GFX Strings - How To

[killians31]

@aqua,

I have been attempting to base my install (originally) off of this tutorial:
www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=6a94acd080cc345ee0a9b9aa9dade172&showtopic=187535&st=20

This tutorial is for Snow Leopard, i was never able to get snow leopard working (as the tutorial seems to be a bit confusing (i am very new to OSX)). I was however able to install iAtkos v7 onto my Asus with relatively no issues. It seems however that the people within that post have had good luck with getting my laptop working!

I have attached my hardware specifications to this post.

I am currently based in Chicago

Attachments:

[zaq123]

Jan 19, 2010 20:31:19 GMT aquamac said:

If you are doing a snow install, I only use GFX strings + you need to leave all the standard NV files that will be automatically installed as part of snow. If you do not already have GFX strings worked out, the 200 series can be a bit of a pain as it will just black screen after the grey apple screen. It is easier to install something like a 8800 GT or 7 series card. If you have one of these, it will at least display a low res picture and will help you fix up your strings. This will allow you to obtain your PCI address for your card and when you have it working, you can generally just transfer the 200 series into position.

I do not get a blank screen when I install without NVenabler or NVinject. It boots fine but at 1024x768 and 32mb with jerky screen. Only if i select NVenabler or inject do I get a kernel panic (installing with hazards distro) I then added the strings and the card seems to show (with wrong vram) and the jerkiness goes away pretty much but no translucent and stuck at same resolution.

[vahtryn]

Mar 9, 2008 20:15:15 GMT aquamac said:

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!

I'm very very confused. I have an EVGA 9800 gtx. I can't get it working in snow leopard and this is the closest I've found to getting it to work. Unfortunately you give this note for snow leopard. What does someone like me do? I do not have access to leopard easily.

[lathspell]

Hi.

I get a blackscreen too when I try to install 10.6 from a usb-stick. I use a Asus 9800GT. Is there a fix for this a problem? I also tried the efi-strings gnerated on my macbook, but I did not work(as suspected).

[dino7777]

Hello,

I use ideneb updated to 10.5.8 and activated my 9800gt with this method.

BUT A HAVE A STRANGE ISSUE

1. system profiler shows QE not supported, when opening system profiler for the first time
2. run CBench OpenGL test and runs smooth (about 6500 points)
3. after reopening system profiler it shows Quartz Extreme is enabled ?!?!

Do you guys use kernel flag "graphisenabler" ?!

Please tell me if u have any suggestions, how to enable QE from the start

[zaq123]

I ran this commandkextcache -v 1 -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions/
Got thisben-pc:~ bennuss$ kextcache -v 1 -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions/
GeForce.kext - no dependency found for com.apple.NVDAResman.
GeForce.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
InternalModemSupport.kext does not declare a kernel dependency; using com.apple.kernel.6.0.
NVDANV40Hal.kext - no dependency found for com.apple.NVDAResman.
NVDANV40Hal.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
NVDANV50Hal.kext - no dependency found for com.apple.NVDAResman.
NVDANV50Hal.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
GeForce.kext - no dependency found for com.apple.NVDAResman.
GeForce.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
NVDANV40Hal.kext - no dependency found for com.apple.NVDAResman.
NVDANV40Hal.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
NVDANV50Hal.kext - no dependency found for com.apple.NVDAResman.
NVDANV50Hal.kext is missing dependencies (including anyway; dependencies may be available from elsewhere)
Can't create /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext.3ooZ - Permission denied.

I am still trying to get my gtx 260 to work. Tried the string method in com.apple.boot.plist in folder library/preferences/systemconfiguration.

Should I modify the one located on /extra ?

Also my device id in system profiler is (below without strings installed)NVenabler is installed i know I don't need it for SL but I am trying everything.

Does he device id have to be correct in all the NV* in /s/l/e
Chipset Model: Unknown nVidia card
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1792 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x05ea
Revision ID: 0x00a1
Displays:
Display:
Resolution: 1024 x 768
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Display Connector:
But in NVDaresman i get in the<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>IOPCIPrimaryMatch</key>[glow=red,2,300]0x0110[/glow]10de&0xfff8ffff 0x017010de&0xfff8ffff 0x017910de 0x018010de&0xfff8ffff 0x018810de 0x018910de 0x020010de&0xfff8ffff 0x025010de&0xfff8ffff 0x028010de&0xfff8ffff 0x030010de&0xfff8ffff 0x031010de&0xfff8ffff 0x031910de 0x034910de 0x05e010de&0xfff8ffff 0x05f010de&0xfff0ffff
Shouldn't the underlined part match the device id?

