Skydragon 1.0 ROM Review

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vogonpoetlaureate

Senior Member
Feb 4, 2013
188
260
Megabrantis Cluster
EDIT: MaartenXDA has issued an OTA Update that addresses most of the few problems that were mentioned in this review.

EDIT 2: A 1.2 OTA update has now been released that is compatible with the atis112 kernel and addresses some of the bugs that users have reported.

Following on from my short Elegancia review, I thought I'd do a similar review of other ROMs, starting with the SkyDragon ROM.

MaartenXDA has been one of the most prolific developers on the Desire X forums and his Half-Sense ROMs have provided users with a great AOSP experience with many tweaks and mods to boot. Recently he joined the SkyDragon team who, among other things, produce a popular ROM for the One X device. Now MaartenXDA together with the SkyDragon team are bringing the SkyDragon ROM to the Desire X, with the initial release announced today.

The install
Users familiar with the Half-Sense ROM will be right at home with the install process. The boot.img required for the install is actually located within the SkyDragon zip file. Eventually I anticipate MaartenXDA will provide a separate bootinstall.zip as with his Half-Sense ROM with a .bat file that you can execute on a Windows computer to automate the flashing process (Mac/Unix/Linux users can just use ADB & Fastboot commands instead of using the .bat file). You can grab the boot.img file here if you don't want to unzip the skydragon.zip. Once the boot.img is flashed, you enter recovery and flash the zip and this launches the Aroma installer. The installer was simple to use and worked well, with many of the options familar to Half-Sense users. Maarten bundled a few alternative music players, several choices for launchers, a choice of lock screens, and some useful apps such as the Performance Control app, Script Manager, and a few others. I had no crashes or bugs (eg. Aroma apps and options I selected did actually get installed).

Initial boot and setup
The bootup takes a short while with a SkyDragon splash screen to keep you company. After the initial boot you're taken straight to the setup process. The setup process is the familiar HTC routine. There appear to be less things stripped out than some of the other ROMs available. You get, for example, the Tell HTC dialog box as part of the setup process, which I haven't seen since I first bought my DX. Some of the bloatware apps are gone, as are things like ShowMe and the Automotive app. There were no crashes due to missing apks or other oddities.

Look and Feel
Once you're all setup, the UI is stock ROM. You get the SkyDragon wallpapers, but otherwise everything is untouched. This will no doubt change in time as the ROM matures, and MaartenXDA has already put up a link to a theme thread for the ROM. The system as a whole feels very responsive, without any noticeable lag or glitches.

dYqls03.png


5rIxaya.png


Under the Hood
The Software Information indicates "Skydragon" and the Software Update feature is enabled, though it's not clear whether this is checking HTC's servers or SkyDragon's. The ROM is provided with an OTA utility app to enable future software updates. Running the utility generated an error "Error fetching update info: Invalid ROM (SkyDragonDX) & device (protou) combo!". I suspect that SkyDragon's OTA server is not setup to handle requests from this ROM just yet.

Ltylj7x.png


JQD2gpC.png


It's still early days. The mods for quick settings and APM are not included in this release, but we should see that offered as a separate flashable package soon.

Root user appears to be working well, managed with ChainsDD's Superuser app. Also the init.d support appears to be working, though oddly busybox wasn't installed (only the directory for toolbox-stericson).

glwtf1i.png


You can also see the various init.d scripts correctly installed under /system/etc/init.d and there are loads of them – the most I've seen so far in a DesireX ROM. Here's a full list of all the init.d tweaks you get with this ROM:

Code:
00remount
03systweak
06removecache
07vaccum_sqlite
10zipalign
11sysctltweaks
64misckernel
69force
69removelogger
71extreme
77Tweaks
81GPU_rendering
85sqlite
89volwake
90initdtest
96tweaks
98permissions
99complete
Battery
LoopySmoothness
MPEngine12
MountSystemRW
MramLlag
Netweaks
S01defrag
S02minfree
S03ondemand
S06netspeed
S07kernel
S10vm
S13bind
S41dvm2cache
S51normsleep
S52gentlefair
S53newfair
S70darky_zipalign
S70zipalign
S82logger
S83extsd
S84ext4
S86battery
S89touch
S98CFS
S98TCPbuffers
S98system_tweak
S99smoothness
Speedy
Zipalign
Zram
boost_initd
net_buffer
ram_optimize
remount_fullext4
sqlite_optimize
sysctl_tweaks

Sound and Vision
Audio on this ROM is great. Awesome Beats is installed which allows you to fine tune the Beats Audio-enhanced sound. At install time you get to choose various audio players including the Apollo player, Android and the Walkman player. These all sound good without jitter or lag. The Bravia and MPengine patches are applied but I find it hard to tell much difference between Stock and Bravia. Games play just fine and I've noticed no graphic glitches or drawing errors. For some reason, there is no Gallery app installed. So people will need to download an alternative Gallery app from the Play Store.

