[REQUEST] Looking for a APK creator. - HD2 Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting and Genera

Greets all,
I am looking for a person who understand on how to create an apk for android, and if they can create one for me. I have tried and tried and I cannot get the last half of the apk because I dont understand programming and am truly clueless. I had someone who was going to help me, but then disappeared, so I come here for help.
I would think it would not be that hard for someone who knows what they are doing. If anyone would be so kind and willing please PM me, or reply. I would like to finish this project but I'm at a standstill.
The details will be provided in PM.
Thank you.
AngelDeath

Want do you want the apk to do?
Create just an apk is easy...but without any programming skills and some code in it it will do nothing .

An APK is just a simple ZIP file, nothing more.

Thats true, its a simple zip, but when you need it to make changes or copy files, thats where I am clueless.
I have already made the gui, and the menus, I got that all covered, but the problem I have run across or the clueless programming idiot part of me is that when you make a selection, for it to impliment what you selected, also since the selection would make changes to a file, how would I got about having all the different combinations, saved in the apk so that when you make a selection it would know what to pick and either copy the settings, or to overwrite the existing file with the selection chosen?
When I tell you I am a programming idiot, take it seriously I am.

sorry, i don't have a solution to your inquiry (have tried and tried to build apks and no success beyond themes...)
and i think your skills are quite beyond mine as a chef, but in all of my reading i felt that this guide seemed to help. maybe can help, but if not good luck!
http://www.vogella.de/articles/AndroidLiveWallpaper/article.html

Thanks for the link I bookmarked it, but one of the things its lacking in the tut for wallpapers is the way to overwrite an existing file. But I'll look at it as with my android books, but I am more a visual learner first then read, if that makes sense.

interesting idea. i would think that if possible, might run into problems a la metamorph with apks not being able to updated once their initial integrity is altered. though if a rom file, don't think that would be a problem. another angle would be to see if it is redirectable - like what themechooser for tmo/ cm7 roms does. those themes don't replace per se, though can redirect most things. just waxing philosophically. best of luck. if i ever venture out of cm7, your roms are looking very interesting! keep up the great work.
cheers.

A place where to make apps
I know this webpage where you can make apps whithout programing.
The webpage is: Called "Andromo" Since I'm new I cant paste the link but I think that you can put "www" and at the end "com"
Greetings,
Mister-Android.rs Team

Related

Virgin rom.

