First atempt "cooking" my own rom

[Roberts.Tyler3289]

So I follow gbhill's walk through for cooking your own rom, and just played around a bit. I backed up my apps to sd and loaded them into his donut rom for the cdma hero, and just added the apk files, to see if i could basically recreate his rom, with my applications pre-installed. I was able to make it work and i'm pretty excited, but now i'm addicted. lol. I would like to know how to CREATE my own theme. I was able to boot up a theme that i installed through ahome, and it worked, but i would like to find out if there is an easier way to make your way. All I know how to do at this point it replace the current icons with my own .png... is that the only way to do it?

 

[Cory Streater]

So I follow gbhill's walk through for cooking your own rom, and just played around a bit. I backed up my apps to sd and loaded them into his donut rom for the cdma hero, and just added the apk files, to see if i could basically recreate his rom, with my applications pre-installed. I was able to make it work and i'm pretty excited, but now i'm addicted. lol. I would like to know how to CREATE my own theme. I was able to boot up a theme that i installed through ahome, and it worked, but i would like to find out if there is an easier way to make your way. All I know how to do at this point it replace the current icons with my own .png... is that the only way to do it?

I don't know the answer to your questions, but congrats on the new ROM. That's awesome. I'm sure someone will be able to answer you.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

So I follow gbhill's walk through for cooking your own rom, and just played around a bit. I backed up my apps to sd and loaded them into his donut rom for the cdma hero, and just added the apk files, to see if i could basically recreate his rom, with my applications pre-installed. I was able to make it work and i'm pretty excited, but now i'm addicted. lol. I would like to know how to CREATE my own theme. I was able to boot up a theme that i installed through ahome, and it worked, but i would like to find out if there is an easier way to make your way. All I know how to do at this point it replace the current icons with my own .png... is that the only way to do it?

Alright man!

Sorry it took so long to see this. Spent my last day ever in Baltimore lol.

A ROM and a Theme are sort of alike. They both follow the same folder paths, and they both get signed and flash the same way.

I think the best way to explain this is with an example. IIRC you're working with the Donut build.

Pull the contacts.apk from the system/app folder.
Open the apk and drag the res folder out of it and into a working folder on your PC/Mac.
Grab a couple of screenshots from your phone so you can see the default contacts app.
Go through the res folder you pulled out of the apk and compare to your screenshots to determine where each image in the res folder appears on the screen. This will give you an idea of which graphics you want to change.
Like the icons, use the right size and right name for each image.
Make a really obvious change like changing the tab bar pink. Put it back in the apk and push back to your phone to see if it was the right file. Any file you're not sure of what it is, make it a solid bright color and push it to the phone and look.
Once you have it like you want, you do the same thing you did from before to make it flashable. Of course you just add the edited apk's all in one zip file, just like you did in your test.

And for heavens sake don't be afraid to document which graphic file does what! The whole reason we have to dig and test is because there is no documentation about skinning specific apks.

 

[Roberts.Tyler3289]

Alright man!

Sorry it took so long to see this. Spent my last day ever in Baltimore lol.

A ROM and a Theme are sort of alike. They both follow the same folder paths, and they both get signed and flash the same way.

I think the best way to explain this is with an example. IIRC you're working with the Donut build.

Pull the contacts.apk from the system/app folder.
Open the apk and drag the res folder out of it and into a working folder on your PC/Mac.
Grab a couple of screenshots from your phone so you can see the default contacts app.
Go through the res folder you pulled out of the apk and compare to your screenshots to determine where each image in the res folder appears on the screen. This will give you an idea of which graphics you want to change.
Like the icons, use the right size and right name for each image.
Make a really obvious change like changing the tab bar pink. Put it back in the apk and push back to your phone to see if it was the right file. Any file you're not sure of what it is, make it a solid bright color and push it to the phone and look.
Once you have it like you want, you do the same thing you did from before to make it flashable. Of course you just add the edited apk's all in one zip file, just like you did in your test.

And for heavens sake don't be afraid to document which graphic file does what! The whole reason we have to dig and test is because there is no documentation about skinning specific apks.

okay so... stupid question, How do I take a screen shot of my phone?

 

[pseudoremora]

okay so... stupid question, How do I take a screen shot of my phone?

There's an app for that Go to the market and look up ShootMe -- its a screen grabber. There's lot of them -- but ShootMe is the one I use. Once you start the app, all you have to do is shake your phone and it takes a screen shot, then saves the picture to your SD card -- you can then use whatever Image site to upload and post here on the forums. (I use tinypic.com)

Also, you said you followed Gbhil's walkthrough on how to cook your own ROM -- can you post the a link to where you found it? I'd like to begin cooking/making themes as well. Thanks!

