Changing the statusbar color

[Fadelight]

Nevermind.

 

[gcroberson]

Are you referring to the task bar at the top? Is it called a status bar?..I thought it was task bar. You learn something every day. I would love to help. I have a thread that I posted the other day about changing it to black and everyone said that it required a rooted phone. I tried for a while last night to find the location for the status bars settings but had no luck.

 

[Fadelight]

Are you referring to the task bar at the top? Is it called a status bar?..I thought it was task bar. You learn something every day. I would love to help. I have a thread that I posted the other day about changing it to black and everyone said that it required a rooted phone. I tried for a while last night to find the location for the status bars settings but had no luck.

Yeah, it requires a rooted phone so you can access the files, AFAIK.

There isn't really a "Magic setting" to change it once your phone is rooted... what you have to do (From what I've read) is edit the png files, then rezip the folder (titled Update.zip), then go into recovery mode and allow it to update the original APK file.

I've changed the colors VIA Gimp, repackaged, and then updated my phone. Nothing changed, though.

 

[gcroberson]

do I install that apk file?

 

[Fadelight]

do I install that apk file?

I can't get it to work, so I wouldn't ask me if I were you.

 

[gcroberson]

haha ill fool around with it and ill keep you updated. how did you get to where you could change those entries?

 

[Fadelight]

haha ill fool around with it and ill keep you updated. how did you get to where you could change those entries?

I downloaded "Root explorer", navigated to "/system/framework", then copied the "Framework-res.apk" file to my SD card (Long press, select "Copy", then navigate to your SD and select "Paste".

Plug the phone into the PC, mount... snag the saved file. Rename it to "Framework-res.apk.zip" and extract. The pictures are in the folder: res/drawable-hdpi

 

[gcroberson]

I downloaded "Root explorer", navigated to "/system/framework", then copied the "Framework-res.apk" file to my SD card (Long press, select "Copy", then navigate to your SD and select "Paste".

Plug the phone into the PC, mount... snag the saved file. Rename it to "Framework-res.apk.zip" and extract. The pictures are in the folder: res/drawable-hdpi

Which pictures have you tried to edit. Im worried if I change it, that alot of those icons will be hard to see. We would have to change the color of most of those icons too. Am I right? I mean some of them will be fine but some of them would be very hard to see if it changed to black. (which is the color I want.)

 

[Fadelight]

Yeah, if you changed it to pure black, it would be a pain to see. I was aiming for a dark gray, personally.

The files I changed:

status_bar_background.png
status_bar_close_on.9.png
statusbar_background.9.png

 

[gcroberson]

Yeah, if you changed it to pure black, it would be a pain to see. I was aiming for a dark gray, personally.

The files I changed:

status_bar_background.png
status_bar_close_on.9.png
statusbar_background.9.png

I thought statusbar_background.9.png was it. So its got to be one of the vertical bars.
status_bar_header_background.9
status_bar_item_app_background_normal.9
status_bar_item_background_normal.9

Right? I mean thats all thats left really.

 

[Fadelight]

I thought statusbar_background.9.png was it. So its got to be one of the vertical bars.
status_bar_header_background.9
status_bar_item_app_background_normal.9
status_bar_item_background_normal.9

Right? I mean thats all thats left really.

I just tried those, too. No go.


I'm thinking it has to be something to do with the way they are going back on the phone. I'll pull the APK again and see if the changes were saved. Give me a few minutes.



EDITED:

It isn't saving the changes when they are loaded back on the phone, so the problem is in how the file is going back to the phone.

 

[gcroberson]

I am glad I refreshed the page again. I was about to tell you the same thing. I don't know of a different way. Are you compressing the file again before you put it on the sd card?

 

[gcroberson]

Is there a way to turn the folder back into just the .apk? Then we could just put that back on the sd card then copy and paste on the droid with root explorer.

 

[Fadelight]

I am glad I refreshed the page again. I was about to tell you the same thing. I don't know of a different way. Are you compressing the file again before you put it on the sd card?

Yep compressing to zip.


I think I have found the problem. Nothing will install onto the phone unless it is signed. After compressing the file, it has to be signed before it can be pushed back to the phone.

I am reading up on how to do that now, but it's starting to make my head hurt.

Signing Your Applications | Android Developers

 

[gcroberson]

Yep compressing to zip.


I think I have found the problem. Nothing will install onto the phone unless it is signed. After compressing the file, it has to be signed before it can be pushed back to the phone.

I am reading up on how to do that now, but it's starting to make my head hurt.

Signing Your Applications | Android Developers

Cant you go around this by putting the droid in debug mode?

 

[Fadelight]

Cant you go around this by putting the droid in debug mode?

I'll try.



EDIT: Hmm.. I can't seem to figure out how to push it. If I try from android/tools it tells me the phone is read only. I cant push from adb shell.

God, I wish I hadn't forgotten everything I once knew about Linux.

 

[T0LLPHR33]

this thread should be made into a sticky...

 

[gcroberson]

I wish we could get some help. haha I would consider myself pretty comfortable with programming. I'm no expert by any means. We'll get it though. I expected more people to be interested on how to do this though.

 

[Fadelight]

I wish we could get some help. haha I would consider myself pretty comfortable with programming. I'm no expert by any means. We'll get it though. I expected more people to be interested on how to do this though.

It's only been up for about 3 hours. I am sure someone will chime in at some point tonight. Mid-day means most people are either at work or at school, so forums move slower.

I am sure it is something stupid that we are just overlooking.

I've been reading about skins and stuff, and those keep making reference to losing apps while loading the skins. I am hoping that isn't the case with this. If it is, then so be it... but my fingers are still crossed.

 

[gcroberson]

It's only been up for about 3 hours. I am sure someone will chime in at some point tonight. Mid-day means most people are either at work or at school, so forums move slower.

I am sure it is something stupid that we are just overlooking.

I've been reading about skins and stuff, and those keep making reference to losing apps while loading the skins. I am hoping that isn't the case with this. If it is, then so be it... but my fingers are still crossed.

I'm not to concerned about bricking my phone, considering I have a spare droid right next to me (until I mail it back to verizon) When you went to restore mode and you tried to update, was yours ever successful?

 

[gcroberson]

Check pm.

 

[jmccarthy14]

A guy over on droid forums was able to change the notification bar color and make it transparent, and he posted instructions. Check it out.

 

[T0LLPHR33]

A guy over on droid forums was able to change the notification bar color and make it transparent, and he posted instructions. Check it out.

can you post a link for us...

 

[Fadelight]

Yeah, I saw that one, too. I was having total mental lock trying to read the instructions, though. It appeared, at a quick glance, like he had a ton of linux apps running in order to get it onto the phone.

I can't find the link again, though.

 

[teenfaces]

Here is the link...Transparent Status Bar and Shade for Rooted Droid! - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum