Develop Bugs

[Q] problem installing modded app...questions

hey guys.
i've been getting into modding apps to match my liking. i've modded widgetlocker, sms unread count, ported the cm6 mail app and modded it, and also lookout. pretty much what i'm doing is changing .png's. i've done it by openining the .apks with apk manager, editing the .pngs, zipping and then signing it. then i install and bam, everything works.
however, now i'm trying to mod MixZing and i'm having an issue. bear with the long explanation:
tried the regular method using .apk manager. if i unzip/edit/zip/sign and try to install, i get "Application not installed"...if i do unzip/edit/zip as system app (no signature) and try to install, same message. if i do unzip/edit/zip as regular app but dont sign it, same message. if i edit the file with 7Zip and try to install, also get the same message...
if i unzip/edit/zip/sign and try to copy/paste over the existing .apk in /data/app i get force closes when i try to open the app.
now, if i edit the .apk with 7-zip and i copy it over the existing .com.mixzing.basic-1.apk in /data/app then it works! the widgets work, the app works. all is well....until i reboot the phone. then i come back and the app wont launch, as if it wasn't there.
i go to /data/app/ the .apk is there, but it wont launch. if i try to install it from there, it also gives me "Application not installed"...interestingly enough, when i try to install it, it tells me it would overwrite an existing application. yet when i go to the Market, it shows as Mixzing NOT being installed and lets me install a new copy just fine.
if i install again from the market, and copy/paste my copy over it in /data/app, it works again...until I reboot...and the cycle repeats.
what am i doing wrong here?

I am also trying to theme/mod apks to my liking. I am also getting the same errors as you are"application not installed ". I posted the same questions, yours are more detailed, on Riptides theme thread. Riptide has themed several add-ons that are flashed via recovery. I am waiting on a reply. Maybe check his thread and see if your questions are answered on there also...
Sent from my PC36100

No help or suggestions???
Sent from my PC36100

What files are you modifying? Are they *.9.png files? If so, they need to be decompiled, not just extracted so you can see the borders.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

yeah the majority of the images edited are the buttons, all of which are .9.pngs. would that make a difference as to the app not installing? or the fact that it's recognized prior to boot but not after boot?
EDIT: i decompiled the .apk with APK Manager. replaced the .9.pngs with my own. tried to recompile and when it was about done it gave an error. after that it allowed me zip the apk. when i went to install, got the same message..."application not installed"...
why this issue with MixZing and not Lookout, SMS Unread Count, CM6 Email, WidgetLocker???

Max_Pain said:
yeah the majority of the images edited are the buttons, all of which are .9.pngs. would that make a difference as to the app not installing? or the fact that it's recognized prior to boot but not after boot?
EDIT: i decompiled the .apk with APK Manager. replaced the .9.pngs with my own. tried to recompile and when it was about done it gave an error. after that it allowed me zip the apk. when i went to install, got the same message..."application not installed"...
why this issue with MixZing and not Lookout, SMS Unread Count, CM6 Email, WidgetLocker???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, .9 png files are not normal image files. To make a long story short, they are special image files that contain meta-data. Usually this meta-data is used to tell the widget where to stop and start (basically borders). Developers use .9 png files instead of hard-coding the borders to make it easier and more flexible for widgets and other images to display on a wide variety of devices.
When you extract .9 files, you will not see the meta-data. Chances are what is happening is when you are modifying the .9 files, you are also erasing the metadata. All .9 png files must have either a black border on the edge to tell the application where the border is, or it must have a white (blank) border surrounding the image. When you decompile the images, you should see some black lines on the edges of the .9 image files (make sure you are using APKManager 4.9).
So, when editing .9 png files, you have 3 options:
1. The easiest is to simply edit it the way you have been and remove the .9 filename. So for example, if the file is called background.9.png, rename it to background.png. This works about 50% of the time.
2. Decompile the .9 png file to see the borders, edit the image file and either keep the existing border or make your own black border on the edge (it doesn't need to be thick, just a small black line will do). The only problem with this is that sometimes you can see the black lines after it is compiled again.
3. The best way, IMHO, is to make a blank edge on the border of the background. This will avoid any compiling errors and eliminates the chance of seeing the black border. It doesn't need to be thick, just as long as the app can distinguish the border.

thanks for detailed post. will look at it with more time tonight or tomorrow.
i tried quickly now but didnt work.
i decompiled the apk using apk manager 4.9, i was able to see the .9.pngs with the black border. i changed all the extensions to just be .png for all of them. then edited them all in photoshop (make them clear is all i want), saved, and recompiled. for the first time APK Manager didn't give me an error. got all the way to asking me if it was a system app. i chose no. then i signed the app. again, no errors from apk manager. but when i tried installing, again got "application not installed"
ahhh...
will try other methods from your post later. if you have an idea as to why my first attempt didnt work i'm all ears.

