[ROM] - Themed ICS Venture Update - Jan. 22 2013

[Curtis1973]

*** [ROM] - Themed ICS Venture Update - Jan. 22 2013 ***

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Themed elements:

Browser
Contacts
Deskclock
Framework-res
Mms
PackageInstaller
Phone
Settings
Systemui
LatinIME
Wallpaper - 1x1 pixel,black to minimize system use. Can change to any wallpaper you like.


* Replaced Launcher with current and new release of ADW Launcher.

(Will need to customize ADW to configure it the way you want it upon start up. Drag and drop your dock icons in to their normal places you like them after start up. Also turn off the google dock bar option in adw settings unless you want to reinstall google search from play store.)

* Replaced Gallery3D with custom gallery viewer.

* Replaced Stock Music with custom Music Player.

* Replaced File Manager with custom root file manager.

* Replaced Keyboard with custom Keyboard.

* Removed VPN Dialogs from system

* Removed GenieWidget News and Weather system app.

* Removed Google Custom Search application. Tends to use a lot of internal memory. Can be reinstalled from play store if needed.

* Edited stock wallpaper at start to 1x1 pixel,black to limit internal memory use. Most people will want to change their wallpaper anyway,so editing the size of this will reduce its internal use.

* Ringtones,Notifications and Alarms cut to barebones. Most people will want to use their own media for these anyway and having a ton of them in the system partition only takes away from internal memory that can be freed up for other operations.

* Edited start up and shut down splash screens.

Should be a noticeable speed increase right away. All replaced system applications are only a few kb in size difference than their stock counterparts plus giving the additional features the stock do not. Total rom size increase was approximately 6.0 MB total for a total rom size of 76.6 MB. Thats about half original stock rom size. Should run smoothly with extra overhead available in system now.

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This rom application wise and visual style wise is complete. I will pass on additional features and updates that are not application and style wise (unless drac deems to make changes in this area) to drac to add,subtract and modify as he sees fit. I consider this a collaboration with drac as an equal contributor. He has say in making any changes he sees fit without the need to consult me. I expect that in time he may want to make useful changes to this after taking the time he needs to complete his own projects. May want to incorporate any useful items from this to any project he may be working on. Or vice versa. It is his call to do so as needed. He also has at his discretion to bring to or remove from any project member he sees fit concerning this project for help,etc..


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As always a big thank you goes out to Leslie Ann for bringing the Aeneas Rom Package to The Venture. She is well known in the android community for bringing a rom building set to phones like the PCD Venture so users can begin to make their own rom for their device. Without her packages for all these devices..many would have never saw a customized rom. So if you see her here or other places that you frequent online..thank her.



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How to install:

Download rom,enter clockwork mod,make a backup of your current system,perform wipes/formats,flash rom,reboot.


- Download Link -

Download ICS Venture 2.zip from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

 

[Dracable]

hey curtis! thanks for the theme! ill b on top of testing and screenshots as soon as i finish the flashing and initial testing of harmonia! what's a good screenshot app?

 

[Curtis1973]

screenshot ux from play store works good.

 

[Dracable]

i got the screenshots via SDK. screenshot ux distorted images, along with all other screenshot apps i tried.

 

[Curtis1973]

good to hear the sdk got it. look forward to seeing how things turned out. this phone is a but different than other vm phones. i may need to tweak some stuff. but hopefully not to much.

 

[Dracable]

downloading now! ill post results and screenshots after i flash! thanks for ur time man! much appreciated!

 

[Curtis1973]

thanks drac..if there are any issues i think i know what they might be,but its nothing major..some ui image resizing will fix. ill check after work for your findings. if the ui stuff is an issue ill fix the issues and upload a fresh fix by tuesday evening.

 

[divinebovine]

Another screenshot option: You could do them on your computer using androidscreencast. I suspect that whatever you're doing with the SDK (care to explain more?) is similar anyway.

 

[Dracable]

How to take screenshots on the Motorola DROID 3 - Know Your Cell
Check out that link on the SDK method for screenshots. If u already have your drivers and SDK installed, skip to step 9.

 

[divinebovine]

I thought there might be some useful tools there and I was right. I'm glad you posted that.

FYI, androidscreencast is a pleasant way to operate your phone and get screenshots when you've already got ADB drivers working...you just run it and you have your phone in a window on your computer, where you can use your mouse and full-size keyboard to operate the phone and Alt+PrtScr to get screenshots (though they'll have a few extra controls visible too unless you use a snipping tool).
androidscreencast - Desktop app to control an android device remotely - Google Project Hosting

 

[Dracable]

Alrighty... Installation went well. No glitches there! First thing i noticed after install was that the boot animation was the stock VM one. i didnt know if it was intentional or not, so i thought id mention it. Next thing was the wallpaper. I wasnt sure if the default wallpaper was supposed to come up as the LWP or not (tested LWP tho, works great after u select it). Next thing i noticed was the "ghost" widget on the home screen. tried switching around some options, tried deleting and reinstalling widget, no luck. tried installing a couple other widgets, which seemed to work fine. Next i checked out the app closet. Everything worked awesome in there, but on the Venture's small low-res screen, squinting was a must to be able to read the text below the apps. As you will see in the screenshots, the numbers on the dialer were cut off. All menus and notifications looked great. As you will see on the lock screen photo, my phone was plugged in and charging and had plenty of battery life, but on the notification bar, the battery shows as red. as soon as i unplugged it, the battery symbol went to full, but when i plugged it back in, right back to empty. the battery hasnt drained yet while unplugged, so i dont know if the draining graphics are working correctly or not yet. all the animations and basic GUI functions seem to be working great. tested all other apps, all seem to be working fine. it's an awesome theme tho! cant wait for a final release!!

