[GUIDE] How to remove Samsung QuickSettings from the notification area

[x_puma_x]

Here is a quick guide on how to remove the bloatet Samsung QuickSettings from the notification area.
This screenshots show what this guide should help you achieve:

Before:

(I'm using enox reVenge. So my Notification QuickSettings look a little different than the stock version)

After:


So here is how I did it:

Prerequirements:
- a rooted ROM
- apktool.jar, helper-script for your OS and aapt (get them from code.google.com/p/android-apktool/ and throw them all into one folder)

Decompile:
Get /system/app/SystemUI.apk and /system/framework/framework-res.apk from your phone

adb pull /system/app/SystemUI.apk
adb pull /system/framework/framework-res.apk

Then install framework and decompile SystemUI.apk

apktool if framework-res.apk
apktool d SystemUi.apk

Additionally unzip the SystemUI.apk and get the META-INF folder and the AndroidManifest.xml file. Save them somewhere for later.

Modify (aka: the interesting part):
In SystemUI/res/values/dimens.xml change all values starting with "quick_setting_button_" to "0.0dip"
For me this was changing

<dimen name="quick_setting_button_height">80.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_image_height">40.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_text_height">30.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_text_size">12.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_status_height">8.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_status_padding">2.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_margin_top">2.0dip</dimen>

to

<dimen name="quick_setting_button_height">0.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_image_height">0.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_text_height">0.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_text_size">0.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_status_height">0.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_status_padding">0.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="quick_setting_button_margin_top">0.0dip</dimen>

Recompile:

apktool b SystemUI

- go to the newly created SystemUI/build/apk/
- paste the META-INF folder and AndroidManifest.xml file which you unziped earlier here (overwriting the existing AndroidManifest.xml)
- do another:

apktool b SystemUI

(will be faster than the first run)

Install:
- get your modded SystemUI.apk in SystemUI/dist/
- move it to your phone (to /system/app/) (this requires R/W access to /system. One way to get this is starting CWM)
- start CWM and mount /system

adb push SystemUI.apk /system/app/

- change the permissions to 644

adb shell
chmod 644 /system/app/SystemUI.apk
reboot

DONE

 

[AssToast]

Great for people who doesn't like settings on their phone?

 

[mtbowen]

I was looking for this exact thing since for some reason, my Sprint S3 does not have the Notification Panel option available under display to customize this area.

However, I followed these steps and did not get the results you did. For one, I did not get a META-INF folder so that may have been part of the issue. Loading my new SystemUI.apk resulted in the notification bar disappearing completely and my Holo launcher being severly confused. I had to put my original apk back.

Perhaps the launcher is what caused the problem...

Mike

*** UPDATE ***

Had a friend of mine do this and he extracted the META-INF folder from the apk and recompiled. This time it the UI looked normal when the phone booted, but the bar was the same with all the quick setting still visible.

 

[x_puma_x]

@mtbowen:
You have to get the META-INF folder and the AndroidManifest.xml from the original/unmodified SystemUI.apk .
Just unzip the apk with WinRAR or whatever you use.
I updated the HowTo to make this clearer.

META-INF contains the APKs certificate. Since you didn't include it your APK wasn't signed and thus didn't work.

 

[RodHQ]

Can they be modified instead of completely erased? I do use some of them, but others just take up space and make the whole thing scroll every time I open the notification drawer

 

[x_puma_x]

Yes. Should be possible.
Have a look at this:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2191593

 

[Servine]

it works but the brightness slider doesn't seem to go up, the area of quick settings stays blank

 

[blindguyinanorgy]

have you looked at making an Xposed module for this?

 

[its1110]

Is this truly of help?

Correct me if I'm mistaken but this appears to be only a cosmetic fix. I have not done this as yet because the one user seems to have reported that this does not actually recover the space used by the buttons. This implies that it only makes them disappear. If this is the case this solves nothing; you have gotten rid of no bloat, you've just hidden it. Any system resources are still being used, other than the little bit (the tiny little bit) involved in displaying the graphics.

Has anyone a real solution for this?

 

[LasciviousOctopus]

I followed the instructions of this guide on a Canadian version of the Samsung S III mini. Unfortunately it did not remove the drawer icons, i.e. it appears that the solution will only work depending on some other unknown conditions. I was however successful when using instead the reGXM Ex xposed module as described in thread 2698143, even though this does not seem to have been the objectives of the original developer.