Editing XML! (To remove carrier logo - NinjaMorph doesn't work for this!)

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*I made this before any of these new roms came out and as such it was meant for and has been tested on only the stock Gingerbread rom that comes with the phone. I doubt it will be compatible with the new roms.*

*Must have root access and root explorer!*

Let me preface this by saying I am NOT by any stretch of the imagination a pro at this stuff. I'm just a guy who was SO annoyed by the AT&T logo in the notification bar, I had to figure out a way to get rid of it and save my precious real estate up there for notification icons, etc (I understand how unhealthy it is to be that anal). So that said, take everything I say with a grain of salt, and for the love of god, please don't hold me responsible if you get different results or you brick your phone!! I'm just sharing my experiences since threads in general seem really limited for this phone right now. If you're feeling dangerous and want to give it a whirl, do so at your own risk. I'm smart enough to play with it, but not smart enough to fix it if disaster strikes =)

Now! That aside, after messing with the colors (I HATE android green! Switched all the icons with that green to a nice blue instead) and getting rid of the lock pattern buttons so they don't cover my wallpaper when my phone is locked, I just had to do something about the AT&T logo in the upper left corner!



It pushes notification icons over and takes up just too much space. I'm aware I'm on AT&T. I don't need to be reminded. Anyway, after a lot of work (for me. I'm a total noob at this) I managed to decompile SystemUI.apk, change the status_bar.xml to shrink the carrier logo font and width down to 0, and reinstall it, and voila! No more carrier logo!




And plenty of room for icons!


So if you want to just give the edited status_bar.xml a try, feel free at your own risk! Just make sure you back up your original SystemUI.apk!! I'm attaching the edited one. The ONLY thing I changed was the font size and width of the carrier logo so that it would be 0. Everything else in that xml should be the same. Swap it out with the one in SystemUI.apk (in res/layout) (*Edit: I can confirm from my experience and another user's that ninjamorph, for whatever reason, CAN'T shove the xml into SystemUI.apk, so it WON'T WORK.) The way I know how is to copy SystemUI.apk from your phone onto your computer, open archive (DON'T EXTRACT/UNZIP) SystemUI.apk with 7zip, and just drag and drop the modified status_bar.xml into res/layout of the SystemUI.apk you got from your phone (let it overwrite the original). Then you can put SystemUI.apk with the new status_bar.xml in it back onto your phone's sdcard, copy it to system folder on the root of your phone, using root explorer CHANGE THE PERMISSIONS TO THOSE MATCHING THE ORIGINAL SystemUI.apk!!! (owner: read write, group: read, others: read), and then move it into system/app on your phone and let it overwrite your first SystemUI.apk. Then restart your phone! If you're a rookie like me, I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it's nothing compared to figuring out how to decompile and recompile the damned SystemUI.apk, which took me forEVER.

So anyway, you brave ones (and ones who know how to backup your SystemUI.apk and revert back to it in case this one screws up your phone) let me know how it goes if you try it! I don't know if it's common knowledge already or not that everyone knows how to decompile/recompile system apks in the Nitro, so I won't go into detail, but if someone wants to know so they can play with the xml's on the phone as well, let me know and I'll be glad to explain what I did in gross detail! Now to play with the other xml's...

*edit, Fyi, for those having difficulty finding it, the full path is:
system/app/SystemUI.apk/res/layout/status_bar.xml

If you're anal for not liking that AT&T crap taking up screen estate that could (and SHOULD!) be used for actual notifications...Then I'm just as anal!

And so a 'Thanks' for you for doing this!

You would think with a 720p screen we would be ok with AT&T plastering their name on our phone, but that is not the case... I will also be trying out your version shortly.

dang, nice work, thanks!

i am the same, besides, ATT is written on the phone about a 1/2" from the spot on the notification bar, irritating to say the least.

WE HAVE OUR FIRST DEV!!! well....somewat roflmao!!

Haha, oh dear god, no. I'm just obsessive =)

Anyone actually try it? Have any problems? The only problem I can envision is not putting the proper permissions on the new SystemUI.apk or someone trying to unzip SystemUI.apk instead of just dragging and dropping status_bar.xml into the layout folder of the unzipped archive. Otherwise, I tested it a bunch and had no problems on my phone! Someone please let me know I'm not sabotaging phones all over the world right now =)

can you also replace the stupid annoying battery icon with "% battery".
WTF is google thinking?? that stupid stock battery icon doesn't do anything but take up spaces!

WARNING! you might brick your phone, i tried it, and my freaking phone wont boot! and freaking LG is not putting the recovery rom on their "LG software updater"!

Well, crap. Sorry dude. I can't change the battery icon to individual single percentages yet. The best I can do is replace it with images that will show % at 5% intervals (there's a different png for every 5% charge of the battery in the framework already).

How did you try to put the status_bar.xml into your SystemUI.apk? I'm sorry it's doing that! Is your systemui otherwise stock?

Originally Posted by itiskonrad

How did you try to put the status_bar.xml into your SystemUI.apk? I'm sorry it's doing that! Is your systemui otherwise stock?

i didnt try your status_bar.xml cus i'm scare! haha
i used uot kitchen to cook % battery and i replaced the files, and my phone wont boot up.

Ohhh, thank god. I thought I ruined your phone! Yeah, you can't use uot kitchen right now. If whatever it produces doesn't bootloop your phone, it still won't work. Most of the image files are in xhdpi folders (for 720p screens), and since kitchen only supports up to qhd, it'll change the files in the hdpi folders, most of which are useless to us. But it will still screw with the xml's causing disaster. Can you do anything with your phone now? Can you push files or anything? Kitchen uot will only screw with framework-res.apk and SystemUI.apk. If you could at least still push files to your phone through your computer, I could give you the original two system files to put back onto your phone and overwrite the kitchen uot crap...