This didn’t take long. Guys over at XDA have already managed to root Samsung Fascinate. The process isn’t for novice users yet, unlike the root method we posted for Samsung Galaxy S/Vibrant/Captivate, but if you’re up for it, here are the instructions on how to do it:
[You’ll need to know how to use ADB to follow this guide.]
1) get RageAgainstTheCage from here stealth.openwall.net/xSports/RageAgainstTheCage.tgz and unzip it
2) Get su, busybox, Superuser.apk
3) adb push rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/
4) adb shell (now you will see the $ prompt)
5) type “/data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin” (without quotes) in adb shell
5) wait till adb shell closes
6) adb shell again, and now you should have # (i.e. adb root shell)
7) type “mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/stl9 /system” without quotes in adb rootshell to mount system as rw
8) exit adb rootshell
9) push su and busybox to /system/bin using “adb push <path to su>/su /system/bin/su” AND “adb push <path to busybox>/busybox /system/bin/busybox”
10) push Superuser.apk to /system/app using “adb push <path to Superuser apk>/Superuser.apk /system/app”
11) adb shell
12) you will be back at the # shell
13) cd /system/bin
14) chmod 4755 su
15) chmod 4755 busybox
16) reboot your device
If you run into any issues, let us know and we’ll be glad to help you out.
I successfully rooted my Samsung Fascinate, phone rebooted and superuser icon visible in app tray. Thereafter I opened Rom Manager, flashed clockworkmod recovery. Next I attempted to back up current ROM. Phone then rebooted into system recovery mode, but all I can do is navigate up and down using volume controls, the power button does not work. So right now, I’m stuck in recovery mode. I tried taking out the battery numerous times and each time it boots up into recovery mode. At the bottom of the screen is a “# MANUAL MODE #”. Can anyone pls help?
Press Home button to select instead of Power
I just read here (http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Full_Update_Guide_-_Samsung_Galaxy_S_(Fascinate)) that clockwork recovery is not currently available for the Samsung Fascinate. After flashing my device, it in fact didnt install it yet. So when I tried to back up the existing ROM, it failed to reboot correctly. I somehow managed to get the device to reboot successfully, then opened rom manager and selected reboot into recovery. The device rebooted, attempted the pkg install, but failed due to signature verification. Rebooted again and again stuck in recovery mode? Now I am really stuck here.