want to learn to be a dev...

[Paul627g]

hmm. well it'll be worth it. and interesting i think. i just gotta get that guy/gal who posted the theming guide to fix the links that are broken that go to supposedly required tools lol. >.<

What are you looking for? I may have it.

 

[traumahawk]

post 4 of the xda forum that rag linked

xda-developers

xda-developers


"[GUIDE] Learning to Theme: Putting the tools to use

Prerequisites:
Tools
xda-developers
Part 1
xda-developers

APK Manager:

This is one of my favorite programs it makes the w"

 

[traumahawk]

THANK YOU! Rag, Paul.. you guys are great!

your posts, help, links... got me the info i needed and my mind thinking right. tonight (with the help of that cwm post) i have modified 2 elements of my theme that i wasn't super fond of. just little things, but its a start and i'm slowly learning what files do what.

so i'm sure there'll be plenty more questions... but THANK YOU for all you've done thus far. it really is very much appreciated. (my gf hates you both for fueling my addiction with doing this to my phone, but i love it haha)


biggest achievement of the night- changing EmotionlessBeast theme to be more.. me-ish >.<

THIS: ("stock" Emotionlessbeast)


became....

 

[robomav]

very nicely done t-hawk

 

[traumahawk]

time to edit some.. other stuff now. im gonna try to make a hybrid theme. bits and parts out of other roms and themes i like. really "screw my phone up" as my girlfriend would say. once you read the post on how to edit CWM files... its all realllly easy. .apk are just zip- so you can explore them and change files just the same as in a regular zip, and 7zip resigns or does whatever it has to do to make them read okay. all (really basic im guessing) theming requires is 7zip and some drag and drop. plop your changed file into a new cwm zip... flash. presto!

 

[traumahawk]

Allllright. New ?....


How can I pull a copy of all my tweaks off my phone and into computer? I tried taking my nandroid backup, but that is an image file (and the darned thing won't even emulate for me). I want to make a cwm zip that is a xerox of my phone. Possible?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[ragnarokx]

System dump using ADB should do it. Look here.

 

[traumahawk]

i can get it to dump. where is it dumping TO? i cannot find a file or image anywhere. maybe i have the wrong idea of what this does... i have this idea that this forms a file like what a cwm zip has in it. what exactally does "adb shell dumpsys" or "dumpstate" do?

 

[traumahawk]

ive been googling for like 4 hours and cant figure ANYTHING out. just endless guides with commands that i have found a hundred times over. i just want to know how to make a stupid image of everything on my phone so i can see and access and edit it straight up instead of trying to remember piecewise what i installed. this is driving me crazy.

 

[Paul627g]

You will quickly find out if your going to modify a ROM or try to build one you should do it in stages and give them "build" numbers as you go...

Something fails or you don't like you can always return to the previous build to start again. Otherwise I have never performed a system dump so I can not help you there.

 

[traumahawk]

thats the problem. i dont know where to go to even start. all i have done thus far is mod files on my pc, make them into usable flashable cwm3 files, backup my phone just incase they are screwed up files, flash, and check the result. i keep what i like, and restore nandroid when i dont like. i have spent hours tonight trying to figure out adb and how to pull files off my phone. i want to learn to build a rom. i know it includes getting, well, some sort of image/data/file off your phone. i cant figure out what those files are or how. like i said- i somehow invisioned them as being little zips or folders with copies of everything in them, neat and packaged like they would be in a zip that i was installing on my phone. build numbers arent any good when i dont have a build, or know where to start, or have a way to save on my pc a definitive copy of everything i have done and use that as a way-point on my journey.

 

[ragnarokx]

Why do you need to pull files off your phone, when they are already on your PC before you flash them?

