[Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II] icedventimocha:
BEFORE WE GET STARTED, I WANT TO REMIND YOU THAT IF YOU USE THIS TUTORIAL AND MAKE WORK THAT YOU PLAN ON POSTING, ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU ASK ANYONE YOU BORROWED FROM BEFORE POSTING FOR PUBLIC USE, AND CREDIT THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR IN YOUR OP.

*****I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DON'T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS AND MESS UP YOUR PHONE. MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP BEFORE YOU PROCEED*****

Lately I’ve been asked a lot of questions of how to theme, or how to make simple changes to themes. So I decided instead of explaining the same thing over and over, I would put together a walk thru on some basic changes and how to port themes. This walk thru teaches how to do this all right on your device. So if you are looking for a tutorial on XML edits and how to use tools like apktool, this isn’t the thread. I do plan on making another thread in time for this. PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE DIRECTIONS ARE SPECIFIC TO THE NOTE II AND TOUCHWIZ. IF YOU ARE ASKING ABOUT OTHER DEVICES YOUR QUESTION WILL BE IGNORED.

So lets get started. First you need some apps from the market

1. Xplore File Manager. This is what you’re gonna use to theme. I used to use metamorph and ninja morph but they are no longer being developed. This is actually just as easy.

2. Root Explorer. If you’re a root user and don’t have this I don’t know how you function. This is a paid app. You can still do all the functions with Xplore, just takes a while longer due to its interface.

3. Photo Editor (DevMagyver) Great app for adding simple effects, basic recoloring, this will even successfully crop .9 images (I’ll get into those more later)

4. ZipSigner2 (optional) You’ll need this if you take this guide further with market apps. Don’t worry I plan on getting more in depth with market apps in time.

Okay, now we need to set some settings in these apps to get this to work better. You MUST go into Xplore, hit menu then configuration, and check open apks as zips, also under root access set to superuser + mount writable. You don’t need to do this part, but I suggest going into root explorer and into preferences and select sort type to type, and check list folders first. This will make your life easier, trust me!!

NOW LETS GET STARTED!!!

First using root explorer, create a folder on the root of your sdcard (internal or external, where ever you want to work). I usually name mine the name of the theme I’m porting, this will serve as a project folder, and will reference it as project folder. Next, you need the theme you wanna port. Note that you need to have one from the Note II or another Touchwiz Device. This won’t work with another manufacturers device either (example this wont work to port a HTC Sense theme). Find the theme on your phone, and using root explorer extract the whole thing. When you extract files in root explorer they extract to sdcard/speedsoftware/extracted. You can change this in preferences if you’d like. I will refer to this folder as extracted. Navigate to extracted and find the folder containing the theme. Move it to the project folder.

Now you need the apks from the rom you are gonna theme. I RECOMMEND INSTALLING THE ROM AND PULLING THEM FROM SYSTEM/APP AND SYSTEM/FRAMEWORK. IF YOU JUST PULL THEM FROM THE ROM ZIP, AND THAT ROM USES AROMA, THE FRAMEWORK-RES AND SYSTEMUI WILL NOT CONTAIN ALL THE FILES NECCASARY AND YOU WILL BOOT LOOP.To get started we are only gonna work with SystemUI (found in system/app), framework-res, and lidroid-res (both found in system/framework). Copy them to the project folder. I SUGGEST MAKING A FOLDER WITH BACKUPS OF THESE AS WELL I CASE SOMETHING GOES WRONG. EITHER THAT OR DIRTY FLASH YOUR ROM AGAIN TO RESTORE AFTER AN OOPSIES

Now we are gonna switch over to Xplore. Xplore utilizes a dual pained display, meaning you have one folder open on the left, and one folder open on the right. When you copy a file, you copy from one pane to the other. This makes this a breeze.

On the LEFT pane, you want to open up your project folder. If you set it up correctly, you should see the extracted theme’s folder, and all the apks you pulled from system/app and system/framework. You’ll notice that there is a little plus icon on the apks just like the folders. If you don’t you need to make sure you go into configuration and tick open apks as zips. This gives us the ability to browse whats inside the apk without extracting it. Open the SystemUI you pulled from the rom and navigate to SystemUI/res

Now on the RIGHT pane, navigate to the project folder, and then into the folder the theme is in until you get into the system/app folder of the theme. Here you will find the themed SystemUI.apk. Now navigate to SystemUI/res. The only real folder you will use from SystemUI is drawable-xhdpi. What you wanna do now is check the folder drawable-xhdpi in the RIGHT pane. Now copy that to the left pane. It will ask you if you want to replace all the files, just check do this for all and continue. Just to recap, youre copying them from the theme to the rom you are theming. SystemUI is now done.