 

[Curtis1973]

this is very helpful. i thought the dialer icons might be offset in size. i cheated a bit hoping the phone would do its on resize from mdpi to ldpi. but its not a major issue. i can manually resize them. ill take a look at the battery icons and make sure everything matches up with original venture set. theres probably a few named differently. the elite had same issues with signal icons. i did redraw the signal icons manually for the venture,good to see they turned out well. once i get the dialer icons set ill up another final release to the forums. i think i can optimize things even further also. clean up some of my sloppiness and that'll increase response time. ill also select another font type other than sony sketch to improve font size.



edit: just noticed the wallpaper reverting to stock. i have changed it. it must need to be changed in another apk also. cant think of another reason why the added one didnt load. but shouldnt be to difficult to track down. as for the boot animation,yeah i left that the same. didnt want to break it until i can create one or find some compatible ones that will work on the venture.

 

[Dracable]

right on man! u need screens of anything else? i tested everything i could think of, but u never kno, i could have missed something. anyway, it seemed to run great! i cant believe u got my internal storage down to 37 megs! 181 free is a lot better than the 144 free it came with (i believe that was the number after the mobile ID pack install).

 

[Curtis1973]

i think i can bring down internal storage even more,is worldclock a must have system app? how about the spanish language pack? its got some size to it...also what about easy installer? check these apps out by uninstalling them and rebooting in my build to see if you get any crashes or oddities..also is play store installed properly in my build? i thought i left it in..labled vending.apk i think..some stuff is labeled differently. and yeah i need a screen of the settings screen in general and also of browser if possible. browser with its menus opened up..want to really do some stuff to it i havent yet.


edit: i think i can get overall rom size down to around 60 mb? and clear up another 6-9 mb internal..maybe a bit more.


heres the apps i left in but hope can be removed..

worldclock.apk (might be system..dont know)
Spanishpack_with_curve.apk (probably can be removed)
touchpal.apk (unfamiliar with app)
picotts.apk (this one is usually safe to remove on most devices)
myfiles.apk (probably can be removed)
memo.apk (not sure if needed)
jrdpowersaver.apk (this one is unfamiliar to me..left it)
home.apk (seemed needed but not sure)
easyinstaller.apk (not sure on this one either)
digitalclock.apk (not sure about system status on this one..looks removable though)



if we can get these removed..internal space increases a fair amount.

 

[Dracable]

ill check if those apps can uninstall too.

 

[Curtis1973]

ok those things look ok..notice a few small issues in browser menus i want to correct..im going to take a few days to work on all this so the next release is a final one.

 

[Dracable]

right on man. i gotta take off for a bit, but ill b back in a few hours and do some testing with those apps for u!

 

[varenHjames]

As you will see on the lock screen photo, my phone was plugged in and charging and had plenty of battery life, but on the notification bar, the battery shows as red. as soon as i unplugged it, the battery symbol went to full, but when i plugged it back in, right back to empty. the battery hasnt drained yet while unplugged, so i dont know if the draining graphics are working correctly or not yet.

is it just usb charging that gives the false battery icon? or all charging. im assuming from your previous posts thats your phone is connected to the pc to take the screen shot. im just asking because i know the phone can tell when its a/c charging, and usb charging. i mean, maybe its a simple thing, but set cpu has a profile specifically for usb charging and a/c charging and they work independently.

just an idea.



I also cant wait for a final. best of luck!

 

[Dracable]

alrighty, im back. hey curtis, i could just freeze those apps with titanium backup or something to check and see if they r safe to remove, right?

 

[Curtis1973]

yeah you could freeze them,should render the same results we are looking for,meantime im fixing the dialer issues and cleaning up some stuff.

 

[Curtis1973]

updated check original post. fixes include dialer,battery,wallpaper and more. as for the apps discussed that may be removed or not,i didnt remove those and actually restored google search and geniewidget to fix a possible break on this device. if you think the other apps can be removed safely,use an app like sytem tuner to uninstall them to free up more system space. be sure to back up before making any changes or flashing this rom so you have something to return to if anything goes wrong,which shouldnt.

enjoy. and post some screens.

 

[varenHjames]

say, i have holo launcher plus, and i would like to make this rom have IT as the default launcher? would this be easy to code?

 

[Curtis1973]

i think i can round up plus to add vs standard,and wait on downloading this until i repost again..dialer is still having issues. im pulling the download until later this evening.

 

[Curtis1973]

OK...this beast is tamed. There should be no more issues in anything. Enjoy.

 

[Dracable]

hey, sorry curtis. been crazy, crazy busy. never got time to test the 2nd release, but i flashed ur 3rd release a few hours ago and its AWESOME! not a single bug so far! thanks everybody for all ur time and dedication on giving this nifty little phone exactly what it needed! after flashing ur themed rom, ive seen much snappier performance, a dramatic increase in battery life (also a much, much lower average battery temp), and a huge boost in freed internal storage. i still have yet to test the list of possibly removable system apps, but after i do, ill post a list to this thread. anyway, thanks again, and awesome job!!