[SOLVED] CM7 -- changing softkey button order

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I've been using the MIRAGE CM7.2 KANG ever since I got my NC back in January, and I love it. For a while I was using the ICS Tablet Tweaked theme, but decided that I prefer a lot of the look and feel without that theme, especially after later updates made the theme act a little funky.

The one thing I did like about the ICS theme was that the softkey buttons I used were in the ICS order -- back, home, notifications, menu -- while the system theme has (to me) a bit of a less-natural order: home, menu, back, notifications. Is there any easy way I'm missing to change up that order? There are no options I can see for it in the Cyanogenmod Settings menu.

If it'd require some editing of this or that file, I can probably figure it out, but I don't know where to start. Thanks to anyone in advance!

After some research and snooping, I figured this out on my own!

I used APKTool to decompile SystemUI.apk (using this guide, sans the HTC-specific parts), and edited res/layout/status_bar.xml in WordPad by finding the items that looked like this:

 <ImageButton android:id="@id/status_back"
android:background="@drawable/ic_statusbar_back_bottom"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

...and changing names around (i.e. "back" to "home" in each applicable space).

I also did some editing of the PNG files in res/drawable-mdpi to get a little closer to the ICS flavor. The end result:



...is perfect!

Thanks to the CM7 team for an amazing experience on my Nook and to mrg666 for his KANG!

Excellent guide, I was wondering how to change the order.
Can you share your png files, or point me to where you used them from?

CWM Flashable CM7.2 ICS Button Order

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I made a flashable.zip to rearange the Soft Keys on CM7.2-RC1 MiRaGe - KANG build specifically 04/16/2012 update. It may work on other builds, but I have not tested. So be sure to backup and try at your own risk.

In the zip is the modified SystemUI with the buttons laid out in the order of ICS

Find the attached file and flash it in CWM to install the new SystemUI with modified softbutton order.
I also included a revert to flash back the stock SystemUI if something goes wrong.

REMEMBER FLASH AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!! THIS IS FOR *CM7.2-RC1 MiRaGe -KANG*
I have only tested this for the above build.

Nice work! I'm glad this was helpful. I'd just been swapping in the new APK using ES File Explorer, but a flashable zip is a great resource.

Here's a .zip file with some of the PNG files I changed. Switching these out with the images in res/drawable-mdpi will black out the "separator" bars around each of the buttons, and also change the Quick Notifications button to the ICS Recent Apps button.

Excellent!!! Thanks for sharing the images. Added your PNG files to the SystemUI along with the changed layout and made it all CWM Flashable.

Same Warnings apply as above...

This is great. I didn't care for the ICS-style layout in joe's ICS theme, but now I'm really used to it.

Will these also change the battery icon to have the % plus the bar icon? I'm missing that from CM9.

If you mean how the battery looks on my screenshot, you can get that through Settings - CyanogenMod settings - Interface - Status bar tweaks - Battery status style, and switching to Percentage. I think that's all there is to it!

Originally Posted by Kybard

If you mean how the battery looks on my screenshot, you can get that through Settings - CyanogenMod settings - Interface - Status bar tweaks - Battery status style, and switching to Percentage. I think that's all there is to it!

Ok, I'll have to try this again. I thought I did that last night but just got the numbers w/o the bar next to it.

You might have to reboot -- I remember having some issues like that.