Before we get started, please take a moment to read and understand this paragraph. Herein, I describe how to do something you shouldn't be doing. I make no claim that this will work nor whether it's legal. It's definitely not supported by anybody, including Samsung, Google, and myself. In fact, this is guaranteed to void your warranty, and may irreversibly destroy your phone. I am in no way responsible for that or any other outcome. The information that follows is a transcription of my own opinion and experience, and may in fact be entirely false.
I bought an International Samsung Galaxy S recently (namely the GT-I9000), and wantedneeded to root it. But despite all the articles I read on the net agreeing that you needed to reboot the phone into Recovery Mode using a magic "three finger salute", it simply refused to work for me. A bit more digging, mainly over at the xda-developers site, revealed that this was a known issue on several of these phones. Though the comments couldn't agree on whether or not this was done on purpose by Samsung, the cause was a "faulty" secondary boot loader, and there was a fix!
Now before we get into the fix, I would like to point out something else. You do not need to fix this problem to enter recovery mode. The fix outlined below uses "adb" to fix the problem, and adb itself can be used to reboot the phone into recovery mode ("adb reboot recovery" and "adb reboot download" are the two commands that will put the phone into the two modes you typically need for rooting, avoiding the three-button reboot requirement). HOWEVER, a smart person will fix this problem anyway, in case you ever break the adb interface on your phone, or for the event that one day, you simply can't get adb to work, no matter the reason.
Another note: most of the commenters seem to refer to a two-button salute to bring the phone into "Download Mode" (Download Mode is different than Recovery Mode, and the two buttons they refer to are Volume Down + Power). Note that even after the fix described below, this button combo doesn't work for me. You need to press the Home Button too...
Performing the salute is simple:
If the above doesn't work for you, try it again. If it still doesn't work for you, you probably have the 3-button issue described herein. Read on for a fix...
I have found two documented fixes for this problem:
In case the site ever disappears, here it is reproduced:
There was an unlucky batch of some Samsung GT-I9000 Galaxy S phones that cannot be put into download and recovery modes using the standard three-button combos. This poses a huge problem for the users of these phones, as they cannot literally apply any mods, leaked firmware etc whatsoever.
The problem is caused by a faulty SBL (secondary bootloader) in these devices. Luckily, a fix exists for this issue, involving flashing a custom ‘fixed’ secondary bootloader to your device, that should enable the 3-button combos once again.
Discalimer:
Please note this process is highly dangerous, and can permanently brick your device if not followed properly. While the success rate is over 99%, proceed at your own risk. The instructions provided herein are ‘as is’ only, with no liability on AddictiveTips part.
Pre-requisites:
Make sure that you have:
Mike says: This caused a bit of headache for me. Here's my summary of the guide linked to above:
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When all set, start Odin in administrator mode (or run it with an admin account). Load the downloaded TAR file as PDA, and make sure that Re-partition is UNCHECKED and Phone Bootloader Update is CHECKED.
Now plug the USB cable into the phone. Start a new command prompt window and navigate to the folder/directory where you have installed ADB.
Put the phone in download mode using adb method. Enter the following command:
adb reboot download
This will put your phone in download mode. Check Odin now, and if ID:COM has turned yellow, you’re good to go. (Again ensure that you have not selected any other files than the one in PDA, and that re-partition and bootloader update options are correct)
Mike says: also, look at your phone, and make sure the screen is showing you that it's in download mode:
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Once you’re satisfied, press the Start button on Odin. The flash will take about three seconds, after which your phone will reboot automatically.
That’s it. This should fix your download and recovery mode 3-button combo issue. You can now apply any mods with the normal procedure.
Reference:
To go in Download mode, press and hold Volume Down + Home + Power Button
For Recovery mode, press and hold Volume Up + Home + Power Button
Also check out our guide on flashing Froyo on your Samsung Galaxy S phone via Odin.