Complete How-To on How to Mod Your Phone (2.1 ROM, O/C, MM, Boot Animation, etc)

[Matth3w]

If you want to patch a Metamorph Theme...keep going, otherwise, skip this section (credit to Johnny Kansas for this)

68. Download Metamorph from the Market. Download a theme. Should be in .zip format. Put that zip in the "AndroidThemes" folder that Metamorph created.

69. Open Metamorph and select "pick theme"

70. Select the zip file of the theme you want to apply. It will then extract the files.

71. To apply it, click "existing theme"

72. Select the theme you're trying to apply, and then find the proper file. The file with the Metamorph logo (green M) is the file you need to select.

73. After selecting that file, it will show you what individual components you can apply the theme to "gmail, calendar, etc."

74. You can select one at a time to apply, or you can select apply all to put the entire theme on.

NOTE: framework-res will change things like status bar and etc. It's the only part that requires a reboot, but metamorph will detect if you install it and ask you if you want to reboot. Make sure the theme you want to install is compatible with the rom you're using...Otherwise not everything (If anything) will be themed...AND other issues may arise.

ALSO, if you get a Busy Box error:

Ok, I got an error saying I either didn't have enough memory in my system folder or busybox is not installed. BB is installed because I use it with Titanium Backup. System says 31.18MB free, how do I free up space in the system folder? I have like 109MB free and maybe only 30-40 apps.

I ran into this too. It's not the space issue, it's the location of BB. Using the directions you provided (thanks BTW) I installed BB 1.1 and it put busybox in the /system/xbin folder. However, metamorph looks for it in the /system/bin folder.

Copy and paste the busybox file in to the /system/bin folder then it should work fine.

[Matth3w]

If you want to install custom icons...keep going, otherwise, skip this section

If you're looking for some icons, I made some here.


Carbon - Carbon/Gold - Blue - Black - Black/Gold - Red - Orange - Pink - Gold - Smoked

75. Custom icons are easy to install and use. Simply get your icons and extract them all into a folder called 'icons' on your SD card.

76. Download the app BetterCut from the Market for about 3 bucks.

77. Arrange your desktop the way you want.

78. Open BetterCut and choose "Edit Shortcut."

79. Find the shortcut already located on your desktop. From here you can change the name of the shortcut or change the icon. If you change the icon, just choose "Pick Picture" NOT "Icon Pack" to use the ones you just put on your SD card. I use some of my own that I made.

[Matth3w]

If you want to free up some space/remove unwanted programs...keep going, otherwise, skip this section


Keep in mind this part can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I highly suggest doing a backup (steps 27-33) before continuing. Use this to get rid of things like Corporate Calendar. I have had issues trying to remove alarm clock and email, so I would avoid those. You can also use this to remove LiveWallpapers.apk if you don't want live wallpapers (like me).

80. Open up Root Explorer (download from the Market if you haven't already).

81. Create a folder on your SD card called APK or Backup.

82. Navigate to /system/app on your phone (not SD card)

83. Choose Mount R/W in the upper right hand corner. This gives you read/write access to these files.

84. Choose Menu>Multiselect and select the files you want to move/delete.

85. Once you are done selecting, choose "move" from the bottom buttons.

86. Navigate to the folder you created above, and hit the paste.

[Matth3w]

If you want to try to improve call quality...keep going, otherwise, skip to this section


Keep in mind these changes can be reversed and not everyone has the same outcome (sometimes changing these settings actually makes call quality WORSE, not better)

87. Go to menu > settings > call settings and turn off voice privacy. Quite often this causes an echo for someone else on the other line. <Screenshot>

88. This next tip might not always work, depending where you live...so if your call quality gets worse after trying just change it back...go to the dialer and on the standard phone screen type ##PROGRAM and enter 000000 when it askd for the password. Then choose VOCODE. the default is EVRC. Try changing this to ERVC-B. This is a newer call standard that isn't completely in effect yet....also you can try 13k which is the oldest of the standards. Let me know how it works. <Screenshot> <Screenshot 2>

[Matth3w]

If you want to try to improve battery life...keep going, otherwise, skip to this section

89. The easiest way to show you how to do this is read my blog post here. I know it seems silly to have an entire section with just one step, but I think reading this might really help some people out. Very important to know how to improve battery life when you are pushing your phone to 1.2GHz+

[Matth3w]

If you need to know how to upgrade using the update.zip method...keep going, otherwise, skip this section


NOTE: This will only work if you ALREADY have a 2.1 ROM installed on your phone! Also, if you want to upgrade using a ROM other than Bugless Beast, simply download the update.zip (if available) from a different developer (Ultimate Droid, Smoked Glass, Simply Stunning, etc).

90. Download Pete's newest update.zip here. Mount your phone to the PC as you have done several times now. Rename or delete any update.zip files currently on the SD card. Move the NEW update.zip that you just downloaded to the root of your SD card.

91. Reboot the phone in recovery mode (you should be a pro at this by now).

92. Choose install.

93. Choose allow update.zip installation. Don't forget this step. If you do, you will get "installation blocked" or something to that effect. This is the feature that prevent OTA updates from being able to be installed to your phone. In the future, if you want to accept a Google update for you phone you will need to download the file, then boot into this menu, and hit "allow update.zip installation" or it won't work.

94. Choose Install /sdcard/update.zip (deprecated). Deprecated is a software developer's term that means "something that should not be used or is dangerous to use and recommended against". Obviously we want to use this update.zip, so in this case, think of the term deprecated as a warning...as in "Are you sure you want to overwrite your current OS?" It's perfectly safe to complete this step, but many people do not know what this word means.

95. Reboot the phone.

[Matth3w]

If you need to know how to restore your apps...keep going, otherwise, skip this section

96. Open up Titanium Backup. (common sense dictates you will have to redownload this app first from the Market)

97. Go to Menu > Batch

98. Choose restore all apps with data and run operation. This is where the donate version of Titanium Backup comes into play. Because without it, you will need to "ok" every single installation of every app. Very much a pain in the ass.

99. To restore your bookmarks that we backed up earlier, click the backup/restore tab and select [BOOKMARKS] Browser 2.0.1 and choose restore.

[Matth3w]

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[Matth3w]

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[Matth3w]

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