 

[traumahawk]

because i have literally every theme and rom i could find online that appealed to me. both epic and other major devices. eb13 and dk28. some files are changed, some not at all. the only things i know ARENT changed are brand new downloads in my "downloads" folder, and the one original cwm3 zip called blankflashablecwm3zip. otherwise its all a pit of files. each one that i finish changing gets put on my phone and flashed one at a time. each flash is usually for just one thing- the status bar, a modified dialer tab, themed gmail or market, modded sms... etc etc etc. i want a way to get the version of everything running right now on my phone onto my pc. a bookmark of sorts. something i can open with explorer and view like i would a cwm zip. a snapshot of my phone. my best guess was use rootexplorer and copy the framework files and such, and im really debating on just doing that and copying them from my sd card via usb, because thats the only way i can see to make what i want happen. i dont want a hundred little files to compile to have a single zip showing what i've done with my phone- i want one folder. just one.

 

[traumahawk]

hopefully this works--> using rootexplorer to create a zip of everything (except the sd card, dont need an archive of that). im keeping my fingers crossed it doesnt actually ARCHIVE the files and screw my phone up. nandroid backup is getting old.

 

[Paul627g]

Well honestly I never have used an image or something based off my phone to build a ROM. I just do as I said before and start with my base and slowly build on, making different builds as I go incase something goes wrong. Old paper and pen on the side to write down what things I'm doing...

I flash the new ROM builds as I go and as long as everything keeps working I continue onward.

 

[ragnarokx]

You need to work on your organization - keep a record and copy on your PC of everything you modify, that way you won't have to pull it back off your phone. There shouldn't be a reason to take that extra step. Once you really start getting into things you're going to be lost and frustrated if things aren't in order.

 

[traumahawk]

muahaha! i got it! took like 10 mins for root explorer to do it but i got my system image zip. now i can make one defined file that has all current changes in it- something anyone could take and flash and have a clone of my phone. something to use as a base point.

now time to organize. because, Rag, you're right. i need to organize. and now having a hardpoint to work from, a stable "build 0" to work off of will make it that much easier to go from here on out. (and now that i know i can do this, i will prob eventually do a wipe and make an image of eb13/ec05 that is just stock/ext4/rooted to work from that isnt cluttered with all my modifications yet. yessss. you have no idea how happy this makes me. there is way more folders in it than i need at my level of skill, but it has everything i want and thats all i care about right now.

time to go finish my hwk and get to bed. Calc II in 6.5 hours. fml haha. thanks for your time, yet again. hopefully one of these days in the near future i'll have a theme of my own to post as an available download. thanks again.

 

[DroidXcon]

muahaha! i got it! took like 10 mins for root explorer to do it but i got my system image zip. now i can make one defined file that has all current changes in it- something anyone could take and flash and have a clone of my phone. something to use as a base point.

now time to organize. because, Rag, you're right. i need to organize. and now having a hardpoint to work from, a stable "build 0" to work off of will make it that much easier to go from here on out. (and now that i know i can do this, i will prob eventually do a wipe and make an image of eb13/ec05 that is just stock/ext4/rooted to work from that isnt cluttered with all my modifications yet. yessss. you have no idea how happy this makes me. there is way more folders in it than i need at my level of skill, but it has everything i want and thats all i care about right now.

time to go finish my hwk and get to bed. Calc II in 6.5 hours. fml haha. thanks for your time, yet again. hopefully one of these days in the near future i'll have a theme of my own to post as an available download. thanks again.

to do a system dump the command is

adb pull /system/

then the files will be in what ever folder you are using adb from, like mine is

C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>
the files you will have will be
fonts
xbin
framework
media
seh
lib
sem
app
etc
bin
cameradata
tts
usr
build.prop
default.prop

 

[traumahawk]

woww. where was THAT on my google searches. so simple. yet noone could just say that. haha well thank you. makes it much easier than making a zip of my system/data in rootexplorer (although it gets the job done, just takes forever)

 

[DroidXcon]

woww. where was THAT on my google searches. so simple. yet noone could just say that. haha well thank you. makes it much easier than making a zip of my system/data in rootexplorer (although it gets the job done, just takes forever)

yeah i pick up parlor tricks here and there