[aquamac]

You need to make your mind up which system you are going to use. If you are going to use GFX strings then don't use NVEnabler-the two together will not work. If you are using Snow Leo, you do not need to add your device id either in any kexts as 10.6 is GTX 260 aware anyway. It looks like you have kexts there that are foreign and not from the distro as your nvidia kexts are balking. Have you installed any extra kexts. Strings need to go in your Extra folder. The Library/Peferences/SystemConfiguration one can be vanilla.

[zaq123]

Here is my pciroot PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)
would you mind making me an output file.
I am running 10.6.2 which some people have found that the nvdaresman does not work.
Here is a copy of my com.apple.boot.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
<key>device-properties</key>
<string>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</string>
</dict>
</plist>

How do I reset permissions after I update the file.

Here is the in.plist that I was using
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@0,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@0,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-A</string>
<key>@1,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@1,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@1,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-B</string>
<key>@2,#adress-cells</key>
<string>0x01000000</string>
<key>@2,#size-cells</key>
<string>0x00000000</string>
<key>@2,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,sensor-parent</string>
<key>@2,device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,gpu-diode</string>
<key>@2,hwctrl-params-version</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>@2,hwsensor-params-version</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>@2,name</key>
<string>sensor-parent</string>
<key>@2,reg</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>NVCAP</key>
<data>
BAAAAAAAAwAMAAAAAAAABwAAAAA=
</data>
<key>NVPM</key>
<data>
AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
</data>
<key>VRAM,totalsize</key>
<data>
AAAAOA==
</data>
<key>device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,GeForce</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>NVDA,Parent</string>
<key>rom-revision</key>
<string>3172a</string>
</dict>
</dict>

[alphachannel]

Hi I am extremely new to all this hackintosh stuff. I was wondering will gfx strings work on snow leopard 10.6.2. What if i don't have leopard. The gfx card works well but can the resolution be set higher? I have included a screen cap of the sys profiler.

Thanks for any and all help.

Attachments:

[sporky]

I'm in the same boat. I've got 10.6.2 running on an Asus P5-KPL board with an Asus 8400GS card. Chameleon gets my card recognized and it works fine (can change resolution, rotate, etc.), but QE and CI are not enabled.

I've tried adding EFI strings to the boot.plist, screwed around with gfxutil and other methods, but nothing brings me QE/CI support.

I think that in snow leopard, you generally don't go with extra nvidia kexts, but the whole EFI and DSDT stuff have me totally stumped.

If anyone could give me a hand with this card, I'd really appreciate it. Or if anyone knows for certain that it just won't work, that would also help.

I don't have a leopard install either, so if the original post here is correct, gfxutil will not work.

The mainboard does have a (disabled) on-board display... I wonder if that is throwing anything off?

[malvadojedi]

Hi all, been trying this for the past couple of days with no joy, I've got a GTS 250 10240MB and I'm running 10.5.8 on amd moboard with chameloen rc3, can some-one please tell me where am I suppose to put the in.plist file?

Thanks in advance

Frank

[aquamac]

Frank, it is all in the walkthrough, but here it is again:

Put the in.plist directly onto your desktop then open the Terminal and type:

cd ~/desktop (then hit return)

Then type:

./gfxutil -f display (then hit return)

You should get something like this printed out:

PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0xe,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)

You now need to overwrite the sample PCI address in the input file you downloaded then save it.

Then cd ~/desktop (again, then hit return)

Then Type:

./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 copy that file to your desktop. Open up your com.apple.boot.plist. and 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>

It should look something like this, this is my 2 x GTX 280 cards in an Asus P6T7 motherboard:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>2560x1600x32</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>_x64</string>
<key>Quiet Boot</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>device-properties</key>
<string>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</string>
</dict>
</plist>

[aquamac]

Zaq123, alphachannel and sporky,

GFX strings will work fine on snow leopard once they are made, but the part where you translate the input file into the output file only works if made with Leopard. If you make that in snow it will give an incorrect one and you will not get Quartz Extreme or Core Image which makes OSX pretty useless. So you will need a Leo install on a laptop or someone with a Leo install at present. To reset permissions after you re-install the file, just run Disk Utility - Repair Permissions.

[malvadojedi]

Jan 31, 2010 7:00:57 GMT aquamac said:

Frank, it is all in the walkthrough, but here it is again:

Put the in.plist directly onto your desktop then open the Terminal and type:

Hi thanks for getting back, sorry but I didn't make my self clear, what I meant was, where does that in.plist file go once I've finished with it, I've copied the pci root to it, and edited my card's details, created the hex file and pasted the string into the com.apple.boot.plist and saved it, but I just don't know where the in.plist goes. I'm sure I've missed something, I've just reread everything but can't see where it should go, mind you I've been up all night so I'm probably just tired, but any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Frank

[aquamac]

It is no longer needed, just save it somewhere in your downloads folder if you should need it again.