* Note: First and foremost, many thanks to all of the people involved with laying the groundwork for the public consumption of themes installation on BlackBerry devices. This includes jaysen, jnelson2000, as well as quite a few others. I have written atleast 4 major themes topics myself (maybe more), including those on OTA installation, the BlackBerry.alx all-inclusive installation, the installation of 7100 themes on 7200 devices, and the installation of 7200 themes on 7100 devices. This will be the last installation guide for themes made by me until others are released (which I will add to this guide).

I have set up a few different methods for installation and delivery, including and OTA configuration and a option-based ALX/COD installation.

Over-The-Air:
This method allows you to download the theme directly to your handheld without using a PC. Each individual COD file has been broken down to child COD files that will range in size from about 20KB-80KB. The success rate for these files should be near 100% unless you are in a very low signal area.

ALX/COD:
I have taken the time to make an ALX file that sets a top level installation of 'BlackBerry Themes' with separate installations for each theme (see screenshot below). This method allows you to pick and choose which themes you want to install rather than forcing you to install all of the themes specified in previous ALX installations. I have both the 7100 and 7200 series in the single ALX file, but only 8 will show for either in Application Loader - one file fits all (or something like that).



The available themes are shown below on their respective handheld devices (7100g and 7290 are shown):







The themes can be found below (separated by delivery format):

Over-The-Air:
Default 7200 Small Icons - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac...7200_small.jad
Default 7700 Large Icons - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac...7700_large.jad
Default 7100 List - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac..._7100_list.jad
O2 7100 - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac...a/o2_7100x.jad
Orange France 7200 - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac...range_7200.jad
T-Mobile 7100 - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac...bile_7100t.jad
Vodafone 7200 - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac...afone_7200.jad
Vodafone 7100 - http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blac...fone_7100v.jad

ALX/COD:
OS 4.0
* Note: These do not work on OS 4.1 handhelds.
http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/blackberry/themes.zip

Please let me know if something does not work with the installation procedures. I can only test under so many different circumstances, but hopefully there won't be any issues with any of these. I have not used my new domain all that much, so I'm not sure whether or not my hosting provider has any sort of stability for this website. If such a situation does happen to arise from this posting, I will take my business to a new hosting provider (I will not remove these links).

If anyone would like to mirror these, I will be more than happy to pass the files on to someone else. I have 100GB of bandwidth per month, so I honestly don't see it coming close to surpassing my designated limits.

* Note: To use the Orange theme on the 7100 series handhelds, you must first install the Default Small Icons theme. To use the O2 theme on the 7200 series handhelds, you must first install the Default List theme. I believe thats all of the requirements, but if all else fails, simply install until the others work.

Disclaimer: I am a very active member on this forum, and within the BlackBerry community, so I will definitely attempt to answer any and all questions, should they arise. If something goes wrong during your installation of any of these themes, and you end up having to wipe your handheld, please do not point the finger at me. These themes are provided as is and should be loaded at your own discretion.

Looks great, jibi. I just tried to download the ALX/COD zip file but winzip says it's not a valid file type. Is it not uploaded yet as you posted your msg only 30 mins ago.

btw - what does ALX/COD mean?
thanks!

got it

The zip file has been uploaded since long before I posted this thread, actually. I forgot to make one change to the ALX file, so I went ahead and edited it (just alphabetizing) and re-uploaded the ZIP file. Try it again and let me know. I'm using WinZip 9.0 with Normal compression (so it should be compatible across the board).

ALX - Application Loader XML (I believe; possibly Extension for the X)
COD - Code (I think)

The ALX file is basically the installation file that you load into Application Loader that feeds what should and should not be installed. You can open it up with Notepad if you want to have a look at it. The COD files are obfuscated JAR files that are proprietary to RIM and BlackBerry. Both are simply file extensions of the installation instructions and system software files for BlackBerry devices.

Great work jibi! Question I keep getting a JVM 523 Error when I try to move an application in the application folder within the Orange theme?

Zip is corrupt

By bad, ignore

no clue on that. the known issues i know of, aside from that, there are still calculator issues when using the 7200 themes on 7100 handhelds (and i'm sure vice versa). i haven't really seen any other issues, though.

I have the same issue with the JVM Error when trying to move applications in the Orange Theme. It works ok on the main screen but if you try to move applications in the application screen or settings screen you get an error that forces you to reboot. This is still the best I've seen since I've had my berry.

Odd, every time I try and download the zip file it gets as far as 266kb and then drops. Maybe its the PC, I will try it when I go home tonight!!

tht is odd. i can email it if you have issues from home as well.

Thanks, will let you know!

I can't download the zip file either. Same situation, download part of the file, then quits.

Man, this is awesome. Thanks jibi. I have one question though. I was able to download and install in Desktop Mgr. But, whenever I attempt an over the air install I get a HTTP 500 error. Anyone else getting this??

*grumble*

I really hate hosting providers... I will do some research on these download issues. For now, until I can get the issue resolved or move hosting providers, please retry the download until it completes successfully.

For those having issues, what browser are you using and what kind of connection do you have to the net (cable, DSL, T1, etc)? Also, are you using any sort of Download Manager or firewall?

jasonb, click on Details and write out the entire message. It could very well be related to the other stuff that the others have posted about disconnects from the webserver. Also, are you using the high or low link (or is it happening on both)?

