[Android Themes] KrisM22:
Okay since i data cleared I had to re-root, and that gave me a bit of trouble this time but finally went through.

I then took your idea - first thing I had done in all this was to use Root Browser to copy SystemUI.apk to my SD card. Damn glad I did.

I had to change permissions on system and system/app, and the app itself before it RB would allow me to copy/replace and (then redo all those permission settings) reboot and i have stock status bar.

WHEW!

it's possible Tickle my Elmo was not doing something it thought it was doing, or visaversa.

The file in TMA out size shows 259KB on win7, whereas the module on the SD card and in system shows 258KB in the phone, but they could be figuring it differently. I'd have to copy the one in out to the SD card (manually) and look at again to know for sure. But I'm going to let this all rest for a day and take another look at the layout module I'm modifying - it's different from the one in the post.

Meantime thanks for your time and encouragement!

My module after changing both to zero:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<com.android.systemui.statusbar.StatusBarView android:orientation="vertical" android:background="@drawable/statusbar_background" android:focusable="true" android:descendantFocusability="afterDescendants"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal" android:id="@id/icons" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<TextView android:textSize="0.0sp" android:textStyle="bold" android:gravity="left|center" android:id="@id/onsText" android:paddingLeft="6.0px" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:singleLine="true" android:maxLength="0" />
<com.android.systemui.statusbar.IconMerger android:gravity="center_vertical" android:orientation="horizontal" android:id="@id/notificationIcons" android:paddingLeft="6.0dip" android:layout_width="0.0dip" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1.0" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" />
<LinearLayout android:gravity="center_vertical" android:orientation="horizontal" android:id="@id/statusIcons" android:paddingRight="6.0dip" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_alignParentRight="true" />
<com.android.systemui.statusbar.Clock android:textAppearance="@*android:style/TextAppearance.StatusBar.Icon" android:gravity="left|center" android:paddingRight="6.0dip" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:singleLine="true" />
</LinearLayout>
<LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal" android:id="@id/ticker" android:paddingLeft="6.0dip" android:animationCache="false" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<ImageSwitcher android:id="@id/tickerIcon" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_marginRight="8.0dip">
<com.android.systemui.statusbar.AnimatedImageView android:layout_width="25.0dip" android:layout_height="25.0dip" />
<com.android.systemui.statusbar.AnimatedImageView android:layout_width="25.0dip" android:layout_height="25.0dip" />
</ImageSwitcher>
<com.android.systemui.statusbar.TickerView android:id="@id/tickerText" android:paddingTop="2.0dip" android:paddingRight="10.0dip" android:layout_width="0.0dip" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="1.0">
<TextView android:textAppearance="@*android:style/Theme.Holo.Wallpaper" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:singleLine="true" />
<TextView android:textAppearance="@*android:style/Theme.Holo.Wallpaper" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:singleLine="true" />
</com.android.systemui.statusbar.TickerView>
</LinearLayout>
<com.android.systemui.statusbar.DateView android:textAppearance="@*android:style/TextAppearance.StatusBar.Icon" android:gravity="left|center" android:id="@id/date" android:background="@drawable/statusbar_background" android:paddingLeft="6.0px" android:paddingRight="6.0px" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:singleLine="true" />
</com.android.systemui.statusbar.StatusBarView>

Subsequently I did put the modified module on the SD card and it showed the same size as the original.

I went through the same manual procedure to put it in system/app, but no status bar, so I assume the module is bad. I will have to find out how to decompile and compile it manually. Anyway, for now, I'm back to the original module and have the statusbar.

I tried several modified modules but I'm doing something wrong.

So I had a meh moment and flashed MROM. Thanks for all your help!!!