TdbftWT.png


Final Thoughts
It's always good to have more ROMs and developers working in the Desire X (protou) ecosystem. The SkyDragon ROM promises to be an interesting addition to the pack, offering a lot under the hood in terms of tweaks and refinements. As it's a 1.0 release, it is expected for there to be a few bugs (such as the BusyBox and OTA problems mentioned above), but overall the release is solid. Keep an eye on the SkyDragon Desire X thread for mods and updates over the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading, please let me know if you found this review helpful by hitting the thanks button! :cowboy:
 
Last edited:

MaartenXDA

Senior Member
Oct 2, 2012
1,971
1,159
Amsterdam
This is exactly what I needed.
As you stated before, it's an initial release so I expected it to have some bugs.
The OTA is setup in the ROM itself, but I didn't configure the server yet.
I'll do that as soon as I made another update.
The busybox was an unexpected bug, but I know how to fix that.
Thanks for the great review.

Sent from my awesome fridge
 

zakurai

Member
Oct 16, 2012
29
8
Singapore
Right now you could choose not to install the performance control as the busybox problem still persists. Get another CPU oc app. The ota update also appears not to work on the new kernel. Those using the kernel that is by atis112 v2 the ota update is not advised.



Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda app-developers app
 
Last edited:

vogonpoetlaureate

Senior Member
Feb 4, 2013
188
260
Megabrantis Cluster
Right now you could choose not to install the performance control as the busybox problem still persists. Get another CPU oc app. The ota update also appears not to work on the new kernel. Those using the kernel that is by atis112 v2 the ota update is not advised.



Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda app-developers app


Thanks for the info. For the Busybox problem, I used this flashable zip with good results.
 
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Reactions: zakurai

MaartenXDA

Senior Member
Oct 2, 2012
1,971
1,159
Amsterdam
Right now you could choose not to install the performance control as the busybox problem still persists. Get another CPU oc app. The ota update also appears not to work on the new kernel. Those using the kernel that is by atis112 v2 the ota update is not advised.



Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda app-developers app
All fixed in the next update.
What's the busybox problem with you? It works fine with me.
 

zakurai

Member
Oct 16, 2012
29
8
Singapore
All fixed in the next update.
What's the busybox problem with you? It works fine with me.

The performance control app does not work after you install the rom then I had to find another and install it. After that I updated v1.1 through ota updater and recovery I got stuck with the red words screen. Note that I am using atis 112's kernel.

UPDATE
I have tried downloading it again but during installation the signature verification failed.

Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda app-developers app
 
Last edited:

MaartenXDA

Senior Member
Oct 2, 2012
1,971
1,159
Amsterdam
The performance control app does not work after you install the rom then I had to find another and install it. After that I updated v1.1 through ota updater and recovery I got stuck with the red words screen. Note that I am using atis 112's kernel.

Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda app-developers app

To fix that, use TWRP file manager or AROMA file manager and delete /system/etc/init.d/69force. It will boot. After that the performance control app will work too.

Sent from my awesome fridge
 
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  • 8
    EDIT: MaartenXDA has issued an OTA Update that addresses most of the few problems that were mentioned in this review.

    EDIT 2: A 1.2 OTA update has now been released that is compatible with the atis112 kernel and addresses some of the bugs that users have reported.

    Following on from my short Elegancia review, I thought I'd do a similar review of other ROMs, starting with the SkyDragon ROM.

    MaartenXDA has been one of the most prolific developers on the Desire X forums and his Half-Sense ROMs have provided users with a great AOSP experience with many tweaks and mods to boot. Recently he joined the SkyDragon team who, among other things, produce a popular ROM for the One X device. Now MaartenXDA together with the SkyDragon team are bringing the SkyDragon ROM to the Desire X, with the initial release announced today.

    The install
    Users familiar with the Half-Sense ROM will be right at home with the install process. The boot.img required for the install is actually located within the SkyDragon zip file. Eventually I anticipate MaartenXDA will provide a separate bootinstall.zip as with his Half-Sense ROM with a .bat file that you can execute on a Windows computer to automate the flashing process (Mac/Unix/Linux users can just use ADB & Fastboot commands instead of using the .bat file). You can grab the boot.img file here if you don't want to unzip the skydragon.zip. Once the boot.img is flashed, you enter recovery and flash the zip and this launches the Aroma installer. The installer was simple to use and worked well, with many of the options familar to Half-Sense users. Maarten bundled a few alternative music players, several choices for launchers, a choice of lock screens, and some useful apps such as the Performance Control app, Script Manager, and a few others. I had no crashes or bugs (eg. Aroma apps and options I selected did actually get installed).