 

[Roberts.Tyler3289]

There's an app for that Go to the market and look up ShootMe -- its a screen grabber. There's lot of them -- but ShootMe is the one I use. Once you start the app, all you have to do is shake your phone and it takes a screen shot, then saves the picture to your SD card -- you can then use whatever Image site to upload and post here on the forums. (I use tinypic.com)

Also, you said you followed Gbhil's walkthrough on how to cook your own ROM -- can you post the a link to where you found it? I'd like to begin cooking/making themes as well. Thanks!o

Thanks for the suggestions. Here is the link to the rom cooking walk through. http://forum.androidcentral.com/hacking/6037-wip-general-rom-faq.html also there is a guide for creating your own icons, I kinda intermixed the steps between the two when I did my version of the rom. I found that the icon walk through was a little easier to follow, and gave a good foundation, here is the link for that one http://forum.androidcentral.com/hacking/6070-changing-hero-application-icons.html?highlight=gbhil

good luck!

 

[pseudoremora]

Thanks for the suggestions. Here is the link to the rom cooking walk through. http://forum.androidcentral.com/hacking/6037-wip-general-rom-faq.html also there is a guide for creating your own icons, I kinda intermixed the steps between the two when I did my version of the rom. I found that the icon walk through was a little easier to follow, and gave a good foundation, here is the link for that one http://forum.androidcentral.com/hacking/6070-changing-hero-application-icons.html?highlight=gbhil

good luck!

Thanks a lot! I plan to focus all my attention on this and getting everything configured in Ubuntu (again, thanks to Gbhil's great tutorial!)

 

[Roberts.Tyler3289]

Thanks a lot! I plan to focus all my attention on this and getting everything configured in Ubuntu (again, thanks to Gbhil's great tutorial!)

now when i installed that app it tells me it has to close, that i don't have root access? I have to have root access i'm runnin a 1.6 firmware rom

 

[Jared DiPane]

Wow, thats awesome you were able to cook your own ROM. I wish I had the time and knowledge to do that.

 

[Roberts.Tyler3289]

Yeah thats what i used to say, then i read through some walk throughs ans found the knowledge i needed to get started

 

[Jared DiPane]

Indeeed, just seems like a hard market to be in with such great developers out there already.

Is your ROM something you hope to share in the future, or just keep to personal use?

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

now when i installed that app it tells me it has to close, that i don't have root access? I have to have root access i'm runnin a 1.6 firmware rom

4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download update-superuser-1.2.0-signed.zip

Download and flash that (again if you already have)
Then on your phone, open the terminal client and type:

su
busybox --install /system/xbin
exit
exit

Then reboot your phone.

Because you're using an AOSP development ROM, you need to install busubox, su, and superuser whitelist by hand. The file I told you to flash will fix su and superuser whitelist. The commands will install busybox.

When you run an app that needs to be root for the first time, your screen will lag and a window will pop up warning you that an application want's to change it's user to root. That's expected. Click OK (optionally click the box to remember, so that app will never bug you again). Screen will lag some more, and the app may or may not start. If it starts, close it and reopen it and you'll be root inside that app. If the app hangs, hit the Home button, then go back and open the app again.

Can't wait to see your ROM!

 

[Roberts.Tyler3289]

Indeeed, just seems like a hard market to be in with such great developers out there already.

Is your ROM something you hope to share in the future, or just keep to personal use?

I would be willing to share HOWEVER like I said originally, to get started all I did was add the apk's for the apps that I use to gbhil's 1.6 firmware rom. Idk what the rules are on sharing roms originally created by someone else. if gb doesn't mind I would be more than happy to share

 

[Roberts.Tyler3289]

4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download update-superuser-1.2.0-signed.zip

Download and flash that (again if you already have)
Then on your phone, open the terminal client and type:

su
busybox --install /system/xbin
exit
exit

Then reboot your phone.

Because you're using an AOSP development ROM, you need to install busubox, su, and superuser whitelist by hand. The file I told you to flash will fix su and superuser whitelist. The commands will install busybox.

When you run an app that needs to be root for the first time, your screen will lag and a window will pop up warning you that an application want's to change it's user to root. That's expected. Click OK (optionally click the box to remember, so that app will never bug you again). Screen will lag some more, and the app may or may not start. If it starts, close it and reopen it and you'll be root inside that app. If the app hangs, hit the Home button, then go back and open the app again.

Can't wait to see your ROM!

very cool man thanks... the first version of the rom is ready, i just don't know how to get it to anybody, and I have to ask, can i post the two updates you provided with it? it does seem that they are still needed, and idk how to include them into the signed.zip

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Sorry the reply is so late. I must have missed it the first time around.

Any and all of my work that I provide on this site is yours to do as you please with. My biggest reason for sharing it is to learn more about it and have someone else take it and make it better.

Use whatever of mine you like, in any capacity you like.

 

[worm]

that's the whole concept of open source. take someone elses work tweak it, maybe make it run more smoothly, give them credit, and publish it. Plus it makes the quality of programs higher than if it were not open source

 

[ishara4me]

Thanks a lot! I plan to focus all my attention on this and getting everything configured in Ubuntu (again, thanks to Gbhil's great tutorial!)

thanks ... great tread