Open keyboard in Android recovery mode

Question

So I am taking the CompTIA A+ certification courses and on one of the sections about radio firmware, they say after placing Update.zip in the root of the SD card to boot into recovery then press Alt+S and let the update finish.

The only way I know how would be to use the up and down volume keys and choose Update from Sd Card then press power.

I could only find the following reference to using Alt+S, it is a guide from the XDA Developers website from 2009:

[GUIDE] Fastboot for Noobs

Fastboot

Things you need:

New SPL - Download
New Radio - Download
Your Current ROM - CyanogenMod 3.6
SD Card Reader
Rooted G1 Phone
Computer
USB Cable
Patience

---

Install Radio FIRST

Download the Radio Update
Rename it to update.zip
Remove your SD Card from your phone and place it in your SD Card Reader
Put the update.zip at the root of your SDcard (root = not in any folder)
Insert your sdcard back into the phone
Turn off your phone (Hold power and press Power Off)
Hold the Home button and then press the power button (Keep holding power)
You will now enter recovery
Open up your keyboard and press Alt-S
Let it finish the update
When done reboot by pressing Home and Back
You should be able to access your Home screen (If its stuck on the Google G1 screen dont panic, just remove your battery for now)

My question would be: HOW would I open the keyboard in recovery mode? I tried a keyboard connected via OTG cable and could get it to move up and down and select, but Alt+S did nothing.

Now full disclosure, I DID NOT have any Update.zip on my SD card. I was assuming I would get an error. The only device I have available at this time is my Samsung Galaxy S20 and I can't find the right file for my firmware.

Is this process outdated? Does it require that phone be rooted with a custom recovery? Without more info, the first sentence of this post makes no sense. If anyone can shed a light on this would be great.

Answer 1

The instruction "boot into recovery then press Alt+S and let the update finish." is strange I have never seen a stock recovery ROM with a possibility to activate an on-screen keyboard. The second problem is that on-screen keyboards usually do not contain an Alt key.

The only explanation is that the instruction does not refer to the on-screen keyboard:

In the early days of Android there were a few phones like the Google G1 (alias HTC Dream) which had built-in hardware keyboard:

It seems like the manual for firmware update was written for such a device as the instruction does only make sense in case there is a hardware keyboard available.

Because of the amazing success of the iPhone and it's pure touch screen based UI Android phones with hardware keyboards were only present before 2010 like the HTC Dream (2008) or Motorola Droid/Milestone "Stone" (2009). Later nearly all Android phones only had a touch screen with on-screen keyboard (with a very few exceptions like the BlackBerry KeyOne (2017) - but those devices were never a commercial success).

As your manual can only work for phones with a hardware keyboard it can be considered historical and no longer relevant. Seems like the people responsible for keeping the question up-to-date have missed this question for a long time.