    Initial boot and setup
    The bootup takes a short while with a SkyDragon splash screen to keep you company. After the initial boot you're taken straight to the setup process. The setup process is the familiar HTC routine. There appear to be less things stripped out than some of the other ROMs available. You get, for example, the Tell HTC dialog box as part of the setup process, which I haven't seen since I first bought my DX. Some of the bloatware apps are gone, as are things like ShowMe and the Automotive app. There were no crashes due to missing apks or other oddities.

    Look and Feel
    Once you're all setup, the UI is stock ROM. You get the SkyDragon wallpapers, but otherwise everything is untouched. This will no doubt change in time as the ROM matures, and MaartenXDA has already put up a link to a theme thread for the ROM. The system as a whole feels very responsive, without any noticeable lag or glitches.

    dYqls03.png


    5rIxaya.png


    Under the Hood
    The Software Information indicates "Skydragon" and the Software Update feature is enabled, though it's not clear whether this is checking HTC's servers or SkyDragon's. The ROM is provided with an OTA utility app to enable future software updates. Running the utility generated an error "Error fetching update info: Invalid ROM (SkyDragonDX) & device (protou) combo!". I suspect that SkyDragon's OTA server is not setup to handle requests from this ROM just yet.

    Ltylj7x.png


    JQD2gpC.png


    It's still early days. The mods for quick settings and APM are not included in this release, but we should see that offered as a separate flashable package soon.

    Root user appears to be working well, managed with ChainsDD's Superuser app. Also the init.d support appears to be working, though oddly busybox wasn't installed (only the directory for toolbox-stericson).

    glwtf1i.png


    You can also see the various init.d scripts correctly installed under /system/etc/init.d and there are loads of them – the most I've seen so far in a DesireX ROM. Here's a full list of all the init.d tweaks you get with this ROM:

    Code:
    00remount
    03systweak
    06removecache
    07vaccum_sqlite
    10zipalign
    11sysctltweaks
    64misckernel
    69force
    69removelogger
    71extreme
    77Tweaks
    81GPU_rendering
    85sqlite
    89volwake
    90initdtest
    96tweaks
    98permissions
    99complete
    Battery
    LoopySmoothness
    MPEngine12
    MountSystemRW
    MramLlag
    Netweaks
    S01defrag
    S02minfree
    S03ondemand
    S06netspeed
    S07kernel
    S10vm
    S13bind
    S41dvm2cache
    S51normsleep
    S52gentlefair
    S53newfair
    S70darky_zipalign
    S70zipalign
    S82logger
    S83extsd
    S84ext4
    S86battery
    S89touch
    S98CFS
    S98TCPbuffers
    S98system_tweak
    S99smoothness
    Speedy
    Zipalign
    Zram
    boost_initd
    net_buffer
    ram_optimize
    remount_fullext4
    sqlite_optimize
    sysctl_tweaks

    Sound and Vision
    Audio on this ROM is great. Awesome Beats is installed which allows you to fine tune the Beats Audio-enhanced sound. At install time you get to choose various audio players including the Apollo player, Android and the Walkman player. These all sound good without jitter or lag. The Bravia and MPengine patches are applied but I find it hard to tell much difference between Stock and Bravia. Games play just fine and I've noticed no graphic glitches or drawing errors. For some reason, there is no Gallery app installed. So people will need to download an alternative Gallery app from the Play Store.

    TdbftWT.png


    Final Thoughts
    It's always good to have more ROMs and developers working in the Desire X (protou) ecosystem. The SkyDragon ROM promises to be an interesting addition to the pack, offering a lot under the hood in terms of tweaks and refinements. As it's a 1.0 release, it is expected for there to be a few bugs (such as the BusyBox and OTA problems mentioned above), but overall the release is solid. Keep an eye on the SkyDragon Desire X thread for mods and updates over the next few weeks.

    Thanks for reading, please let me know if you found this review helpful by hitting the thanks button! :cowboy:
    2
    Nice! How does it compare to Elegancia, in terms of battery performance?

    The battery performance might be a bit worse than elegancia, but I'm working on it, and it will be better in the next update. It's coming soon.

    Sent from my awesome fridge
    2
    Nice! How does it compare to Elegancia, in terms of battery performance?

    When I do reviews in the future I'm going to setup a standard battery test without using battery saving apps and normal use, etc. Try to be a bit more scientific about it all. :)

    Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda premium
    1
    Thanks for the great review.
    1
    Right now you could choose not to install the performance control as the busybox problem still persists. Get another CPU oc app. The ota update also appears not to work on the new kernel. Those using the kernel that is by atis112 v2 the ota update is not advised.



    Sent from my HTC Desire X using xda app-developers app


    Thanks for the info. For the Busybox problem, I used this flashable zip with good results.