I have looked and looked and maybe im just usnig the wrong words in seach but i havenet been able to find anything yet. I am looking for a virgin 1.5 rom that i can use to start freh and make my own rom to flash to my phone. Basically what I am looking for is a rom (not the RUU that puts a factory default on it) but the actual factory original rom before anyone has taken anytihg out or put on there own themes.
I have looked and looked. I find all kinds of roms to flash to my phone but all of them have been violated in some way or anouther. and although they are nice i would rather do it myself than use someone elses.
If this is already discussed somewhere please link me to it and i am sorry but i havent found it.
Thanx in advance for any help anyone can give me.
This might be what your looking for..
http://forum.androidcentral.com/sprint-htc-hero-roms/6699-cdma-hero-rom-gumbo-rom-1-5c.html#post41536
Check in the sticky wiki for available roms
Yeah me too! Damn all these promiscuous ROMs
Wouldn't doing an RUU and then rooting give you what you want?
casperlt1 said:
This might be what your looking for..
Check in the sticky wiki for available roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This gives you gumbo wich has stuff removed and added I want what gumbo based his off of not what gumbo did too it so to speak. Not that I dont like gumbo but he removed things I want virgin before that.
I have checked all of the roms on the wiki page and all have something done to them.
Where is the one that says here is the stock rom from sprint with nothing done to it.
justinisyoung said:
Wouldn't doing an RUU and then rooting give you what you want?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, doing the ruu from what I understand installs the factory original to the phone. I want it before it goes into the phone so I can modify it before it goes to the phone. Also I would like to re install the rom whenever I want but using the RUU i would have to use the RUU next time and the update it again.
Tipharet said:
Yeah me too! Damn all these promiscuous ROMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HeHeHe. Thats funny!!!
This has to be out there. Basically I want a rom that if I flashed it to the phone would be no different than if I bought a new phone from sprint and turned it on.
You cant tell me everyone that roots their phone wants other than stock rom on it.
@ cammel, I agree with justinisyoung
theres not much more to it.
just flash an RUU and root it. this will provide the base files you need for your stock rom.
david7586 said:
@ cammel, I agree with justinisyoung
theres not much more to it.
just flash an RUU and root it. this will provide the base files you need for your stock rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, say I do the RUU how do I get the rom off the phone to edit it?
I think what youre talking about doing would be creating a signed update zip. While I dont know how to do it those are probably the key words you'd need to search to find the answers youre looking for. Hope that helps!
cammel8 said:
Ok, say I do the RUU how do I get the rom off the phone to edit it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my understanding the RUU is not a ROM.
It is a return to factory default. You would typically use this option when you needed to take your phone in for repair to the store or to get it back to stock.
So after your run the RUU, you would then root your phone using the method of your choosing, and then you would have what you are asking for.
When you download the RUU, there is a file called rom.zip
That's what you're looking for.
HERNANDEZ4LIFE said:
I think what youre talking about doing would be creating a signed update zip. While I dont know how to do it those are probably the key words you'd need to search to find the answers youre looking for. Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know how to creat a signed update zip I do that alot. I need a rom to sign.
ccapasso said:
To my understanding the RUU is not a ROM.
It is a return to factory default. You would typically use this option when you needed to take your phone in for repair to the store or to get it back to stock.
So after your run the RUU, you would then root your phone using the method of your choosing, and then you would have what you are asking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are correct that the phone would be back to original. But then how do i get that to my computer to edit it?
Also with this method I would have to re root my phone.
Plus Ive heard that you can brick your phone with the RUU with a 110 error thats unbrickable. not exactly fond of that idea.
abcdfv said:
When you download the RUU, there is a file called rom.zip
That's what you're looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In th rom.zip there is a bunch of img files. im guessing if i tried to use that it would error out on me. I need the one with like sytem fioles and stuff I can edit.
You cant tell me this isnt out there. People have been modding this rom since it came out. So there has to be an untouched original somewhere to wich you can base your work off of. Otherwise that would meen everyone bases there work off of other peoples and never start from scratch. Is that really the case? Am I the first that wants a fresh rom to start with and build from there?
Contained in the image files is what you're look for.
abcdfv said:
Contained in the image files is what you're look for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I have tried extracting info out of the img files with powerISO, magicISO, imageburn, IrfanView, XnVview and Iso buster. But all of them say it is the wrong format.
I have seen multiple threads that link to a how to extract the files using unyaffs and ubuntu but I dont have ubuntu.
So I now have two questions:
First
Is it possible to extract files from an img file using window (windows 7 to be exact) and if it is possible what program would I use.
Second
Is there a tutorial out there Im missing?
Sorry If im being a pain in the A** about this and I usually figure stuff out on my own but this one is really givin me a headache. I have been working for three days on this one and its really getting to me.
If anyone can help me I would Appreciate it.
And thanx to everyone that has tried to help so far. Every time I get an answer that doesnt work it just meens Im one step closer to finding one that does so thanx everyone.
http://jiggawatt.org/badc0de/android/index.html
Here is a good place to get started.
What you're interested atm is the unyaffs program.
Google and forum search are really useful tools and the answers to your questions are out there. Just not packaged nice and neat like you would want.
Here's the jist of what you need to get started.
1. Android SDK
2. Java JDK
3. android zip signing tool
4. unyaffs utility
5. RUU
6. start RUU
7. let it go all the way just before the point where it actually starts to flash your phone.
8. check your computers temp folder for the system.img
9. unpackage it using unyaffs
10. enjoy naked young virgin
11. zip devirgined rom back up
12. sign it
13. flash it
14. fix bugs, rinse, repeat
15. try and search next time.
16. sorry about the crankiness, had a lousy day at work.
hope my step-by-step while not overly detailed was helpful.
are you looking for AOSP? or do you want Sense UI and all that stuff? RUU Includes Sense
obelisk79 said:
Google and forum search are really useful tools and the answers to your questions are out there. Just not packaged nice and neat like you would want.
Here's the jist of what you need to get started.
1. Android SDK
2. Java JDK
3. android zip signing tool
4. unyaffs utility
5. RUU
6. start RUU
7. let it go all the way just before the point where it actually starts to flash your phone.
8. check your computers temp folder for the system.img
9. unpackage it using unyaffs
10. enjoy naked young virgin
11. zip devirgined rom back up
12. sign it
13. flash it
14. fix bugs, rinse, repeat
15. try and search next time.
16. sorry about the crankiness, had a lousy day at work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I understand your cranky, but maybe you should give a person the benefit of the doubt before assuming they are an idiot. Remember what they say, when you assume you make an ass out of you and Uma Thurman.
