Root Wondering How to Make my Own ROM

[Time To Shine]

I have been looking at several roms and I seem to find issues with just about every one of them from being a little slow, displaying error messages in some places, not displaying keyboard, not allowing a certain type of keyboard, not being able to hang up a phone call and its just really frustrating. I have been wondering about making my own ROM. my first quetions are:
How hard will it be?
What do I need to know?
Now I have tried to install the kitchen thing from unlockr and have come up unsuccessful because, just like everything I do, I ran into a problem, I wasnt able to intall java on the thing and no one would answer my plea for help in the comments. So is there a different way to do this without programming knowledge? If not, that is okay too, I am more than willing to learn some code to get this rolling.
So post links to other threads that have all the information I know and / or post information you know about this subject.
Thank you for your help.

 

[ocnbrze]

I have been looking at several roms and I seem to find issues with just about every one of them from being a little slow, displaying error messages in some places, not displaying keyboard, not allowing a certain type of keyboard, not being able to hang up a phone call and its just really frustrating. I have been wondering about making my own ROM. my first quetions are:
How hard will it be?
What do I need to know?
Now I have tried to install the kitchen thing from unlockr and have come up unsuccessful because, just like everything I do, I ran into a problem, I wasnt able to intall java on the thing and no one would answer my plea for help in the comments. So is there a different way to do this without programming knowledge? If not, that is okay too, I am more than willing to learn some code to get this rolling.
So post links to other threads that have all the information I know and / or post information you know about this subject.
Thank you for your help.

here are just some threads i have come across. i have no clue on how to dev, but hopefully you can find some useful info here:
Evo Themes, Mods and More! (2.1+) The Playground - xda-developers

[KITCHEN][December 24 '11] Android Kitchen, v0.183 [Linux / Mac / Windows] - xda-developers

[DEV][WIP] Wanna learn to dev correctly? - xda-developers

http://androidforums.com/android-themes/348054-themes.html

Android Development and Hacking - xda-developers

 

[argedion]

You may also want to catch Rxpert. He is currently working on developing a ROM. He can probably give you some good links and advice. I would definitely recommend learning java as I believe most of it is written in java.

 

[Rxpert83]

What I've discovered so far...

Half the battle is just getting the right software set up. I started playing around in dsixda's kitchen as I had little to no experience using linux and am now mostly doing things by hand. If you are just looking to play around with the stock evo ROM (remove bloat, ciq, add custom kernel, odex/deodex, theme, ect) it is very easy to do so and have instant gratification.

As I'm discovering, ports are much harder (it also turns out that I decided to wet my feet with one of the harder ports as well). Our little evo only has so much internal memory and most of these ROMS from other phones start out double the size of most of our EVO ROMS. I believe I have made all of the correct adjustments needed to get everything to work on our hardware, but at this point the ROM is still too big to boot so I won't know for a while.

I haven't gotten much done in the past couple of days (its christmas, I've been thirsty), but the next step for me is cutting everything down. I need to figure out what I need to decompile .apk's........... but I think I know what I need just need to get it installed

Also, it takes a LOT of time to get things right. Even if I end up never getting this thing to the point where I would release it, I will at least have a HUGE appreciation for the knowledge and time it takes for our devs to do what they do. Maybe the time away from here is good for me though

My ongoing thread (more of a blog for my ramblings really):
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/466434-rom-development-rant.html

I'll be happy to help you start as well.

Dev team AF?

 

[mikem0269]

@ RXPERT just wondering how important pc speed and memory is for doing this? Do you know what the min requirements are?

 

[Rxpert83]

I'm running this all on my laptop, with an intel i5 CPU at 2.53 GHz and 4 Gigs of RAM. I'd say thats probably on the lower end of the spectrum because when I'm unpacking or rebuilding the ROM if I happen to be using the kitchen it will just straight up lock up the computer for a few minutes. If I let it go without doing anything eventually it will finish up the job but there will be a span where I cant do anything else.

Maybe its an issue with my linux install too though.

 

[speedygonzo]

Dev Team AF?

I'd be more than intrested with developing i just need to learn more about cooking up some ROMS

 

[Rxpert83]

Dsixda's kitchen:
[KITCHEN][December 24 '11] Android Kitchen, v0.183 [Linux / Mac / Windows] - xda-developers

Porting advice:
[DEV][SENSE] Porting sense to other sense devices - xda-developers
http://www.freeyourandroid.com/guide/porting-android

Android SDK:
http://www.freeyourandroid.com/guide/install_android_sdk

Basics:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1198035&highlight=dev+guide

I'm sure theres plenty more I've read and havent bookmarked. But thats enough to get you playing around

 

[argedion]

I'm running this all on my laptop, with an intel i5 CPU at 2.53 GHz and 4 Gigs of RAM. I'd say thats probably on the lower end of the spectrum because when I'm unpacking or rebuilding the ROM if I happen to be using the kitchen it will just straight up lock up the computer for a few minutes. If I let it go without doing anything eventually it will finish up the job but there will be a span where I cant do anything else.

