Troubleshoot runtime resource overlays

Use this content to troubleshoot why a runtime resource overlay (RRO) might not be functioning as intended in an Android Automotive implementation.

Related documentation

To learn more about RROs in Android, see Change the value of an app's resources at runtime. Be sure to maintain a constant vigilance on logcat output, which can provide good information about what is happening throughout the process.

Step 1: List the RROs

To list the RROs:

1. Run the following command:

   adbshellcmdoverlaylist--usercurrent

   Output like this appears:

   com.android.systemui
   [ ] com.android.theme.icon_pack.rounded.systemui
   [ ] com.android.theme.icon_pack.filled.systemui
   [ ] com.android.theme.icon_pack.circular.systemui
   com.android.permissioncontroller
   --- com.android.permissioncontroller.googlecarui.rro
   

2. Verify that your RRO appears in the list. The following indicators denote RRO status:

   Indicator	RRO status
   [ ]	Installed and ready to be activated.
   [X]	Installed and activated.
   ---	Installed but contains errors.

   If your RRO isn't listed under the package name of the target you want to overlay, your RRO isn't installed.

Step 2: Enable and disable an RRO

If an RRO is installed:

1. Use the following command to enable (or disable) the RRO:

   adbshellcmdoverlay[enable/disable]--usercurrent[yourRROpackagename]

Step 3: Confirm RRO is installed

To confirm an RRO is installed on a device or troubleshoot why the RRO wasn't enabled:

1. Run the following command:

   adbshellcmdoverlaydump[yourRROpackagename]

   Output such as the following appears:

   com.android.car.rotaryplayground.googlecarui.rro:0 {
    mPackageName...........: com.android.car.rotaryplayground.googlecarui.rro
    mUserId................: 0
    mTargetPackageName.....: com.android.car.rotaryplayground
    mTargetOverlayableName.: car-ui-lib
    mBaseCodePath..........: /product/overlay/googlecarui-com-android-car-rotaryplayground/googlecarui-com-android-car-rotaryplayground.apk
    mState.................: STATE_MISSING_TARGET
    mIsEnabled.............: true
    mIsMutable.............: true
    mPriority..............: 10
    mCategory..............: BypassIdMapV1
   }
   com.android.car.rotaryplayground.googlecarui.rro:10 {
    mPackageName...........: com.android.car.rotaryplayground.googlecarui.rro
    mUserId................: 10
    mTargetPackageName.....: com.android.car.rotaryplayground
    mTargetOverlayableName.: car-ui-lib
    mBaseCodePath..........: /product/overlay/googlecarui-com-android-car-rotaryplayground/googlecarui-com-android-car-rotaryplayground.apk
    mState.................: STATE_MISSING_TARGET
    mIsEnabled.............: true
    mIsMutable.............: true
    mPriority..............: 10
    mCategory..............: BypassIdMapV1
   }
   

2. Identify the user (or users) who installed the RRO. In the previous example, the RRO is available for user 0 and user10 (see the values for mUserId in the top code block).

3. To enable (or disable) the RRO for a user, go to Step 2.

4. To check the value of mState:

   • STATE_ENABLED and STATE_ENABLED_IMMUTABLE. The RRO is enabled and applied to your target.

   • STATE_MISSING_TARGET. Your target isn't installed.

   • STATE_NO_IDMAP. Something is wrong with the way the AndroidManifest.xml, overlays.xml, or overlayable.xml files are set up. Use adb logcat to run the logs and search for the keyword idmap to identify the error. See steps 4 & 5.

   • STATE_UNKNOWN. Something is wrong with OverlayManagerService.

Step 4: Check AndroidManifest.xml

To verify AndroidManifest.xml:

1. Check targetName and targetPackage.

   android:targetName should have the same value of the overlayable group defined in the target app. This is required only when targeting an overlay.

   android:targetPackage is always required and should contain the package name of the target app.

2. Check that your RRO is static (or not). Static RROs are enabled by default at boot time. Dynamic RROs aren't enabled by default at boot. Additional ways of enabling dynamic RROs are provided in Change the value of an app's resources at runtime.

3. Check the priority of your static RRO (dynamic RRO priority is always set to Integer.MAX_VALUE and the order in which they're applied is based on when they're enabled).

   Multiple RROs can apply to the same target. RROs with a higher priority are applied last. On a scale of 0 to 10, 10 is highest and 0 is lowest.

Step 5: Check overlays.xml

1. Check overlays.xml to confirm all resources you intend to overlay are defined in this file. For example, consider the followingoverlays.xml:

   <overlay>
   <itemtarget="string/app_name"value="@string/overlaid_app_name"/>
   </overlay>
   

2. You must ensure that a:

   • string resource with the name app_name exists in the target app.
   • string resource with the name overlaid_app_name exists in your RRO.

3. If your target has an overlayable.xml file, make sure app_name is contained in that file. Make sure you use the correct targetName in your AndroidManifest.xml file (Step 4).

   For example:

   <overlay>
   <itemtarget="layout/car_ui_base_layout_toolbar"value="@layout/car_ui_base_layout_toolbar"/>
   <itemtarget="id/car_ui_toolbar_background"value="@id/car_ui_toolbar_background"/>
   <itemtarget="attr/layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf"value="@attr/layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf"/>
   </overlay>
   

Step 6: Dump the idmap

At this stage, all issues with your RRO should be resolved. Next, dump the idmap of your RRO to learn how a resource is being resolved and why it's resolving to a different value than you expect.

