[Samsung Galaxy SL i9003] supergaijin:
I've read the whole thread and don't see an answer to my situation. can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

1) the sanim.zip that's originally in /system/media cannot be removed or it will disappear. even a copy will disappear if I attempt to put it on my sd card, but extracting it while it's in its original location works fine.

2) the sanim.zip that's in /system/media has a little note after the permissions, showing "-> bootanimation.zip" (without quotes)

3) a sanim.zip placed inside /system/media will not have the "-> bootanimation.zip" note attached, even after wiping caches and rebooting.

4) the files inside sanim.zip and bootanimation.zip match, since I modified a custom rom's sanim.zip before flashing it. this sanim.zip does show the bootanimation note, but it still doesn't work at boot.

5) placing a sanim.zip inside /system/media that I created on my computer will be copied successfully into /system/media, but I end up with a black screen when the bootanimation should play during boot.

6) the sanim.zip that I place in /system/media plays properly in the "boot animation previewer" that is provided in one of the threads linked in this topic.

7) I can change permissions on a sanim.zip that I place in /system/media, but it has no effect on functionality.

8) I cannot change permissions on a sanim.zip that has the bootanimation note. if I try, root explore will force close. same goes for bootanimation.zip, bootanimation, and samsungani.

9) trying to change "ownership" on any of the four files also results in a root explore fc.

10) the pictures are all 480x800 and working, as mentioned, in their original roms before the problem started. I'm just trying to take one custom sanim and put it in another rom.

11) the current permissions on the files are:

bootanimation.zip = rwxr-xr-x Owner= 0-root Group= 0-root

sanim.zip = rwxrwxrwx Owner= 0-root Group= 0-root

* (with bootanimation note attached after permissions)

bootanimation(bin folder) = rwxr-xr-x Owner= 0-root Group= 0-root

samsunani(bin folder) = rwxrwxrwx Owner= 0-root Group= 0-root

my only guess is something is corrupted that even a factory reset won't fix, and I'll be forced to reflash 100% stock from the beginning. I am currently running stock KPQ, but I tested a few custom roms before flashing back to stock and discovering this issue. is there anything else that may be wrong? I will be reflashing stock to test while waiting for an answer. thanks in advance for the help!

UPDATE

after reflashing stock kpe through kpq, including factory reset and wiping caches, sanim is still rwxrwxrwx and trying to change permissions still causes root explore fc. it looks like the sanim setup is now made part of the "stock" fw provided by samfirmware's sources.

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FINAL UPDATE

first, I was able to replace the samsungani and bootanimation in the /system/bin folder by using root explore, and I could then change permissions, but it did not change what was going on with bootanimation.zip and sanim.zip. the rest of my findings are below:

here are my final results, and I request that at least some of it be posted in the OP since it will be helpful for those who have the variant operation for sanim and bootanimation, like I do.

this variation, which is at least present using uc9 test2009 and 3009, which is based on amit's universal cfroot, and which is provided with STOCK KPQ fw as downloaded from the stock fw thread, uses sanim.zip as a sort of shortcut to bootanimation.zip. this is the reason for the redirect note of "-> bootanimation.zip" that is present in the version of sanim.zip that I have. additional proof of this is seen when trying to view files using android commander. sanim.zip is shown as a shortcut, not an actual file. if you delete it and replace it with any sanim.zip provided by anyone, it will not work and a shiny gray android logo boot animation will be shown by default, regardless of the permission settings.

if this sanim.zip shortcut is present in /system/media, but there is no bootanimation.zip present, sanim.zip will be empty. even anything named *bootanimation*.zip, where * is any letter, number, or symbol combination, will not be loaded into sanim.zip. only when the file is renamed to bootanimation.zip will it be loaded into sanim.zip and used properly during boot.

if there is no bootanimation.zip present or if sanim.zip can't load it properly, the default animation will be shown. otherwise, a corrupted bootanimation.zip will result in a backlit black screen during the time the bootanimation is supposed to play.

at least for me, using windows and winrar 4.01 will kill any bootanimation you choose to unzip and rezip to modify. it will not even be visible to nor play in boot animation previewer. to edit a bootanimation.zip, I must use another one that works and open it without unzipping it to edit files. in addition, when adding my files to an existing bootanimation.zip, it appears that any amount of compression corrupts it and it will not play. I have to select "store" when adding files, rather than "best", "normal", "fastest", etc.