Joined: Apr 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 2,282 Location: England Karma: 115
GFX Strings - How To « Thread Started on Mar 9, 2008, 8:15pm »
GFX Strings Walkthrough (single cards only - go here for multiple cards)
PLEASE NOTE - SNOW LEOPARD When making your output file - that must be done booted from Leopard only. Snow Leopard gives the wrong info in the output file and you WILL NOT get QE/CI working! *(UPDATE - WORKING FINE IN SNOW AGAIN 10.6.4 ONWARDS)*
You may well want to print out these instructions first and go over the procedure first!
Download one of the GFX Strings that matches your card, then follow the walkthrough!
Files for GeForce GTX 480 1536mb Click to Download (File contains strings for 1,2 & 3 cards)
You have to have EFI V8 or higher OR Chameleon. It will not work with EFI V7 to V7.4
Ok so here is the quick how-to. Get the attached gfxutil and in.plist (above) and copy them to your desktop. Open up terminal and type
cd ~/desktop (then hit return) ./gfxutil -f display (then hit return)
You should get something along these lines printed out
Code:
PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0xe,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)
Now copy that and open the in.plist and look for the line near the top where you see this example and replace it with what you copied. Scroll down near the bottom of the plist and change this: <key>model</key> <string>NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX</string>
to whatever model Geforce card you are using. You can also change the Rom-revision to whatever you like. Once your done making your changes save the in.plist.
Go back to terminal you should still be in the desktop directory and type this. ./gfxutil -i xml -o hex ./in.plist ./out.hex
you should now have a new file called out.hex on your desktop. Open this file with whatever editor you like it and it will have your new graphics string. Copy it and open finder and head to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration and open up your com.apple.boot.plist. Under the last string, which is usually the......
<key>Kernel Flags</key> <string>Yes</string>
add a couple new lines as follows <key>device-properties</key> <string>PASTE YOUR LONG HEX STRING HERE!</string>
You should end up with something like this (My 8800GTX flashed to Quadro FX 5600):
NOTE: You don't need the bit at the bottom where I have put
this just gives better res while the Grey apple is doing it's spinny thing.
Close and save the file. If it doesn't let you save it, save as a copy elsewhere and you can move it back replacing the old one. Make sure to save a backup copy of the original just in case. If you had full QE/CI prior to making these changes, browse over to /system/library/extensions and delete NVinject/Natit/NVKush.kext or whatever you were using and reboot. Don't hold me responsible if you break your own install but this does work for some, but not all.
One more thing, if you have a 512 card or a 768 mb card as I do, you have to insert Total ram size int your in.plist file with XML editor just like in nvinject.
EDIT: I have now included pre patched templates for a number of 512 mb, 768 mb & 1024 mb cards at the start of the post so you do not have to change the vram size.
i use the EFI that was on the Kalyway install.. do you know of a good was to update that to v8? Whats new with the newer EFI patch?
J.
To update, just get the latest EFI and extract it onto a USB memory stick. Then boot from another source - either the install DVD or another OS X install (I always keep a bootable copy on another drive - just change bios boot order to boot off the alternative).
Once booted, go to disk utility and unmount your original system drive. Then open a terminal and CD into the memory stick:
sudo -s cd /Volumes/usbstick/
If you extracted the EFI 8 contents into the root of the memory stick then type:
./startupfiletool /dev/disk1s2 ./boot_v8
You have to replace the name of the disk with whatever yours is (can obtain at the command line using:
diskutil list
Caveat emptor though - I'm still running EFI v5. I plan to upgrade EFI myself in the next week or so - I've just obtained a PCIe RAID card and I'm going to run my OS X system disk off a striped pair at RAID 0. Partly for the performance boost but mainly just to see if I can.. Figured I'd do EFI 8 and GUID at the same time.
Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 250 Location: The wilds of Arkansas. Karma: 14
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #4 on Mar 15, 2008, 11:13pm »
Hey guys, I just did this myself and it works great! One unexpected side effect is that now res changes don't cause the horrible pixelated effect that required a reboot to correct (on my rig anyways). Definately a worth while mod. Oh and when you're done save the out.hex file somewhere safe (I've got a flash drive FULL of hack mods gong back to 10.4.8) so if you do a re-install you can just cut and paste that long string
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #6 on Jul 24, 2008, 5:54pm »
I have followed every step in iATKOS 10.5.4 which was installed with NVinject support...
I found the key as described, entered into com.apple.Boot.plist deleted NVinject from /System/Library/Extensions/, repaired the permissions through Disk Utility and restarted... But although my card is recognised as 9800 GTX with 512 Mbyte Ram, Quartz Extreme is Not Supported...
