GFX Strings - How To

[gyanesh]

ROM attached - NVCAP: 0400000000000100060000000000000700000000

Attachments:

[aquamac]

Have you tried this attachment with GFX STRINGS. Download the strings for the 9600 GT then with property list editor (if you have Developer tools installed) or with "Plist edit pro", change the string to your NVCAP, find your PCIe address then continue on to make the strings. Let us know how you get on.

[gyanesh]

I used the attached in.plist but not only did I copy the NVCAP string but also changed the tag from <data>...</data> to <string>...</string> and Voila! No black screen and no ghosting too!! But no QE/CI and cant change the resolution.

Adding the device id to NVDANV50Hal, NVDAResman and GeForce kexts gives me a black screen with blinking power light.

What do you reckon aqua?

[aquamac]

Can you show me what system profiler says under Graphics/Displays.

[gyanesh]

Installing the kexts just crashed my system. Now no matter what I do, even if I try exactly the same procedure as earlier (the one that just worked), the screen wouldnt show up! Now making changes to the com.apple.boot.plist gives me a blank screen with a blinking light on monitor, which I guess is for sleep - correct me if I am wrong.

Any suggestions what could be done next or do I simply give up?!

[gyanesh]

Sept 3, 2009 19:34:28 GMT aquamac said:

Can you show me what system profiler says under Graphics/Displays.

Before my system crashed, it showed the correct VRAM i.e 512 MB with resolution as 1024x768, QE - Not Supported and CI - Software. Unfortunately I didnt take a screenshot of that.

[aquamac]

Let's start from the beginning again,

Tell me your PCIe address for your graphics card - it will read something like this:

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)

and I will write a com.apple.boot.plist for you.

You need to also check you have the following kexts in your system:

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

If you don't have all of these then you will never get your system working properly.

If you are using DSDT.aml, and you have changed your graphics card, this will stop QE & CI working too. You need to remake with the 9600 installed. Only use the std graphics kexts from 10.5.7 if thats what you are using. Don't use my 10.5.5 kexts on anything but 10.5.5 otherwise they will stop QE & CI from working too.

[bimochi]

Ok I have a Gateway P7805U with a Nvidia 9800m GTS 1gb ..... Ive tried over and over again and im still stuck on the first step >:( aka type " ./gfxutil -f " and I never get anything in fact it says this.. :-[

snake-55s-imac:desktop snake55$ ./gfxutil -f
./gfxutil: option requires an argument -- f

GFX conversion utility version: 0.71b. Copyright (c) 2007 McMatrix
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software!

gfxutil: [command_option] [other_options] infile outfile
Command options are:
-f name finds object devicepath with the given name from IODeviceTree plane
-h print this summary
-a show version
-i fmt infile type, fmt is one of (default is hex): xml bin hex
-o fmt outfile type, fmt is one of (default is xml): xml bin hex
There are some additional optional arguments:
-v verbose mode
-s automatically detect string format from binary data
-n automatically detect numeric format from binary data

snake-55s-imac:desktop snake55$



PLEASE HELP SEND ME A EMAIL AT [e-mail]

THANKS IN ADVANCE

[aquamac]

bimochi,

You need to type:

./gfxutil -f display

as it says in the tutorial, NOT just

./gfxutil -f

[twoshot]

Hi aquamac! First, you're a genius. I used your GT 9800 gfx stuff to make the out.hex to get the string. I have a Sparkle made 9800 GT 1024MB. I got the resolutions working after that, but no GL or QE nor CI. Then I installed your nvidia 9000 series v2 drivers and i got Quartz GL but no QE or CI. I've tryed deleting files and repairing permissions, all stuff like that. But I think maybe my EFI string is wrong because its for Geforce 9800GT not Sparkle 9800GT. Huh, Im really out of ideas. Please help me, I've attached my graphics info and boot.plist content.

Attachments:

[aquamac]

Hi twoshot,


I took a look at your string and it seems fine. If the string is not working then your card would just show up as display.

Also, with OS X the manufacturers name is not needed and is largely ignored.

So the problems lie elsewhere. If you are using 10.5.5, then you would want the drivers in my package. But if you are using 10.5.6 or later then you need to use the drivers that are bundled in the OS X update. What version of OS X are you using?

[twoshot]

System Version: Mac OS X 10.5.6 (9G55)
Kernel Version: Darwin 9.4.0

Huh, where can I get the drivers then?

[aquamac]

As I said in my previous post, Nvidia drivers are already included in OS X 10.5.6. What GFX strings do is enable them. You need to install the drivers again from the 10.5.6 update or re-install OS X86.

Here is a 10.5.6 Nvidia driver installer:

rapidshare.com/files/200270372/10.5.6_Leopard_Std_Nvidia_Drivers.zip

MAKE SURE YOU REPAIR PERMISSIONS WITH DISK UTILITY BEFORE YOU RESTART!!!!

If you look at the first line at the top of the post here:

aquamac.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=osx86driversandkexts&action=display&thread=700

it says use only with 10.5.5. The reason I made the drivers is because 10.5.5 did not support many cards but 10.5.6 onwards supports all the cards that are in in my drivers. But for some reason they will not enable QE & CI in 10.5.6.

[twoshot]

I deleted all graphics related files. installed the standard drivers and repaired permissions, i have all the resolutions, quartz GL...but still no QE or CI. Do you think there's some system misleading lines in some plist or kext ? I really can't reinstall OS X, that would mean formatting and I can't lose my files.

[aquamac]

You also probably need to re make your dsdt.aml file if you made one with the nvidia card in. (It's located in your root directory - hard drive). Other than that, I would say there is some kext or plist somewhere in your system that is not there or giving problems.