Develop Bugs

I Created Auto-Sign app for update.zip and Launcher.apk! :Possibly abandoned!

**UPDATE** This project maybe abandoned, after using Stericson's method i found signing to be much easier. You can find his method here. There has been 26 people who downloaded my tool and if those users want me to continue on this project, i will. but i recommend giving Stericson's method a try. You will still need to make sure both Jave JRE and Java JDK are installed with Stericson's Method and also with his script make sure to type in yes or no, not y or n =).
I would appreciate if anyone using my tool would post here if they want me to continue with this project or not.
Right now it will only sign update.zip,framework-res.apk and Launcher.apk. I am working on adding all of the other apks to this app.
This app was built in Visual Studio 2008, you may need .Net3.5 Framework installed to run it.
To use this app just extract it to a folder.
It includes:
update
-update\app
-update\framework
Auto-Sign.exe
signapk.jar
testkey.pk8
testkey.x509.pem
This app works the same as Dave Da illest 1's autosign.bat. If you have signed themes with dave's method you will be able to use this.
You will need to make sure that Java is installed for this to work, make sure to install JRE and JDK here.
Once you extract the files into a folder, copy a theme's update.zip into the root folder. Extract the the files you will be editing, edit your files, drag them back into the apk use this program to sign the apk, drag the apk back into update.zip and use this program to sign the update.zip.
When signing Launcher.apk or any other app's apk the program will look in:
"whatever folder you extracted to"\update\app.
Please leave me any comments or questions i will try to respond to them. If you have any other ideas or plain think this app sucks and i should delete immediately let me know =)
I will add the updates and some screen shots in the next few days.
::UPDATE:: 01/17/09
I made a few changes to the app, I also added the folders that the program is expecting to be there. Now when you load the app it tells you if the files are found or not. Also I added framework-res.apk to the list to be signed.
I am working on a part of the app that will allow it to check if the original file was signed or not. This way it will not create a _signed.apk or zip.
::UPDATE::: 01/18/09
I have added some labels to the GUI that will tell you if the files are found or not. I changed around the buttons and gave a little bit better description under the read me button. I got rid of the message boxes when you started the app. Comment here and let me know what you think.

Sucks.
Just kiddin works fine thank ya. =D

I just think you guys are making more work for yourselves by using this version of the signing tool that still creates a double. Why not use the version that overwrites the file with the signed apk, so you will do less work?
Stericson

Stericson said:
I just think you guys are making more work for yourselves by using this version of the signing tool that still creates a double. Why not use the version that overwrites the file with the signed apk, so you will do less work?
Stericson
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Stericson, I changed the code in that app so it doesn't write the new signed file. But i noticed the original file didnt change either. Should signing the file change the modified time when you look at the properties? if not there is there another confirmation, to tell the file has been signed?

yes it should show a modified time.
stericson

Does this work on all apks or just Launcher?

broopa said:
Does this work on all apks or just Launcher?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am running tests on update.zip, Launcher.apk and framework-res.apk. In the next few days i will release a full blown app that will sign all of the apks that people will be editing.

Thanks. I am looking forward to that release. I tried to use the app to resign Launcher.apk and I can't find the Launcher_signed in the app folder.

broopa said:
Thanks. I am looking forward to that release. I tried to use the app to resign Launcher.apk and I can't find the Launcher_signed in the app folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give this new version a try and let know how you like it.

Stericson said:
I just think you guys are making more work for yourselves by using this version of the signing tool that still creates a double. Why not use the version that overwrites the file with the signed apk, so you will do less work?
Stericson
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way the program is now it is a little more work, but a lot of people don't know anything about system variables and eventually i would like to make the program import the files directly into the correct apks and then push them into the update.zip after they are signed and then sign the update.zip itself.

I am still not getting any new files or folders that say ...._signed. I am now using v.65.

broopa said:
I am still not getting any new files or folders that say ...._signed. I am now using v.65.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have JRE and JDK installed? If not then go here to download and install the first 2 files.

ahhh i can't wait to use this lol

why do we have to sign these ?

namsir said:
why do we have to sign these ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have to sign the files because Google setup Android so not just anyone could install anything they wanted. They wanted to have control of what was installed. Which was flubbed by JesusFreke and the other XDA hackers.
Short answer...it is a security measure set by Google.

more proof the universe is against me.
so... i tried using koush's steps to install auto-rotate browser. i first had to download the android sdk, however i cannot get it to install correctly and have never seen the tools folder. then i find out that there is a way that is easier (for me). downloaded the auto-sign app. then, found out i had to download 2 java apps, so i tried. the installation was unsuccessful. this is odd because with all the steps it took to get root, it was actually quite easy. but auto-rotate browser just does not want to be on my G1.
ok, i tried downloading the java apps again, this time, instead of downloading with the sun download manager, i double clicked on the file name to download with my firefox browser and it worked just fine. fyi.

