GFX Strings - How To

[malvadojedi]

Oh..stupid me and there was me thinking I was doing something wrong. Well I'm still not having any joy, after first reboot just before the desktop loads I get a black screen, nothing. Tried booting up with -x but the same result. Rebooted with -s flag and removed the NVDAResman.kext and the desktop loads but still the same as before, still no QE/CI and the only resolution possible is 1024x768. In system profiler I get the attached info.... (see screen capture) so it seems as though that part has been done correctly, I'm not running Ninject or Natit or anything else. Any ideas? Also looking at the system log I get these errors...

Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kextd[10]: cannot resolve dependencies for kernel extension /System/Library/Extensions/GeForce.kext
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 2
Jan 31 17:44:14: --- last message repeated 4 times ---
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 3
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kernel[0]: MacPro2,1: match category AppleTyMCEDriver exists
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kextd[10]: cannot resolve dependencies for kernel extension /System/Library/Extensions/GeForce.kext
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kernel[0]: Apple16X50ACPI1: Identified Serial Port on ACPI Device=UAR1
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kextd[10]: cannot resolve dependencies for kernel extension /System/Library/Extensions/NVDANV50Hal.kext
Jan 31 17:44:14 localhost kernel[0]: Apple16X50UARTSync1: Detected 16550AF/C/CF FIFO=16 MaxBaud=115200
Jan 31 17:44:15 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Jan 31 17:44:16: --- last message repeated 5 times ---

Sorry to be such a pain, I'm still very green with Mac OsX.

I think I'm going to try a fresh install, (I've got a backup HDD anyway) I'm using iAtkos V7 Mac 10.5.7. Any tips on what I should select for the VGA drivers?
Again thanks very much for your help.

Frank

Attachments:

[aquamac]

Don't select any graphics drivers when you re-install. Do GFX strings when you reach the desktop after rebooting. I suspect your problems are down to what you selected last time. Also do you have another card for the install, as GTS 250 will black screen without GFX strings or drivers. All 200 series do the same. If you had a 7 or 8 series card for the install that would be handy.

[malvadojedi]

Hi, thanks for the tip I'll try that next. Today what I did was the following, clean install, for the vga drivers I selected Efi string dvi/dvi, (also tried with vga/dvi & then dvi/vga but with the same result) no enalbers or injecters etc. Once the install was complete and rebooted it black screened, so I rebooted with -s flag, removed the NVDAResmant.kext and it booted ok, but obviously still no QE/CI etc, but in the system profiler under Graphics/Display it had identified the GTS250 correctly, (sorry forgot to do a screen grab). Even tried your nvidia 9000 Series v2 seeing as the card's a rebranded 9800GTX but no joy, I've taken the gfx string out now and replaced the NVDAResman.kext since I wanted to update to 10.5.8, but that hasn't made a difference.
So I'm going to take your advice and do a clean install without any vga drivers. I have onboard vga GeForce 8300 hopefully I can boot without any vga drivers. Also if I managed to boot and add the gfx string will that be enough for the GTS to fully work? Or do I need drviers or enabler aswell? Do I need to enable Quartz GL with Osx86 Tools? Sorry for all the hassle, I'm starting to think that it may be the mother board (Asus M3N-78-EM).

Thanks again, I'm off for a cup of coffee, I think it's going to be an all nighter

Frank

EDIT1:

Ok I'm back ;D Done clean install without any vga drivers and using the onboard vga, boots up fine! Just one dumb question, if I run the gfxutil -f display command, won't the result be for the card I'm using i.e. the on board one which will give a different Pci root? This is what I get
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0xb,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0), anyway I'll try it out, if not I can always boot of my other drive and run the gfxutil there and pass over the Pci root.

Fingers crossed

EDIT2:

Still now joy, black screened. Just done a clean install on another drive (going to update this one to 10.5.8) but this time used the GTS card instead of the onboard vga but still without selecting any vga drivers like you said, and I was expecting to get black screened, as you mention in your earlier post that the GT200's do that without any drivers or gfx string, and yet it didn't black screen? Weird? Well I think I'm off to get some sleep and battle with it again tomorrow

Frank

[zaq123]

Jan 31, 2010 20:38:16 GMT aquamac said:

Don't select any graphics drivers when you re-install. Do GFX strings when you reach the desktop after rebooting. I suspect your problems are down to what you selected last time. Also do you have another card for the install, as GTS 250 will black screen without GFX strings or drivers. All 200 series do the same. If you had a 7 or 8 series card for the install that would be handy.