Joined: Apr 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 2,282 Location: England Karma: 115
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #7 on Jul 24, 2008, 8:28pm »
Hi Blanktruth,
I have been off the air as it were, tell me do you have a Nvidia motherboard, if you do, you may be able to get your card going with NVKush. Intel board should not be a problem though. I do not use Kalyway or any of those installations. I use our very own Ritalins installation disk derived from the original Apple retail disk.
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #8 on Jul 24, 2008, 9:47pm »
Thank you for your reply.
I do not have NVidia Morherboard... I have Asus Rampage Formula X48 with DDR2. Here is my system;
Asus Rampage Formula X48 Motherboard Intel Quad Core Q6600 CPU MSI 9800 GTX Graphics Card Corsair 4 Gbyte 1066 Mhz DDDR2 Ram 500 Gbyte Seagate 32MB Cache Sata Hard Disk
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #9 on Jul 24, 2008, 11:36pm »
As I mentioned in the other forum;
************************* Ok, I have installed 10.5.2 Kalyway's and out of the box Quartz Extreme, Rotation and Core Image are working but now there is the "White Menu" problem...
I swapped the NVinject I got from here, but the result is the same, White Menus... Then I swapped the all kext/bundle files from aquamac folder I got from here, the White Menu issue disappeared with losing Quartz Extreme, Rotation and Core Image support... Then I started to swap back the original files came with 10.5.2. And I found whenever I swap back the GeForce8xxxGLDriver.bundle from Kalyway's 10.5.2 DVD, Quartz Extreme, Rotation and Core Image are back with White Menu problem... smile.gif
What should I do now?
*************************
After that I tried with GFX Strings but the result is the same... White menu or no Quartz Extreme, Rotation and Core Image support related to swapping GeForce8xxxGLDriver.bundle to original 10.5.2 or the one comes with aquamac...
« Last Edit: Jul 24, 2008, 11:38pm by blanktruth »
I think your problem might be Kalyway, there are a lot of people reporting loss of QE & CI after updating to 10.5.4 from Kalway 10.5.2. Don't forget to repair permissions correctly after installation!
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #11 on Jul 25, 2008, 9:38am »
Actually first I had 10.5.4 iATKOS but there was no Quartz, Rotation or Core support neither with NVinject I got from here nor GFX Strings...
Now I tried with 10.5.2 Kalyway's with the files you sent after repairing the permissions before restart, and at last everything is working without White Menu issues...
So what was the problem with 10.5.4 then? At the moment I am using GFX String, probably the key I got in 10.5.4 was wrong? Very strange. But now everything is fine...
The only problem with 10.5.2 Kalyway's is hard disk access is very slow compare to 10.5.4..
Thank you very much...
« Last Edit: Jul 25, 2008, 11:26am by blanktruth »
Joined: Apr 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 2,282 Location: England Karma: 115
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #12 on Jul 25, 2008, 8:22pm »
Great to hear that you are finally up and running! Do you have a spare HDD to clone your system to so you can experiment by upgrading to 10.5.4 on a spare disk without endangering your install?
Strange that disk access is slow in '5.2. I am not sure of which files are non std in Kalyway.
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #13 on Jul 25, 2008, 8:54pm »
Thank you... With your help!...
I will have to buy another hard disk I suppose. I have installed 10.5.2 on a 500 Gbyte HD. I am not sure if it is good to make partitions...
Actually I tried to upgrade to 10.5.4 from "Software Update" in 10.5.2 but after reboot system crashed... I could not understand the problem because after the gray Apple screen system restarts itself... Very strange...
But I solved the slow hard disk issue with not installing AppleViaAta...
I am not sure if the system I have at the moment can be considered as 100% working and how much I can trust it... My bus speed shows as 1.34 Ghz and memory shows 1872 Mhz. I don't know if this is a big problem though...
Re: GFX Strings - How To « Reply #14 on Jul 27, 2008, 1:50am »
Dear Blaktruth, Is it possible for you to describe the steps you took to make it happen, I am facing the same issues as you either no quartz or quartz with white menus. I have already tried all of aquamacs diferent aproachs. When you say with these files witch do you mean? Thank You, Luis.
Actually first I had 10.5.4 iATKOS but there was no Quartz, Rotation or Core support neither with NVinject I got from here nor GFX Strings...
Now I tried with 10.5.2 Kalyway's with the files you sent after repairing the permissions before restart, and at last everything is working without White Menu issues...
So what was the problem with 10.5.4 then? At the moment I am using GFX String, probably the key I got in 10.5.4 was wrong? Very strange. But now everything is fine...
The only problem with 10.5.2 Kalyway's is hard disk access is very slow compare to 10.5.4..
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