**UPDATE** This project maybe abandoned, after using Stericson's method i found signing to be much easier. You can find his method here. There has been 26 people who downloaded my tool and if those users want me to continue on this project, i will. but i recommend giving Stericson's method a try. You will still need to make sure both Jave JRE and Java JDK are installed with Stericson's Method and also with his script make sure to type in yes or no, not y or n =).
I would appreciate if anyone using my tool would post here if they want me to continue with this project or not.

BTW.. this auto-sign tool was the only way I could get signing to work.. so THANK YOU and I hope you will continue this project.

I built this tool before i had a full understanding about signing. there is no need to sign the other apks...just the update.zip. It signs all the apks below it. so this tool is fully functional. I just didnt know it at the time heh =)
Glad it helped you out.

vista 64 bit?
hello, i was wandering if this would work with vista 64 bit.. for some odd reason on my old computer i was able to sign the files no problem but now with my new computer after "signing" it gets stuck on the animated screen... Is anyone using this and running Vista 64bit?? Have a good day..

How can i make theme by myself for g1?

How can i make theme by my self for my g1 because i want all kind of connect full. wifi full, bluetooth, 3g, signal full, it must fixed always full. Or someone made can share for me, please?

minim0g said:
How can i make theme by my self for my g1 because i want all kind of connect full. wifi full, bluetooth, 3g, signal full, it must fixed always full. Or someone made can share for me, please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't have a clue of what your asking.
You want to know how to theme or how to make a rom?
The best thing to do is start off small. Very small. For example try to theme Launcher.apk.
Open it with WinRAR and extract it.
Replace ONLY the .png files. (NOT 9.PNG files because those will mess up when you start your phone and can cause it to crash!)
Move your modified files back over to the location in WinRAR and replace the original.
Sign your modified file.
Create a flashable zip file with an update-script in the META-INF folder (better use an existing theme to figure that out)
Sign the zip file
Try to flash it. If you see the changes in your Launcher (that is the tab at the bottom of your screen that holds your apps) then it worked and you did it right. If not then search (PLEASE SEARCH) and read (PLEASE READ) before you post a question. This is a lot of time consuming and hard work for a noob. Not to be taken lightly.
Once you have the Launcher down you can do other apps (browser, gallery, music, phone, contacts, etc).
Once you have those down then we get to the GUTS of the phone. The framework! This is the status bar and everything in it. This is also other critical parts for your Android in this folder. Over 400 to be exact. Mess up just 1 of those and it can cause some serious problems! This is the /system/framework/framework-res.apk file. Treat it just like any other apk file.
By the way... don't ask us to help you with out searching first. Fair warning. This is a complicated process to explain in detail. I've made and modified my share of themes and I can tell you that even with everything already made and done it still takes about an hour to port everything over for a new rom. So again... this will take time and you can find all your answers by searching and reading but we will not spoon feed anyone nor will we do it for you. We're here to help but not to do everything for you.
Have fun and good luck.

Binary100100 said:
I really don't have a clue of what your asking.
You want to know how to theme or how to make a rom?
The best thing to do is start off small. Very small. For example try to theme Launcher.apk.
Open it with WinRAR and extract it.
Replace ONLY the .png files. (NOT 9.PNG files because those will mess up when you start your phone and can cause it to crash!)
Move your modified files back over to the location in WinRAR and replace the original.
Sign your modified file.
Create a flashable zip file with an update-script in the META-INF folder (better use an existing theme to figure that out)
Sign the zip file
Try to flash it. If you see the changes in your Launcher (that is the tab at the bottom of your screen that holds your apps) then it worked and you did it right. If not then search (PLEASE SEARCH) and read (PLEASE READ) before you post a question. This is a lot of time consuming and hard work for a noob. Not to be taken lightly.
Once you have the Launcher down you can do other apps (browser, gallery, music, phone, contacts, etc).
Once you have those down then we get to the GUTS of the phone. The framework! This is the status bar and everything in it. This is also other critical parts for your Android in this folder. Over 400 to be exact. Mess up just 1 of those and it can cause some serious problems! This is the /system/framework/framework-res.apk file. Treat it just like any other apk file.
By the way... don't ask us to help you with out searching first. Fair warning. This is a complicated process to explain in detail. I've made and modified my share of themes and I can tell you that even with everything already made and done it still takes about an hour to port everything over for a new rom. So again... this will take time and you can find all your answers by searching and reading but we will not spoon feed anyone nor will we do it for you. We're here to help but not to do everything for you.
Have fun and good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or he can make a metamorph which is basicly the same thing. The only differences are that you don't need to make a META-INF file or an Update-script. Pretty much all you need are the pictures that you want to use and your imagination.

