View Full Version : [Guide]How to create a Maemo5 theme
davidh101
2010-02-12, 00:47
Hi,
I am completely new to themes, never done it on any device before. So, what I am about to ask may seem to be really stupid!!!!
Where do I start?????
I have read through many post on here, and they all seem to be about Theme Maker, to which i downloaded. The app itself seems to be pretty straight forward, the bit I don't understand is what to do with the psd/png files.
I am familiar with Photoshop, and looking in the nuvo-fremantle-template.psd, I can see what looks to be a layout with a number of layers, do I just literally put my desired choice over the top of a section in this file, what happens when I don't change an area.....it is really these image files that I don't understand.
What happens if I add new icons in the icon file, will they ever show up, how do you reference them.
So I guess what I am after, is an example of how one of these template files are changed.
I'm sorry that this is really a very noob question
waleed786
2010-02-12, 00:54
im guessing you just put ur png files where the original was, with the same file name (overwrite it). then just test it out, the ones that you dont change will be kept at the original files.
I havent created any themes but ive taken parts from 5 or 6 different themes to make it a perfect theme for me. I dont use theme maker, I just manually edit the files
davidh101
2010-02-12, 01:21
that's an interesting thought, doing it manually.
Where are the theme files stored?
waleed786
2010-02-12, 01:37
usr/share/themes
the alpha is the default theme, beta is the 2nd. The rest just go by the name. The images folder is where most of the files will be, the background folder also has some interesting files. You must have root access to modify these files, and ALWAYS make a backup first
andrewfblack
2010-02-13, 02:19
If you want to have other people use your theme manual wont work. You have two choices first Theme Maker find it on garage.maemo.org but I want to warn you its very buggy and really doesn't work also only works right on mac and linux. If you want to do themes on windows or the non buggy way Go here http://mer-project.blogspot.com/2010/01/creative-use-of-madde-new-way-for-theme.html follow these instructions can't be easier if you run into any problems let me know here or at andrewfblack@gmail.com
davidh101
2010-02-13, 12:51
If you want to have other people use your theme manual wont work. You have two choices first Theme Maker find it on garage.maemo.org but I want to warn you its very buggy and really doesn't work also only works right on mac and linux. If you want to do themes on windows or the non buggy way Go here http://mer-project.blogspot.com/2010/01/creative-use-of-madde-new-way-for-theme.html follow these instructions can't be easier if you run into any problems let me know here or at andrewfblack@gmail.com
That is really helpful, thanks a lot, I'm going to have a play with it this weekend
http://tabletui.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/theming-for-dummies/
http://tabletui.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/theming-for-dummies/
Hi there! I'm not sure who have made that hildon-template, but there's something wrong with it. I just got message from extras testing group that none of my themes are gonna hit the extras-repo since they are not completely optified.
I checked and it's true: some random files are left under /usr instead of /opt. Same issue seems to bother your Marina -theme and Andrew's Maemo.org -theme also.
I hope that someone could locate why maemo-optify leaves randomly some files un-optified so that I could continue working with themes. I'm not sure if I have the willpower to re-pack all my previous themes, but I'd really like to publish my new IivilRoyal -serie soon since it's almost ready to roll.
andrewfblack
2010-02-21, 05:49
Hi there! I'm not sure who have made that hildon-template, but there's something wrong with it. I just got message from extras testing group that none of my themes are gonna hit the extras-repo since they are not completely optified.
I checked and it's true: some random files are left under /usr instead of /opt. Same issue seems to bother your Marina -theme and Andrew's Maemo.org -theme also.
I hope that someone could locate why maemo-optify leaves randomly some files un-optified so that I could continue working with themes. I'm not sure if I have the willpower to re-pack all my previous themes, but I'd really like to publish my new IivilRoyal -serie soon since it's almost ready to roll.
Don't know who told you that but several of our themes are in extras. Infact if you optify all the files then themes wont work. I know because I have optified an entire theme and it doesn't work. Files it leaves are very small anyways.
Don't know who told you that but several of our themes are in extras. Infact if you optify all the files then themes wont work. I know because I have optified an entire theme and it doesn't work. Files it leaves are very small anyways.
