[ALL][CWM][APK]Hard-Keys editor app! (Volume keys to whatever you want!)

Hey everybody!

***New APK editor added! Set the keys to whatever you want, see below!***

****I will not be held responsible if your Nook Color starts eating babies!!****

****Or if it breaks either!!****

****Added a revert, for those who may have issues returning the keylayout to stock (like 1.1 users who can't run the keylayout app)****

****As an added request, if anyone knows how to reload the keylayouts sans reboot, please let me know, as that is really the only thing missing from this little thing. I would love to be able to quickly reload these as needed.****

So after creating the flashable zip file for the keylayouts, and receiving some feedback that implied it would be nice to have more options, I decided to brush up on the coding skills and write a nice little app that can re-write the keylayout files without having to flash anything. This is actually my first android app, so please provide me with any feedback you may have, the more the better. The way I see it, the more I know, the better things I can make.

The keylayout app currently supports mapping the volume keys to these items:

Volume Up
Volume Down
Menu
Back
Search
D-pad Center

and can additionally support wake on press, if desired. Once written, you will need to reboot your device for the keylayout to be effective, but it's still easier than manual edits or multiple flashes.

***Note that using the app requires su access, and also at this point requires that you first flash one of my v5 keylayout zip files***

***I have received notice that the application does not run on stock rooted 1.1.0 I will be looking into this and posting an update, and most likely a revert to stock zip in case anyone needs it.***

Thanks go to whoever first suggested this, I'll be damned if I can't remember who I got this from, but thank you, whoever you are, I'll be sure to give you props when I figure out who you are.

History over, now for the details:


To install: Simply flash either zip file in CWM after flashing your CM7 or Honeycomb build to your eMMC. Once you do this, you can install and use the apk file to make changes to the keylayouts to your heart's content.


The CWM zips have been confirmed to work on most all versions of android for the nook, and in theory, the APK should work as well, however YMMV. If it works, or if it doesn't, please please post your version or build info, and let us all know what works and what doesn't.

Feedback and/or critiques accepted, may be subject to rebuttal. Hope this helps someone else, and thanks to everyone on this forum for all the hard work you do!


FYI: For those who still want an easy way to change the volume when these keys are no longer volume keys, try replacing the longpress home app with Recent Plus, by local forum contributor timoskrempel, which I first found HERE and works very well as a replacement.

Version History
-----------------------
apkv0.1b - Initial version of the keylayout app. Feedback appreciated.

v5: added files that apparently weren't as useless as I assumed. Also created inverted keys zip, use INV zip to switch the buttons.

v4: removed useless files from update zip, cause I'm being a bit too perfectionist.

V3: added files to improve compatibility (HC v4 tested, should work on Froyo, maybe stock)

V2: removed wake on press (thanks jasoraso)

V1: First Version

jasoraso said:

One other thing - I also prefer to remove the "wake" for those 2 keys, I found that the NC was accidentally waking up from inadvertent keypresses on the volume keys ...

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

An excellent point. Editing my zip and attaching v2. thanks to you!

digitalslacker said:

I love this. always get stuck in pics in Facebook and can't get back.

Question though, what do you all use for a good alternative to adjust the volume on the fly?
Is there a preferred widget? Right now i just have a ADW shortcut to the sound settings on the home screen.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Widgetsoid has a volume adjuster that I use, though more often I just use headphones with volume sliders built in, so I skip using the software entirely. Ideally, I would love to be able to mod the framework to add a quick volume adjust button to the status bar like the softkeys, however that involves code editing that I just haven't dug into yet. If I do make the edit, I'll be sure to post what i make though.

fattymcdirty said:

not working with
[ZIP][DEV][ROM] HC v4 eMMC 2nd ed. - Flashable ZIP {02/21/11}

buttons still remain in their normal functionality...

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Thanks for the heads up, will review and post v5 sometime today.

fattymcdirty said:

not working with
[ZIP][DEV][ROM] HC v4 eMMC 2nd ed. - Flashable ZIP {02/21/11}

buttons still remain in their normal functionality...

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Yeah, I totally deleted an extra file, added to v5 and it should now work with this eMMC build. oops.

spikey911 said:

How can you revert back to stock?

Also is there a way to swap the keys? It seems more natural to have the back key as the +

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I will have to put together a stock zip and put it up sometime in the near future. Your swap keys is not easily done directly, but I have posted a new flashable zip that will swap the keys, flash INV-v5 to have the volup function as back and voldown to work as menu. This one I haven't tested, as I don't actually have my nook with me here now, but in theory it should be OK, as all I did was swap the mappings in the kl files.

rickpref said:

After setting up CM7 Nightly 4 last night I replaced the SDcard with CWM 3.0.0.6 used to install CM7 with a fat32 8gb for storage.

Afterwards I installed ROM Manager and the latest Recovery included - 3.0.0.5.

I am able to flash Dalingrin's latest kernel through here but when I went to flash todays Nightly CM7 it did not work (probably because of the 3.0.0.5 i figured). I plugged back in the 1GB SD with 3.0.0.6 and successfully flashed todays nightly.

I then tried to flash the Hard Key Mod file using the emmc recovery and it did not work so I copied it to my 1GB SD and that worked.

Anyways...I wrote this just in case someone was having the same problem I had flashing the Hard Key Mod file and to see if there is any method to set up 3.0.0.6 on the emmc so that I don't have to insert the 1GB SD every time I wanna flash CM7 nightlies.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

My assumption (it may be wrong, as I do not have my nook present with me to confirm) is that the system partition on the CM7 builds is ext4, and as a result, 3.0.0.5 would not be able to access it to flash any data. flashing either the cm7 nightlies or my additions, both of which write to this ext4 partition, needs to be done via 3.0.0.6.

That being said. I personally managed to get 3.0.0.6 to work on my emmc by taking the uImage and uRamdisk from the SD card version, renaming them uRecRam and uRecImg, and copying them to the eMMC boot parition. I would not recommend doing this without knowing *Exactly* what you are doing, as overriding these files with other files could cause bad things to happen, and as I said above, bad things are bad.

rickpref said:

Yeah, I figured it had to be that EXT4 partitions are not compatible with 3.0.0.5 but it took me a while to get it. So I take it you need to use ADB in order to rename and copy to boot those files?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

My ADB machine was down and out at the time, so I had to do it via ES file manager and the terminal on the nook itself, but yeah, manual replacement was the way to go. sometimes a bit of command-fu is just easier than the alternative.