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Root ROM vs Theme

K

kentl901

Well-Known Member
Hey all, sorry for this newbie question.

I was going thru the ALL IN ONE guide on rooting, flashing, theming, ROMing, etc...

Anyway, my phone is root, but with break coming up, I'd love to tweak that status bar.

My question is... When you reflash the phone with a ROM, do you need to apply themes to it? I know that some ROMs come with certain themes, but when I go thru this forum, I see certain themes are built for certain ROMs.


Mainly, I just want to get the whole Gingerbread effect on my phone.

I read through the guide and assuming I get thru all those steps, what should I install to get the GB theme on my phone? I ask because the first theme they tell us to apply is the black glass theme. So do I need to install another ROM before hand and then apply the GB theme?

A litttleeee confused...

Thanks!!!
 
Just speaking from personal experience I would go with the ApeX ROM as it has a gingerbread theme built in to it. At first so sites thought it was a Gingerbread ROM already. That plus it is stable, fast and has amazing battery life. I know there are other ROMs you could go with that have a theme that could go on top as well and I am sure they are great, but I think ApeX and the developer, who is very quick to respond to questions is the best out there.

Also with ApeX there is no need to do anything before loading it. You can go from stock to ApeX in a matter of moments.
 
I am just going to try to clarify a bit. A ROM is an entire system. This includes all system files and all of the things that make your device work and look the way it does. All ROMS have a theme (including the stock one on your device now).

Many of the replacement ROMS have themes highly modified from stock Android including black notification bars, different notification icons, application icons, fonts, etc. Themes can modify these as well. They basically replace just the files that make things look the way they do, not the system files of the ROM. They are however dependent upon the ROM having all the files in the right places that they are intended to replace, which is why certain themes only work with certain ROMs.

In order to change the Theme, many system level files that are normally locked up need to be unlocked or removed. This is why the phone needs to be rooted and "de-odexed". 928BlackGlass was one of the easiest ways to this in the past on a Droid X. With the latest update I am not sure if that is the case any longer.

In order to do any of this, you must root your phone and have Droid X Bootstrapper on your phone. The Themes and ROMS are installed on a rooted device by rebooting into a recovery mode accessed by bootstrapper.

Be careful- make sure you back things up before making changes. Also, be sure any theme you try to install is compatible with the ROM you are running.

Apex is a great ROM and there are a few themes available for it including Nextheme and Revolution which are very popular and a gingerbread (GB) theme. Additionally, Tranquility 3.6 is a nice ROM that has tool that make it even easier to change your theme and some other behaviors.

Good luck and welcome to the world of tweaking your phone and making it your own!
 
There's a guy on the XDADevelopers website who's created a couple of themes that run on the stock ROM. I'm currently using his Gingerbread theme, and it looks great. I'm perfectly happy with the stock ROM and didn't want to change it. I tried Fission for a while, but didn't notice enough improvements to justify losing some things, like the Motorola widgets and the radio. I haven't tried Apex.
 
I much prefer Fission personally. It depends on whether or not you like the Blur in there or not in my opinion. ApeX leaves some in. Fission removes all of it. There are gingerbread / plenty of other themes for all ROMs, but themes are generally ROM dependent. So make sure you download the right Gingerbread theme for the right ROM.
 
Riverman said:
There's a guy on the XDADevelopers website who's created a couple of themes that run on the stock ROM. I'm currently using his Gingerbread theme, and it looks great. I'm perfectly happy with the stock ROM and didn't want to change it. I tried Fission for a while, but didn't notice enough improvements to justify losing some things, like the Motorola widgets and the radio. I haven't tried Apex.
Click to expand...

Link please?
 
Hey all,

I am reading through the deodex section and it says the steps won't work with 2.2.1. I'm currently on the latest OTA updates.

I rooted w/ the Z4 method. What are my options?

Thanks!!
 
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