I followed several web resources to understand how to show a popup from client side, and I made this code:
<asp:ImageButton runat="server" ID="btnOk" ImageUrl="imagens/btnAlterar.gif" OnClientClick="btnOkClick()" />
<asp:LinkButton runat="server" ID="dummyForPopup" Visible="false"/>
<ajaxToolKit:ModalPopupExtender runat="server" BehaviorID="btnOkPopupBehavior" ID="MPXtender" TargetControlID="dummyForPopup"  PopupControlID="pnlUpdateUserModal" BackgroundCssClass="modalBackground" OkControlID="btnCloseRequestUserUpdate" OnOkScript="userUpdReq_onOk()" />
function btnOkClick()
{
    if(validateAll())
    {
     var behavior = $find('btnOkPopupBehavior');
     if (behavior)
     {
      behavior.show();
     }
     else
     {
      var lblOutput = $get('<%= lblOutput .ClientID %>');
      lblOutput .innerText = 'Couldn't find popup';
     }
    }
}
previously I had the modal popup linked to the ok button, it was working pretty well. Now I need some validation before opening the popup, and this code is not working anylonger =/