Thanks I am going to reinstall Leopard and create the strings.

Do I need to use VGA on the Monitor with an adapter on my gtx 260 card? I also have two dvi ports on my card; which one should I use?

My suspicion that I have a non regular problem is that I have never experienced the black screen after installing Snow leopard.

Where should I install the strings in Library/preferences/systemconfiguration or in /extra? I have found on this board contradictory posts. I am runnig chameleon 2.0 rc3 Hazards distro
Tj\hanks again for your help

[aquamac]

Zaq123,

Put the com.apple.boot.plist in the Extra file and leave the other vanilla!

[malvadojedi]

Hi, sorry for being such a pain, but I'm having no luck at all with this. Today reading another one of you posts you mentioned something about nvcap maker, so I read up on it. Used nvflush to make a rom of my video bios, and then used the nvcap maker. I then used osx86 tools to create a custom .plist and added all that to the com.appleboot.plist but at reboot just get the same old black screened instead of the desktop. Any ideas why this isn't working for me? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Frank

[malvadojedi]

Ok I think I have made some progress, but I would like your input on this.
Part of the problem why I couldn't get this working for me was due to the nvidia drivers and the other part is due to the card. After looking more carfully at your in.plist that I downloaded I came to the conclusion that it's set up for a dvi/dvi config, which I know most of the GTS 250 cards have, but unfortunately for me my card has vga/hdmi/dvi setup, which probably exlpains my black screen senario (I'm using dvi connector since I don't have vga/hdmi cables or adaptors).
So after installing the latest nvidia drivers this is what I encountered. When using my own nvcap to produce the hex code:
a) the hex code was 2 bytes longer (which I can understand seeing as there's 3 connectors instead of two.) and
b) at boot up instead of getting the desktop the monitor would actually switch off i.e. go into stand by.
If I use dvi/dvi or dvi/vga to create the hex code I get black screened instead of desktop, but the monitor stays on.
If I use vga/dvi to create the hex code, eureka, well sort of, I actually get the desktop, at full res (in my case 1920x1080x32@59.9Hz) and full QE/CI, but...If I try to change the res I get blue screened, also looking at the system profiler I believe it detects it as the second display, (which I suppose is logical since I used vga/dvi) is this the reason why when I try to change the resolution I get blue screened?
Is there anyway I can get it to detect the dvi as primary display?
Again sorry for the long post

Thanks

Frank

[aquamac]

Frank,

Out of interest, it would be interesting to get hold of a second VGA monitor to see what result you would get with both monitors plugged in.

[hernandito]

Hi Frank,

I am in the same situation as you, same card, but in worse shape. The ONLY port I can get a desktop is the HDMI port. I cannot get the DVI port to do anything, it is on, but black (no power save on monitor).

Edit:

Sorry, I do not have the same card as you, I have the 9800 GT w/ 1GB. It has all three ports HDMI-VGA-DVI. But only get picture out of hdmi.

My card is in the PCIEX16-2 slot of my mobo, which is in:
PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x7,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0). Is this being affected by my dsdt, or anything else.

Any help is greatly appreciated.


Thanks,

H.

[dwfmagik]

Hi there. I'm trying to get this working on my 8800gts 640mb card and i've encountered a small problem/question.

When running the commands in Terminal, my results are are follows;

Acpi(PNP0a08,0x0)/Pci(0xf,0x0)

May I ask why that is? I've followed on with the rest of the tutorial and just carried on as if it was normal, but nothing really has happened. I've put the long string in the boot.plist, rebooted and my card still isn't being recognised.

Any ideas?

[nikje]

Hi There,

How would I go about creating my GFX string if I don't have any access to Leopard? I do have a G4 iBook, but when I try to compile the string on that using gfxutil for my model (9600 GT 512MB), I get an error (probably because it's not an intel mac?)

Would it be possible to run this from - say - a Leopard install DVD or perhaps if I put that on a USB stick or something?

Please Help!

Nik.

[nikje]

Oh BTW:
The error I get when using gfxutil on my iBook G4 is:

Segmentation fault

Maybe someone can shed some light on what this means?

Thanks,
Nik.

