[Guide] How to change the color of your notification bar / background

[WebghostDK]

This is my first "guide" so bare over with me


In order to change your status bar color along with the Background color, do this:

First we need the framework-res.apk from the phone
- adb remount
- adb pull /system/framework/framework-res.apk framework-res.apk
Take a backup of this file in case you failed and wants to go back.
Rename your local framework-res.apk to: framework-res.apk.zip

Open the Zip file and go here:
/res/drawable/

Locate these files and unzip them:
statusbar_background.png
status_bar_background.png
status_bar_close_on.9.png
status_bar_header_background.9.png
status_bar_item_background_normal.9.png


These are the files you want.
I sugest that you use Photoshop to do what you want with the colors, if you are using Photoshop, be carefull editing status_bar_close_on.0.png, it might look weird if you are doing it wrong.

After your done editing these pictures go here:
/res/drawable_land/

Locate and unzip:
statusbar_background.png

Do the same here as you done with the first pictures.



After you are done editing the png's, save them in your zip file.
Rename framework-res.apk.zip to framework-res.apk.

- adb push framework-res.apk /system/framework/framework-res.apk

Now restart your phone, and your Notification bar has been fixed


I'm using Open Home along with HTC Hero skin and this just looks PERFECT!
This doesn't change the Text's on your Notification Screen, that you will have to find out for yourself, or post a solution here.

 

[Draxter]

Can't wait to try that out I want mine to be changed..

 

[WebghostDK]

Update:

For changing the color of the clock, take a look at this topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535630

Solution will be there during the week.
It's already available for Rogers ROM's.

 

[MontAlbert]

Update:

For changing the color of the clock, take a look at this topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535630

Solution will be there during the week.
It's already available for Rogers ROM's.

Yeah i have tried to push a heap of different G1 services.jar files over to my Magic (ion rom) but was in boot loop city for every one. Oshaka has said he will modify a sapphire services.jar for me... still waiting on that- will post my results as soon as he has it for me.....

TBH though, having a status bar background black with green behind the black clock is actually probably easier for me to read than the white one......will test it out when i get the correct services.jar

 

[MontAlbert]

got green notifications but for some reason the services.jar doesn't change....
working on it... maybe oshaka can come up with a reason for me...

 

[WebghostDK]

I cant seem to get the services.jar to change either. I have asked Oshaka to fix it for me, and he said he would do it like 3-4 days ago.
Waiting

 

[MontAlbert]

I cant seem to get the services.jar to change either. I have asked Oshaka to fix it for me, and he said he would do it like 3-4 days ago.
Waiting

services.jar will work on hofo rom or any rom without .odex files. The problem with hero and ion roms are that they dont have the classes.dex files within services.jar. I am assuming they are in the services.odex file, which so far i have been unable to open and read to find the correct smali files.

I have called it quits trying to figure it out for now...... until the colorchanger app includes support for this i am putting it in the too hard basket.

Let us know if ohsaka gets back to you. If we get this we can theme anything we want- i made a theme template for ion which worked......

***edit*** just got a reply from Ohsaka, he said there is no way he knows of to open .odex files to edit colour inside of them. that kind of means those of us running ION or hero are **** out of luck. Until someone starts modding the HTC build a bit more (kind of like how cyanogen mods the standard 1.5 and also pulls from donut etc) then we are stuck with what we have got
Hofo rom has some potential.... maybe we should all chip in and buy cyanogen a Magic (32A of course )?

 

[mcg]

Is it possible to edit the png's in the framework zip to a translucent opacity, and push the entire zip back in to make the notification bar have some transparency?

Edit: Nm, tried it and it is more complicated than I thought lol. Screenshots of a 50% status bar png to come

 

[jinglebinkie]

I have adb etc set up and willing to try ,would be my first action on editing my phone.
Does my phone need to be rooted/re-rommed for this to work ?
I own a original out of the box T-Mobile G1 , and I really would like to change the colouring of the notification bar to match the colour of my background picture, but not at the expense of giving up my warranty ( not yet ) , depends on future updates of G1 which is doubtfull at the moment I believe

 

[WebghostDK]

I have adb etc set up and willing to try ,would be my first action on editing my phone.
Does my phone need to be rooted/re-rommed for this to work ?
I own a original out of the box T-Mobile G1 , and I really would like to change the colouring of the notification bar to match the colour of my background picture, but not at the expense of giving up my warranty ( not yet ) , depends on future updates of G1 which is doubtfull at the moment I believe

I haven't tried this out at a non-rooted phone, but yes, it will work on a non-rooted phone, so just go ahead.
Don't be affraid about the warrenty, you can always say you downloaded a skin on market

 

[Six6Sicks]

services.jar .......

Totally noob to this crazy world, what does the services.jar do?
What effects does it have? I'm trying to edit the notification bar/icons.
Am I limited to what can be done because of this "services.jar" ?

 

[mark0]

I keep getting "remount failed: Operation not permitted" when i try to remount

 

[iloveandroid]

can you do this on the droid eris

 

[1wingangel]

should work on eris,just do a nandroid backup first just in case you need to roll back

 

[jamsk8er1994]

I just wanted to let people know, i ran into a problem with force closing constantly.
Solution i came up with is if you have the custom OC kernel, you must edit the
pictures and stuff for your UI and then flash the kernel. If the kernel is already in place
it will conflict with the 'adb push framework-res.apk /system/framework/framework-res.apk'
And a data value will change, causing force closes.

~

 

[Jimmarn]

So, is there any way I can grab the smileys aswell and change them? I want the SonyEricsson smileys instead of those android ones.

 

[pulse-user]

I also get force close (of the market app) after modifying images in a custom ROM, on a T-Mobile Pulse. jamsk8er1994, could you explain in more detail what you mean by "edit pictures and flash your kernel"?

 

[Jimmarn]

The same goes for those of you who want to change the smileys that you see on your phone. If you're tired of those robots you go into
- framework-res.apk\res\drawable-mdpi-v4
and find the files called "emo_im_"

There is 17 files, png's. open photoshop and make the smileys you'd like in a 20x20 canvas (pixels). save for web and devices -png 24, with the same name. In example: (The grinning smiley :-D) is emo_im_laughing.png
Then you drag the new png you've made into the apk file and choose replace existing.

Note: this is only for your viewing, others will not see the smileys you have on your phone unless they got the same on theirs. If they have the droid ones that is what they see when you send. But if they send you a droid smiley you see the custom one you've put in yourself.

 

[stevan6]

i changed all the colors to black on PS. dragged them back into the zip file, renamed it to "framework-res.apk" and typed in the command in the cmd. I got a message saying "failed to copy 'framework-res.apk' to '/system/framework/framework-res.apk' : No space left on device".

what do i do?

 

[gtklocker]

Awesome thingy, I'll make everything non-glossy.