I know they won't work if you symlink the whole theme-folder, but all the imagefiles and subfolders can and should be symlinked to /opt.
Yes, several themes are in extras allthough they take more rootfs than is suggested (more than 250kb). No-one just noticed it before in testing team before I launched over ten themes and someone had them all installed > lots of rootfs used.
Edit: just to make clear what I mean: the optification leaves random amount of image files ignored without any reasonable reason. For example your maemo-org theme takes about 438kb of rootfs because of these leftovers.
And what's more weird: files left without optification has no logic. it depends and varies if you make some changes into template.png and and pack it up again to .deb.
waqarhassan
2010-03-13, 04:34
Decide what you want to call the Theme. Create a folder in C:\Program Files\PLUS!\Themes name it what you want the name of your theme to be. This keeps everything in one place for you to keep everything organized.
==mcts (http://www.mctstests.net)===
Just wanted to inform that Stskeeps updated the master template for PR1.2 today and it so far it seems to be working just nice :)
http://gitorious.org/hildon-theme-example-stskeeps/hildon-theme-example-stskeeps/trees/master
NightShift79
2010-06-02, 22:19
I really hope some more userfriendly Theme Editor will come around...
I really hope some more userfriendly Theme Editor will come around...
It pretty much really can't get much easier than it's now. So just try to learn it.
It pretty much really can't get much easier than it's now. So just try to learn it.
I wouldn't say it's easy to produce a installable .deb file if you want to take quick test of something. You basically have to options; a) set up a SDK enviroment and build debs there, or b) create a garage account and upload sources to autobuilder and wait for it to build the package and then download it to your phone...
Other than that, theme making is pretty easy atm.
Maybe someday MADDE will include all necessary things for building the package when using stskeeps's theme template.
is there a way to buid the theme.deb without the use of autobuilder?
is there a way to buid the theme.deb without the use of autobuilder?
Yes, install Maemo5 SDK on your Linux and build packages there :)
i allready did that and i have got this error...:( :
Processed ChatBubbleOtherSW.png
Processed ChatBubbleOtherW.png
Processed ChatBubbleOtherMiddle.png
Done!
touch slice.stamp
make[4]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/applications/rtcom-messaging-ui'
Making all in backgrounds
make[4]: Entering directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/applications/backgrounds'
make[4]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[4]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/applications/backgrounds'
make[4]: Entering directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/applications'
make[4]: Nothing to be done for `all-am'.
make[4]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/applications'
make[3]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/applications'
Making all in matchbox-1
make[3]: Entering directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/matchbox-1'
hildon-theme-subst /usr/share/hildon-theme-layout-5//layout.txt ./../template/template.png /usr/share/hildon-theme-layout-5//theme-matchbox1.xml theme.xml
Fetching colors...
Processing /usr/share/hildon-theme-layout-5//theme-matchbox1.xml...
sed -i -e 's:@THEME_DIR\@:rstylebluethemedir:' theme.xml
sed -i -e 's:@THEME_FULL_DIR\@:/usr/share/themes/rstylebluethemedir:' theme.xml
sed -i -e 's:@THEME_NAME\@:R-Style Blue Theme:' theme.xml
make[3]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/matchbox-1'
Making all in matchbox-2
make[3]: Entering directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/matchbox-2'
hildon-theme-subst /usr/share/hildon-theme-layout-5//layout.txt ./../template/template.png /usr/share/hildon-theme-layout-5//theme.xml theme.xml
Fetching colors...
Processing /usr/share/hildon-theme-layout-5//theme.xml...
