder.
2. Inside your working folder, make a new folder called system. Inside it, create a folder called app. Move all the edited apk files into this folder.
3. Highlight the system folder, and the META-INF folder you copied over and right click. Choose 7zip->create archive. Make sure it's a zip archive, and name it icons-eclair-fresh.zip . When it's finished, open it and make sure the directory structure matches your working folder. All the apks need to be in system/app/, and there needs to be a META-INF/com/google/android/update-script. Nothing else should be inside the zip file.
4. Download the second attachment named signing-tools.zip. Create a folder on your PC named sign_tools, and copy the three files in the zip to the new folder.
5. Copy the icons-eclair-fresh.zip file and place a copy in the sign_tools folder.
6. Open the terminal, and go to the sign_tools folder. Type the following command in the terminal:

java -jar signapk.jar testkey.x509.pem testkey.pk8 icons-eclair-fresh.zip icons-signed.zip

7. That will create a new zip file named icons-signed.zip. Open it, and look inside the META-INF folder. You will see 3 RSA keys along with the com folder. That means you're done.

Copy the new icons-signed.zip file to your SD card. Reboot into recovery. DON'T FORGET TO DO A NEW BACKUP BEFORE YOU CONTINUE! Flash your file without wiping. Enjoy your new icons, and congrats. You're now an Android developer.

 

[fixxxer1022]

thanks for this but i cannot find where to put the new alarm clock png? it's not under world clock and there is no alarm clock apk.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Looks like HtcClockWidget.apk /res/drawable-480x320/clock.png

HTC doesn't use the Android alarm clock app, they have their own.

 

[nclobo]

So, I used this awesome guide to change all my icons. Well, most of them. For some reason the Settings .png always turns out looking grainy even though its the right size and res. And I can't find where the Phone png is. I found the ic_launcher png but its not the right one. Can anyone help me out on this?

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Best thing to do -
One at a time, drag the res folder from an apk into a temp folder on your desktop.
In folder settings make sure the view is set to thumbnail.
Look through all the folders inside res, and you'll be able to see each individual picture.

You can change ANY graphics in an app or widget this way...black facebook widget anyone?
Be warned - files that end in 9.png need special care if your changing them. Best bet is to leave those files alone.

 

[nclobo]

Didn't even think about doin that. As always, thanks Gb.

 

[obannvi]

Damn gb you ROCK! Nice guide.

 

[ccapasso]

Excellent guide, ty very much for writing it. I am curious though, as I have looked around a little bit, but how would you go about changing the non stock icons, such as Spare Parts, Facebook, etc. I looked a little bit, but didn't find any apk file for those as they are applications.


Thanks

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Excellent guide, ty very much for writing it. I am curious though, as I have looked around a little bit, but how would you go about changing the non stock icons, such as Spare Parts, Facebook, etc. I looked a little bit, but didn't find any apk file for those as they are applications.


Thanks

Look for their apk file(s) in /data/app/ and /data/app-private/
Edit them the same way.

 

[ccapasso]

Look for their apk file(s) in /data/app/ and /data/app-private/
Edit them the same way.

Thanks, and will continue to look. However, under system/data/ i only have apps not app-private. Being as non-stock apps are stored somewhere on the internal memory, I'm assuming the apk files would be there. Again, there is the problem, as I'm not sure where they are. I've tried doing a search for the files on the phone itself, with no luck yet. I will continue to look around and see what I can find, but again, if anyone knows where the non-stock apps are installed (such as the ones you download from the market) that would be helpful.

Thanks.

 

[ccapasso]

So I figured it out. When using a file explorer, nothing was showing up under data. So I just did a adb pull of the entire data folder, and poof . Now I have app and app-private. Nice, very nice.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Great. You can also see inside them through adb:

adb remount
adb shell
ls /data/app
ls /data/app-private

But IMO pulling them was the smart thing to do. Easy to browse them on the desktop.

