GFX Strings - How To

[aquamac]

Hey, thats good news, glad to hear you got it going!

[jomaigarcia]

hi aqua

Quadro FX 1700 device ID is 0x040F..
Is it ok to ask for a step-by-step to doing it? i'm kinda new at this.. thanks in advance and happy new year

btw, Birthday greets to ritalin!

[aquamac]

Hi there,

To get this working I would suggest you install 10.5.6 as the later incarnations on OSX carry much improved versions of NVidia drivers. Then, making sure you have none of the following in your /System/Library/Extensions folder,

NVKush.kext,NVIject.kext or Natit.kext

Follow this walkthrough:

aquamac.proboards106.com/index.cgi?board=hack1&action=display&thread=509

I will put up a download for your card.

[peppi911]

Hi, I try the whole day now to configure the EFIString.
However, it works, but no QuartzExtreme, this i got only with nvinject, which I would like to get rid of.
THis ist my xml:

<?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(0xb,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>device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,GeForce</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>NVIDIA GeForce 6200</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>NVDA,Parent</string>
<key>rom-revision</key>
<string>0xa1000000</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>


Any ideas whats wrong with that?
Geforce 6200 256MB, AGP.
P

[aquamac]

If you have Natit.kext, NVKush.kext, NVInject.kext in your extensions folder, then GFX Strings will not work as these injector kexts will overwrite them at boot. If you cannot get GFX Strings to work manually by using my walkthrough, you could try using PCWiz's OSX86 Tools to set them.

It can be downloaded here.

[peppi911]

Hi, no i deleted all of those kext.
Tried to edit plist manually, via Efistudio, and now again with osxtools,
still no success. Works, but without QuarzExtreme support.
I wonder if EFI Strings might not work with AGP in general?
On the other hand as far as i understand does nvinject do quite the same,
as adding this configuration string to the system?
Well, i think i give it up on it;-).
Or is anyone here who got it to work with 6200 AGP?
P

[axisd]

Ok. This is the first time I've posted to a forum about this. I've been putzing with OSX on an AMD machine for a couple months now, and have gotten this far with just reading what I've found. First off, I'll throw out my specs:

AMD Athlon64 3700+ (2.2ghz) (works OOTB)
Nforce MCP51 board (works OOTB)
BFG Geforce 9800GT (working on it)
AC97 Audio (works OOTB)
RTL 8139 (works OOTB)

Any other info you need, so far, works out of the box. The main thing is the graphics card.

I started out with no QE/CI, but a good system otherwise. I followed aquaman's how-tos and installed the new v2 drivers for Nvidia. After that I got distorted windows, and in order to see what I was doing I would have to minimize them and then bring them back up. Noticed a change (change is good). Then I followed this howto, rebooted and the resolution changed. Good thing. But my mouse doesn't work. Stuff locks up, but QE/CI is supported, and everything else works until the mouse locks up. Mind you it's a WACOM mouse. So any help would be appreciated, as I would rather not re-install since this is the farthest I've gotten with upgrading the OS to 10.5.5 and voodoo kernel 9.5.0.

Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Hooked up the old ps2 mouse and it seemed to work fine for the first 10 seconds.. Then random lockups and it's all over the screen.

[aquamac]

Does the whole system lock up or just the mouse. What happens if you boot with the mouse disconnected then plug it in after a minute. Certainly have not come across this problem before.

[peppi911]

Jan 3, 2009 7:40:12 GMT axisd said:

I followed aquaman's how-tos and installed the new v2 drivers for Nvidia.

i thougt with efi strings there are no further special drivers needed?
What are those v2 drivers for? Maybe i missed something, as i still got no Quartz...
P

[aquamac]

GFX strings provide the EFI strings to the operating system that are missing from a PC's bios. In proper mac, these are provided by the macs bios firmware. The version 2 download is the actual drivers - you need both. The opening screen of the driver installation explains this.

[axisd]

Jan 4, 2009 8:15:12 GMT aquamac said:

Does the whole system lock up or just the mouse. What happens if you boot with the mouse disconnected then plug it in after a minute. Certainly have not come across this problem before.

As soon as I finished your howto and rebooted, the resolution was at a nice 1440x900 and the mouse works for about the first 10 seconds, then it seems as though the mouse locks up. I can still use the keyboard for some things, although it doesn't seem like Mac supports the tab key to select buttons. So I didn't get much further. I let it sit for a while, and it eventually kernel panic'd. I will try again, this time trying what you said plugging it in late, and also I'll try playing with the ps2 mouse again, and leave the wacom mouse disconnected. Will post my results back here ASAP.

[peppi911]

Jan 4, 2009 13:47:23 GMT aquamac said:

GFX strings provide the EFI strings to the operating system that are missing from a PC's bios. In proper mac, these are provided by the macs bios firmware. The version 2 download is the actual drivers - you need both. The opening screen of the driver installation explains this.

Hi, ok that explains why this doesn't work for me.
I only find the Version for 9 series. I have an old 6200 one,
are there also drivers for 6 Series out there?
P

[aquamac]

The 9 series drivers cover all cards before the 9 series, but I am not sure that 6 series will work with GFX strings, so you will have to try it out. You can install the drivers though. If you have 10.5.6, you don't need to though as this will support all the latest cards.

[axisd]

Ok so here's an update:

I started over, to make sure everything was kosher. I used the iPC-10.5.6 installer, used the NForceTest chipset, with no video or audio drivers. I used the PS2 fix and the USB2.0 fix. After the install was complete I used Safari to download the Nvidia series 9 v2 drivers as well as your link from the beginning of this thread for the in.plist and the application you've supplied.

I installed the drivers, went through your GFX strings, and used OSX86Tools to repair permissions on the com.apple.Boot.plist (I had to copy it to desktop and move it back, no biggie).

Rebooted -- Resolution is different, everything looks good. After about 10 seconds the mouse locks up. And if I sit there and move the mouse around, the mouse arrow will jump a little bit, but more or less, it's still locked up. I managed to get to the Graphics/Displays section so I could throw you my results before the mouse locked up (Good thing I put that app in my dock, lol)

Graphics/Displays

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0605
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: 3172a
Displays:
G19LWk:
Resolution: 1360x768 @ 60Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
G19LWk:
Resolution: 1440x900 @ 61Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported

Now since I took the time to type that all out since I couldn't copy/paste it, I'm noticing two displays. I have two DVI outputs on my video card, so I will try them both before I go on.. Ok, no dice. Seems to only work plugged in one way, and that doesn't stop the mouse from locking up, both USB and PS2.

Both mice worked fine before the graphics change.

[aquamac]

My drivers were designed for 10.5.5, did you try with the std 10.5.6 drivers that are in the update then drop in your modded com.apple.boot.plist. You should back up a copy of it anyway for future use. By the way one you have the plist written as you have, you can just use disk utility to repair permissions next time you swap it.

I just re-read what you put - don't use the ps2 fix or usb fix and try again. After all if your mouse is working during installation fine no need. This may be your problem.