So I rooted my phone on Friday. I then proceeded to download every rom on the site, and see what all there was available. I'm guessing the same thing everyone does when they first root it. By Saturday morning, after reading a bunch of stuff on here, I decided I was going to do My own mods to the rom. Yes the others out there are nice but they are not mine.
The first thing I did was to make My own animated boot screen (I decided on a naked pink female android instead of the stupid green one that comes stock. So I worked for hours and hours on that. Finally got it all done, uploaded it and it didn't work. (Come to find out the program I was using to make the GIF, "Easy GIF Animator", which I use for websites all the time, was putting extra stuff into the header that the HTC didn't know how to deal with. Just use gimp to make it and you are fine.) So now I have a working animated boot sequence of my own. (All from searching.)
Out of all of the themes I had seen done so far, I really liked the Aloysius because of the way the launch bar was made. I wanted to do that. So I researched some more and found out how to edit the APK files in the framework so I could change stuff. So I went about changing all the stuff I wanted to change. The Icons, the little Icons at the top, the buttons on the bottom. Anything I could change.
Yeah me, I have a bunch of stuff now that I can make an update file with so I can update my phone. I throw it all in a file, name it update, and flash it, but it won't work. After some more searching I find out that I have to sign the file before I can update it to the phone. This wasn't an issue before with the boot screen so I search find out how to do that and, wa la, I have a new theme all mine. (All from searching.)
So then I decide, well everyone else is adding and removing files, couldn't be that hard, so I did some searching and what do you know it isn't hard at all. So I added the programs I always have on my phone, and now when I flash it, it is all ready to go. Wee, now we are talking. (All from searching.)
Then I start playing with some of the apps, and realize that any app that sends out an sms by itself wouldnt send text messages. (IE: sms bomber, SMS my location, wavesecure) the program acts like it is working but then doesn't actually send the message. So I do some more searching. Come to find out Most of the roms on the site have stuff removed. It must be one of the apps removed or settings that were changed has something to do with it. Worked before installing the rom, don't work after installing the rom must be something in the rom, that or something I did to the rom afterward. So I do a fresh install of Aloysius and add sms bomber and it won't work. Must be Aloysius. (some from searching some from trial and error.)
So I decide I am just going to get the original rom, since I don't need any of the stuff in Aloysius because I have replaced most of it with my own anyway, and the apps I like in it, I can just add myself. So I search and search for a Virgin rom. Can't find one anywhere. Figure well maybe I can just pull the rom from my phone by copying the directory structure. So I re-flash my original backup and try pulling the files that way. I get them off the phone, add them to a zip file, name it update, and put it on my phone and go to flash it back to see if it works. Epic Fail. After searching some more I find out that you have to have a script to tell it what to install and where so I learn through searching how to make a update-script file, throw it in the META-INF folder in its right place zip the two folders up sign them and put them on my phone. In case you were wondering it didn't work. come to find out, after doing some searching you cant do that. Maybe I should have searched that one before just jumping in on that one. Eh, live and learn I guess.
So I search and search for the not so ever present virgin rom. Apparently, if it is out in the wild, it is a well hidden secret cause I can't find it. (still cant) Finally after hours and hours of searching, I give up and ask for help finding it. Yes thats right I asked for help. Well that ask didn't exactly garner me a here is a link just follow it and you can download your prize. No instead I find out that it isn't out there. Not in rom form at least.
There are ones that are close but nothing completely virgin. Why waste my time on those when They might have something I need removed and I don't even know it. Finally ABCDFV tells me its in the RUU in the Rom file Packed into an IMG file. Not exactly a rom but close enough that, I'm guessing, it's the closest I will get. So now All I have to do is unpack it and be done with it. Yeah me. I have unpacked stuff before this should be a synch. Mind you that was at 2 pm.
So I use every program I can think of that are used for opening IMG files, and none of them work so I search the internet and find butt loads more, but they don't work either so I do more searching and find out that the IMG files that are packed in the roms are special and can't be opened in the normal ways.
So after more searching I find many tutorials on how to unpack the files but all of them are in ubuntu. Well I'm running windows 7 so that won't work. I search and search and can't find a windows program to save my life so I reserve myself to having to use Linux.
I go to my back room and find an old 700 mhz computer, download ubuntu, and install it. Get all of my files, take them to the other computer, and start reading the tutorials. This is when I realize that I have no freaking clue what I am doing in Linux. Sure I have played with it but I don't use it like this. I get to the first command in all of the tutorials and it says type "gcc -o unyaffs unyaffs.c" but not one of them say where to type it. (come to find out it's in terminal. would it really kill the people that made the tutorials to put that little tidbit itn there. go ahead look not one of them I saw asid open terminal thay just say type this) so I go back and search that to find out. after I finally get that figured out, I realize that not one of these tutorials on how to do this is complete. Sure they might be complete to someone that knows UBUNTU but not to me. After hours and hours of searching and trying and failing I finally get fed up with UBUNTU. That was at about 9 o clock.
I disconnect the computer, take it outside, and shoot the damn thing with my 12 gauge. That's right I shot it. No joke. No it didn't help me to unpack the file. No it wasn't logical, reasonable or even rational, but damn it I felt better. Seeing them little green pieces of pcb flying, and knowing I would never be defeated by this computer or operating system again was almost blissful.
I came back in, and through utter frustration and dismay, haven been beaten by a fricken IMG file I again ask for help. That is when ABCDFV showed me the link to the X86 version of unyaff. Yes, finally my worries are over. I download it drag the system.IMG file to it and it pops up a message. "cygwin1.dll file is missing." You have got to be fu**ing kidding me. So back to searching I go. Come to find out it is a file used on windows machines so you can run Linux programs. I JUST SHOT LINUX AND IT IS COMING BACK TO HAUNT ME, I KNOW IT NOW. So I go to the website for cygwin and wouldn't you know it, there isn't a file like that on their server just an exe file that loads something. Screw it, I'll load it. So I download it install it, which mind you it says will fix the problem. And guess what, it didn't fix it.
So after searching and searching I find a website that has it. Sure there are about 50 gazillion that had it but I wanted one that didnt charge me, or want me to install there stupid program to get it. I get the file and install it.
30 seconds later and I am looking at the ever so hard to find, "virgin rom". Well not exactly. It is not a rom yet but I have everything else I need to make the rom so Might as well be the rom. I make my update-script put it in with it, zip it, sign it and send it to my phone.
I flash it to my phone, the whole time it is going, I'm just praying it will work. Verifying, verifying, Come on, copying files, yes its working! Finished. I can't fu**ing believe it. After everything, I finally have it, my own virgin rom. Yes, yes, oh freakin yes, everything is right in my world again.
Only one thing left to do, reboot phone. I hit the reboot and it blinks off. A second later HTC. A minute later Still HTC. It's ok sometimes when you flash a new rom it takes a while. 15 minutes later still HTC. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKIN KIDDING ME. So I reboot and get the same thing. Apparently there is something I am missing. Don't know what yet, I'm sure something I read will hold the answer, but I sure as sh*t aint doing it tonight.
