[EVO 4G Android Development] laydros:
Myself and apparently many others like the AOSP apps better than the sense apps. I find the interface for the AOSP messaging, calendar, browser, calculator, and dialer/contacts applications to be more attractive and in some cases more usable. I really liked Bugless Beast 0.4 since it featured these applications, but I have had a hard time with the bug that keeps disk drive from working, and there are various reports of some syncing and battery issues. The EVO-NonSense series has been great too, but I use HDMI out sometimes and like having some of the sense stuff installed. Big thanks to both BuglessPete and tjohnsonjr for their AOSP work.

(7/18/2010) I have attached some of the files I have been using, see descriptions at the bottom of the post.

So since it took a little digging for me to figure out how to do this (even though to advanced users this is easy) I thought it might come in handy for other new users. Additionally I'm hoping by posting this someone can help me figure out how to get the dialer/contacts stuff working, I have the others working fine.

I've done the below on DamageControl, and I think another (baked snack maybe, can't remember). I'll probably throw together an update.zip that can patch these in place later, but I'd rather get the dialer/contacts part figure out first.

Setup:

1. You will need a fully rooted (toast root part 2, NAND unlocked) phone, and adb up and running. There are several explanations for both parts, but the ones listed in the "useful threads" sticky are joeykrim's for adb and toast's part 1 and part 2 for root.

2. I have been using the apk's from BuglessPete's bugless beast 0.4 ROM. The thread for it is available here.

Once you unzip the file, you will find the needed apks in the /system/app folder.

Note: Please donate to pete, he doesn't even have an EVO yet and is doing some great work. Hopefully if he has a phone to work on he can get some of these small bugs squashed and keep the development for BB going.

3. Backup your phone. If you don't know how to reboot into recovery and restore from a nandroid backup, you do not want to do this yet, especially if you want to try help me figure out how to get the dialer running. The idea with the dialer is to try different things until something works. In all likelihood you will hit a point where things are FCing so much you can't do anything. You will almost certainly need to restore from a Nandroid backup at some point.

Important: More than likely anything I list here can't break a phone in a way that a nandroid restore won't fix, but I can not and will not be accountable for any problems with your phone.

Which files:

One nice thing about adding files this way is you can pick and choose what to use. If you like the stock messaging but want the AOSP calendar, you can do just that.

Calculator: Calculator.apk

Calendar: CalendarProvider.apk and Calendar.apk

Default "Navigator" application: CarDock.apk <- you can keep both

Internet: Browser.apk and HTMLViewer.apk <- doesn't show previews of each tab, but allows up to 8 instead of 4. There may be other functionality gained or lost, I dunno.

Clock: DeskClock.apk (can exist beside HTC clock, and can be installed without this procedure)

Messaging (SMS, Text): Mms.apk <- Many people have trouble with this one.

####### Not Working! See post #2 ########

# Phone: Phone.apk, ContactsProvider.apk, Contacts.apk

###################################

To install:

I think you can use adb to do this install with the files still on the computer, but I go ahead and throw all the needed apks onto my sdcard, typically in a folder. Also, if you need to be in the Android SDK's /tools directory to use adb (this depends on your configuration) do that. Connect your phone, and make sure it is in "Charge Only" so the sdcard stays mounted. To make sure adb sees the phone properly issue:

adb devices

and you should get a return listing the device ID. If so we will mount the /system partition as read-write:

adb remount

Log into the phones local shell:

adb shell

you are now on the phones command line and file system, not on your local machine. Now we can start installing files. I'll use Calculator in this example, and I have the apk in a folder on the sdcard called AOSP_apks:

install /sdcard/AOSP_apks/Calculator.apk /system/app

You can do a couple at a time, and you must do more than one at a time when installing a provider like CalendarProvider.apk and Calendar.apk.

Once you are done, exit the phone's shell, and reboot the phone:

exit
adb reboot

The change may show up immediately, but the phone and applications aren't designed to change these core functions on the fly, so make sure to reboot the phone. Once it reboots you will probably notice the AOSP icon has replaced the former, and you have the AOSP skin and/or functionality.

Post #2 will deal with progress so far on the dialer/contacts.

(added 7/17) Notes on different apks: The BB Launcher2.apk has his skin on the google search widget, or grab the apk from something else like DC for stock. Launcher.apk from BB is the one with the wide drawer and (I think) 9 screens.

Music.apk from DC is the modded music app from Cyanogen. It has some very nice UI tweaks.

Attached:

- Music.apk used in Cyanogenmod from DC

- Calendar, CalendarProvider, Browser and HTMLViewer from BB 0.4

- CarDock, Calculator, and MMS from AOSP EVO-NonSense