Maybe its an issue with my linux install too though.

What Linux are you using? What are you running it from? HD or Virtual M?

 

[Rxpert83]

I'm running Ubuntu I believe the version is 11.10

I used the wubi installer method, which I realize isn't preferred but its what I got

 

[argedion]

Yeah I hear ya. That is part of the problem you are having. Do you have a external drive that you could do a regular install to? Didn't need to be a Tara but a 160gig would give you plenty of space

 

[Rxpert83]

My external drive is mainly used for backups.

I'm really fine at this point with the little bit of lag I've had. The real problem is gettting everything setup in linux when I've been on windows my whole life.


APKTOOL is kicking my butt

 

[argedion]

My external drive is mainly used for backups.

I'm really fine at this point with the little bit of lag I've had. The real problem is gettting everything setup in linux when I've been on windows my whole life.


APKTOOL is kicking my butt

1. I hear ya That is what the externals I have do. Mostly the tera.5 i have on the server. My Old 160gig FA is now my linux sytem on the laptop. and I have a 320 that gits used for everything.

2. Getting things setup is one of those you definitely dont want to rush. Linux is a rougher on Window's Users. Mostly Because Bill wanted you to do it his way. However Stick with Linux and you will discover the Power of The Force my young padawan

3. When something gets you frustrated walk away. Read, Play games, do what ever. Let your mind do the work. Then once calm and relaxed go back. If you still experience issues take a note of them then ask.

4. You chose the Harder Road however that will give you the greatest experience and knowledge. Hopefully one I get my network set back up properly I will be able to start playing around with some of this stuff myself.

Y'all have a great day. I have to work. I'll check in when I can and most definitely see you this evening. Maybe if your around and I make it.

 

[mikekelso421]

You will not learn very much using the kitchen. The kitchen is just basically a engine used to decompile/compile a rom and sign it. Plus the few features it has like deodex a2sd zipalign etc.its pretty much a jacked up roided out apktool.

I suggest you start pulling files out of roms,study them, learn the file structure, where certain files are, what they do,how to change them. Stuff like that. The kitchen will not teach u this. Also google is your best friend.

I started with theming. Getting to know the framework,systemui com.htc.resources,classes.dex using smali /baksmali,editing xml etc. These are very good learning basics imo. And sending messages to devs for help teaching u will not get u very far.lol believe me. I have tried for certain things and 9 times out of 10,u will not get a response. But read read read ur butt of and keep at it and in time u will have the skills to build your own.this is not a short process. Lol it takes a lot of time dedicated to it before u start learning a lot. I've been at this for over a year now and I'm still no developer. Lol but I have learned a TON of useful information in the process

Hope this helps u out.

 

[Rxpert83]

Thanks for the info Mike. I am not trying to call myself a developer, this is simply something I'm trying to figure out in my freetime. And if something comes out of it, great, if not, well I had fun. Also, if I can provide the information here to get someone else started tinkering that'd be great too. Gruesomewolf has actually been very helpful. He has pointed me in the right direction on the questions I've had and left me to figure out exactly how to implement it, which I like. I'm doing this to learn not to remake someone elses ROM

I have ditched the kithen and have been doing everything by hand. I am only using it to build and sign the ROM.


Got APKTool all set up today and successfully used it to decompile, edit, and recompile the APK.

I am in the process of removing all language files (other than english ) from the entire system.


This thing might just happen lol.

 

[mikekelso421]

Thanks for the info Mike. I am not trying to call myself a developer, this is simply something I'm trying to figure out in my freetime. And if something comes out of it, great, if not, well I had fun. Also, if I can provide the information here to get someone else started tinkering that'd be great too. Gruesomewolf has actually been very helpful. He has pointed me in the right direction on the questions I've had and left me to figure out exactly how to implement it, which I like. I'm doing this to learn not to remake someone elses ROM

I have ditched the kithen and have been doing everything by hand. I am only using it to build and sign the ROM.


Got APKTool all set up today and successfully used it to decompile, edit, and recompile the APK.

I am in the process of removing all language files (other than english ) from the entire system.


This thing might just happen lol.

i wasnt saying you were calling yourself a dev..i was just telling you how i felt about myself keep at it,read alot and play around and you WILL succeed!