HTC Desire: Turn off hard key lights

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Cloud

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I recently got my Desire and it really does rule at this point.

Something that bothers me though, is when I read at night with the lights off using Aldiko, the hard lights (home, menu, back etc.) stays on which is actually quite harsh on the eyes in the dark.

I googled a bit and found this:

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/turn-off-the-hard-key-lights-on-your-htc-desire/

I managed to run the script which turns the lights off, but when you enter Aldiko the lights come on again. Arg.

Someone on the forum there posted a link to this:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/net.geekherd.softbuttonshack

But you need to root your phone, which I am not really keen to do right now.

Any ideas?
 
Cloud said:
But you need to root your phone, which I am not really keen to do right now.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

*cough* Root....

No seriously, I'll check around a bit and see if I find anything for you. You'll have to test it though cause im rooted :P
 
Well, is there a kind of, safe root, only minor, to allow these types of apps?

I actually like the current UI and have been setting up my profiles etc. Wouldn't like to do it all over again.

But I really want to turn those lights off, at this point I cannot read with it on. So I will root if I must, as long as its only a mild root.

Or ginger root.

That was lame, my apologies.
 
Just root :)

Seriously man, rooting gives you chance for such awesome little tweaks. Another key tweak I like is that my power button doesn't wake my phone anymore. That used to annoy me. I now wake my phone with the menu key. Little things like that make rooting worth it. Flashing amazing new ROMs makes it so much MORE worth it, though :P
 
Hmmm, I checked out Cyb3rt's sig and [Froyo] DJ DROID v1.0-R1 ROM does look tasty...

Sigh man, ok. Where do I start, just point me in the direction of a site where I can learn the basics.

Let's wrestle this bear!

PS -> does rooting have any effect on 3g etc? I'm on MTN and my 3g hasn't worked yet, assuming they have to activate it for me? But thats another discussion.
 
It will have no affect, only improve if anything...

Well, its not that hard, and you don't even have to understand what you are doing, it will happen mostly via the batch files and scripts built in.

This method is the easiest for me. Step by step ;)
 
Cyb3rt, I noticed there are some issues with battery life, lag, dropped calls etc. some users are experiencing with the mod you are using.

Have you had any problems?

And what do you use to back your phone up before you flash?
 
Cloud said:
Cyb3rt, I noticed there are some issues with battery life, lag, dropped calls etc. some users are experiencing with the mod you are using.

Have you had any problems?

And what do you use to back your phone up before you flash?
Click to expand...

Nope, the battery life is actually better for me. Lag, don't know what they mean by that, the menu's, games, everything is super fast this side. And no dropped calls for a couple of days now, and I had one or two conversations that lasted 20min+ and no probs...

I didn't have to much on the phone when I rooted and flashed the ROM, so I just used AppMonster to back the apk files up to the SD card and reinstalled them afterwards.
 
You might want to consider following this guide - Click click

I did that guide, as did a few of my buddies. Takes 5 minutes, and works perfectly.
 
And what about this goldcard thing, is it necessary?

Should I back my apps up before or after gold card conversion?

Arg man, hate being a noob >.<
 
Cloud said:
And what about this goldcard thing, is it necessary?

Should I back my apps up before or after gold card conversion?

Arg man, hate being a noob >.<
Click to expand...

Relax dude :)

Is your phone a branded phone? Is it from MTN or vodacom? MTN users do NOT need a goldcard, and there are some Vodacom users that report that they needed one.

Don't bother backing up your apps. Just write down what they are and install them when your done.
 
Man, if you're on MTN, you'll be fine. Take a stab at the guide I just posted. It literally took me a few minutes :)
 
Just do it :)

Did mine last Friday and then installed a modified version of DJ Droid: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=720917, I did some more slight modifications with the pre-installed apps and obdexed it (Not sure what that means, found the download inside the DJ Droid thread - saves 50 MB internal storage).

Amazing!
 
Cloud said:
I recently got my Desire and it really does rule at this point.

Something that bothers me though, is when I read at night with the lights off using Aldiko, the hard lights (home, menu, back etc.) stays on which is actually quite harsh on the eyes in the dark.

I googled a bit and found this:

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/turn-off-the-hard-key-lights-on-your-htc-desire/

I managed to run the script which turns the lights off, but when you enter Aldiko the lights come on again. Arg.

Someone on the forum there posted a link to this:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/net.geekherd.softbuttonshack

But you need to root your phone, which I am not really keen to do right now.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

stick a strip of insulation tape over the buttons... voila ;)
 
While you solved your problem already, this is for anyone coming across this thread looking for an answer:

Cloud said:
I googled a bit and found this:

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/turn-off-the-hard-key-lights-on-your-htc-desire/

I managed to run the script which turns the lights off, but when you enter Aldiko the lights come on again. Arg.
Click to expand...

Had the same problem. Script works just fine (you don't even need the sd card tricks anymore, you can just launch gscript and create a script on the fly), but in my case it was the Amazon Kindle Reader that turned on the lights again. It's probably because it has built-in brightness control so it applies its own settings when a book is loaded.

My solution was to put "sleep 15" before the actual command (on it's own line).

This way you can run the script, launch the application and still have plenty of time (15 seconds is what it waits before running the command from when it's launched) to open the book. After a few seconds the lights should close and stay that way unless you adjust the brightness. No need for rooting.
 
Yes pli, that is useful.

Although I ended up rooting my phone and using LedsHack.

Haven't looked back since :)
 
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