sed -i -e 's:@THEME_DIR\@:rstylebluethemedir:' theme.xml
sed -i -e 's:@THEME_FULL_DIR\@:/usr/share/themes/rstylebluethemedir:' theme.xml
sed -i -e 's:@THEME_NAME\@:R-Style Blue Theme:' theme.xml
make[3]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/matchbox-2'
make[3]: Entering directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
make[3]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
#docbook-to-man debian/r-style-blue-theme.sgml > r-style-blue-theme.1
touch build-stamp
fakeroot debian/rules binary
dh_testdir
dh_testroot
dh_clean -k
dh_installdirs
# Add here commands to install the package into debian/r-style-blue-theme.
/scratchbox/tools/bin/make DESTDIR=/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/debian/r-style-blue-theme install
make[1]: Entering directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
Making install in template
make[2]: Entering directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/template'
mkdir -p -- . /scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/debian/r-style-blue-theme//usr/share/themes/rstylebluethemedir/images
convert -rotate 90 LockSliderLeft.png LockSliderTop.png
make[2]: convert: Command not found
make[2]: *** [install] Error 127
make[2]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/template'
make[1]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
make: *** [install] Error 2
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: /scratchbox/users/crash/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6] >
it says that "convert: Command not found" . what is this? do i have to install something to avoid getting this error?
You need to install additional tools to scratchbox (see themes control file what are build depencies and install those into scratchbox) and then build deb using this command:
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -tc
where i could find that file?
i think i have installed all of them ...i don't know if i missed one ...anyway the error doesn't say anything about package not found or something like that...help:(
You can find the control file under themedir/debian
I think you're missing imagemagic -package.
i tried apt-get install imagemagick and it says that it couldn't be found
tskeeps] > apt-get install imagemagick
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Package imagemagick is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package imagemagick has no installation candidate
check the build depencies from control -file and install those packages. Imagemagic is included in one of them.
i installed all of them :(
debhelper (>= 4.0.0), hildon-theme-layout-5 (>= 0.15.0), hildon-theme-layout-5 (< 0.16.0), hildon-theme-tools, imagemagick
Depends: gtk2-engines-sapwood (>= 3.1.1), hildon-theme-cacher (>= 0.3.0)
Sorry. Maybe someone else knows where you can find imagemagic -package. I don't remember anymore which package included it.
are you sure that that's the package causing the problems?
:))
are you shure that that's the package causing the problems?
No, I'm not shure, but I use Shure's microphones + In-ears ;)
Seriously, I think it's imagemagic you're missing or you have some weird version of it. Can you run this and see if you find package that includes imagemagic (in scratchbox):
apt-get update
apt-cache search imagemagic
It pretty much really can't get much easier than it's now. So just try to learn it.
carbide.ui was easier, i made hundreds of symbian themes with that, after reading so many n900 theme making threads i still dont know where to start!:confused:
dont understand any of this linux/terminal mumble jumble!:
http://mer-project.blogspot.com/2010/01/creative-use-of-madde-new-way-for-theme.html
more mumble jumble!:
http://tabletui.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/theming-for-dummies/
i cant see any download link on this page:
Just wanted to inform that Stskeeps updated the master template for PR1.2 today and it so far it seems to be working just nice :)
http://gitorious.org/hildon-theme-example-stskeeps/hildon-theme-example-stskeeps/trees/master
manual is much much much easier:)
and there easily shared by just uploading the 'theme' folder, but i am interested in making them as installable debs instead,
was hoping this thread was an 'idiots' [guide] like the ones i posted here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=51502
i know its just a case of us linux n00bs reading/studying all the 'kindly' provided links, but its sooooo painfull for my braincells to get to grips with 'linux/terminal mumble jumble'!
surely an idiots guide explaining everything in detail, with screenshots, step by step, would benefit everyone:)
(and i mean a REAL idiots guide!):o
carbide.ui was easier, i made hundreds of symbian themes with that, after reading so many n900 theme making threads i still dont know where to start!:confused:
dont understand any of this linux/terminal mumble jumble!:
http://mer-project.blogspot.com/2010/01/creative-use-of-madde-new-way-for-theme.html
more mumble jumble!:
i cant see any download link on this page:
manual is much much much easier:)
and there easily shared by just uploading the 'theme' folder, but i am interested in making them as installable debs instead,
was hoping this thread was an 'idiots' [guide] like the ones i posted here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=51502
i know its just a case of us linux n00bs reading/studying all the 'kindly' provided links, but its sooooo painfull for my braincells to get to grips with 'linux/terminal mumble jumble'!
surely an idiots guide explaining everything in detail, with screenshots, step by step, would benefit everyone:)
(and i mean a REAL idiots guide!):o
My thoughts exactly when I first wanted to make themes without editing every image hand by hand.