Max_Pain said:
thanks for detailed post. will look at it with more time tonight or tomorrow.
i tried quickly now but didnt work.
i decompiled the apk using apk manager 4.9, i was able to see the .9.pngs with the black border. i changed all the extensions to just be .png for all of them. then edited them all in photoshop (make them clear is all i want), saved, and recompiled. for the first time APK Manager didn't give me an error. got all the way to asking me if it was a system app. i chose no. then i signed the app. again, no errors from apk manager. but when i tried installing, again got "application not installed"
ahhh...
will try other methods from your post later. if you have an idea as to why my first attempt didnt work i'm all ears.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what the problem is. You need to uninstall the previous version before installing the modified version. Even though they are the same app, the signatures are different, so they won't overwrite. I make that mistake a lot too.

uninstalled mixzing, tried installing my signed copy and again, application not installed.
does it matter that i mixed the renaming of the 9.pngs to just .png from step 1 to the decompilation of the .apk from steps 2 and 3? maybe i should just rename the .9.pngs through 7zip without decompiling?

any more suggestions?
to test out a theory, i did the following:
1) extracted .apk with apk manager, changed 4 .png files that were not stretchable .9.pngs. zipped .apk, option 2, then signed .apk.
i uninstalled my working version of mixzing, tried to install this one, and got application not installed.
2) i decompiled .apk with apk manager, changed the same 4 .png files, recompiled apk, non-system app option, signed .apk.
mixzing was still uninstalled, tried to install this version, got same application not installed message.
neither of these tries including any .9.png modifications and still failed?

[Q] Changing the graphics in an apk? (Handcent theming)

I'm trying to replace the unknown contact image in Handcent to the one in the AOSP contact app. I shrunk the second image to the size of the first one, replaced it in the apk, and then signed it again. Only now, it fails to install. I've seen people here theming a lot of different apps, so I thought this would be the place to ask: what am I doing wrong?
I used the autosign.bat with testsign.jar to sign it. When I try to install it, it says "Application not installed" after I get past the security screen. So it would seem something's wrong with how I signed it.

I thought I might have screwed up by signing the apk since it seems like the thing I used to sign it is only for signing flashable zips. So, I tried without signing and it wasn't any luck. What do people use to crack apks? This should be simpler than I'm making it.

why are you taking the apk apart? to replace drawables, you should just be able to drag the image into the the drawable folder, without unpacking or repacking.
maybe i'm wrong here, but...i think smali baksmali is just for dinking with the framework

I think market apps need to be resigned if modified. Try using apkmanager to decompile it and then change the images before compiling and signing.

nukedukem said:
I think market apps need to be resigned if modified. Try using apkmanager to decompile it and then change the images before compiling and signing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that seems to work better. Now it will install, but it won't run. I think the png files might be 9.ping files and I need to figure out how to make those properly.

[Q] Where is the apk that has the phone icon in Jellybean?

Sorry for such a simple question but this is driving me nuts. I'm running the recently released deodexed Jelly Bean 4.1.1 ROM and I am rooted. I want to change some of the system icons and I've found most of them. I'm not having any luck with the phone ico,however.
I found the SecPhone.apk and it looks like that is where it is. But it must be somewhere else because every time I've changed it, I always get the same result...the little green phone.
Here is what I did:
I copied the SecPhone.apk to my computer and replaced the icon with the one I wanted.
I zipped it.
Signed it.
Then changed the zip to apk.
I then pasted the apk to my sdcard on my phone.
I then went into ES Explorer with root access and replaced the apk in /system/app with the new apk and made sure the permissions were correct and then rebooted.
(Note: I tried to install it but it would not let me. I read a how-to that stated placing it in the folder and rebooting would work the same way. Probably not true, looking back on it now.)
After all that (many times) the damn green phone icon pops back up when the phone re-boots, just sitting there, mocking me.
It's probably evident from my post I'm a noob with modding but this seems like it should be much easier than what I'm going through right now. Any help with this is much appreciated. Thank you.

if I'm not mistaken phone n contacts are switchd so to speak.extract the SecContacts.apk like you did phone. find 5 or 6 folders that start with mipmap-xxxx and replace ic_launcher_phone in all of them. Do the same in the drawable folders as well

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a shot. I figured there had to be other copies of that icon and I just hadn't found the right one yet.

