Recent Jailbreaker: Need help with homescreen modification!! Please Help!

[Kflik]

I am not trying to waste anyone's time on here. I have searched for a few hours, but I am a grad student and time if of the essence for me, so I figured I would search for some help.

I was browsing through the threads of everyone that posted their jailbroken homescreen. Some of those screens are crazy impressive.

I am trying to figure out what everyone on here is doing to get screens like that?

I recently jailbroke my iphone 3gs. I have a basic understanding of cydia and how things work. I have winterboard, but I quickly realized these peoples screens are way beyond what I think I am capable of.

Is there anyone that could give me a quick run down of what exactly is going on (specifically if you look at the part 3 of jailbroken homescreens, near the last of the most recent posts). How are these people obtaining such looks?

Do I search cydia for those specific types of icons? Then the specific types of backgrounds, then the specific types of weather (widgets are they called?) Or are these people doing something that is way beyond what I know of.

Sorry to be ignorant I am new to this so please cut me some slack and thanks for any information or time of yours used!

Thanks again.

PS. I would like to obtain a look similar to this, would anyone be able to give some general instructions or how this look was obtained?

 

[crovian]

It's impossible to give a quick run down because most of the screenshots have so many different elements. For example, the screenshot you posted probably have more the five different tweaks. My suggestion is go to macthemes and download a bunch of themes and widgets and find out how they work.

It'd be foolish to say you can learn about it all in a day so start downloading themes.

As for the screenshot you posted, the icons are from Edius Hd (which is only for retina devices so you can try tenuis), icon layout is from iconoclasm, similar widgets are available in this forum you just gotta search.

If you actually searched around for a couple of hours, it's really easy to get started

 

[hackthatphone]

One thing to keep in mind with all these crazy themes is that many require a tedious installation process, using OpenSSH and the iNav style of theme takes away a lot of your screen real estate. Many themes do not have icons for your specific programs so they won't match. Many require you to place your icons in a particular order as well.

Here's a tutorial of mine for an iNav theme called Whitoken:

http://www.hackthatphone.com/3x/themes_with_winterboard_section28.html

 

[Kflik]

Crovian: Thank you for your time. I will check out tenius. I figured there were multiple layers or "hacks" going on. Which would not be too over my head, but I am sort of confused on how to get certain "widgets". Do I just search for these on cydia or through certain sources?

You said similar widgets are in this forum, but how do I get them from this forum onto my phone lol. I suppose that is where some of my confusion/problems come in. I will also search for iconoclasm. Do I find iconoclasm and tenius on cydia? or through a specific source?

Also during my initial searching I noticed people post links to download icons and layouts but how would I download those to my phone? Do I find the forum page on my iphone and click download (do I maybe need ifile off of cydia?) Sorry again for the beginner language and understanding.

Also real quick: when going to macthemes (how do I download these themes? ifile? Or something else to allow my phone to do so? thnx!)

Thank you for the great information.

hackthatphone: Thank you for your time as well. I checked out the link you posted and it is very informative. My problem would be that I am not sure how to use SSH or iNav. Your instructions while very precise and informative, were a bit over my head and I did not understand some of the concepts. Do you have to have a mac to follow that?

Any other quick tips or help would be awesome, it is all much appreciated!

 

[crovian]

way you get themes/widgets to your iphone from your comp is ssh
google it

 

[draz]

Start by installing Open SSH package from Cydia (free!)
Then on your computer you will need a program that supports SSH protocol. For Windows I like WinSCP, not sure if it works on Mac's

You then need to gain access to your iPhone's using WinSCP (or any program of your choice)
By default the info for all iPhone's are:
Host name:Whatever your phone's Wifi IP address is
User name: root
Password: alpine

Reminder please change your root password:
http://cydia.saurik.com/password.html
Also turn Open SSH off via SBSettings when you are not using it (thanks!)

Another popular program is iPhoneBrowser: http://code.google.com/p/iphonebrowser/

Now that you got access to the memory, remember that everything you change instantly effect's your iPhone, so changing something that you do not know can easily destroy your phone.

Theme's you download are dropped into:
/private/var/stash/Themes.XXXXXX

Once copied over, launch Winterboard and you will see that theme appear. Select it, Apply, it will Respring and hopefully it will appear. Sometimes you may need to reboot the phone for certain things like icons.

Expect to spend HOURS and DAYS to get your iPhone looking the way you like it. Oh and backup that Themes folder from time to time because you will need to do this again when you update to the next iOS
And after each iOS update, expect themes to break and not work correctly. The popular themes will usually be updated rather quickly so not to worry.

Good luck!

 

[Kflik]

Draz: Thank you for the help! I did a little research on SSH. I understand how to get on and do the process but I do not have WiFi at my home. Would I be better off using iPhonebrowser? Does this require Wifi?

Are any of the widgets and themes that are used available just through cydia? Like the awesome icons I see people using? I installed tenuis and iconoclasm, they are pretty cool, I will play around with these for the time being.

If I end up just going through iphonebrowser, do I do everything through my iphone then? What would be the steps once I have iphonebrowser? just look at macthemes and then download them with my iphone through iphonebrowser?

Again sorry for the lack of knowledge! I am researching a bunch as well, any little help helps!

Thanks!

 

[rick snagwell]

One thing to keep in mind with all these crazy themes is that many require a tedious installation process, using OpenSSH and the iNav style of theme takes away a lot of your screen real estate. Many themes do not have icons for your specific programs so they won't match. Many require you to place your icons in a particular order as well.

Here's a tutorial of mine for an iNav theme called Whitoken:

http://www.hackthatphone.com/3x/themes_with_winterboard_section28.html

great tut sir. i used this on my VIP4, and it looks great. my donation finally paid off!

 

[draz]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

iPhoneBrowser is a program for your computer and is USB based. Just connect your phone, launch the program, and just copy and paste your themes in the same place.
I personally think it's slow. But if you have no other way then just go with that.

There are Cydia packages for themes but most of the stuff you do will be on your computer.

 

[Kflik]

Ok so I have spent more time looking at peoples home screen's and what not and I do realize they leave links and multiple download spots to get the widgets and themes.

Now, I took your advice draz and I downloaded iphonebrowser (I do not have wifi).

Next I open iphonebrowser, plug my phone in....and then what?

I want this one kruze widget I have seen posted and people left this link...

http://laugend.deviantart.com/art/Sp...ruze-198922327

do I just click on it on my computer/download it/then move it to the themes?

Am I getting this somewhat correct?

Any help would be appreciated!
ALSO: if anyone knows a widget to get my status bar completely clear (I have downloaded clear status and transparent status from cydia but neither completely clear it like I see in the photo I posted.

THANKS!