I never had used Linux before (if you don't count N900). But I still survived to set up a SDK that could build debs inside Ubuntu (running on virtual machine under Win 7). I must admit that it's pretty complicated and hard for noobs to get everything up and running :/
But I know it's possible to create debs inside N900 if you have your edited theme working in it. Can't just remember what was the name of the program @ devel repo.
the package that came up after searching is xresponse-visualize, i installed it but i still have that error:(
# Add here commands to install the package into debian/r-style-blue-theme.
/scratchbox/tools/bin/make DESTDIR=/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/debian/r-style-blue-theme install
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
Making install in template
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/template'
mkdir -p -- . /home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/debian/r-style-blue-theme//usr/share/themes/rstylebluethemedir/images
convert -rotate 90 LockSliderLeft.png LockSliderTop.png
make[2]: convert: Command not found
make[2]: *** [install] Error 127
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6/template'
make[1]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/crash/MyDocs/r-style-blue-theme-1.6'
make: *** [install] Error 2
is there a way to install all the packages which are available in the repos?:) maybe that way i won't miss it...
finally i have got it to work!!!!.....i had to add the extras-testing repositories in scratchbox to be able to install imagemagic....thanx for your help D-livil
I have the following error when i try to build my theme package:
dpkg-genchanges: warning: unknown information field `Xb-Maemo-Icon-26' in input data in package's section of control info file
the thing is that i have `XB-Maemo-Icon-26' in the debian/control file...
Does anyone know what shoud i do?
thanx
Wikiwide
2010-06-09, 04:51
I would like to make a Maemo 5 Hildon theme.
I have taken beta theme (Digital Nature), renamed it to gamma (in index.theme), changed something with colors and want to turn it into deb (just to test what it looks like).
I created folder structure:
deb/usr/share/themes/gamma/index.theme, colors.config, backgrounds/, images/, others
deb/DEBIAN/control and three other files
I run in X Terminal
dpkg-deb -b deb
I get error
tar: unknown option "--format=GNU"
What should I do about it?
I would like to make a Maemo 5 Hildon theme.
I have taken beta theme (Digital Nature), renamed it to gamma (in index.theme), changed something with colors and want to turn it into deb (just to test what it looks like).
I created folder structure:
deb/usr/share/themes/gamma/index.theme, colors.config, backgrounds/, images/, others
deb/DEBIAN/control and three other files
I run in X Terminal
dpkg-deb -b deb
I get error
tar: unknown option "--format=GNU"
What should I do about it?
Don't know about the error, but I'm using this command to build debs inside scratchbox:
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -tc
Wikiwide
2010-06-09, 08:28
Don't know about the error, but I'm using this command to build debs inside scratchbox:
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -tc
Hello,
I've been away from computer for some time. Now I have read your
message, reinstalled dpkg-dev and tried to run your command (instead
of fakeroot I use sudo gainroot from rootsh). Here are errors from it:
parsechangelog/debian: warnings: badly formatted heading line; found
eof where expected first heading
changelog is created by hand and contains one line
gamma(0.1)
where gamma is theme name (the same as in control and index.theme) and
0.1 is version (the same as in control).
I would be thankful for any help with this file
dpkg-buildpackage: error: unable to determine source package
If it's caused only by changelog, go ahead. I just don't know what to
write in changelog file. I'm able to edit it in vi.
Best regards.
Hello,
I've been away from computer for some time. Now I have read your
message, reinstalled dpkg-dev and tried to run your command (instead
of fakeroot I use sudo gainroot from rootsh). Here are errors from it:
parsechangelog/debian: warnings: badly formatted heading line; found
eof where expected first heading
changelog is created by hand and contains one line
gamma(0.1)
where gamma is theme name (the same as in control and index.theme) and
0.1 is version (the same as in control).
I would be thankful for any help with this file
dpkg-buildpackage: error: unable to determine source package
If it's caused only by changelog, go ahead. I just don't know what to
write in changelog file. I'm able to edit it in vi.
Best regards.
Here is correctly formatted changelog-file (edit it to suit your needs, change at least the package name):
black-plastic-theme (0.1) jaunty; urgency=low
* Convert into being an example.
