GFX Strings - How To

[stillingen]

Oct 5, 2009 18:31:58 GMT darkfashion said:

Stillingen

Have you try with osx86tools ?

( Not that i know it works.. but it maybe is more easy to try with)

No, but I did try this, without success. Any suggestion on fix / revert?

[aquamac]

Macwynn,

Leave all the Apple NV files in place but remove the injectors such as NVDarwin,NVInject, NVKush etc. What happened when you tried my 2048 mb input list?

[doccoop]

Hello everybody,

With the help of aqua-mac's GFX String it was very easy to correctly setup my NVidia FX4600 + LG 204 WT for Leo 10.5 a few month ago - everything was working perfectly!

However, after successfully updating my machine to Snow Leopard (10.6) I can't calibrate my display any longer and most of the colors look some kind of washed-out, which is very annonying.

I've made a hex string with the help of gfxutil and the corresponding in.plist for my FX 4600, pasted it in com.apple.Boot.plist and voliá, my display was instantly recognized by Snow Leo, offering all possible screen resolutions.
However, as described, the color profile (or gamma setting) seems to be wrong and I can't figure out how to adjust/correct this...

I've als tried to delete the hex string from com.apple.Boot.plist, to let Chameleon auto-detect my FX4600 - it worked, but with the same result as before (display adapter and display correctly recognized, full resolution, but wrong unadjustable color profile).

It seems to have something to do with a wrong gamma setting, which could be an explanation for the washed-out and sometimes much too bright colors.

I've also noticed that the display calibrator assistent (System Preferences=>Displays=>Color=>Calibrate) completely stopped working with Snow Leo.

The same problem has been described by other Snow Leo users before, but so far nobody posted a workaround/solution.

Please also have a look here:

www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=80826&hl=color+calibration

Has anybody else experienced this problem with Snow Leopard?

Any help/idea to solve this problem is greatly appreciated!

Many thanks and best regards,
Doc

[macwynn]

Hey aqua...

Well I am still having the issue and have not found a solution.

My next step is to go hang out on the IRC Hackintosh channel for a while and see if the guys can help.

Hoping you have a soluion, you seem to be in the top few of the osx86 grafx gurus.

Thanks again!

Mac Wynn

[macwynn]

EDIT: Need the GeForce kexts, but I knew that. Just trying weird things at this point.

Still reports 4294966580 MB and Final Cut is back to seeing -2048 so still have the prob.

Aqua: I edited the in.plist vram totalsize to 00000080 as it said AAAAgA== but I tried both.

Would a ROM dump from Windows help? Ready to go to another card and return this one. Almost.

I installed the EVGA Mac drivers for the 1024 card and forgot.

SO... I took out all the GeForce kexts out of S/L/E and rebuilt the mkexts. No injectors just the custom string from your 2048 in.plist.

Now I have no QE/CI and the RAM stil reads 4+GB but now Final Cut sees 0MB instead of -2048.

Hoping this extra info will help track down the issue, thanks!

Mac

[aquamac]

Hi Macwynn,

As I said in the last post, you need all the Geforce kexts, NVDAResman.kext, NVDANV50Hal.kext + your graphics string. You will also need the EVGA graphics drivers - don't know why you deleted them. The memory shown is not derived from the drivers, but from the GFX strings. When troubleshooting a problem like yours, it is best to take small steps to finding the answer. Get all your kexts back in place and repair their permissions then give me a shout.

To edit the memory in your in.plist you need to use either Apple's property list editor or something like PLIST Pro if you don't have Apple's developer tools installed. If you are seeing "AAAAgA", that is the raw data and you are using Text Editor or something like that, which is not ideal for editing plists. If you looked at my 2048 in.plist with one of the recommended programs you would see the data as <00000080>.

doccoop,

Your problem is not related to your string or the detection by Chameleon, but I suspect by some other issue of your install. I have not had this problem, how did you get Snow onto your hard disk, do you have a fairly vanilla install?

[doccoop]

Hi Aqua,

Thanks for your answer and the excellent work!

Hopefully my Snow _is_ pretty vanilla....

I'm booting Snow via an USB-Stick using Chameleon 2.0RC3 combined with the following kexts and a modified DSDT:

- fakesmc
- NullCPUPowerManagement
- OpenHaltRestart
- PlatformUUID
- SleepEnabler

I am using a DSDT.aml compiled for my MoBo with help of the instructions given here:

www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=181903

Almost everything (Bonjour, Sleep - I didn't check onboard sound so far) works just _perfect_ with this setting - except for the graphics display!