That is when I came back on. I figured the least I could do was to thank ABCDFV for helping me get this far. That is when I seen your post. To tell you the truth, It pi**ed me off. Where do you come off telling me to do a little searching and I can find it. That is all I have been doing the last three days is searching. and not finding Sh*t might I add. there is a whole bunch of stuff but nothing that directly relates to what I need.
I dont think I am doing that bad either, I have taught myself all of this in the matter of four days by serching. I know people that have been rooting their Phones since G1 and dont know half of what I know now. And I have only been doing it for 4 days. So I dont think I am doing that bad. Especially since I have only had to ask one question and then a follow up.
Apparently you were born with all of the HTC Hero information and never needed to ask anyone a question about it ever, and that is all well and good, but people like me have to ask every once in a while for a little help.
I thought that is what this forum was for.
I am sorry if I am not another script kiddy that is ok with other people making stuff and me just throwing it on my phone and calling it my own.
I am sorry if I don't want to say to someone look what someone else did and I was able to install it on my phone just like your 11 year old neighbor can do to his phone by reading a tutorial or watching it on youtube. (Sh*t I never even thought of youtube. Probly somthing on there I could have watched instead of reading it. Oh well maybe next time.)
I am sorry if I want to do something from scratch instead of using other peoples work.
I am sorry if I want to be able to say look what I did.
Maybe you are Ok with that, maybe you're not, But I sure as hell am not. And I don't know you from Adam. You may be the person that first came out with all of the stuff that makes this possible, or you may be just another script kiddy happy to install others work, I don't know. I am sure after I am done here I will find out, but to do that I have to search and I'm not into that right now.
But next time you want to go off on a rant to someone, maybe you shouldn't assume they haven't done anything, and are just looking for a handout. Maybe you should just help them. Maybe If someone would have said in the beginning of my thread that the virgin rom doesn't exist, and you have to rip it from the RUU and there is no other way I wouldn't have spent the last 24 hours trying to figure it out.
This isn't my first time at a rodeo you know, just my first time on this bull. I am a member of many forums for many different things. And usually people come to me for help cause they are too lazy to search, and I would understand If I would have asked what is a rom an how do I root my phone. Or something simple covered hundreds of times in the forums elseware but I didn't.
Not only did I ask for help with something that is obviously nonexistent or close to it but I asked for a link so I could go in the right direction. I didnt just automatically ask where is it and what do I do with it. I want to learn so I can teach others. I want to learn so when someone asks why won't this work, I can tell them why, instead of "I don't know, it just don't work" I want to understand what I am doing, not just do it for the sake of doing it.
So as far as your crankiness goes, Sorry if I made you cranky, but maybe if you are cranky cause someone wants help, you shouldn't be on a forum that is for helping people. Because it is just going to make you more cranky. Just a thought.
So that is it for my rant. Sorry it was so long but I had to get that out. Now onto what I came here for originally :
abcdfv said:
link to unyaffs program
Here is a good place to get started.
What you're interested atm is the unyaffs program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks dude That worked Awesome. I had to find a file for it but it worked like a charm. I didnt get my rom to work yet But cause of you I am a Huge step closer. I got it out of the RUU, got it on the phone now it wont boot so I just have to figure out why. but that is for anouther day, Im going to sleep. But thank you for finding that for me. I coulndt find it at all. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
Congrats. Sorry I wasn't so specific first time around. Forgot it was in .img contained as yaffs.
cammel8 said:
Ok I understand your cranky but maybe you should give a person the benefit of the doubt before assuming they are an idiot. Remember what they say, when you assume you make an ass out of you and Uma Thurman.
So I rooted my phone on Friday. I then proceeded to download every rom on the site and see what all there was available. I'm guessing the same thing everyone does when they first root it. By Saturday morning after reading a bunch of stuff on here I decided I was going to do My own mods to the rom. Yes the others out there are nice but they are not mine.
The first thing I did was to make My own animated boot screen (I decided on a naked pink female android instead of the stupid green one that comes stock. So I worked for hours and hours on that. Finally got it all done uploaded it and it didn't work. (Come to find out the program I was using to make the GIF, Easy GIF Animator, which I use for websites all the time, was putting extra stuff into the header that the HTC didn't know how to deal with. just use gimp to make it and you are fine.) So now I have a working animated boot sequence of my own. (All from searching.)
Out of all of the themes I had seen done so far I really liked the Aloysius because of the way the launch bar was made. I wanted to do that. So I researched some more and found out how to edit the APK files in the framework so I could change stuff. So I went about changing all the stuff I wanted to change. The Icons the little Icons at the top, the buttons on the bottom. Anything I could change.
Yeah me I have a bunch of stuff now that I can make an update file with so I can update my phone. I throw it all in a file name it update and flash it but it won't work. after some more searching I find out that I have to sign the file before I can update it to the phone. This wasn't an issue before with the boot screen so i search find out how to do that and wa la I have a new theme all mine. (All from searching.)
So then I decide well everyone else is adding and removing files couldn't be that hard so I did some searching and what do you know it isn't hard at all so I added the programs I always have on my phone and now when I flash it, it is all ready to go. Wee now we are talking. (All from searching.)
Then I start playing with some of the apps and realize that any app that sends out an sms by itself wound send text messages. (IE: sms bomber, SMS my location, wavesecure) the program acts like it is working but then doesn't actually send the message. So I do some more searching. Come to find out Most of the roms on the site have stuff removed. It must be one of the apps removed or settings that were changed has something to do with it. Worked before installing the rom, don't work after installing the rom must be something in the rom, that or something I did to the rom afterward. So I do a fresh install of Aloysius and add sms bomber and it won't work. Must be Aloysius. (some from searching some from trial and error.)
So I decide I am just going to get the original rom, since I don't need any of the stuff in Aloysius because I have replaced most of it with my own anyway and the apps I like in it I can just add myself. So i search and search for a Virgin rom. Can't find one anywhere. Figure well maybe I can just pull the rom from my phone by copying the directory structure. So I re-flash my original backup and try pulling the files that way. I get them off the phone add them to a zip file name it update and put it on my phone and go to flash it back to see if it works. Epic Fail. After searching some more I find out that you have to have a script to tell it what to install and where so I learn through searching how t make a update-script file, throw it in the META-INF folder in its right place zip the two folders up sign them and put them on my phone. In case you were wondering it didn't work. come to find out after doing some searching you cant do that. Maybe I should have searched that one before just jumping in on that one. Eh live and learn I guess.
