Hello Note 2 Friends,
I hope you don't mind me crashing into your forum. First, I want to tell you I don't have a Note 2 but I have a Note 1 and some Note 2 users who have been following my threads in the Note 1 forum have been nagging me for quite some time now about bringing some features of my mods from Note 1 to Note 2. It took me awhile but I decided to give it a shot, but I was hoping I could get your help along the way. This is a work in progress (or development in progress) and I ask you to understand the limitations that I have considering I don't own the device. If in the process I am not able to achieve the goal I set out to accomplish, I would ask the moderators to delete this thread but in the meantime, to those who are interested, please, let us help each other achieve the goal.
So what is the goal?
The goal is to get a working TouchWiz Tablet UI and Phablet UI with floating multiwindows using the stock Note 2 systemui/frameworks so all the stock features are maintained and at higher dpis so text and pages are readable. The end goal is something like the photos at the bottom of this post.
I intend to do this in several stages.
1. Make a multi-dpi SystemUI that can scale from Tablet, Phablet and Phone dpis.
2. Trigger Tablet and Phablet UI at higher densities to make texts and pages readable.
3. Floating Multiwindows.
Before I proceed I want to make it clear that this goal may or may not be achievable because of my limitations and maybe limitations of code in the stock Note 2 firmware. I have not tested this on a Note 2 device and I posted it here to solicit volunteers for testing and for feedback. In the process of testing, please let me know any issues (possibly with more details, descriptions and screenshots) so we can iron out those issues.
Let us start with stage 1.
Requirements: rooted deodex rom - XXDMC3 (I used Wanam's XXDMC3 Rom as base so it is preferable to start with that, although it may work with other roms. But since it is a first stage, I want to be close to stock as possible and do themes/mods later). Please make a backup before you proceed -
Very Important.
a. Install an alternative launcher like Apex or Nova, etc.
b. Install an alternative keyboard like Swype, Swiftkey, etc.
c.
Download THIS and flash thru recovery. Reboot.
d. Now, let us test if it works.
e. Install build prop editor and change ro.sf.lcd_density value to 200 (tablet).
f. See if tablet UI is triggered at 200 dpi. If it is, then good.
g. Test Phablet UI by changing ro.sf.lcd_density value to 220. Then Reboot.
h. Waiting for your feedback...
Note: These are the dpis for the different UIs: 221 to 320 -> Phone UI, 201 to 220 -> Phablet UI, 160 to 200 -> Tablet UI.
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Stage 2
It seems Stage 1 is complete but only for some ROMs - the reason I believe is due to heavy modification of the SystemUI specially with regards to battery themes and maybe the use of addon frameworks like simplistic but tablet UI works with unmodified and slightly modified N7100 MC3 roms.
Stage 2 is partly done by stage 1 already because tablet UI is triggered at higher densities. Technically, tablet ui for the Note 2 is supposed to start at 144 dpi and phablet ui at 192 dpi but because of the modified frameworks, it is triggered at minimum 200 for tablet and minimum 220 for phablet. I dont know if tablet @ 200 dpi or phablet @ 220 dpi is good enough for you Guys size-wise as I can not see without a test device so you will have to tell me the sweet spot (what dpi) for tablet and phablet so I can modify the triggered density and make adjustments in spacing/padding of the navigation buttons/lockscreen shortcuts, etc. If you use _TB_TB xposed Tablet UI trigger found
HERE with the Xposed Framework and trigger tablet ui at different densities and see which is the "sweet spot" dpi. Another is modifying Settings to include the quick launch option to enable/disable quicklaunch options on the systembar.
NOTE: While _TB_TB (he is the author of TabletUI trigger by the way) made a post here to not mess with dpi, that is what TabletUI trigger actually does. The difference between his method and mine is that mine has fine-grained control and can give you the option to move from one UI to another with properly spaced nav bar buttons. When and
"IF" my mod is finished I will provide a very simple app to move from one UI to another and from Stock Multiwindow or Floating Multiwindow. Please take note of the word
"IF" because there is a possibilty that the Note 2 firmware may not have the code for these features like it does for the Note 1 and Note 10.1 and Note 8.
Reading some of the posts, I believe a lot of devs have already attempted to go past Stage 3 and encountered some problems/issues considering they have a device to test with so I am thinking maybe Note 2 does not have the essential codes for floating windows. I believe they are smart enough to know how floating windows works and how it is enabled. This makes me think twice whether to proceed to stage 3 or not. But there is one test I need to make to know if it works or not but that would be on stage 3 so now you just have to tell me the best tablet dpi or phablet dpi and please post screenshots of graphical errors or whatever so I know how to fix them.
For those using the tablet and phablet UI, I know there are layout problems with stock apps because they can't scale well at lower dpis. You can use alternative Note 10.1 or Note 8 ported apps which are already in their respective forums and I recommend you use xposed framework and app settings module to set your preferred app layouts. Another is modifying Flashbar multiwindow for multi-dpi but I need to get the screen dimensions so I can properly mod it. If you install Screeninfo app, it will tell you the screen sizes (w x h) if using tablet/phablet ui and let me know the dimensions or maybe a screenshot so I will be able to modify Flashbar correctly.
For other Note 2/SGS 3 models like AT&T and Verizon,etc, you need to give me your Rom-related files so I can mod them. I need the SystemUI.apk, FlashBarService.apk, SecSettings.apk, framework-res.apk, twframework-res.apk, android.policy.jar and services.jar. Please state the device model and JB version so I can properly label them for others.
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Stage 3
Stage 3 is complete at least for the N7100 model with MC3 firmware. There are some limitations with the floating windows of Note 2 like no "Resize button" when apps are maximized/fullscreen because there are missing drawables in framework-res.apk and some incomplete multiwindow code. The truth is the Note 1 has more mature multiwindow code than the Note 2 and because of not having this device I could not possibly recreate the missing resources and code that are missing in Note 2 firmware. In fact, I would say the Note 2 JB 4.1.1 has more complete resources and code for floating multiwindows than the JB 4.1.2. If anyone is interested in the JB 4.1.1 then you can send me a PM together with the necessary files and I'll try to do the same mod for you.