I've also tried to reduce the used kexts to the absolute minimum - my System booted successfully with fakesmc and PlatformUUID only - but the problem (=wrong colors, display calibration assistent does not work) still remains the same.

Do you have any suggestion what I may try to become more "vanilla"?!?

Thank you, best regards,
Doc

[macwynn]

Hey Aqua...

Yea that was dumb, not using plist edit and using Textmate. D'oh!

Ok redid the EVGA installer (said no need already up to date) and re-edited plist string to be sure and still getting...

4294965248 MB

argh.

Is it somewhere else in a kext plist or something? I looked but couldn't find it.

Without Proapps I may have to upgrade to a 295 to get rid of this 2gb 285.

EDIT: I manually installed the evga mac driver pkgs (all 3) to force the issue and it took me down to 1280x1024 1 screen, same RAM issue. Put back the system Ge* kexts and back to full with QE/CI dual but same 4+gb issue.

I'm trying here! Without fixing this my Hac is a VERY expensive web browser....

MacWynn

[macwynn]

Do you think installing the EVGA driver packs and then using netkas' ATY injector would work? If it gets me the RAM count I need to run FInal Cut I will take that solution over gfx strings but it's late and I am feeling lazy.

Mabe tomorrow, just wanted another pro opinion.

Thanks Aqua
.
Mac

[aquamac]

You could try netkas's 10.4 boot then enable the graphics card detection in your apple.com.boot.plist. Have a look on his site on how to do this - I have not done it myself but I think it may solve your problem.

EDIT:

Add the following to your apple.com.plist:

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>y</string>

[macwynn]

Do you mean to add that string to my com.apple.boot.plist instead of my string and use netkas' ATY injector?

If not please clarify, not sure about 10.4. You mean PC-EFI 10.4?

Thanks again aqua just want to be sure.

EDIT: Got the 10.4 part except not sure if I use ATY instead of gfx string with it.

MacWynn

[stillingen]

Hi Aquamac!

I´ve installed SL on my brand new Hackintosh, and everything runs smooth except the DVI output.

I´ve read the almost all the pages in this tread, but can´t seem to figure it out. What I have not figured out is:

1. Do I need additional kext to get my 9800 GT DVI output to work? In previous posts you have mentioned;

NVDANV50Hal.kext
NVDAResman.kext
GeForce.kext
GeForceGAPlugin
GeforceVADriver.kext
GeForce8xxxGLDriver

Is this part of the NVIDIA graphics installer? I´ve tried this once, but I ended up crashing my system. Could that have been related to me not setting permission before rebooting ( I´ve seen you mention that).

2. The nvcap value I´ve used is 04000000 00000900 06000000 00000007 00000000 which fcbayern found. I do however not see this value as standard values you mentioned in this post. Can I use this value, or should I change to the default values you have described?

[aquamac]

Hi,

I should change to the default value for this card:

04000000 00000300 1c000000 00000000 00000000

(Dual DVI with TV out)

Try GFX Strings here

All the kexts need installing properly and permissions need to be correct otherwise they will not be loaded at startup and will not work. Use kexthelper b7 to install them - it will put them in the right place and with the correct permissions.

[stillingen]

Oct 18, 2009 17:54:38 GMT aquamac said:

Hi,

I should change to the default value for this card:

04000000 00000300 1c000000 00000000 00000000

(Dual DVI with TV out)

Try GFX Strings here

All the kexts need installing properly and permissions need to be correct otherwise they will not be loaded at startup and will not work. Use kexthelper b7 to install them - it will put them in the right place and with the correct permissions.

Thanks! I tried the value, but no change / black screen.

Regarding the kext. where can i find them, and will Kext Helper show me where it installs (in case i need to delete)

[macwynn]

Hey aqua.....

Sorry to bug you on this again but just wanted to be sure that was what you suggested I do before I do it. I am <> close to stepping it up to a 295 at this point so this might be moot in a week or so, but if I can get this card and the right setup to provide ProApps with the proper VRAM settings I would be happy to keep this.

Usually even problems most would consider too hard are fairly easy for me, but not this time.

Thanks again for your help.

MacWynn