So I search and search for the not so ever present virgin rom. Apparently, if it is out in the wild, it is a well hidden secret cause I can't find it. Finally after hours and hours of searching, I give up and ask for help finding it. yes thats right I asked for help. Well that ask didn't exactly garner me a here is a link just follow it and you can download your prize. No instead I find out that it isn't out there. Not in rom form at least.
There are ones that are close but nothing completely virgin. Why waste my time on those when They might have something I need removed and I don't even know it. Finally ABCDFV tells me its in the RUU in the Rom file Packed into an IMG file. Not exactly a rom but close enough that, I'm guessing, it's the closest I will get. So now All I have to do is unpack it and be done with it. Yeah me. I have unpacked stuff before this should be a synch. Mind you that was at 2 pm.
So I use every program I can think of that are used for opening IMG files and none of them work so I search the internet and find butt loads more but they don't work either so I do more searching and find out that the IMG files that are packed in the roms are special and can't be opened in the normal ways.
So after more searching I find many tutorials on how to unpack the files but all of them are in ubuntu. Well I'm running windows 7 so that won't work. I search and search and can't find a windows program to save my life so I reserve myself to having to use Linux.
I go to my back room and find an old 700 mhz computer download ubuntu and install it. get all of my files take them to the other computer and start reading the tutorials. this is when I realize that I have no freaking clue what I am doing in Linux. Sure I have played with it but I don't use it like this. I get to the first command in all of the tutorials and it says type "gcc -o unyaffs unyaffs.c" but not one of them say where to type it. (come to find out it's in terminal) so I go back and search that to find out. after I finally get that figured out I realize that not one of these tutorials on how to do this is complete. Sure they might be complete to someone that knows UBUNTU but not to me. After hours and hours of searching and trying and failing I finally get fed up with UBUNTU. That was at about 9 o clock.
I disconnect the computer and take it outside and shoot the damn thing with my 12 gauge. That's right I shot it. No joke. No it didn't help me to unpack the file. No it wasn't logical, reasonable or even rational, but damn it I felt better. seeing them little green pieces of pcb flying and knowing I would never be defeated by this computer again was almost blissful.
I came back in and through utter frustration and dismay. haven been beaten by a fricken IMG file I again ask for help. That is when ABCDFV showed me the link to the X86 version of unyaff. yes finally my worries are over. I download it drag the system.IMG file to it and it pops up a message. "cygwin1.dll file is missing." You have got to be fu**ing kidding me. So back to searching I go. Come to find out it is a file used on windows machines so you can run Linux programs. I JUST SHOT LINUX AND IT IS COMING BACK TO HAUNT ME I KNOW IT NOW. So i go to the website for cygwin and wouldn't you know it there isn't a file like that on their server just an exe file that loads something . screw it ill load it so i download it install it, which mind you it says will fix the problem. and guess what, it didn't fix it.
So after searching and searching I find a website that has it. Sure there are about 50 million that had it but I wanted one that didnt charge me or want me to install there stupid program to get it. I get the file and install it.
30 seconds later and I am looking at the ever so hard to find, "virgin rom". well not exactly. It is not a rom yet but I have everything else I need to make the rom so Might as well be the rom. I make my update-script put it in with it, zip it, sign it and send it to my phone.
I flash it to my phone the whole time it is going I'm just praying it will work. Verifying, verifying Come one copying files, yes its working! finished. I can't fu**ing believe it. After everything I finally have it my own virgin rom. Yes, yes, oh freakin yes, everything is right in my world again.
Only one thing left to do, reboot phone. I hit the reboot and it blinks off. A second later HTC. A minute later Still HTC. It's ok sometimes when you flash a new rom it takes a while. 15 minutes later still HTC. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKIN KIDDING ME. So I reboot same thing. Apparently there is something I am missing. Don't know what yet, I'm sure something I read will hold the answer but I sure as sh*t aint doing it tonight.
That is when I came back on. I figured the least I could do was to thank ABCDFV for helping me get this far. that is when I seen your post. To tell you the truth It pi**ed me off. Where do you come off telling me to do a little searching and I can find it. That is all I have been doing the last three days is searching.
I dont think I am doing that bad either I have taught myself all of this in the matter of four days by serching. I know people that have been rooting there Phones since G1 and dont know half of what I know now and I have only been doing it for 4 days. So I dont think I am doing that bad. Especially since I have only had to ask one question and then a follow up.
Apparently you were born with all of the HTC Hero information and never needed to ask anyone a question about it ever, and that is all well and good, but people like me have to ask every once in a while for a little help.
I thought that is what this forum was for.
I am sorry if I am not another script kiddy that is ok with other people making stuff and me just throwing it on my phone and calling it my own.
I am sorry if I don't want to say to someone look what someone else did and I was able to install it on my phone just like your 11 year old neighbor did to his phone.
I am sorry if I want to do something from scratch instead of using other peoples work.
I am sorry if I want to be able to say look what I did.
Maybe you are Ok with that maybe you're not But I sure as hell am not. And I don't know you from Adam. You may be the person that first came out with all of the stuff that makes this possible or you may be just another script kiddy happy to install others work, I don't know. I am sure after I am done here I will find out but to do that I have to search and I'm not into that right now.
But next time you want to go off on a rant to someone maybe you shouldn't assume they haven't done anything and are just looking for a handout. Maybe you should just help them. Maybe If someone would have said in the beginning of my thread that the virgin rom doesn't exist and you have to rip it from the RUU and there is no other way I wouldn't have spent the last 24 hours trying to figure it out.
This isn't my first time at a rodeo you know just my first time on this bull. I am a member of many forums for many different things. And usually people come to me for help cause they are too lazy to search, and I understand If I would have asked what is a rom an how do I root my phone. Or something simple covered hundreds of times in the forums else ware but I didn't.
Not only did I ask for help with something that is obviously nonexistent or close to it but I asked for a link so I could go in the right direction. I didnt just automatically ask where is it and what do I do with it. I want to learn so I can teach others. I want to learn so when someone asks why won't this work I can tell them why instead of "I don't know, it just don't" I want to understand what I am doing not just do it for the sake of doing it.
So as far as your crankiness goes Sorry if I made you cranky but maybe if you are cranky cause someone wants help you shouldn't be on a forum that is for helping people. Because it is just going to make you more cranky. Just a thought.
So that is it for my rant. Sorry it was so long but I had to get that out. now onto what I vcame here for originally :
Thanks dude That worked Awesome. I had to find a file for it but it worked like a charm. I didnt get my rom to work yet But cause of you I am a HUge step closer. I got it out of the ruu got it on the phone now it wont boot so I just have to figure out why. But thank you for finding that for me I coulndt find it at all. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy **** I didn't read one word that.
Good luck man!

