[Streak 5 Android Development] Strephon Alkhalikoi:
How to add your files to the Traveller DSC ROM

While the Traveller DSC ROM does change several things in the system, notably replacing SimpleSU and Zeam with SuperSU and HoloLauncher, its biggest "selling point" if you will is the ability to customize the app package that is installed with the base ROM. The DSC ROM includes a zip file located in /system/etc named "dsc_firstboot.zip". After DSC is installed and the system rebooted, during the Google account setup and for a short period of time afterwards a script is run that installs all the apps found in dsc_firstboot.zip.

The base DSC ROM included in its dsc_firstboot.zip the following apps: Adobe Flash, AnTuTu CPU Master Free, WiFi Reassociate, DSP Manager, Ghost Commander, Maps, YouTube, Droidwall, Dell Swype, DSC Wallpapers, Superdim, SystemPanel, ClockSync, and Streak FM Radio. Many of the Google apps remained in the ROM. For Traveller DSC, as already mentioned in the first post in the thread, all the Google apps except for the Play Store and Car Home were pulled from the ROM and stored instead in dsc_firstboot.zip. This is because all of these apps had new versions in the Play Store and thus there seemed to be no reason to keep old versions in /system/app. At the same time I changed up the apps package.

Traveller DSC includes in dsc_firstboot.zip the following apps: Adobe Flash, DSP Manager, Maps, GMail, Google Play Services, Quick Search, Street View, Voice Search, YouTube, Droidwall, Spirit FM Free, Dell Swype, zRAM Status, and DSC Wallpapers.

Traveller DSC encourages customization. I want you to make this ROM your own. If you want to delete the Google apps, go ahead. If you want to do what I did and add Google Music, you can do that too. This brief tutorial explains how. But keep in mind the following: dsc_firstboot.zip cannot be larger than the remaining space in the /system partition. If the file is too large the Streak may freeze at the Dell logo or end up in a boot loop. If this happens, remove apps until the file is smaller than the remaining space in the /system partition, then install the ROM again.

Tools required - PC: WinZip, WinRAR (preferred) or 7-Zip. Do not use the built-in Windows zip utility as it corrupts the zip file.

Tools Required - Streak: An app backup utility such as App Backup & Restore.

Optional - PC users with Chrome: APK Downloader extension.

Extract dsc_firstboot.zip from the Traveller DSC ROM.

On the Streak back up the installed app you want to add using an app backup utility. Ideally, when backing up the app you do not want its user-friendly name, but the name Android associates with the app, e.g. com.google.android.gm.apk instead of GMail.apk. There is a means to get the Android name of the app, using the Play Store on the PC.

Connect the Streak to the PC and download the backed-up app to a directory of your choosing.

Rename the app if necessary. See below.

Open up dsc_firstboot.zip with WinZip, WinRAR, or 7-Zip. Simply drag and drop the new app into the dsc_firstboot.zip window. The file will be compressed and added to the rest.

To add the new dsc_firstboot.zip to the ROM, open up the ROM's zip file, navigate to /system/etc, then simply drag and drop the new zip file into the directory. The ROM's zip file will update itself, overwriting the old zip file with the new one.

Copy the new ROM file to the Streak and install the ROM.

If the app on the Streak carries a friendly name, open up a browser window on the PC and head to the Play Store. Search for the app in the Play Store and look at the URL. The Android name of the app is found within the URL. For example, if wanting to embed Kongregate Arcade into dsc_firstboot.zip you would find it in the Play Store. The URL would be play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kongregate.android.kongarcade. The Android name is found after /details?id= in the URL, thus the Android name for Kongregate Arcade would be com.kongregate.android.kongarcade. Rename the apk file from Kongregate Archade.apk to com.kongregate.android.kongarcade.apk and then follow steps 5-7 above.

If using Chrome, use the APK Downloader extension and download a copy of the app directly from the Play Store to eliminate the need to use a backed-up version of the app on the Streak. Google recently changed things and now all files downloaded from the Play Store using APK Downloader have a filename consisting of a random number, so it's necessary to give the downloaded file the correct name. When the Windows prompt appears asking for a location to save the file in, rename the downloaded file to the name referenced in the URL, e.g. com.kongregate.android.kongarcade.apk. From there, follow steps 1, 5, 6, and 7.

NOTE: This tutorial may be revised from time to time in order to clarify details or simply to make things easier to understand.