[nikje]

update
I managed to create the gfx strings without installing Leopard
just put all the needed files onto a USB stick that is formatted journaled
and boot a Leopard osx86 install dvd
from the menu, choose utilities and then Terminal
browse to your USB disk through /Volumes and there you can enter the gfxutil commands

make sure the in.plist file on your usb drive is fully configured BEFORE you startup using the install DVD, because the Terminal on the install DVD does not seem to recognize the 'nano' command, so editing the plist after starting the install DVD is not possible from Terminal.

the GFX strings I generated this way don't help me though, but I'm sure they will if your gfx card is supported by any injector (mine isn't)

[EDIT]
This only seems to work for me if I do the following:
- Insert USB flash drive
- Boot Install DVD
- From Utilities, select Disk Utility
- When it's loaded, remove USB flash drive from socket and stick it back in
- Exit Disk Utility
- Launch Terminal

If I don't do this, the resulting .hex file will not be on the USB drive when I reboot my system. Might be mounting related and should be fixable by entering some mount command into Terminal, but I can't figure out what that would be and I'm not really planning to boot the Install DVD again and again until I find a command that works (booting the DVD takes me up to 10 minutes)
[/EDIT]

Nik.

[motorhead9999]

A noob here, of course.

I've been struggling for days on this, and I'm pretty frustrated, so if anybody can have any advice, I'd appreciate it.

Hardware:
Asus P5Q Pro
Asus EN9800GTX+

Software
Store purchased family pack copy of Snow Leopard

I seem to have installed differently than many people here. I flashed my bios with a bios provided by Juzi (i think that's the name). Anyways. I got a copy of boot128, used that to boot. I then swapped in my SL disc and installed like normal. I get the Install Failed message, restart, and I wind up in a stable SL environment. I am not installing any bootloader, and still use the boot128 to boot up with.

I have terrible resolution, and no hardware acceleration. I tried installing via this method
aquamac.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=hack1&action=display&thread=528

and was able to get my resolution working fine, but as I found out when trying to install logic, (and I suspect why boxee and plex weren't working), it says I don't have QE/CL enabled, and no vram. Sure enough, check my system profile, and no vram is detected.

I did a reformat/reinstall and tried this method:
aquamac.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=hack1&action=display&thread=509

and followed it, and no luck, and my resolution still remains terrible. Now, i saw that the method said that I need to be in leopard, and not snow leopard. I have no access to leopard at all.

I'm frustrated, and at a bit of a loss. I see a lot of people here used a kalyway install or something other. If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

[jmhuff]

Hello,

I have tried a few things with no luck. What am I missing? I have a 9600 GSO 512MB card with Snow Leopard 10.6 (Darwin/x86 boot v5.0.132 - Chameleon v2.0-RC4 r684). I used Digital_Dreamer's install guide to install.

- I noticed that when I boot up I get:

nVidia Unknown 512MB NV94 [10de:0625] :: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)


if I put in all 3 of my cards with only 1 configured in the com.apple.boot.plist I get:

nVidia Unknown 512MB NV94 [10de:0625] :: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)
nVidia unknown 4095MB NV1ff [10de:0625] :: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x7,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)
nVidia unknown 4095MB NV1ff [10de:0625] :: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x9,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)




I saw some google hits about upgrading my 9600 flash, but I saw a comment in this post that you don't need to do that, it was in reference to another card so don't know if it applies to the 9600 GSO as well.

I am totally stumped. I have reinstalled this box several times within the last 3 days. I have read through several forums and posts but haven't seen this so I must just be doing something wrong.

* I have downloaded the files from the first post
* booted into Kalyway 10.5.2 install, choose terminal at install screen
* ran ./gfxutil -f display (Kalyway 10.5.2 install)
* updated Downloaded 9600GSO file with my pciroot (textedit)
* changed VRAM,totalsize AAAAGA== to AAAAIA== (textedit)
* made other changes to in.plist
* booted Kalyway 10.5.2 install DVD. Once at the install screen, went to terminal and ran ./gfxutil -i xml -o hex ./in.plist ./out.hex (verified it created the same out.hex as iDeneb_10.5.7)
* added out.hex key to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.boot.plist (sudo chown root:admin com.apple.boot.plist)
* I have even tried an /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.boot.plist which Digital_Dreamer posted. He has the same MOBO and a 9600 GSO 512MB. Still no go..

./gfxutil -f display output:

DevicePath = PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)


I changed all the files to a .txt extension so they would display better in the browser.
edited in.plist (top.plist)
out.hex file (top.hex)
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.boot.plist file
Digital_Dreamer's com.apple.boot.plist file