[Q] A call out to the Galaxy S ROM delevopers, help needed!

Well hello everyone.
I am an application development student from Belgium.
I am proficient in Java, VB.NET, some c/c++ and also PHP/JS/HTML/CSS
Anyways, my recent interest has been going out to creating custom roms for the galaxy S!
The problem now is though, I was able to find some guides and such, but most were incomplete, and for HTC(and other) devices.
I have no idea what is different between making a ROM for galaxy S or a ROM for an HTC device.
If anyone would like to link me to some good resources that can help me on my way, or would like to collaborate (and in the meanwhile teach me a bit) I would be more than happy! (I am open for collaboration as I am pretty proficient in Java and I'm always happy to code and learn more about coding!)
I think the question is really want you want to do!
Custom ROMs for Android are as simple as using recovery console to replace files on the system with your own versions.
ie. Replace the framework.apk which contains all theme images with your own modified one, which you can use to skin the device. Same for replacing other system apps.
Unfortunately, most of these apps are closed source, so modifying them is difficult. The stock android system has open source versions of most of them though, and you can modify those and build them, and then replace the ones on the device. I'm not entirely sure how to build them up though, but it probably isn't too hard.
Then there are custom kernels, which let you actually change the underlying linux system underneath android - Samsung has an open source version of the kernel available that you can compile, and then flash to your phone using Odin or other tools. Compiling the kernel is pretty tricky though.
Well i'm really talking about stuff like SamSet, MoDaCo, Doc's ROM and others.
I'm not saying I want to create a pro ROM in a day or anything, but i'd really love to learn more to get better (always looking for more stuff to put on the resume, I guess?!)
Thanks a lot,
Kenny
Bump for some help
(sorry for the double post but i'm really eager to learn)
I don't have time to give a detailed response right now. However you will want to read up on yaffs (file system) and odexing/deodexing ROMs.
Thank you I will definately do that,
I am following a guide now to start out creating custom ROMs for android, however it was written for Motorola Droid and I have no idea what you have to do different for a samsung galaxy s.
I am a good coder, even though I say so myself, with a lot of experience. I also have a lot of linux experience, you name it
Only the problem is the old, and much known "where do I get started?"
So if anyone can point me out in the right direction on that, tell me how/where you started out, I would appreciate it greatly!
Thanks!
Very sorry to bump again
I set up my environment in ubuntu today to get started (just gotta fix a few errors, didn't know android wouldn't compile on java 1.6, only on 1.5)
Anyways, still need some help here! thanks!
Again I am awefully sorry for the bump here but i'd really like some help.
Note that i'm not a newbie at coding whatsoever and i'm not unfamiliar with some hardcore java, c/c++ and other languages, I'm just having trouble getting started when it comes to modding an existing android release (there are tutorials on HTC and other devices but some methods do not apply to the galaxy S)
If you're trying to create a ROM from scratch then unfortunately you're out of luck at the moment. No one has really managed to do so yet. By "from scratch" I mean the Android Open Source Project (i.e. official Android git repository).
What you can do is grab an existing firmware. Extract the contents, de-odex the apks, modify them or add new apks, optionally you can also compile a custom SGS kernel using Samsung's kernel source. Then you can re-odex the ROM, pack it back up and distribute it.
There's no real "starting place" as such and you won't yet find any tutorials about how to create SGS ROMs. Just give it a go and see where you get.
Yes, I do mean creating a ROM from stock samsung firmware, of course.
So my next logical question would be now:
How do I go over extracting contents from the existing samsung firmware, de-odexing and so on?
Any links/guides/tips are greatly appreciated, as long as they are applicable to this cell phone and not totally crap, thanks!
Samsung uses rfs, I think you should know. There is a thread somewhere in this forum regarding extracting .rfs file. Understood you need Debian though.
For some readup, go search for a famous guy named JesusFreke. Tons of materials...
Hope that from here onwards, this can lead you on, and to find out more. Google is your friend too...
I'm afraid my biggest problems already occur in setting up the environment, so it's really the very beginning that gets me stuck, i'm sure coding would be a bikeride compared to setting up the environment for me (i'm no hero in linux,not at all, i'm afraid)
How the hell do I get from point A (being downloading the full source) to point B (starting to create a custom ROM?)
thanks
of course if anyone has the time, and wants to, you can PM me your msn or something, if anyone is up to it
Raykoid666 said:
I'm afraid my biggest problems already occur in setting up the environment, so it's really the very beginning that gets me stuck, i'm sure coding would be a bikeride compared to setting up the environment for me (i'm no hero in linux,not at all, i'm afraid)
How the hell do I get from point A (being downloading the full source) to point B (starting to create a custom ROM?)
thanks
of course if anyone has the time, and wants to, you can PM me your msn or something, if anyone is up to it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed completely! Getting a full cross-compilation to Samsung's Android going is seriously difficult! There have been some promises for tutorials and guides for setting things up though, but none have appeared yet. Probably because it's hard!
Well thank you for agreeing with me on that.
I am really hoping for anyone that can help me out here, either on here or in private, and give some detailed instructions on how to get started.
Hell there is enough information on creating roms alread, deodexing, adding/removing apps etc etc etc... The real problem lies in setting everything up properly.
I think I have gotten to the point where I'm compiling the android source (without samsung specific files)
note i'm saying "i think i am compiling" because i'm hoping it won't error out on me again after an hour of compiling!
But once that is done... I have no idea where to go next, where to get the samsung specific files, or what to do with them whatsoever once i have them
thanks!
Android generic source won't actually help you much. Samsung has made a huge number of changes to it, and while it is all open source, backporting their changes to get your stock source running on the phone is a major undertaking. I believe cyanogenmod was actually working on this, but it seems without much success so far.
What the other rom makers you see are doing is taking a snapshot of a running rom, copying over all of the APKs and the files on a running device, and then tweaking those. ie. Opening up framework-res.apk and changing the image files inside.
The update.zip roms that are what most people are doing are really just using the Android recovery to replace files on the phone with their own versions. Since the underlying system is linux, and everything is a file, this actually works pretty well.
The kernel development effort is completely separate from the rest of the system though, and Samsung has provided the entire source tree that just has to be compiled. I'm a bit stumped myself on all the details of setting it up, but I have seen some threads on this forum about it, and it didn't seem too bad to set up. Apparently you shouldn't use the codesourcery toolchain though, or something. Not too clued up on it, sorry. Hopefully someone with the details can chime in, or give us a link to the old post on it (I'm failing to find it using the search function! )
Alright sounds good!
So these recovery files you are talking about (the contents of /system) how do i retrieve those from a base ROM such as JM7 or the likes after a clean flash?)
Raykoid666 said:
Alright sounds good!
So these recovery files you are talking about (the contents of /system) how do i retrieve those from a base ROM such as JM7 or the likes after a clean flash?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root your phone, zip them up onto the sdcard, and then copy them off.
There are probably better methods, but this works fine.
Also, with credits to Unhelpful, he has told me that the correct toolchain to be using is 'uClibc or eglibc toolchain with ct-ng'. I have no idea what to do with that yet, but it's a start.
RyanZA said:
Root your phone, zip them up onto the sdcard, and then copy them off.
There are probably better methods, but this works fine.
Also, with credits to Unhelpful, he has told me that the correct toolchain to be using is 'uClibc or eglibc toolchain with ct-ng'. I have no idea what to do with that yet, but it's a start.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't even need to root your phone to pull /system Ryan
adb pull /system <random folder>
is all you need ^^
Alright thank you, I managed to get all the /system files using abd pull /system
now next thing up would be de-odexing right, before I go editing stuff?
Now before I go de-odexing. Can anyone tell me what exactly de-odexing is and why I need it?
and what do I need to do to create an update.zip again?
thanks a lot all!
Tayutama said:
You don't even need to root your phone to pull /system Ryan
adb pull /system <random folder>
is all you need ^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha cool, didn't know you could pull whole folders!
Raykoid666 said:
Alright thank you, I managed to get all the /system files using abd pull /system
now next thing up would be de-odexing right, before I go editing stuff?
Now before I go de-odexing. Can anyone tell me what exactly de-odexing is and why I need it?
and what do I need to do to create an update.zip again?
thanks a lot all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The apk files in Android are odexed - that means they have a special index applied for dalvik that speeds them up somehow! I don't know how, I haven't checked how it actually works.
The important point is though:
odexed is faster, but you can't edit it because of signatures or something technical
deodexed means you can change it however you want
More useful info can be found from google - lots of it!
update.zip is easy - it's a zip file in a special format that can be understood by Android's recovery console. The easiest way to do it is to grab an existing update.zip and modify it as needed. Tayutama has millions of em around, so use his!
Then you need to sign it once you're finished with it so that the SGS will accept it. Samsung made a boo-boo and didn't disable the test keys for the 2.1 SGS firmwares. That makes it easy!
http://www.londatiga.net/it/how-to-sign-apk-zip-files/
Just use the test keys to sign it, and then copy it to /sdcard/update.zip and reboot into recovery and it'll work.