You were correct. There are about 10 copies of ic_launcher_phone in the different folders exactly where you stated.
Guess I should match the sizes of the icons I'm replacing too. These can't all be the same dimensions, can they? This is an awful lot of work to change one icon. LOL. Thanks again.

evoliphant said:
You were correct. There are about 10 copies of ic_launcher_phone in the different folders exactly where you stated.
Guess I should match the sizes of the icons I'm replacing too. These can't all be the same dimensions, can they? This is an awful lot of work to change one icon. LOL. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol no problem
Pretty sure they're all the same.You should be safe

billard412 said:
lol no problem
Pretty sure they're all the same.You should be safe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sort-of. Only the one for your phone's DPI is going to get used, so if you make them all the same it just means you can't run the same .apk on a tablet. Also, it might screw with you if you use HDMI out and the icons get made smaller to match the lower DPI of a monitor (100 vs 300+ on the SGS3), but I don't have the MHL adapter yet so I haven't tried that myself.

Well, unfortunately it didn't work. I did finally get rid of the green phone icon, but mine was no where to be found! Plus, com.phone.blahblah kept forcing close. Whatever I did, 4.1.1 didn't like one bit.
Oh well.
I followed the same process as I put in the OP for this except I did it for both SecPhone.apk and SecContacts.apk. Pasted both with Root Explorer, rebooted and then the home screen would come up, the phone icon was gone and then it would hang and give me the FC error. I just reflashed and gave up for the time being. Hopefully someone has an answer. The only other thing I might try differently is using adb? Would that be a better option than using the Root Explorer copy/paste method?

I wonder if I took the 4.1.1 Rom and opened it and changed the files in that and then flashed the whole ROM again if that would be any better. Would I basically just do the same process I did with the individual apks, except instead of just installing the single apk, the whole ROM goes in with it.
I just can't for the life of me understand why changing png icon images would cause the com.phone process to FC.

Try to use 7zip to extract the icon located in 'res/mipmap-xhdpi' of SecContacts.apk, edit it, and the use 7zip to drop the edited icon directly into the apk. Don't rezip or sign..

That did it! Thank you so much. I actually went ahead replaced all the pngs with my icon in all folders of the SecContacts. I did it first in just the folder you suggested but that didn't change anything. I then changed them all using 7 zip and put them in system/app and rebooted. Boom, Green phone gone! Looks like it was zip/signing problem. 7zip is the answer to my modding woes I guess. Thanks again.

evoliphant said:
That did it! Thank you so much. I actually went ahead replaced all the pngs with my icon in all folders of the SecContacts. I did it first in just the folder you suggested but that didn't change anything. I then changed them all using 7 zip and put them in system/app and rebooted. Boom, Green phone gone! Looks like it was zip/signing problem. 7zip is the answer to my modding woes I guess. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be expecting the file to be uncompressed as well - maybe 7z is putting it in the same way it was. The other issue is it needs to be 4-byte aligned, which you can get via the zipalign program that comes with the SDK - and maybe 7z does that automatically as well.

[Q] framework decompile help.

Not sure if this is the right spot or should actually go in development or here since I got lectured for putting it in development the last time.
But what I am trying to do is decompile the framework file from the stock rom and change a xml and recompile so as to bypass the tetheringprovison call.
The last time I did this on the HTC One S I ran into the trouble that the recompiled verision didn't work and ended up just opening the recompiled apk as a zip pulling the xml and replacing it in the original apk and load that.
That seemed to do the trick on that phone.
I think the problem is with compression as the output apk I get after recompiling is never even close to the original size.
I am having the same issue when it comes to the file for the gs3.
So far I haven't tested a recompiled one yet since I haven't rooted yet but just working on the file.
That is a job for a little later on my days off where I don't need my phone.
But with this one the file I am looking for once it is decompiled shows in res/values/arrays.xml for this one. How ever if I open either the source file or the recompiled when I don't see those values folders anywhere inside.
I am not sure if they are just hidden in something else or where the other files are.
I am using the newest verision of apk multi tool to recompiling and decompiling with compression values tested at 1 and 0.
both the framework-res.apk and twframework files are loaded into it as well as dependencies.
Any ideas on the best way of changing out this one file?
Or if anyone can recompile one with the following arrays.xml file instead that I have attached.
When it is decompiled it does show the right folder string "\res\values" and the array.xml inside I have just made a change to the xml that would not check the tethering provision on the device to allow the built in tether to work again. and a recompiled verision with that file will bypass any tethering check
any help would be greatly appreciated.
*edited* to include the arrays xml

