How To: Exchange Android Lock-Handle

In this blogpost I'm going to explain you how you can exchange Android's lockscreen handle.

First I have to say that you have to

• be rooted
• have a custom recovery installed (e.g. ClockworkMod)
• be on Ice Cream Sandwich or higher (4.0 )
• have adb installed on your computer
• be on a Mac. This procedure was written for Mac OS X. While it should work on Linux, it does not work on Windows like this!

Even though everything should work fine with this method (I've used it multiple times) I won't take any responsibility for bricked, hanging devices or anything else that might happen.
You must be aware that this is an unforeseen modification to Android!
You're doing this at your own risk.

Some ROM's change the handle, but their handles are not always beautiful.
If you just want to get the original handle back, you could try to flash this zip:
http://www.slimroms.net/index.php/downloads/all/viewdownload/67-lockscreenthemes/492-universal-lockscreen-stock-handle
It should work on any ROM, but I won't take responsibility for this zip either.

OK. Let's get started.

1. Get into recovery
2. Mount the system partition. In CWM it's: mounts and storage -> mount system
3. Open a Terminal window
4. Enter "cd ~; mkdir lockhandle; cd lockhandle" (This is not obligatory. You can put your files whereever you want to. Just mind the file paths in the following steps then.)
5. Enter "sudo adb devices" to check whether your device is being recognized.
6. If it's been recognized, enter "adb pull /system/framework/framework-res.apk ./"
7. Make the apk into an extractable zip: "mv framework-res.apk framework-res.zip"
8. "open ." (If this command does not work, just open the actual folder in your prefered file browser)
9. Open framework-res.zip with BetterZip (or any other application that allows you to modify a zip’s contents without extracting it)
   
10. Navigate to the "res/"-directory inside the zip file.
11. Replace the desired graphics in the "drawable-*" folders. (They're called "iclockscreenhandle_normal.png")
12. Save the modified zip file
13. Back in Terminal, make it an apk again: "mv framework-res.zip framework-res.apk"
14. Copy the apk file back to your device: "adb push ./framework-res.apk /system/framework/framework-res.apk"
15. Reboot your device: "adb reboot"
16. If you wish, delete the temporary folder created at the beginning: "cd ..; rm -r lockhandle"

That's it. Have fun with your new lock-handles :)