Last Updated on February 25, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake
The Sky Dragon custom ROM is based on the latest Android 5.0.1 Lollipop official software update by the Android team. We know this as the second installment behind the original Lollipop update. The 5.0.1 comes with bug fixes and performance enhancements while still keeping all the amazing features that come over in Lollipop. Some of the Lollipop features include the new Material Design user interface, smart notification with many notification options from the lock screen, Android RunTime (ART) replacing the dalvik, Android Beam a new Easter Egg and more.
Some of the exclusive features you’ll get after installing the Sky Dragon custom ROM on the HTC One M8 include the Busy Box, SuperSU, SQLite optimization, the Aroma installer, a stock kernel with root access, several tweaks with Build prop and more.
We are listing some of the essentials worth noting before starting the guide. That way our readers know the risks, what they need before starting and everything in between. Advanced Android users can skip ahead and use the guide. However, if you are not sure about what you need such as the USB cable and backing up the data, you should quickly flick through the list.
- You must have root access on your HTC smartphone before you can install any type of custom ROM or custom firmware.
- We are not providing the rooting tutorial here. You have to go back and open the device away from the default factory restrictions before starting the steps below.
- Take a mirror image copy of the ROM by taking a Nandroid Backup. The Nandroid stores pictures, music, photos, videos, settings, passwords including the WiFi password, app and game data that remember your progress, phone contacts and more.
- Take the Nandroid backup from inside the custom recovery. You can do that during the guide or beforehand. You must take the backup before wiping the data during the guide or the data is wiped.
- You must have a custom recovery before starting the guide. Choose from one of the favorites such as ClockworkMod recovery or Team Win’s TWRP recovery.
- You must have the boot loader unlocked before coming here.
- You don’t have to install this ROM. There are many other options out there for your device. Furthermore, if you do install the ROM and wish you didn’t, you can go back to stock Android the way your device was out of the box. You must flash another official firmware build manually for your device. Choose from old builds or wait for the next official software update.
- We don’t recommend installing over the air updates with root access. Once you see the OTA notification you should search for the file to flash manually to avoid bricking your device.
- Moreover, if you don’t want to flash firmware manually you can install the “root and unroot pro” application from the Google Play Store and revert the device back to stock Android.
- You can take a Nandroid without rebooting the phone by installing “Online Nandroid backup” from Google Play.
- Download the reboot manager app from Google Play to automatically boot into recovery mode. Note: this is only for rooted devices and is referring to the custom recovery, not the official stock recovery.
- There is a button sequence from your phone you can use to open recovery mode. Only install the apps if you cannot get it working from the buttons. The more apps you install means more bloatware, less memory for you to use and lower device performance.
- Install the latest HTC USB drivers on your smartphone. Likewise, you want to enable the USB Debugging Mode from the Developer Options menu. Find the Developer Options from the Settings menu.
- You must have the unlocked version of the HTC One M8. Do not apply the following files if you are locked to a certain phone carrier network.
- Have ADB and Android SDK working on your computer. Follow the instructions for Windows here.
How to install the Sky Dragon custom ROM on the HTC One M8
- Download the official Sky Dragon file from here.
- Connect the M8 to the computer with the USB wire.
- Transfer the file to the internal SD card on the phone.
- Past the boot.img to the android-sdk-windows\platform-tools directory.
- Turn off the phone and reboot in fastboot mode. (Hold Volume Down + Power + Home keys)
- Go back to the android-sdk-windows\platform-tools directory on the computer.
- Open the command line from inside the folder by right-clicking a blank white space in the folder and hold the Shift key.
- Type “fastboot flash boot boot.img.”
- Type “fastboot reboot.”
- Select the Bootloader option from the display.
- Select the recovery option from the display.
- Note: Now is the last chance to take the Nandroid backup from the recovery menu. Going past this point deletes all data.
- Choose “wipe data’factory reset” for ClockworkMod users.
- Choose the “wipe” option for TWRP.
- Go ahead and wipe the cache options from your version of recovery.
– wipe cache partition and wipe dalvik cache. - Choose “install zip from SD card” for CWM or “install” for TWRP.
- Upload the file from the first step.
- Go back to the main menu in recovery and reboot the device in normal mode.
That’s the end of the guide. After the device boots itself back up in normal mode you are running the latest unofficial 5.0.1 Lollipop on the phone with Sky Dragon. If you are experiencing any issues such as getting stuck in a boot loop you ought to apply a factory reset by accessing the custom recovery mode once again. It’s one of the options from the menu. Alternatively, you can try installing the simple factory reset Android APK file. Though, it’s likely one case where you are relying on pressing the keys to find the reset option because accessing the apps is difficult from here.