Anything found in the "values" directory are not going to be visible inside the apk they are files used to build the actual apk that tells the other XML and other files where things are. Compression won't break an apk. What exact file are you editing? Also you are going to have to root if you want to put the modded file back on the device..
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah will be rooton on day off so i dont have to worry about it too much.
But with the arrays file that has a call in it to consult a different program before starting tethering.
I have changed that file so it dont check anymore.
This worked on it before with it just unlocked and a different apn update came and dont work anymore.
I am just confused that why it recompiled before for the one and wouldnt work right.
Based on what i read should be no problem as long as both frameworks are installed to the apk multitool

M9x3mos said:
Yeah will be rooton on day off so i dont have to worry about it too much.
But with the arrays file that has a call in it to consult a different program before starting tethering.
I have changed that file so it dont check anymore.
This worked on it before with it just unlocked and a different apn update came and dont work anymore.
I am just confused that why it recompiled before for the one and wouldnt work right.
Based on what i read should be no problem as long as both frameworks are installed to the apk multitool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I decompile framework-res.apk all the time with no issues. What is the exact issue you're having?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Just that when I decompile the framework-res.apk replace one xml file and recompile it using the multitool (am using the system apk with dependancies and linking the twframework) and then try and load it on the phone it seems to cause it to crash.

M9x3mos said:
Just that when I decompile the framework-res.apk replace one xml file and recompile it using the multitool (am using the system apk with dependancies and linking the twframework) and then try and load it on the phone it seems to cause it to crash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cannot replace XML files with other XML files. You have to open the XML in notepad++ and edit the actual lines of code then recompile. And I thought you weren't rooted so how are you able to push the app back to the device? Also, are you setting correct permissions for the newly compiled apk?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah sorry for the late reply.
I am still tinkering with it. I wanted to root just till I had a day off that it wouldn't kill me to have the phone down for a little.
I will be rooting it in the next day or two since I am off.
After recompiling the APK and pulling the XML out of that one and putting in the original was the only way I could get the change to take on the One S.
When I was testing then, and will try the same procedure with the GS3, is after recompiling it with the tool I would put on sd card then using twrp copy to the phone and chmod 644
Out of curiosity what would be the DD command for backing up the recovery to the sd card?
I am having trouble finding that.
I would like to have that to flash back on the phone as I am planning to try this again from within twrp and see what happens.
From my understanding for triangle away to work you need to be on stock recovery right?

Ok
Now I have a new problem I have stumbled upon.
I have modded the file but when I try and push it with ADB from the pc even after system mounted it tells me that permission is denied.
Any ideas why that is happening?

Tried copying over with root explorer and that froze during copy and then resulted I'm a boot loop.
Not sure if that was because of the method or a problem with the file I made.
When decompiling does that need to be done with the twframework dependence or just simple decompile?
Also then after switching the arrays.xml I can just recompile with no compression or do I have to do something with keeping files.
Since the arrays is in something else I'm not sure what it shouldn't keep.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
And I can't find if should either be zipaligned or signed. Some articles say signed some say don't sign system apks

Holy crap... youre allllllllllll over the place one bite at a time.. Quick answers first:
You do not need to backup your recovery. It is flashable via Odin and is much safer to flash via odin then it is using DD. With DD, you could flash the wrong partition by a simple slip of a keystroke. IE you typed '9' instead of '0'
Secondly: You got that 'freeze' issue using Root Explorer because framework-res.apk is constantly in use by the system. The BEST way to apply any system file is by creating a flashable zip file then applying it through recovery.
Thirdly: You do NOT need stock recovery to use Triangle Away, ive used it twice now with CWM as my recovery.
About your issues with decompiling recompiling.. I dont think its necessary to install the twframework... i dont recall if i had to when i was on Frosty, but doing "java -jar apktool.jar if <twframework here>" wouldnt hurt.
Also what exactly are you trying to modify?