Macrophage001 said:
Or he can make a metamorph which is basicly the same thing. The only differences are that you don't need to make a META-INF file or an Update-script. Pretty much all you need are the pictures that you want to use and your imagination.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can make a theme easily... but my metamorphs never seem to work for some reason. Maybe I'm just trying too hard.

Or he can make a metamorph which is basicly the same thing. The only differences are that you don't need to make a META-INF file or an Update-script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can make a theme easily... but my metamorphs never seem to work for some reason. Maybe I'm just trying too hard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the most common mistakes is when you are writing the .thm file.
When you are writing the location of the apk file, you have to put the forward-slash at the end.
Example:
/system/app/

how to create themes for metamorph
Macrophage001 said:
One of the most common mistakes is when you are writing the .thm file.
When you are writing the location of the apk file, you have to put the forward-slash at the end.
Example:
/system/app/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey bro, good day, I just want to ask if how could I make a theme for my rooted G1 which is running a CM7 rom. I've seen you say that it is easier to create metamorph themes, with just a pictures and imagination?? how will I do that? sorry for that question but I'm really a new on this things,,

Need some help

Hi all I need help I want to start building roms.But I need a good guide for themeing if any one can help me or just show me where to start that would be great ..
Thank you
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

There aren't any, try asking this question in the theming section and somebody might be kind enough to help you out...

Are you trying to build a rom or are you trying to theme an existing rom? if you are just trying to change the theme and arent doing any development work it will be much easier on you if you just learn how to make/edit a theme. In fact it can be relatively simple (though very very time consuming) to make your own basic theme.
To start with you will want to get your framework-res.apk file and you will want to decompile it. once you do this you will see several folders in the res folder you should see a drawable folder. this holds all your xml files. These are the actual "code" for a good part of the framework. you should see several other folders drawable-hdpi is the folder that will hold most of your images (in .png or .9.png) these can be replaced with the images you want (keep them same name and same format for .png for .9 it is not suggested that you mess witht hem till you do research and learn how specifically to edit them .once done recompile the framework-res.apk file and put it in your rom or into a flashable zip.
this will let you change a large portion of the framework theme of your phone. it takes a little practice and patients. Obviously there are many other things you an do that are much more difficult but this should get you started at least.

DO NOT EDIT .9s IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW YET!!
Stick to regular pngs as a starting point.
When decompiling existing themes I have seen them throw errors left and right because of badly edited .9s. These errors won't allow the framework to recompile correctly.
Grab some themes you want to play with and pull the drawable-hdpi folders out of the apk then mix and match the images you want into the apk you are going to use.
Once you get an idea of which images change what in the system then you can start looking at editing .9s. When you get to that point you will see just how amazing it is that themes even work with badly compiled .9s.
I know first hand. I literally had to fix .9 pngs in an entire theme just to be able to edit the xmls myself and have it recompile.

very true i dont sugest editing .9s unless you know how. Most basic icon changes can be made without editing them however if you mess them up it can be a huge pain to get the theme going. Another tip always make a back up of your default untouched framework. this can help save you if you mess something up and need to replace the files.

omegasun18 said:
very true i dont sugest editing .9s unless you know how. Most basic icon changes can be made without editing them however if you mess them up it can be a huge pain to get the theme going. Another tip always make a back up of your default untouched framework. this can help save you if you mess something up and need to replace the files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another good suggestion.
To add to this, op you should learn to use adb.
It will save you ALOT of time when testing the icon changes.
Instead of having to make a flashable zip file, when you learn adb you can push the one file you are testing and if it bootloops your device guess what, just adb push the original back and your system will boot again.
This prevents you from having to nand restore everytime you boot loop your device.
At this point, the only thing I flash via zips are full roms (mine at least). Everything else I either adb push/pull or fastboot flash it.

