Last Updated on April 6, 2017 by Mathew Diekhake

The EUPHORIA OS was one of the most popular custom ROMs on the earlier Nexus 5 hammerhead smartphone. Now you can apply the same but based on the new Android 5.0 Lollipop for this years flagship from Google — the Nexus 6. Others may know the custom ROM under the Mahdi name since that’s what the developers originally called the ROM. We don’t know the reasons behind the change. Presumably it’s only for branding purposes and the new name is easier to remember and spell.

When Euphoria hit 5.0 Lollipop it was massive news across the internet as you can see from the Reddit thread here. Now we are only less than a month from that date and learning how to apply the custom ROM for the device code named Shamu. If you are interested in learning the same you can follow the steps below. Before we get there lets run through a list of the essentials. The essentials show us what you need before starting the guide, what risks are involved, how to backup your data so it isn’t lost and more.

Euphoria OS

Euphoria comes with custom messaging features, Superuser, D2TW, an advanced reboot menu, changes to the volume keys, ADB tweaks, call-blocking for phone calls, privacy guard and more.

  • You are automatically wiping the ROM clean during the installation. That means any data that is not secure is lost. You must make extra copies to the internal storage SD card. The SD card is not wiped during a factory reset. Only the ROM itself is wiped. That’s why you don’t need an external SD card to successfully backup the data.
  • We prefer backing up the pictures, photos, music, phone contacts, settings, WiFi passwords, videos, applications with gaming progress and more by taking an Android backup. A Nandroid takes a mirror image snapshot of the current ROM so you have everything.
  • You may take the Nandroid before applying the factory reset during the steps or you can take it now. Just make sure you take it before wiping the ROM clean or you cannot go back and start again. Everything will be wiped.
  • Important: those running an encrypted kernel will wipe the data at the beginning so you must take the backup before starting. Furthermore, do not restore the system data by using Titanium backup according to the developer.
  • You can use other applications such as Titanium backup from the Google Play Store if you don’t like taking the Nandroid backups. Titanium is only available for those with root access on the device.
  • You can’t apply a custom ROM without root access first. We are not supplying the steps for gaining the root access here. We are only showing you the steps for the clean ROM installation.
  • Double-check that USB Debugging mode is turned on already by visiting the Developer Options menu. You’ll find the Developer options coming from the Settings menu.
  • You must have a version of ClockworkMod recovery or team Win’s TWRP recovery with SELINUX SUPPORT
  • You must have the up to date USB drivers working on the smartphone before starting. Most of you will already have these, especially if you are an Android enthusiasts and already into customizing the operating system. However, if you do need the new drivers you’ll find them from the official website or from third-party download links.
  • Only use trusted third-party download links that you know are legit to avoid downloading unwanted adware on your computer.
  • You must have a computer for transferring the files. It can be a computer, notebook or laptop device. if it has a USB slow in the side it works.
  • It doesn’t matter what the operating system is for the machine. It works with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux-based machines. We are only using the desktop.

Update the Nexus 6 with Euphoria OS custom ROM

  1. Download the ROM from here, here or here.
  2. Download the Google Gapps pack here.
  3. Download the SuperSu pack here.
  4. Transfer the files to the internal SD card of the Shamu.
  5. Turn off the phone.
  6. Reboot it up in recovery mode.
    – press the keys on your handset or download the reboot manager application from Google Play.
  7. Wipe the data and perform a factory reset from recovery.
  8. Flash the Euphoria-OS zip file by selecting ‘install” or “install from zip” depending on your custom recovery version.
  9. Wait for the flashing to finish and apply the same for the Gapps pack.
  10. Go back once more and flash the SuperSu pack.
  11. Select the reboot option from the main menu in recovery.
  12. Boot the phone in normal mode and check out the new custom ROM running on your device.