 

[ccapasso]

Yup, thanks. I tried to edit an easy one to start with, being spare parts. I did it the same way I did all of the others (edited the png, renamed it, put it back into apk file) and then pushed the com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk file back into the data/apps folder. However doing this did not work. It actually made my Spare Parts disappear (uninstalled, sort of). I'm guessing there is more to it as this is a bit different than the standard stock apps. Also tried just putting the apk file on my SD card and installing it, that didn't work either. I'm thinking I might have needed to sign it or something, which I truly no little to nothing about.

 

[rank78]

can you guys help me out? i managed to change my icons using bettercut but it couldn't do 2 of them. i have icon packs i downloaded from the market (icon pack carbon 1-4) and i want to pull the icon apk's and take out the two i want and pull the 2 app apks (apps organizer and htc's message widget) and slip them inside and push the apps back. i've been trying to follow the instructions which look pretty straight forward but i'm getting errors. i try...

cd C:\android-sdk-windows\tools
adb shell
su
ls /data/app
adb pull /data/app/com.google.code.appsorganizer.apk C:\icons

but i get 'adb not found'. i tried pulling the whole data folder as someone did above but i get the same error. another problem is since htc's message widget isn't an app its not in the app folder so i don't know where it is. any ideas?

as you can see i'm a linux/android noob i figured out how to root a few months ago but since i really never have to use adb whatever i learn doesn't stick with me.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

can you guys help me out? i managed to change my icons using bettercut but it couldn't do 2 of them. i have icon packs i downloaded from the market (icon pack carbon 1-4) and i want to pull the icon apk's and take out the two i want and pull the 2 app apks (apps organizer and htc's message widget) and slip them inside and push the apps back. i've been trying to follow the instructions which look pretty straight forward but i'm getting errors. i try...



but i get 'adb not found'. i tried pulling the whole data folder as someone did above but i get the same error. another problem is since htc's message widget isn't an app its not in the app folder so i don't know where it is. any ideas?

as you can see i'm a linux/android noob i figured out how to root a few months ago but since i really never have to use adb whatever i learn doesn't stick with me.

Try it this way:

cd C:\android-sdk-windows\tools
adb shell
su
ls /data/app
**jot down the name(s) of the file(s) you want to pull**
exit
adb pull /data/app/com.google.code.appsorganizer.apk C:\icons

notice the "exit" command in there. When you enter "adb shell" you're actually inside the phones file system. You need to do this to get the name of the apk files, but you can't use the pull command while your inside the adb shell. Exit brings you back out of the shell so you can pull the file.

 

[rank78]

Just tried exactly what you suggested and got 'adb: not found'


On an unrelated note, thank you for the work on the kernel and RAM hack! I just flashed fresh 1.1 and added the kernel along with setcpu a few days ago and i've fallen in love with my hero all over again.

 

[anon(9334)]

6. Open the terminal, and go to the sign_tools folder. Type the following command in the terminal:

java -jar signapk.jar testkey.x509.pem testkey.pk8 icons-eclair-fresh.zip icons-signed.zip

I guess i am stupid or something... what terminal? command prompt?
sorry about the noob question

 

[ragu78]

Yup, thanks. I tried to edit an easy one to start with, being spare parts. I did it the same way I did all of the others (edited the png, renamed it, put it back into apk file) and then pushed the com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk file back into the data/apps folder. However doing this did not work. It actually made my Spare Parts disappear (uninstalled, sort of). I'm guessing there is more to it as this is a bit different than the standard stock apps. Also tried just putting the apk file on my SD card and installing it, that didn't work either. I'm thinking I might have needed to sign it or something, which I truly no little to nothing about.

ccapasso,

did you ever find a fix to this? I tried it myself with the "facebook for android" app and was receiving the same problems. I even signed the .apk file and it still would not install being pushed threw adb or by sdcard install ....

I'm trying to change the 3 icons that show in the task bar when you have a notification, i wanted them blue installed of grayed out like they currently are.... I have created all the icons and everything, just cant get the .apk to reinstall after editeding it.

If anyone has any ideas please let me know .... thx