How to make an app's background image repeat

Ok, here's what I've got in my app. It includes a hack to prevent ListViews from going black while scrolling.

drawable/app_background.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <bitmap xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:src="@drawable/actual_pattern_image"
        android:tileMode="repeat" />

values/styles.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

  <style name="app_theme" parent="android:Theme">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@drawable/app_background</item>
    <item name="android:listViewStyle">@style/TransparentListView</item>
    <item name="android:expandableListViewStyle">@style/TransparentExpandableListView</item>
  </style>

  <style name="TransparentListView" parent="@android:style/Widget.ListView">
    <item name="android:cacheColorHint">@android:color/transparent</item>
  </style>

  <style name="TransparentExpandableListView" parent="@android:style/Widget.ExpandableListView">
    <item name="android:cacheColorHint">@android:color/transparent</item>
  </style>

</resources>

AndroidManifest.xml:

//
<application android:theme="@style/app_theme">
//

There is a property in the drawable xml to do it. android:tileMode="repeat"

See this site: http://androidforbeginners.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-tile-background-image-in-android.html

Here is a pure-java implementation of background image repeating:

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.bg_image);
    BitmapDrawable bitmapDrawable = new BitmapDrawable(bmp);
    bitmapDrawable.setTileModeXY(Shader.TileMode.REPEAT, Shader.TileMode.REPEAT);
    LinearLayout layout = new LinearLayout(this);
    layout.setBackgroundDrawable(bitmapDrawable);
}

In this case, our background image would have to be stored in res/drawable/bg_image.png.

Expanding on plowman's answer, here is the non-deprecated version of changing the background image with java.

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(),
            R.drawable.texture);
    BitmapDrawable bitmapDrawable = new BitmapDrawable(getResources(),bmp);
    bitmapDrawable.setTileModeXY(Shader.TileMode.REPEAT,
            Shader.TileMode.REPEAT);
    setBackground(bitmapDrawable);
}