I have added an alternate download link for the zip file. Please use the original first and the alternate second, if you don't mind.

http://www.knology.net/~acidmax/themes.zip

ditto and ditto.

wow, thanks. the ALX/COD method worked like a charm for me, and was able to get all the themes installed. funny thing is though, after cycling through all the different themes, i still like the default list one it came with best
i think it's because i like to use a funky backround image, and most of the other themes either clash with the images or are hard to see over the backround image. oh well, at least i have some different ones to change to if i get bored with the default one. thanks again.

I ended up just downloading the Default 7290 (Small) and am in love with it on this 7100 screen...no more wasted screen real estate with the Cingular header info spread out.

thank you very much

These are awesome! i now have 8 themes on both my 7100t and my 7520. Thanks!

Not a problem.

what is the appz that u used to do these themes?any tutorials?

He did not create the themes. There is no publicly available tool to create a theme. These are the different themes that the carriers put on their BBs. The files were stripped out and put into one nice file by Jibi.

It would appear that the background image on the Orange theme suffers the same fate as any alternate background image displayed using the small icons theme on the 7100.

The top ~60% of the background image is "washed out" (as seen in the Organge 7100 photo above). I have confirmed this behavior through installation of the theme. While this problem is likely related to the Orange's dependency on the small icons theme it is nonetheless pretty annoying.

Other posts reference this small icons theme problem on the 7100 as "normal" or "expected", but I have never seen an explanation to why this occurs and what workarounds may exist.

Any guidance greatly appreciated.

okay, so now that i see what you all are talking about, here's the issue.

the background layer/image is embedded as part of the theme with a static size (240x160) and size-related position (vertical alignment centered, due to the background image size and the auto-matic placement by the 7100 OS). there is another layer (white; foreground) that has a static size (240x160) and position (vertical alignment top). due to the positioning of both aspects of the layers, there is an unwanted alignment issue, thus the layers are only partially overlapping rather than completely overlapping. there is no way to fix that, most likely.

i would say this is just a side effect of the theme being designed with a lightening white layer as a foreground as part of the theme (which would set it at 240x160 with a vertical top alignment no matter the situation or handheld).

I've been lurking here for a bit. I've been trying to do everything OTA and using a car charger to keep things up and running. I have a 7100T for personal use and have a 7520, 7250, and others for testing. I have the other devices loaded on my laptop and desktops so I am forced to use OTA for all of my personal software. Since this is strictly a non-business use I want to use it on my personal device.

The people getting the HTTP Error: 500 may be running in to it the same way as me. I am using my 7100T to browse the forum and try the OTA install. I get the error when I use my BB to try the download but it works fine from my laptop. When I use ainvar's link I get an error message that a theme already exists on this handheld. Any help for an OTA theme change? I'm trying to use the O2 theme.

Jester

I'm getting my 7100g today, so I will try this out. Thanks for taking the time to create this thread.

Thanks for researching the alignment issue on the background images for the 7100. If the alignment of the foreground cannot be adjusted I guess we'll have to accept the flaw. Too bad, it looks great on the 7200's.

Thanks again for the thread and your timely response to my question.

I will take a look into it tonight, and will possibly mirror the link elsewhere just to see if it works for one of the themes. Does it even pull up the Download/Cancel screen with the information for the theme, or is it eventually just timing out with the 500 error while trying to load that portion? And are you using the low or high links?

No Download/Cancel screen. It clocks briefly and then gives the 500 error. High link. I just tried the low to see if it happened on both and the low did allow the download. When it was run I get "Uncaught exception: Theme already present."

I figured we'd try to fix one error at a time ;) It is also the same error I get when I run the one from anivar.

Jester

Just to give you a bit of a background on how JAD/COD files work - the JAD will actually, to an extent, load the COD file (or atleast part of it) before it displays information. The COD files can be quite large, hence the LOW option, which breaks these files down into fairly small files. My guess is that the connection is timing out, thus returning a 500 HTTP error. For this reason alone, I may end up removing the high download entirely.

As for the other error, check to see if the theme module is installed - go to Applications then click and select Modules - check for net_rim_theme_125_240x260 or net_rim_theme_o2_240x260.

Got it. Thanks. This post use to have a stupid question attached. It's been a long day.

Jester

remove the 4.0 module.

Man you're fast on the keyboard... I can't even hide my shame before you can quote me ;)

Jester

haha. i just caught your reply at the right time. i'm rebuilding my test BES and IIS server, so i was looking at my other thread for the MIME extensions.

I get the following error when trying to download the 'low' themes...

907 Invalid JAR

It gets only a little into the download and then states that the download failed.
Any ideas why this is so or how to get around it?

how many bars do you have when it fails? typically, the error there is representative of either a bad file (not the case) or a dropped connection (usually due to signal/coverage).

Thanks jibi. I downloaded the zip file, installed through desktop manager,and everything's cool. Again, I appreciate the effort and time it took to make our bberry's a little more exciting.

I installed the Orange Theme on my 7100G with little trouble, other than the calculator snafu.

I have noticed, though, that the call duration read-out stops at :59 (ie 59 seconds). After the call I go back into the call log, and see the correct length of the connection.

Any ideas? Thanks, Jim

Thanks so much!! Using a Verizon 7250 and the themes I installed all work. Heres my question. Any chance you can make the icons of the tmobile theme (or the default list theme, which looks like the 7100g) smaller, so it fits on the 72XX series better? that would make it perfect!!