Thanks for all your help...I will try to figure this thing out

[Q] Noob question will probably get flamed

ok so i tried readin the guides and i have to say i was completely lost. might be cuz i havnt gotten any rest in a while but anyways i was looing for a way to be able to combine 2 themes. i really like the status bar icons on one theme like the bluetooth and wifi however i like everythig else from the other one also one is using launcher pro the other one tw launcher. would like to keep the one with launcher pro and just changethe top icons that always show. if i missed something please let me know any help would be greatly appreciated

Make a copy of the original themes to fall back on first.
What you have to do is open up the zip files of the themes. Extract the res folders from each themes framework-res.apk. Obviously you will have to rename one of them to something like res1 or put it in another place. Once you have the two folders extracted make the launcherpro one your base. Copy the images that you want to keep from the other theme (probably located in drawable-hdpi or drawable-hdpi-v4) and paste them into the same folder of the launcherpro theme and overwrite them. Once you have everything copied the way you want it open the framework-res.apk of the launcherpro theme. Go to the res folder and remove whatever folder you are adding back in (drawable.hdpi for example). Now drag the launcherpro folder that you made all of the changes to (drawable.hdpi or whatever) into the res folder of framework-res.apk. If you took the framework-res.apk file out of the zip file to begin with you have to also add it back into the themes zip file. Otherwise you just put the zip back on the phone and flash. It is always a good idea to put the original theme zip file on the phone also just in case something goes wrong you can just reflash the original theme and start over. If you need any additional help let us know.

^^^What he said
What you're really trying to do is essentially to create your own theme. If those instructions seem overwhelming or dont work, go to the top of this forum and start reading up on theming. Its a fairly simple concept but you might want to familiarize yourself with what it is exactly that you are doing. Everything visual on the phone is stored in image files, you're just swapping out the images. Maybe you'll get inspired and create something totally new that you can share with the community.

I tried reading theming on the top but I guess all that info at once was kind of overwhelming at the moment I was almost dead asleep however the info here seems more direct to the point so ill go ahead and see if I have time to mess with it today. I might also need to install gimp because I only saw like 1 or 2 image files when I opened up the zips with 7zip. Thanks for the help guys ill go ahead and give an update when I'm done maybe post some screen shots

jsredlineracer said:
I tried reading theming on the top but I guess all that info at once was kind of overwhelming at the moment I was almost dead asleep however the info here seems more direct to the point so ill go ahead and see if I have time to mess with it today. I might also need to install gimp because I only saw like 1 or 2 image files when I opened up the zips with 7zip. Thanks for the help guys ill go ahead and give an update when I'm done maybe post some screen shots
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will only need gimp if you are editing images. Make sure you are looking in the right directory. You should see a ton of png files. The bulk of the images are located in drawable-hdpi (the native folder) or drawable-hdpi-v4 (some themes have this folder instead). The only tool you need for moving images from one theme to the other is a zip program. I haven't used 7zip but maybe it didn't extract all of the files. I use winrar myself. Let us know how it works out.

OK I made a really quick video. Nothing fancy but puts a visual to the text I wrote. Hope it helps.

Well here are the screenies. Thanks for the help. And also thanks to those who created the original themesblue one is after changes
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

sorry was having some issues. i couldnt upload pics from my phone
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

[Q] Edit system/framework/services.jar ?

I got tired of waiting for a nice custom ROM or Xposed to drop, so I decided to look into doing my own mods. I've been wanting to learn for the longest time.
My Googling suggests things I mostly want (such as the five-way-reboot and disabling of screen-on when plugged/unplugged) are options that can be change in services.jar.
But I'm not finding the classes.dex in my services.jar file.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get started?
Maybe toss a link my way to read?
I got brain tired after 20 minutes of Googling only led me to how-to guides that aren't working out because I don't have this classes.dex thing?

CZ Eddie said:
I got tired of waiting for a nice custom ROM or Xposed to drop, so I decided to look into doing my own mods. I've been wanting to learn for the longest time.
My Googling suggests things I mostly want (such as the five-way-reboot and disabling of screen-on when plugged/unplugged) are options that can be change in services.jar.
But I'm not finding the classes.dex in my services.jar file.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get started?
Maybe toss a link my way to read?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pull the .jar file to your local machine and open it in an archiver that supports .zip compression. Many files including 'classes.dex' are inside the .jar file. Simplest way is to extract the classes.dex then decompile it using backsmali.

mostyle said:
Pull the .jar file to your local machine and open it in an archiver that supports .zip compression.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, but there is only one file inside the services.jar and it's not classes.dex. It's just the META-INF folder wiht MANIFEST.MF inside.
As well, the services.jar is only 318 Bytes.
I use 7zip on my computer or Root Explorer on the phone.

Good Job Eddie!
While you are learning can you incorporate a dark background in the app drawer.
Keep up the good work.

CZ Eddie said:
Right, but there is only one file inside the services.jar and it's not classes.dex. It's just the META-INF folder wiht MANIFEST.MF inside.
As well, the services.jar is only 318 Bytes.
I use 7zip on my computer or Root Explorer on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I suspect the dex code you are looking for has moved either to an APK or a different JAR.
Have you looked at the classes.dex in framework-res.apk?
There are a LOT of 318 byte files in /system/framework. This tells me most definitely that the code has been offloaded elsewhere and that these files were likely left as legacy reference. Apologies for not looking at the files before replying.