Yeah Sorry about that
was just as I was reading other things and playing with it I kept coming across other questions.
Was thinking about that with the recovery so I am just going to skip doing that and flash a custom one then.
Was trying to do it without switching to avoid tripping the counter but seems like that is un neesicary
I am looking to stay on the stock software of the phone but want to edit the arrays file out of the framework so it don't check for tethering provisions.
Previously I was able to tether just by changing the APNs on the device now I can't do that. Says I don't have a tmo tathering plan. But also not with T-Mobile so that is problematic.

M9x3mos said:
Yeah Sorry about that
was just as I was reading other things and playing with it I kept coming across other questions.
Was thinking about that with the recovery so I am just going to skip doing that and flash a custom one then.
Was trying to do it without switching to avoid tripping the counter but seems like that is un neesicary
I am looking to stay on the stock software of the phone but want to edit the arrays file out of the framework so it don't check for tethering provisions.
Previously I was able to tether just by changing the APNs on the device now I can't do that. Says I don't have a tmo tathering plan. But also not with T-Mobile so that is problematic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick question, are you running Stock Jellybean? And who is your carrier? There was a hacked apk that enabled tethering.. not sure what its called. just read about it. Never tried/downloaded it.

i got this to work last night for frosty 11.2.1, AllenD87 over at the att forums helped me get it right.

I have the stock jellybean on tmo device and use with simple mobile service
Just checked out the other one hack/mod that was looking like the same kind of mod where made changes to the framework and put it back.
different firmware so I don't that I should try that on mine.

i just decompiled framework-res.apk made the changes and recompiled. put it in the rom and flashed the whole rom.

Trying to keep the absolute stock rom.
I just installed twrp since it has file manager so I don't need to make a flashable zip but just copy over and chmod 0644
first attempt gave me a boot hang so I am going to try compiling with a different tool

Ok found out the problem was the multi tool inwas using
Used the beta instead and everything worked ok

[Q] Edit system/framework/services.jar ?

I got tired of waiting for a nice custom ROM or Xposed to drop, so I decided to look into doing my own mods. I've been wanting to learn for the longest time.
My Googling suggests things I mostly want (such as the five-way-reboot and disabling of screen-on when plugged/unplugged) are options that can be change in services.jar.
But I'm not finding the classes.dex in my services.jar file.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get started?
Maybe toss a link my way to read?
I got brain tired after 20 minutes of Googling only led me to how-to guides that aren't working out because I don't have this classes.dex thing?

CZ Eddie said:
I got tired of waiting for a nice custom ROM or Xposed to drop, so I decided to look into doing my own mods. I've been wanting to learn for the longest time.
My Googling suggests things I mostly want (such as the five-way-reboot and disabling of screen-on when plugged/unplugged) are options that can be change in services.jar.
But I'm not finding the classes.dex in my services.jar file.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get started?
Maybe toss a link my way to read?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pull the .jar file to your local machine and open it in an archiver that supports .zip compression. Many files including 'classes.dex' are inside the .jar file. Simplest way is to extract the classes.dex then decompile it using backsmali.

mostyle said:
Pull the .jar file to your local machine and open it in an archiver that supports .zip compression.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, but there is only one file inside the services.jar and it's not classes.dex. It's just the META-INF folder wiht MANIFEST.MF inside.
As well, the services.jar is only 318 Bytes.
I use 7zip on my computer or Root Explorer on the phone.

Good Job Eddie!
While you are learning can you incorporate a dark background in the app drawer.
Keep up the good work.

CZ Eddie said:
Right, but there is only one file inside the services.jar and it's not classes.dex. It's just the META-INF folder wiht MANIFEST.MF inside.
As well, the services.jar is only 318 Bytes.
I use 7zip on my computer or Root Explorer on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I suspect the dex code you are looking for has moved either to an APK or a different JAR.
Have you looked at the classes.dex in framework-res.apk?
There are a LOT of 318 byte files in /system/framework. This tells me most definitely that the code has been offloaded elsewhere and that these files were likely left as legacy reference. Apologies for not looking at the files before replying.