1. To find the path to the idmap on your device:

   adbshell
   su
   lsdata/resource-cache

2. To dump the contents of that file:

   adbroot
   adbshellidmap2dump--idmap-path[pathtoyourRROidmapfile]

   Example:

   adbshellidmap2dump--idmap-pathdata/resource-cache/system@app@CarUiPortraitLauncherReferenceRRO@CarUiPortraitLauncherReferenceRRO.apk@idmap

   The output appears similar to the following. The output displays which ID from your RRO is mapped to which ID in your target as well as the name of the overlaid resource.

   targetapkpath:/system/priv-app/CarMediaApp/CarMediaApp.apk
   overlayapkpath:/product/overlay/googlecarui-com-android-car-media/googlecarui-com-android-car-media.apk
   0x7f040008->0x7f010000bool/car_ui_toolbar_logo_fills_nav_icon_space
   0x7f040009->0x7f010001bool/car_ui_toolbar_nav_icon_reserve_space
   0x7f04000b->0x7f010002bool/car_ui_toolbar_tab_flexible_layout
   0x7f04000c->0x7f010003bool/car_ui_toolbar_tabs_on_second_row
   0x7f09006c->0x7f020000id/car_ui_base_layout_content_container
   0x7f090073->0x7f020001id/car_ui_recycler_view
   0x7f090074->0x7f020002id/car_ui_scroll_bar
   0x7f090075->0x7f020003id/car_ui_scrollbar_page_down
   0x7f090076->0x7f020004id/car_ui_scrollbar_page_up
   0x7f090077->0x7f020005id/car_ui_scrollbar_thumb
   0x7f090078->0x7f020006id/car_ui_scrollbar_track
   0x7f09007a->0x7f020007id/car_ui_toolbar_background
   0x7f09007e->0x7f020008id/car_ui_toolbar_logo
   0x7f090084->0x7f020009id/car_ui_toolbar_menu_items_container
   0x7f090085->0x7f02000aid/car_ui_toolbar_nav_icon
   0x7f090086->0x7f02000bid/car_ui_toolbar_nav_icon_container
   0x7f090087->0x7f02000cid/car_ui_toolbar_progress_bar
   0x7f090089->0x7f02000did/car_ui_toolbar_row_separator_guideline
   0x7f09008d->0x7f02000eid/car_ui_toolbar_search_view_container
   0x7f09008f->0x7f02000fid/car_ui_toolbar_subtitle
   0x7f090092->0x7f020010id/car_ui_toolbar_tabs
   0x7f090093->0x7f020011id/car_ui_toolbar_title
   0x7f090094->0x7f020012id/car_ui_toolbar_title_container
   0x7f090095->0x7f020013id/car_ui_toolbar_title_logo
   0x7f090096->0x7f020014id/car_ui_toolbar_title_logo_container
   0x7f0c0024->0x7f030000layout/car_ui_base_layout_toolbar
   0x7f0c0035->0x7f030001layout/car_ui_recycler_view
   0x7f0c0038->0x7f030002layout/car_ui_toolbar
   0x7f0c003f->0x7f030003layout/car_ui_toolbar_two_row
   

Use the following command to look up a specific resource to see how they're mapped:

adbshellcmdoverlaylookup--verbose--user10com.android.car.ui.paintboothcom.android.car.ui.paintbooth:color/widget_background

The output is the final value of the resource:

#ff7986cb

You can also dump your layout files from your apks to view the resolved IDs to match the above output:

aapt2dumpxmltree$OUT/system/priv-app/sharedlibraryclient/sharedlibraryclient.apk--fileres/layout/activity_main.xml

Output such as the following is returned:

N:android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android (line=2)
N:app=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto (line=2)
N:lib=http://schemas.android.com/apk/com.android.car.ui.sharedlibrary.test (line=2)
E:androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout(line=2)
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_width(0x010100f4)=-1
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_height(0x010100f5)=-1
E:TextView(line=19)
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_width(0x010100f4)=-2
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_height(0x010100f5)=-2
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:text(0x0101014f)=@0x020f0000
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf(0x7f0200fb)=0
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf(0x7f02010e)=0
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf(0x7f020112)=0
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf(0x7f020118)=0
E:com.android.car.ui.sharedlibrary.test.MyRecyclerView(line=28)
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_width(0x010100f4)=-2
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_height(0x010100f5)=-2
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/com.android.car.ui.sharedlibrary.test:implClass="HelloWorld!" (Raw: "HelloWorld!")
E:com.android.car.ui.sharedlibraryclient.CustomView(line=34)
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_width(0x010100f4)=-2
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:layout_height(0x010100f5)=-2
A:http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto:implClass2(0x7f0200e8)="HelloWorld!!" (Raw: "HelloWorld!!")

Failures to resolve mappings are indicated by idmap2 through three question marks (???).

In this example, the RRO has a hard-coded color value overlaid on top of a public resource:

$idmap2dump--idmap-path[file]
0x00010402->color0xff00ff00(???)

In this example, the RRO overlays a public resource by pointing it to an internal (private) color resource inside the same shared library:

$idmap2dump--idmap-path[file]
0x00010402->0x7f010000(???->color/item_background_new)