[Q] New member/ Droid Owner - I can has help!?

Ok so I picked up my Droid X about a month ago and haven't been able to put this thing down, I never thought about rooting it because it did everything I needed/wanted it to do, then one day I log into my car forum and all the OT guys are posting cool print screen's of their phones. I was intrigued, so I rooted my phone and have been trying to figure out a few things but I'm not really up on the terminology and/or logic behind doing certain things. I would greatly appreciate any help in regards to explaining the following:
1) Rooting - Takes off restrictions on the phone so that developer apps can be installed... Is there more to this or is that pretty much it?
2) Flashing - I see this term often but I'm not sure what it is exactly, I tried installing a theme once and the directions said to flash something somewhere and looked at it the same way my dog looks at me while I'm working out at home.. lol
3) ROM - !?
4) apk's - What are they, what do they do, and how do you install them!?
5) Installing themes - I'm thinking has to do with all of the above...
6) Locating and moving downloaded content...
7) How do all of these things tie together? I'm completely clueless as to what does what on the phone and would like to become as knowledgeable as I was when the iPhone first came out and I figured out how to jailbreak/unlock it...
As a reward for your time and effort I leave you Final Fantasy VII fan's with a cool wallpaper I found at work today.. Thanks for any/all input and again, your time is most appreciated!!
Initial GT3 said:
Ok so I picked up my Droid X about a month ago and haven't been able to put this thing down, I never thought about rooting it because it did everything I needed/wanted it to do, then one day I log into my car forum and all the OT guys are posting cool print screen's of their phones. I was intrigued, so I rooted my phone and have been trying to figure out a few things but I'm not really up on the terminology and/or logic behind doing certain things. I would greatly appreciate any help in regards to explaining the following:
1) Rooting - Takes off restrictions on the phone so that developer apps can be installed... Is there more to this or is that pretty much it?
2) Flashing - I see this term often but I'm not sure what it is exactly, I tried installing a theme once and the directions said to flash something somewhere and looked at it the same way my dog looks at me while I'm working out at home.. lol
3) ROM - !?
4) apk's - What are they, what do they do, and how do you install them!?
5) Installing themes - I'm thinking has to do with all of the above...
6) Locating and moving downloaded content...
7) How do all of these things tie together? I'm completely clueless as to what does what on the phone and would like to become as knowledgeable as I was when the iPhone first came out and I figured out how to jailbreak/unlock it...
As a reward for your time and effort I leave you Final Fantasy VII fan's with a cool wallpaper I found at work today.. Thanks for any/all input and again, your time is most appreciated!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off- that is a lot to bite off as an opener. lol. I have to get in a minute- plus I am a newb as well but here a couple of things...
1) You sound pretty on track. Root gives you access to more options with your phone. It also voids your warranty.
2) Flashing. A term used loosely. Normally it is used in conjunction with "flashing a rom". It simply means to install something (basically).
3) Rom. It is the image (not in the photo-graphical sense) that is embedded/burned on your phones hard drive with all the information of your operating system. For instance: you are on the stock 2.2 ota "rom". But you could "flash" the new "AOSP rom" that was just released. That means you would be removing the factory image that came on your phone and replacing it with a modified image. Theme's and .apk's -those are not "burned" into the phone. If you do a factory reset- those will be wiped. The rom image stays put. If you flash from 2.2 ota to AOSP and then did a factory reset- you would not return to the original state your phone came from Motorola bc that image is completely removed and replaced by the new image you flash. Instead you would return to a clean AOSP.
4) .apk's - .apk is simply the name of the file extension used for android applications. I came from Windows Mobile and they were called .cabs. So any app can be referred to as an .apk. You can download an apk from XDA, place it on your sdcard, tap the file, and i think you will be prompted with "do you want to install" (some where along those lines). There is a setting in the "Settings" that allows you to install 3rd party (non-market) .apk's.
5)Installing themes. This refers to modifying the images (and this time I do mean in the graphic sense) of certain .apk's and other whatchamajiggies. You can install a simple theme that just changes your lockscreen, or you can install a huge theme that changes almost every part of every image so the entire phone looks similar. Here is the tricky part about using themes- your phone has to be deodexed.
deodexed. When you get your phone all of the system files come with a few different parts to them. One of those parts is an odexed file. Apparently the theme building types do not like working with these files so they run this process called de-odexing in which all of the system files are somehow manipulated in a way where they no longer need their odex file. So you end up "de-odexed". There is a program called "xultimate 2.2" that enables regular folk like you and me to deodex our phones. I tried running it yesterday and it errored out on me. So I used another method that worked fine. There are some threads on here about deodexing- if you want themes you will have to do it.
6) locating and moving downloaded content. When you have root you can get Root Explorer from the market. I am sure there are other good file exploreres- but I can't speak to them- I use Root Explorer. As far as locating downloaded content- whenever I download something from my phone, it always (normally) goes to /sdcard/downloads. If it is not there, I guess you just do a search for it. If you want to move it- long press the item, copy, move.
And you will need to google "ADB" (android device bridge). Many of these activities will require the use of ADB. You plug in your phone through USB (make sure phone settings are set to "USB debugging") and... well there is just way to much on this one. Google this one and you will find a lot of stuff- or search it here on XDA
have a great weekend. got to go.

