When skin menu icons don't "fit".....

[Maddcow]

I've flashed a number of skins now where the skin doesn't come with all of the right icons for my particular flex version eg. My Place (dedicated Telstra web access), Alarm clock and Aeroplane Mode. Is there a way for me to somehow fix this by inserting new icons and if so, how do I do this?

I assume that this would probably be fairly easy to do with those skins that come as separate components (eg. a folder of ski, dat files etc), but how could I do this when the skin comes as a .hs flash file?

I don't have any experience whatsoever with creating/editing skins but am a very quick learner if someone could point me in the right direction with some good, clear advice.

Cheers

[cash7c3]

in the drm, not skin

[Maddcow]

So how do I fix this in the DRM?

[poetic_folly]

Which DRM are you using?

[Maddcow]

MotoPioneer's DRM (v2) at the moment. But I often change between them 'cause I get bored with the same look

[poetic_folly]

With that one open it using SHX Codec (if necessary use SBF ReCalc 1.2 (http://www.modmymoto.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=296) to convert from a .sbf to .shx), and separate out the CG's.
Then use 3G DRM Tool (http://www.modmymoto.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=2634) and open the CG. Once you have opened it, you will have a folder with all the DRM images.

Change the images you want to change, and save them back to that folder. Here is a list (http://www.modmymoto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13162) of common DRM images you may want change.

Once they are all saved as you'd like, open 3G DRM again, and select the folder you edited with and write to .cg. Use SBF Recalc and choose Open CG folder, where you have stored all your files we just worked on. Compile to .shx or .sbf, and flash using RSD Lite.

[Maddcow]

Ok, that's all straight-forward and makes sense.
However, what do I do when I have a menu icon from a certain skin that isn't supported by the skin? eg. I have a Telstra (My Place) menu icon that isn't in the DRM. The skin (or whatever changes the menu icons when you change skins) doesn't contain an icon that changes the Telstra icon for the new skin and therefore the menu looks pretty crappy with mis-matched icons. It's often the same with the Aeroplane mode icon, and sometimes the Alarm Clock icon. It doesn't make sense to me that the DRM contains all the menu icons when the different skins change these. Surely if the DRM contained all the menu icons then these icons wouldn't change at all when changing skins??!? But they do. So what's going on with that?

I hope the above makes sense to you. Basically, it seems to me that the skins must contain their own menu icons and if this is the case, how do I change/add to these when a skin icon isn't available for certain menu items eg. Telstra (My Place) and Aeroplane mode? Or is this where editing the mma_ucp comes in?

I'm confused.......

[poetic_folly]

Oh, also easy enough, if not a bit tedious. Flash the skin onto your phone, then download it with P2k Commander (the whole skin folder). Once you have this, use skinner4moto (make sure you have the maxx module (http://www.rasputin007.co.uk/storage/others/Maxx-V6.rar) installed) to open it, find the icons you want to change, and add them in. Then save and reload to your phone.

[Maddcow]

Once again, that makes sense. But what do I do in a situation where the skin doesn't have an icon for the menu item that I want to change eg. the Telstra (My Place) menu icon? This menu item appears to be proprietary to my network operator's flex and therefore international skins don't support it. How do I determine the gif numbering etc for each menu item if it doesn't already exist in the ski file?

I can understand swapping icons in skin files, but what if I want to add one that the skin hasn't had previously? I assume that the gif numbering system is precise and that all of the icons must be numbered in such a way that the phone puts 2 + 2 together in assigning icons to functions.

Another question is how can I completely rearrange the main menu and sub-menus so that I can perhaps assign the Telstra (My Place) icon to a sub-menu instead?

Also, what tool do I use to extract the files from a .hs skin file?

Sorry for all the questions dude. There doesn't seem to be any guide around that answers all of these questions.

[poetic_folly]

Open the original skin in Skinner4Moto and find which icon it is. Then extract it and add it to the other skin.

You can extract the skin using Flex Parser, or you can just flash it and then download it using P2k Commander.

[rasputin007]

To change the Telstra icon you have to look somwhere else, most likely you find them (usually 3 different sizes and one of them is animated) in a/mobile/system. Have a look around if you see 3 nearly the same looking gif files.
Sin icons will not change them cos they do not know about them, the DRM will not change them cos they also do not know about them. But the mma knows about them and that is where you also could have a look to find those gif files, just open the mma in an Hex Editor and scroll right to the end that is usually the place where the links are. This happens when you use a branded FW cos not only is branding all over the mobile, but also heavily in the mma.
If you would convert the mma and then open it in P2K MenuEditor you find that there are at least 4 "???" enteries, those are branded enteries and P2K MenuEditor does not know about those hence "???".
Anyway, once you have found those gif files copy them to PC, open them and take note of the size and if they are animated or not.
Now you can make your own icons, but same size, same animated or not and most important same name. Copy those back to where you found them, reboot and now Telstra just got new icons.
Branding works with any menu entery, the extreme form are split skins where the mma has 156 (V3x), 159 (Maxx) icon links.

[Maddcow]

Oh, man! Thanks heaps Rasputin. I was going nuts trying to find those damned Telstra icons!!!!!

Huge thanks to both you and Poetic_folly :smile:

EDIT: Ah, found the 3 little buggers!!!! (exactly where you suggested they might be in \mobile\system. Telstra_mm_anime.gif, Telstra_mm_icn.gif and Telstra_mm_list.gif)

Another question then (hopefully my last on this topic): S4M appears to use only the S4M default "Moto" skin .gifs when opening a ski file. If I want to use the Motorola factory default gifs (I got them from Italian forum), do I simply copy the entire contents of the factory default gifs into the .gif folder that's created when S4M opens the .ski file, thus overwriting the S4M default gifs?

Guys, I'm stuck. Here's what I want to do:

I've found a nicely edited mma that suits all of my skins quite well. However, I want to add a branded menu item from my default original mma as a submenu in the "Web Access" menu in the new edited mma. The reason being that the branded menu item is a Telstra menu function whereby I can easily access my account details and quite a number of other really handy functions from its submenus. Having it in the main menu will mess up all the really cool skins that I've found, but I'd still like to be able to access it and the "Web Access" main menu item is the best place for it to go. That way, it doesn't stuff up the main menu icons but I can still access it (and its submenu functions) from the Web Access function.

Is this possible? I've been working on this for hours and can't quite work out how to do it.

[rasputin007]

Try to change the original Telstra mma by moving that "branded" menu into Web Access folder.
First take note of the icon links on the right hand side in P2K MenuEditor when you highlight that branded menu, then create a new submenu in WebAccess, highlight it and press "Branding", then add those icon links and name for that menu. Once you have done that all press "Apply" or your icon links are lost and save.
You also could use those icon links in the new mma, but I do not know if that menu will still work or not (may be hidden activation code for that menu function in mma, I do not know).
Try and let us know.