-- D-Iivil <ricky@hevikaraoke.fi> Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:29:46 -0700
Wikiwide
2010-06-09, 09:59
Hello,
Thank you for example. By trial and error with number of spaces between parts, I have made changelog to work. No errors are given about it anymore.
Detailed documentation:
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html#s-dpkgchangelog
Next errors:
with debian/control (which I copied from DEBIAN/control)
Unmet build dependencies: build-essential
I chose to ignore that (am I right?) and typed dpkg-buildpackage -b -d
sh: gcc: not found
(What is it? What should I do about it?)
dpkg-genchanges: failure: cannot read files list files: No such file or directory
(What should I do about it?)
Thanks a lot,
Best regards.
P.S. gcc is a compiler. I need to install it from the repository.
Which version? 3.4 or 4.2?
It will cure the error
Unmet build dependencies: build-essential.
P.P.S. I have installed gcc 4.2 4.2.1 4maemo13. Still sh:gcc:not found.
What next?
P.P.P.S. genchanges requires "files", which should be created by "rules", which cannot be empty (and I don't know what to put inside)
P.P.P.P.S. Went backward. Found source of a working theme, extracted it through dpkg-source and tried to build it back. Fails on
tar: unrecognized option '--null'
Thus, dpkg doesn't work due to bad tar. Where can I take a good tar from?
P.P.P.P.P.S. Installed MADDE. Worked perfectly. Now uploaded source files to autobuilder. Autobuilder failed on i386. In armel, too. I have the same error as here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=55840
Undefined subroutine &Dpkg::Changelog::Entry::Debian::_g called at /scratchbox/devkits/debian-squeeze/share/perl5/Dpkg/Changelog/Entry/Debian.pm line 117, <STDIN> line 1.
dpkg-buildpackage: error: changelog parser /scratchbox/devkits/debian-squeeze/lib/dpkg/parsechangelog/debian gave error exit status 9
A bug in autobuilder?
When I try to create .deb in MADDE, it says that changelog is OK, but then stumbles over at set_theme, which for unknown reason requires libhildonwidgets.so.0. And if I throw set_theme away, then the dh_md5sum complains about "xargs: md5sum: Bad file number".
If I throw dh_md5sum away from debian/rules, then dh_builddeb calls tarlisted, and tarlisted says "strange content, information missing".
Can it be caused by "#" in image name?
Yes, it is! MADDE built the .deb, I installed it successfully! But I cannot see where the colors.config influences the Maemo. Text color, button color, title color are set to black. The Maemo shows white (except for rare cases like notifications about USB connection; and even then I don't know whether it's caused by colors.config or something else).
What would you advise?
I still haven't uploaded it to Extras.
shockgiga
2010-08-03, 20:31
hi. i have downloaded ThemeMaker1.2.9. i would just like to ask how to make icons for apps that are not pre-installed in the n900?
yes this is vry helpful..thansk for sharing..
Joseph.skb
2011-09-15, 13:21
Could someone create (PS3) Battlefield: Bad Company or Little Big Planet themes?
I downloaded a Doodle Monsters theme from MMMOOO for my Blackberry and it was really interesting
altafali
2011-09-20, 20:02
i really need complete guide about this
--------------------------------------
ASF Mobiles (http://asf-mobiles.com)
Hi i'm dajnami, just joined as have been following this site for a long long time. Am getting my N900 on monday!
i just wanted some help with the new QT SDK and theme maker as i have downloaded them but am really confused where do you start!:confused::confused: would just like to make a light. bright colourful theme
i have read the tuorials, pdf documents from QT,forums and blogs
think i may be in abit to deep as i'm not a computer person so have no idea what to do /learn but would love to contribute to to the community
a really simple and basic video or tutorial would be really helpful youtube doesn't seem to have much... and things seem to be from 2011 on the sticky ....
ANY help would be much appriciated have the patiants and time:p
hope to release something in the future.....
DNami
is back with her baby the N900
I need help.
After installed MADDE ther is no home directory.
Could anyone help me ?
Edit: my system is windows vista.
vBulletin® v3.8.8, Copyright ©2000-2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.