[Q] How To Create A Theme.apk

Hi All
I have the most recent version of Oxygen which includes a "theme picker" app.
Similar to the one found in the HD ROM's it gives the opportunity to change the entire system theme, without flashing a zip. Which is good news
However, I have been trawling the internet trying to figure out how to create the .apk needed to create my own themes, failing miserably.
Could someone with the required knowledge post a tutorial maybe? Or a link to where the info is so that I can do my own research?
Thanks
i've not installed the test rom so cant check, but does it come with any theme.apk's pre-installed?
if so i'd start by pulling them apart and looking at the .xml and images and change them from there.
str355 said:
i've not installed the test rom so cant check, but does it come with any theme.apk's pre-installed?
if so i'd start by pulling them apart and looking at the .xml and images and change them from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know I didn't even think of that
I shall do so and see what I can come up with
Well I downloaded the Android SDK and all the tools required, then I installed eclipse and started a tutorial on how to build an app - as I assumed this is what I will need to do... but then my brain started to hurt and I needed sleep!

New way of sharing ROMs?

Hey.
I have a question that is about sharing ROM's for our Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505). We all knows that the normal way of sharing a new ROM is to wait for a ROM maker / developer to release a new ROM with new modifications and stuffs.
But what i'm thinking on is another way of sharing current ROMs. What this is about is to install the ROM of your choice and theme / modify it like you want it and then take a whole Nandroid (TWRP) backup of the whole ROM and then compress the nandroid backup files you have on the SD card or internal memory into a RAR file and then upload it to a sharing webpage like MEGA, Google Drive or any other good sharing pages.
Now i'm not sure if this is possible / legal to do and if this kind of question is asked before. But would this work to share a ROM this way and then download the nandroid RAR file from others with the same phone as me and unzip it and put it on the SD card or whatever and then run a restore from the TWRP recovery on our phones?
Or is there other things that will make this impossible to do?
I'm sure this have been asked before, but i can't find anything about this by searching, so that's why i'm just making this topic where i'm asking about this.
And i hope this section was the right place to put this kind of question in?
Greetings from Tom-Helge.
Thing is, how do you leave the personal stuff/apps/app settings out & just keep the stuff you want ? (what stuff exactly are you wanting to share in this way? ?) I can't see how you'd do that. I mean, it wouldn't be a huge stretch for someone to put malicious apps in the nandroid. A lot of people don't even look @ Su toasts, they just hit grant without giving it a thought.
I think you need to explain what you're hoping to achieve out of all this a bit better, and why your way would be better/easier/whatever than the current way people do things.
Edit - Also, I think what I'm getting at is, the way things are at the moment, people have complete control over what goes on their phone. You have to flash a rom/kernel/mod/whatever, and you decide what theme you want, what apps/app settings you want. I can't really see the appeal of what you've proposed in the way you've initially explained it at least (though that may change if you explain it a bit more fully).
MistahBungle said:
Thing is, how do you leave the personal stuff/apps/app settings out & just keep the stuff you want ? (what stuff exactly are you wanting to share in this way? ?) I can't see how you'd do that. I mean, it wouldn't be a huge stretch for someone to put malicious apps in the nandroid. A lot of people don't even look @ Su toasts, they just hit grant without giving it a thought.
I think you need to explain what you're hoping to achieve out of all this a bit better, and why your way would be better/easier/whatever than the current way people do things.
Edit - Also, I think what I'm getting at is, the way things are at the moment, people have complete control over what goes on their phone. You have to flash a rom/kernel/mod/whatever, and you decide what theme you want, what apps/app settings you want. I can't really see the appeal of what you've proposed in the way you've initially explained it at least (though that may change if you explain it a bit more fully).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's a more easier way of getting a themed / modified ROM that already exist that might suit you better and might save you alot of time to configure the ROM.
It's pretty much the same way of making a ROM of your choice as the ROM developers do. The ROM developers choose what they want to have in their ROMs and how they want to theme it. While this is sharing a modified ROM after you have installed that existing ROM on your phone.
The concept would be in the same way as the Themer Beta app is. There you can download preconfigured themes and use them the way they are or change them a little after you have downloaded them.
And as for putting malicious apps into the nandroid backups, it would be easy to find out if someone does that and if this type of sharing would be possible and allowed to do here, then the devs always have the banhammer to bust those who have bad intentions towards others here.
I hope this clears a bit more up on what i'm asking after .
EDIT: As for the personal stuffs on your ROM. The way i'm thinking is to install a ROM of your choice and then only modify / theme it the way you want it and leave out the personal stuffs until later when you have created the nandroid backup. Or you could simply remove the accounts and the personal stuffs from the ROM before you creates a backup to.
Ahhh OK, I'm with you now. Still seems like a really convoluted way of doing things to me though. Some people might like it, but if you're the sort of person who roots/mods your phone for the control you have over it, I'm not seeing how a person would be interested in what you're proposing. The people most interested would be people who are time poor or, more likely, people who are too lazy to set their phone up themselves.
MistahBungle said:
Ahhh OK, I'm with you now. Still seems like a really convoluted way of doing things to me though. Some people might like it, but if you're the sort of person who roots/mods your phone for the control you have over it, I'm not seeing how a person would be interested in what you're proposing. The people most interested would be people who are time poor or, more likely, people who are too lazy to set their phone up themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it will work. The only thing we have to make sure is to not include any apps that cost money to buy. That's very important.
Like now, i can just take a whole nandroid backup of my current OS as it is now. After that i could just remove any apps that's not needed to be included and then remove all of the accounts and stuffs.
When the ROM is like i want it to be, then i can make a new nandroid backup of the ROM i want to share and then just upload it and share it. Then peoples can download that and run a restore from TWRP recovery and install it. After that i can just return to my main ROM that i took a backup of before i started to modify the ROM to be shared.
So if peoples likes the way i have set up my ROM and want to use that, then they will download my nandroid backup.
Ofc, the peoples that downloads my nandroid backup needs to install the other applications they like that's not included in the nandroid backup.
But yeah, it will work, but it really depends on how much interesting this will be to others.
If peoples are intrested in this, then we can make a topic about this and when we share a nandroid backup, then we have to specify what ROM we use, what apps that are included and have several screenshots from how the ROM is looking and so on.

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