Now that you mention it, I did try all the other jar's in /system/framework.
The only one that had a classes.dex was embmslibrary.jar.
But I got errors when trying to unpack it.
Wish I'd saved the errors to post here.
Figured I'd give some of the ROM building utilities a go but have not had success yet. I'm only still just starting out though.
I'm thinking we'll probably need an all new ROM Kitchen for 7.1 due to many significant changes.
Which are probably what's holding up ROM development so far.
I got the Nexu.... uh, Pixel because I figured we'd have a bunch of cool AOSP ROM's within a week or two. doh.

DIXZ06 said:
Good Job Eddie!
While you are learning can you incorporate a dark background in the app drawer.
Keep up the good work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are already mods out there for the Pixel Launcher.
I use Nova Launcher though, which has color and transparency options built right into it.

XDA's Chef Central subforum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/chef-central/android

The reason you're not seeing the classes.dex file in any of the jar files is because the system is odexed. The classes.dex file is actually services.odex in /system/framework/oat/arm64.

Good to know, thank you!
It's a bummer about all these Android Kitchen variations out there.
None work with the Pixel yet.
I'm not having warm & fuzzy feelings about development for this phone.

Has anyone found a way to deodex the Pixel 7.1 yet?
I'm not finding any "utilities" that support Pixel yet.

disable screen on when plugged in can be disabled by editing "bools.xml" in the framework-res.apk
i can do it for you if you want

flex360 said:
disable screen on when plugged in can be disabled by editing "bools.xml" in the framework-res.apk
i can do it for you if you want
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
Holy moly, I've already found 18 bools.xml's in framework-res.apk and there are still about two hundred folders to manually open to see what's in there.
Do you know which one to edit? I'd like to learn all this myself.
I'm using APK Studio and really wish it had a better search function.

CZ Eddie said:
Thank you!
Holy moly, I've already found 18 bools.xml's in framework-res.apk and there are still about two hundred folders to manually open to see what's in there.
Do you know which one to edit? I'd like to learn all this myself.
I'm using APK Studio and really wish it had a better search function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the one in the "values" folder

Ahh. There are like five million Values folders.
But only one value folder.
I missed that. lol
Thanks

CZ Eddie said:
Thank you!
Holy moly, I've already found 18 bools.xml's in framework-res.apk and there are still about two hundred folders to manually open to see what's in there.
Do you know which one to edit? I'd like to learn all this myself.
I'm using APK Studio and really wish it had a better search function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And you thought this was going to be easy why??? LOL

You're not kidding.
Just one roadblock after another.
And all my Googling leads to old research/faq's that just don't seem to work on the Pixel.
I need to go buy an old Nexus running Gingerbread just to get some of this stuff to work.
My current roadblock is trying to write to /system via ADB.
It pretends to let me write.
But after a reboot, all my changes are gone and it's gone back to the original files again.
adb root
adb remount
adb push filename /system/folder/filename.
It's like yeahhhh, 100% write complete.
PSYCH! Then you reboot and it's like you never wrote anything.

I even tried replacing the framework file using Root Explorer but it just immediately reboots and bootloops.
I did sign the apk succesfully before trying that.

FINALLY I have success.
I'm now able to unplug my phone without the screen turning on.
This was a huge frustration when car-docked.
Now I can work on a few other things and come back and play with some more mods later. :good:
So my stumbling blocks were permissions (duh) and being unable to decompile, recompile and then sign the apk and get it onto the phone without bootlooping.
I still don't have a good way of dcompiling/recompiling without doing some 7zip magic afterwards. But at least I have some success and a footprint to move forward with learning some further mods. :good:
And I had to get this done using Root Explorer, so I still need to figure out a proper way to mount the system and push system files with ADB and get them to stick.

Well, so my ultimate goal was to do a bunch of mods and then release a custom stock-based ROM to the community.
But holy moly, more stumbling blocks.
Couldn't figure out how to create a simple flashable ROM zip.
So I just released my mods in the Themes & Apps subforum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-xl/themes/framework-mods-disable-screen-off-usb-t3508322
Thanks for the help, guys. :good:
I'll get back at the custom ROM thing another time.
I'll tell you what though.
I have tons more respect for devs after trying all this on my own.
Even if it's something you know how to do, there is a LOT of time and work spent on modding.
And then figuring out something new for the first time is incredibly frustrating.