HOWTO Install Any Droid 2 ROM on your R2-D2 Droid 2 and keep all the R2-D2 theme bits

[Ecnassianer]

Glad you found it useful. If you want to show your gratitude, you should tell your friend to read my webcomic.

I'm not an expert with metamorph, but maybe I can help. Where are you getting stuck? Is it giving any error messages?

Did you try unziping the lock screen first, and drop it in the Android Themes folder, and run metamorph, apparently the unzipping can cause problems some times.

 

[chaaaad]

I put the zip folder in AndroidThemes and unzipped it using Metamorph. I then chose the lockr2d2.xml file, hit apply all, and had Metamorph reboot me. No dice. Did the entire thing again but this time unzipping the folder myself. All that it does is reboot me with a different wallpaper.

 

[Ecnassianer]

Did you try tapping on “SubTheme: framework-res.apk” and applying just that instead of everything?

 

[chaaaad]

Just tried it that way right now. Still didn't work.

 

[Ecnassianer]

Hmm, dunno. I'm tapped out, and we're home from the holidays so I don't have easy access to my girlfriend's phone to experiment. Sorry.

Try asking in a new thread over on the themers forum or in a thread about metamorph.

If you figure do it out, could you post a link here so I can update the guide if anybody else has the same problem?

 

[mingaldrichgan]

Hi, I'm relatively new to this forum. I just got a Droid R2-D2 two days ago (my first smart phone ever!) and have been playing around with it ever since. I'm currently running Fission 2.5.7 with almost all of the Star Wars bits reintegrated, including all of the live wallpapers.

Yes, you read me right... I got the two rogue live wallpapers up and running on Fission!

First, I want to thank Ecnassianer for bravely venturing forth into the unknown (or, at least, the less-well-documented) and writing this incredibly detailed guide. I probably wouldn't have dared to SBF and install a new ROM and risk bricking my phone without it.

Now, the reason you couldn't get Asteroids.apk and Swipe.apk to install is because they were odexed... that is, they each had a corresponding .odex file. Now, I'm still a little hazy on the details so correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that odexed applications are tied to a specific framework. I attempted to deodex the files myself with the smali/baksmali package, but the result still failed to run. Finally, I turned to Angdroid's "Star Wars" ROM, which is as close to stock 2.4.5 as I've found, and which also happens to be fully deodexed. I grabbed his deodexed Asteroids.apk and Swipe.apk and integrated them into the bootanimation.zip package (you could probably also just push them using ADB), and I was good to go... but not before adding a few other goodies.

First of all, I decided to restore the boot animation sound, which involves swapping out the /system/bin/bootanimation file for a patched one that I found on another forum. In addition, I edited the metadata for the R2-D2 sounds to prefix their titles with "R2-D2", so that they are listed together in the notification/ringtone selection screen. I also copied the ringtone versions of these sounds (the only difference is that the ringtone versions loop while the notification ones don't) to the /system/media/audio/alarms folder so that they are selectable as alarm sounds. [I originally included the /system/media/video/startupvideo_en.3gp file for the convenience of having an all-in-one package, but decided to remove it.]

Ladies and gentledroids, I present to you... R2D2-bootanimationmod.zip. Instructions for using these files are exactly the same as those for Team Black Hat's original R2D2-bootanimation.zip file. [To summarize: boot into clockworkmod recovery, mount /system, install zip from sdcard.] Full credit goes to Team Black Hat (for R2D2-bootanimation.zip) and Angdroid (for the deodexed Star Wars ROM).

[After applying R2D2-bootanimationmod.zip, you can easily disable the boot animation sound by renaming /system/media/d2_r2d2_pu.ogg to something else, like d2_r2d2_pu.ogg.bak. Then, re-enabling it is as simple as renaming the file back to its original name.]

[Note, however, that R2D2-bootanimationmod.zip replaces /system/bin/bootanimation with a patched version. If you don't want that to happen, go ahead and delete the /system/bin folder INSIDE THE ZIP FILE, before applying the zip file. While you're at it, you might as well also delete the /system/media/d2_r2d2_pu.ogg file, because the file *probably* won't play anyway.]

Two other things before I sign off. First, I tried backing up the "Best of R2-D2" app (which opens the .3gp file) with TitaniumBackup, as Ecnassianer suggested, but it failed to restore a working version. Does anyone have the original .apk file? (It's not in Angdroid's Star Wars ROM, so don't bother looking there.)

