[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] sardulgupta@gmail.com:
Themes modification

Download ninjamorph

Customizing/ theming an android phone

often involves the alteration of notification

and battery icons. These icons are imbedded

in system .apk files so you have to extract

the contents of these files , make the

desired substitutions , repack those contents

into the .apk file, and on your phone replace

your original . apk file with your newly

modified . apk file. You can do this manually

on a computer using a zip utility or more

automatically on your phone using

Ninjamorph. This guide focuses on the

location of the icon .png files and how to

use Ninjamorph to replace them.

Warning: replacing/ deleting . png files

requires the modification of system files.

That could result in an erratic phone.

Obviously if you do this wrong your phone

will react in a manner proportional to how

badly you erred. Bootloops are improbable ,

but always be prepared w / nandroids and

Odin. You know this anyway if you are

contemplating theming .

Background on .apk Files

Icon . png files are imbedded in .apk files , so

it 's worth understanding what an .apk file is.

If you are familiar with .zip files , then know

that . apk files are simply .zip where the

extension is changed to . apk. To extract /

explore the contents of an .apk file, copy

the .apk to your computer , change the

extension to .zip , and unzip the contents.

You can recompile those contents by zipping

them and then changing the extension back

to . apk. If you do this , use no compression

(i. e . storage mode ) on your zip program .

Also, non- system . apk files such as

email.apk must be signed after rezipping, so

you'd need a signing utility . For the

purposes of theming the statusbar, you

don't need to worry about this because

you'll most likely modify a system file (e .g .

SystemUI. apk or Framework-res . apk) and

those do not have to be signed . If you use

Ninjamorph, it automatically signs files when

appropriate.

Where are icons located ?

Icons are generally . png files located in

drawable folders such as /res / drawable-

xhdpi/. Most of the icons are located in

SystemUI. apk and Framework -res . apk.

Sometimes a notification icon will be

embedded in a non- system application . For

example , I think the SMS/ MMS

notification .png is imbedded in mms .apk (or

SecMMS. apk for Samsung devices ).

Note: When manufacturers skin android, they

often create their own icons . They will

sometimes replace the normal android icons

with their own, or they may create a new

icon with a new name. The result is a lot of

redundant .png files . For example , whey you

explore, you will see multiple sets of signal

bar icons in both SystemUI .apk and

Framework-res . apk. So to find your particular

icon of interest , it will take some exploring ,

comparing, and possibly trial and error when

substituting.

How do I swap my new icons for the icons

currently on my phone ?

You can do this in two ways : on the

computer or on your phone .

On your computer:

Manually extract the .apk contents on your

computer by changing the extension

from .apk to . zip . After making the

appropriate deletions/ substitutions of .png

files, re- zip (uncompressed or storage ) and

change the file extension from .zip to .apk.

Sign if necessary . Alternatively, you can do

this on your phone via Ninjamorph and it will

compile, sign , and replace for you. Copy the

modified . apk file back to your phone making

sure to correctly set permissions.

On your phone:

You can download ninjamorph from the

google play store. This app requires root of

course . When you point it to an .apk file, it

will extract the contents of that file to the

internal SD card. In the example of

SystemUI. apk, that location would be /

sdcard/ AndroidThemes/ workspace/

SystemUIapk/

Once the files are extracted to that location ,

you can delete and/or substitute whatever

you want . After you have made the desired

changes, you can use ninjamorph to

recompile these contents and replace

the .apk on the phone . It is best to

immediately reboot (not hotboot ) the phone

following this so that changes are properly

accepted by the phone. If doing this on the

phone is the route you wish to take , the

following steps roughly outline the

procedure using ninjamorph.

If you'd prefer to see the file contents on a

large screen , then use your computer to

view/ explore .apk file contents ( makes it

easy to hunt and learn ), but then do the

actual substitutions on your phone using

Ninjamorph.

Ninjamorph Steps

Step 0 ) Take whatever precautionary

measures to nandroid, backup, etc . you feel

is appropriate .

Step 1 ) Make note of the location of your

target .apk file. The two most common files

are /system /apps / SystemUI. apk and /

system/framework /Framework- res .apk

Step 2 ) Open Ninjamorph

Step 3 ) Select "New Project" and navigate to

that . apk file. Upon completing this,

Ninjamorph will extract the contents to /

sdcard/ AndroidThemes/ workspace/ and

Ninjamorph will take you to that location .

Step 4 ) Here is where you will make your

deletions and/or substitutions of files . If

you need to delete or sub one or two files ,

you can use do this in ninjamorph since you

are already there . If you have many files to

replace ( e. g . there are hundreds of battery

files if you have 1 % battery icons) then you

can exit from Ninjamorph and do this in a

file explorer more efficiently.

At this point, you have only made changes to

the extracted contents in the ninjamorph

project folder . You have NOT actually

changed anything in the system . You can

quit now and nothing about your phone will

have changed . On Step 5 , you will be making

changes to system files so be prepared for

that. Reverting will mean later copying your

backed up .apk file or restoring a nandroid.

Step 5 ) Now that you have made your

desired changes , hit the blue arrow in

Ninjamorph to take you back to the main

screen . Choose " Finish" project and then

find the folder in which you've made your

changes. You will be asked three questions. I

always answer " yes" to the first two and "no "

to the third . After answering the third

question, Ninjamorph will compile the .apk

and copy it over your existing .apk file. When

it says that it 's done , the substitution has

completed and your phone is now unstable.

If you stop here, it will eventually freeze

and you' ll have to battery pull , so proceede

to Step 6 ASAP .

Step 6 ) Reboot . If your rom as a hotboot

option, don' t do it . I've noticed changes

sometimes don't take after hotboot, so just

choose regular reboot . Following the reboot ,

you are done .

Profit from your hard work. Should you not

like what you' ve done , you can move forward

by repeating Steps 1 - 6 or move to Step 7

Optional: Step 7) If you just want to start

over, use a root explorer to replace your

modified . apk file with a backup of the

original, unmodified .apk file. Now you can

start over and do something different.

Alternatively, you could restore a nandroid if

you made one right before fiddling with

Ninjamorph.