Hey guys,
I often get asked what one needs to theme android and end up pm'ing or posting links to various tools and sites...so that being said I thought I'd write a beginners tutorial/list of essentials that any new themer will need. Now I'm not going to hold anyones hand and walk them through all this. Reading and research is on you. I'm just pointing the way.
This will have all the links to tools and things to make your life easier as you start your journey into android modification. I want to put this out there in hopes of breaking people from the habit of UOT, ninjamorph etc.(While its no doubt a great tool it puts to much extraneous stuff in the framework and systemui apks. For example my frame work modded, compressed and compiled manually is 1.75mb, the same mods done in UOT had the apk at 2.9mb. Just putting that out there.) Besides this is hands on and not only will you know your device has some cool new changes, you'll know why. I personally think that's important and rewarding.
Needed Stuff:
Obviously you need a rooted android device with a custom recovery, a deodexed rom, the appropriate drivers for said device.
I recommend a minimal of a Windows XP SP3 machine with a 60gb HD and a GB(1) of ram...again minimal.
Needed/Recommended Tools:
You should have SDK installed with the appropriate add ons... appropriate api's, ADB, drawpatch9 etc. This and lots of information can be found here.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Here's a good SDK/Eclipse install tutorial for various platforms.
http://android-app-tutorial.blogspot.com/2012/08/Android-sdk-tutorial-eclipse.html?m=1
(Optional install and tutorial for Eclipse for those interested.
Download:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
Tutorial:
http://eclipsetutorial.sourceforge.net/totalbeginner.html)
You will also need to download Java and set your path in variables. (Its different for every windows version.) Which can be found here.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Next you'll need apktool which is a fantastic theme/modding tool. It can be found here with change logs and information.
http://code.google.com/p/android-apktool/
A quick video tutorial can be found here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJrWeoGXpDY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
A good decompile/recompile and sign tutorial here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2195680
You will also need image editing software. I recommend Gimp. Its free, its far more user friendly than PS plus there's a million tutorials out there for various features it has. It can be found here.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Smali editing tutorial can be found here. Just substitute apkmanager with apktool or don't...which ever you prefer(I just have less errors recompiling with apktool.)
http://androidforums.com/esteem-all-things-root/604711-tutorial-how-edit-smali-files.html
You'll also need a archiver tool like winrar or 7zip which I use and its free. The link to 7zip is here.
http://www.7-zip.org/
For all those yummy xml edits I recommend notepad++ another free tool which can be found here.
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.3.3.html
Here is a link to MANY gingerbread mods from easy to advanced difficulty. Have a go at some of these but remember to always backup your current rom/setup
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1908063
Oh and how to make a flashable zip for all your newly modded goodies...here is some info...keep in mind this is for roms with ext4 support versus yaffs2. Here's the link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2183077
I hope someone finds this useful. These are my personal preferences as relates to image/xml editing. Feel free to use what you like as long as it works. happy modding! :thumbup:
I often get asked what one needs to theme android and end up pm'ing or posting links to various tools and sites...so that being said I thought I'd write a beginners tutorial/list of essentials that any new themer will need. Now I'm not going to hold anyones hand and walk them through all this. Reading and research is on you. I'm just pointing the way.
This will have all the links to tools and things to make your life easier as you start your journey into android modification. I want to put this out there in hopes of breaking people from the habit of UOT, ninjamorph etc.(While its no doubt a great tool it puts to much extraneous stuff in the framework and systemui apks. For example my frame work modded, compressed and compiled manually is 1.75mb, the same mods done in UOT had the apk at 2.9mb. Just putting that out there.) Besides this is hands on and not only will you know your device has some cool new changes, you'll know why. I personally think that's important and rewarding.
Needed Stuff:
Obviously you need a rooted android device with a custom recovery, a deodexed rom, the appropriate drivers for said device.
I recommend a minimal of a Windows XP SP3 machine with a 60gb HD and a GB(1) of ram...again minimal.
Needed/Recommended Tools:
You should have SDK installed with the appropriate add ons... appropriate api's, ADB, drawpatch9 etc. This and lots of information can be found here.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Here's a good SDK/Eclipse install tutorial for various platforms.
http://android-app-tutorial.blogspot.com/2012/08/Android-sdk-tutorial-eclipse.html?m=1
(Optional install and tutorial for Eclipse for those interested.
Download:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
Tutorial:
http://eclipsetutorial.sourceforge.net/totalbeginner.html)
You will also need to download Java and set your path in variables. (Its different for every windows version.) Which can be found here.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Next you'll need apktool which is a fantastic theme/modding tool. It can be found here with change logs and information.
http://code.google.com/p/android-apktool/
A quick video tutorial can be found here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJrWeoGXpDY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
A good decompile/recompile and sign tutorial here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2195680
You will also need image editing software. I recommend Gimp. Its free, its far more user friendly than PS plus there's a million tutorials out there for various features it has. It can be found here.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Smali editing tutorial can be found here. Just substitute apkmanager with apktool or don't...which ever you prefer(I just have less errors recompiling with apktool.)
http://androidforums.com/esteem-all-things-root/604711-tutorial-how-edit-smali-files.html
You'll also need a archiver tool like winrar or 7zip which I use and its free. The link to 7zip is here.
http://www.7-zip.org/
For all those yummy xml edits I recommend notepad++ another free tool which can be found here.
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.3.3.html
Here is a link to MANY gingerbread mods from easy to advanced difficulty. Have a go at some of these but remember to always backup your current rom/setup
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1908063
Oh and how to make a flashable zip for all your newly modded goodies...here is some info...keep in mind this is for roms with ext4 support versus yaffs2. Here's the link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2183077
I hope someone finds this useful. These are my personal preferences as relates to image/xml editing. Feel free to use what you like as long as it works.
happy modding! :thumbup:
