[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] herodom:
Hello, people of xdadevelopers! :D I'm new here and keen to learn up on custom Android roms. Sorry if i sound really noob or am doing things wrong in this forum, but... everybody has their own starting phases right?? ^^ Please guide me where I'm going wrong...

Anyway, I'm from Singapore and i own a SAMSUNG GALAXY BEAM GT-I8520 (rare and unheard of phone released only in Singapore x.x). I won't elaborate much, but basically I'm kind of still a student (therefore no money to buy other phones) and my mobile plan is left with about 11 months to go before i can renew my plan and select another phone for a cheaper price... I don't really like my phone because the moment Samsung released it, they decided to stop updates because there is not enough users of this phone so I'm stuck with 2.1 eclair. It also has a slow 500/700mhz processor and lags like he**. :mad: By the way, it was released around July 2010 at the same time with the Galaxy S, and they have really similar specs, that's why i posted in this area of the forums.

So, i was thinking of switching over to the MIUI rom which i desperately want... and i decided to follow the Galaxy S I9000 (because they are sister phones!) tutorials to flash over to MIUI in hope it would revitalise my phone, stop the laggyness and crashes, give it a new look, allow me to use features that i miss out in froyo or gingerbread!!

I can understand most terms and softwares about flashing... been researching for a few days... and i found this guide

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1101601

which tells me to replace my bootloader with a gingerbread bootloader through ezodin, then boot into recovery mode which is the custom cwm recovery, and from there straight up install my rom that was placed in the sd card, and walla i get my MIUI. I assume that the bootloader will give me CWM recovery because the guide doesnt tell me to get it through rom manager. I currently have the base google stock recovery, so question <1> do i have to install cwm recovery through rom manager first or will the gb bootloader give it to me once flashed? and question <2> i've tried to install it through rom manager but it didnt work the first try (i chose my phone model as the S) and even erased all my apps and data :S Is there a way to go around installing clorkworkmod? I understand my phone isn't EXACTLY Galaxy S, but they're similar...

Also, another problem i face is that i DON'T have the 3 button shortcut to recovery mode or download mode. I'm following this tutorial to try repair it, since I've heard a batch of Samsung galaxy s have flawed recover and download modes that can't be accessed by the 3 buttons. since the two phones were released around the same time, it could be that the galaxy beam was affected also. Everything is fine going through this tutorial (even getting to download mode trough ADB is fine), problem is i get stuck every single time in ODIN at SetupConnection. Question <3> any freaking idea how to solve this? I've gone through google and searched through this forum... Now i don't know what to do and don't dare try anything else or other flashing unless i fix this 3 button shortcut because i know i can only access recovery or download through ADB REBOOT RECOVERY / DOWNLOAD and the phone has to be plugged in, turned on, booted into android, and in usb debug mode. the ADB command won't work if the phone is off and i'm worried the GB bootloader will stop eclair from loading.

This leads to the question <4> if i decide not to follow this repairing tutorial and just flash the gingerbread bootloader up front, will it give me the 3 button shortcut boot? because if i am not able to load the eclair rom with gingerbread bootloader, and have no 3 button shortcut, i will not be able to boot into recovery to install rom and wipe data and cache etc. Also, if i flash the gingerbread bootloader, can i still load into my stock eclair rom? If i can load into the stock eclair rom, then i don't need the 3 button shortcut, i can go straight to doing usb debug and the ADB command again after flashing bootloader and rebooting to go straight into recovery and installing MIUI.

Question <5> What about gingerbread bootloaders that can backtrack and load froyo roms and eclair roms? Do these exist? Where to download? If so, i can load into my eclair rom and use ADB for recovery mode, eliminating the step: repairing the 3 buttons.

Question <6> Also, i noticed the guide didn't speak anything about kernels etc. From what I understand about kernels, it is the architecture or system between the hardware and the software. People can tweak kernels (leading to custom kernels) for different and maybe even better sound and video etc right? But the guide doesn't say anything about installing a custom kernel, so am i supposed to keep my current Zues kernel from Samsung, or is a custom kernel recommended by MIUI ALREADY provided in the zip folder i downloaded from here? (the I9000 one) When i flash this zip through CWM recovery, is the kernel changed together? Does this apply for the bootloader also? Is the bootloader supplied in the zip and flashed together at the same time? if everything, (rom kernel bootloader) is flashed together at the same time then i can eliminate many steps and just work on installing CWM recovery through rom manager. then use adb to boot into recovery and flash that one simple MIUI zip. no need for 3 button boot...

Question <7> Is there another way to get MIUI to install on my device without so much hassle? haha..

Thanks for the trouble, I know it's a lot of questions... Please answer whatever you can :D