Now that you mention it, I did try all the other jar's in /system/framework.
The only one that had a classes.dex was embmslibrary.jar.
But I got errors when trying to unpack it.
Wish I'd saved the errors to post here.
Figured I'd give some of the ROM building utilities a go but have not had success yet. I'm only still just starting out though.
I'm thinking we'll probably need an all new ROM Kitchen for 7.1 due to many significant changes.
Which are probably what's holding up ROM development so far.
I got the Nexu.... uh, Pixel because I figured we'd have a bunch of cool AOSP ROM's within a week or two. doh.

DIXZ06 said:
Good Job Eddie!
While you are learning can you incorporate a dark background in the app drawer.
Keep up the good work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are already mods out there for the Pixel Launcher.
I use Nova Launcher though, which has color and transparency options built right into it.

XDA's Chef Central subforum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/chef-central/android

The reason you're not seeing the classes.dex file in any of the jar files is because the system is odexed. The classes.dex file is actually services.odex in /system/framework/oat/arm64.

Good to know, thank you!
It's a bummer about all these Android Kitchen variations out there.
None work with the Pixel yet.
I'm not having warm & fuzzy feelings about development for this phone.

Has anyone found a way to deodex the Pixel 7.1 yet?
I'm not finding any "utilities" that support Pixel yet.

disable screen on when plugged in can be disabled by editing "bools.xml" in the framework-res.apk
i can do it for you if you want

flex360 said:
disable screen on when plugged in can be disabled by editing "bools.xml" in the framework-res.apk
i can do it for you if you want
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
Holy moly, I've already found 18 bools.xml's in framework-res.apk and there are still about two hundred folders to manually open to see what's in there.
Do you know which one to edit? I'd like to learn all this myself.
I'm using APK Studio and really wish it had a better search function.

CZ Eddie said:
Thank you!
Holy moly, I've already found 18 bools.xml's in framework-res.apk and there are still about two hundred folders to manually open to see what's in there.
Do you know which one to edit? I'd like to learn all this myself.
I'm using APK Studio and really wish it had a better search function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the one in the "values" folder

Ahh. There are like five million Values folders.
But only one value folder.
I missed that. lol
Thanks

CZ Eddie said:
Thank you!
Holy moly, I've already found 18 bools.xml's in framework-res.apk and there are still about two hundred folders to manually open to see what's in there.
Do you know which one to edit? I'd like to learn all this myself.
I'm using APK Studio and really wish it had a better search function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And you thought this was going to be easy why??? LOL

You're not kidding.
Just one roadblock after another.
And all my Googling leads to old research/faq's that just don't seem to work on the Pixel.
I need to go buy an old Nexus running Gingerbread just to get some of this stuff to work.
My current roadblock is trying to write to /system via ADB.
It pretends to let me write.
But after a reboot, all my changes are gone and it's gone back to the original files again.
adb root
adb remount
adb push filename /system/folder/filename.
It's like yeahhhh, 100% write complete.
PSYCH! Then you reboot and it's like you never wrote anything.

I even tried replacing the framework file using Root Explorer but it just immediately reboots and bootloops.
I did sign the apk succesfully before trying that.

FINALLY I have success.
I'm now able to unplug my phone without the screen turning on.
This was a huge frustration when car-docked.
Now I can work on a few other things and come back and play with some more mods later. :good:
So my stumbling blocks were permissions (duh) and being unable to decompile, recompile and then sign the apk and get it onto the phone without bootlooping.
I still don't have a good way of dcompiling/recompiling without doing some 7zip magic afterwards. But at least I have some success and a footprint to move forward with learning some further mods. :good:
And I had to get this done using Root Explorer, so I still need to figure out a proper way to mount the system and push system files with ADB and get them to stick.

Well, so my ultimate goal was to do a bunch of mods and then release a custom stock-based ROM to the community.
But holy moly, more stumbling blocks.
Couldn't figure out how to create a simple flashable ROM zip.
So I just released my mods in the Themes & Apps subforum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-xl/themes/framework-mods-disable-screen-off-usb-t3508322
Thanks for the help, guys. :good:
I'll get back at the custom ROM thing another time.
I'll tell you what though.
I have tons more respect for devs after trying all this on my own.
Even if it's something you know how to do, there is a LOT of time and work spent on modding.
And then figuring out something new for the first time is incredibly frustrating.