Now for the framework. Go back to the LEFT pane, and navigate to the framework-res.apk that you pulled from your rom that is in project folder. Next, navigate to framework-res/res.

Now on the RIGHT pane, navigate to the framework-res.apk that is in the theme folder. Now navigate to framework-res/res. We again are going to copy folders from the RIGHT to the LEFT. Check drawable-nodpi, drawable-sw360dp-hdpi, and drawable-xhdpi in the RIGHT pane. Now copy these from the RIGHT pane to the LEFT pane. Framework-res is now done

Now for your lidroid toggles. Go back to the LEFT pane, and navigate to the lidroid-res.apk that you pulled from your rom. Now navigate to lidroid-res/res.

Now on the RIGHT pane, navigate to the lidroid-res.apk that is in the theme folder. Then navigate to lidroid-res/res. We again are gonna copy folders from the RIGHT to the LEFT. Check drawable-hdpi in the RIGHT pane. Now copy this folder from the RIGHT pane to the LEFT. Lidroid-res is now done.

Now we are going to go back to root explorer. Using root explorer, navigate to your project folder. Your project folder should now contain the folder containing the extracted theme, and the files you pulled from your rom, except now they contain the pngs from the theme since you copied them. Now to test that everything went ok. What you want to do is copy the SystemUI.apk, framework-res.apk and lidroid-res.apk that you pulled from your rom and added the pngs to and paste them in /system. Now using root explorer change the permissions of these 3 files to rw-r--r--. Once you’ve done this you can now safely move the SystemUI.apk to system/app and the framework-res.apk and lidroid-res.apk to system/framework. IF YOU DO NOT SET THE PERMISSIONS FIRST BEFORE YOU MOVE THE FILES YOU WILL BOOT LOOP. Now reboot. AT THIS POINT YOU SHOULD BE THEMED!!!

Now some things might not have turned out right. 9/10 if something went wrong it was in the status bar. This occurs because themes from other carriers/roms/devices are sometimes set up to use different pngs (like 5 signal bars over 4, 4g icons differ per carrier etc..). This is the part you’re not gonna like to hear. You have to fix them all manually. Ususally its not too hard, just takes some renaming or recoloring of some pngs and maybe looking for them somewhere. To find which ones that need fixed, go into root explorer and navigate to your project folder. Extract the SystemUI that you pulled from the rom and then themed. Go to extracted and navigate to SystemUI/res/drawable-xhdpi. This is kind of where you are on your own. You need to find the pngs in this folder that were not themed correctly. Yet again I can’t help you with this, its all trial and error. Most things are easy to find like the battery icons, 4g icons etc. if you are having trouble figuring it out, copy the pngs and make them each a different color. This way once you’ve made changes you can identify them easier.

Once you’ve made your changes, exit root explorer and go back into Xplore. On the LEFT pane, navigate to your project folder, then the SystemUI.apk you pulled from your rom and themed. Now navigate to SystemUI/res/drawable-xhdpi.

Now on the RIGHT pane, navigate to extracted. Now navigate into the SystemUI folder from the extracted SystemUI and navigate to SystemUI/res/drawable-xhdpi. Select all the images you changed, and copy them from the RIGHT pane to the LEFT. You can now use the previous method to test your changes. it’s a tedious process sometimes, but really just takes practice. Once you’ve done it a few times you get used to what you might have to fix. You can also use the above method that I explained for making corrections to selectively choose images from a theme to use. For instance, you only want the status bar of a theme. Extract it and copy just the pngs for the status bar. Once you’ve got the basic idea of whats going on here, you can use this method on all the other apks in system/app that are included in the theme.

I PLAN ON ADDING A LIST OF COMMON CHANGES WITHIN THE FILES, SUCH AS THE FRAMEWORK BACKGROUND ETC. THIS WILL BE LOCATED IN POST #2, JUST GIVE ME SOME TIME. HOPE THIS ISN’T TOO CONFUSING LOL