[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] oggymoto:
Hi there,

I ask for help bringing my phone back to life.

I want to make better use of my GT-I9000 and started to install CyanogenMod. I made two separate backups of my files and contacts and flashed the kernel - just to see that the memo notes were not included*.

So I'm stuck in the beginning of installing a custom ROM and want to give a last glimpse at my old phone again. There are many tutorials about how to install the original sotck ROM for the Galaxy S. But I want to be careful not to delete old data and make things worse.

What exact OS was running before?

Model number: GT-I9000

Firmware version: 2.3.6

Kernel version: 2.6.35.7-I9000XXJVU-CL851880 se.infra@SEI-22 #2

Build number: GINGERBREAD.XXJVU

What have you done so far?

I followed the exact procedure as described in the CyanogenMod wiki: wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_galaxysmtd

Necessary USB drivers are installed; the phone is recognized and I could connect with programs like MyPhoneExplorer

Download recovery: Semaphore_2.7.4.tar

Put the Galaxy S into download mode, connect to PC (Windows 7 64bit)

Run zadig.exe. Replace Driver.

Flash the kernel:

heimdall flash --KERNEL zImage --no-reboot

KERNEL upload successful

Boot into recovery mode

That's where I stopped. Other than that, I didn't make any changes. The data on the SD-card are still the same, I didn't wipe the data or cache partition, I didn't apply an update, I didn't format.

I did flash another kernel though, the zImage from XEU-I9000XXJW4-20120405163836.zip (but not the rest like modem.bin or boot.bin). It didn't bring back the previous OS, so I switched back to the Semaphore 2.7.4

What happens when you turn on the phone?

When I turn on the phone, it shows the initial Galaxy S GT-I9000 boot screen in a boot loop.

I can still boot into download mode

I can boot into recovery mode (Semaphore CWM Recovery v5.0.2.7)

I can then mount the phone as USB storage and browse the data on the PC

What programs can you use?

Heimdall Suite as mentioned in the guide, version 1.4.0

The kernel flash was successful (after capitalizing --kernel)

zadig.exe as mentioned in the guide, it recognizes the phone as SAMSUNG USB Composite Device

Before: Driver sscdbus (v5.0.30.0)

After: WinUSB (v6.0.1.0)

I later tried to connect the then flashed phone to Odin v1.82 and v3.07, but Odin wouldn't recognize any ID:COM. Flashing with Heimdall works though

What do you want to achieve?

I ultimately want to get hold of my memo notes the one way or the other, then just go on with the CyanogenMod installation.

So right now I try to recover the original state that I had before flashing the Semaphore zImage, since most parts of the OS should still be there. I want to boot the old system one more time, copy the memos by hand and go on with a fresh Cyanogen installation.

* Another way would be the backup files. I can't find the memos, there is no /dbdata/databases/com.sec.android.app.memo or *.vnt file in the backup. I backed up External storage, Memory card and System storage in case you have another idea about the location.

TL;DR

I flashed Semaphore on my Galaxy S and want to boot the original OS again.

What is the problem?

There are some good tutorials on how to restore the original stock ROM for the GT-I9000.

But I don't know what part of which ROM I have to flash at the state I am in right now, without making it worse. Also, I can use Heimdall only.

My guess is I just have to flash the right zImage, but the one I tried (from XEU-I9000XXJW4-20120405163836.zip) did not work.