Second, Fission 2.5.5+ appears to use a different lockscreen framework so the original Star Wars lockscreen won't work. However, I will say that the rotary lockscreen looks absolutely b!+chin' against the 3D Millennium Falcon live wallpaper. I did identify the PNG files that need to be replaced, if anyone wants to create Star Wars lockscreen icons for Fission 2.5.5+... I thought about it, but I just don't feel like doing it right now.

 

[Ecnassianer]

mingaldrichgan, you are..... AMAAAAZZIIIING.

I suspected that the broken live wallpapers were an odexing issue (since they had odex files and none of the others did), but didn't have time to investigate. I should have made a note in the guide, maybe it would have saved you some time. Thanks for doing all this work!

I edited your link into the first post so people will see it. Post again when you've released the nobootsound version and I'll add that as well!

Thanks again! Glad to have the guide almost 100%

 

[mingaldrichgan]

Ecnassianer, I've updated my post to include the "nobootsound" version (which I haven't tested myself, but should work in theory).

I also forgot to mention that, if you apply R2D2-bootanimationmod.zip after having already applied the original R2D2-bootanimation.zip, the sound titles don't seem to get updated (with the "R2-D2" prefix). I have no idea why that is.

Do you happen to have the original .apk file for "The Best of R2-D2" app?

 

[Ecnassianer]

Your post links to the version including the sound twice, but I found the correct URL and added it to the first post.

It's my understanding that user/market apps, like the Best of R2-D2, app don't have apks on the phone. The market handles the packaging and installation. Even if I'm wrong about this, we wiped my girlfriend's phone before I found it, so it's gone either way.

Thanks for adding the no sound version!

 

[mingaldrichgan]

Ah yes, thanks for pointing out my mistake. I copied and pasted the link and forgot to amend it. I've corrected it now.

Were you able to restore a working version of the app to your girlfriend's phone using TitaniumBackup? When I tried it, it simply wouldn't play. In any case, I don't think the app is anything more than a link to the video, so perhaps someone will be able to recreate it easily. I haven't delved into Android development myself but now that I have a phone, it's probably a good time to start. (I do have some programming experience in several different languages.)

 

[Ecnassianer]

Were you able to restore a working version of the app to your girlfriend's phone using TitaniumBackup? When I tried it, it simply wouldn't play. In any case, I don't think the app is anything more than a link to the video, so perhaps someone will be able to recreate it easily. I haven't delved into Android development myself but now that I have a phone, it's probably a good time to start. (I do have some programming experience in several different languages.)

Truth is, I never restored the video file (no need to waste 11 megs), so when I restored the App and it ran fine but threw a cryptic error message, I assumed it just couldn't find the video, never investigated further.

I suspect 85% of rewriting the Best Of app will be setting up your dev environment.

I've been looking for an excuse to make a simple android app. You want to team up and learn together this weekend?

 

[mingaldrichgan]

Hmmm... tempting. Maybe. Let's see how I feel about it this weekend. =)

 

[Ecnassianer]

Hmm, just realized that there was a Vader photo widget that I didn't keep track of. Was that just a jpeg that was set as the only image? Anybody know how to get it back or save it for restoring post-wipe?

 

[mingaldrichgan]

Hmm, just realized that there was a Vader photo widget that I didn't keep track of.

That's funny, I was just thinking the same thing today.

I discovered that my "nobootsound" version doesn't work, at least not on Fission 2.5.7. I had initially assumed that I could modify the desc.txt file contained inside /system/media/bootanimation.zip to instruct it NOT to play a sound during boot (changing the corresponding line to "s none"), but the resulting file simply did not play at all on my phone: I simply got a blank screen.

Therefore, I have removed the "nobootsound" version from my server. My recommended solution is to use the version with boot sound, and to rename /system/media/d2_r2d2_pu.ogg to /system/media/d2_r2d2_pu.ogg.bak to disable the startup sound (and vice versa to enable it).

I also decided to remove the "Best of R2-D2" video file from my bootanimationmod package, since I assume most people won't want it taking up space on your phone, especially without a working version of the official app. (If anyone got the official version to work, let us know!)

Finally, I changed the location of the file on my web server. It's now in the "files" directory instead of the "temp" directory.

Ecnassianer, sorry to make you edit your initial post once again! I will amend my earlier post as well with these changes.

 

[tmsullivan333]

ok so i have read this guide a lot and have finally decided to go though with it...
i installed RSD Lite and such and whatnot but it will not recognize my phone at all.
Any tips to get it to?