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10.10.4 Nvidia webdriver

N

netkas

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 2, 2007
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I thought I'd have to muck around with changing version numbers in Terminal, luckily the OSX native driver is working well with multiple monitors. I didn't have trouble upgrading, compared to previous versions where I was left with only 1 monitor working on the stock GT120.
 
I'm getting piss poor performance on 10.10.4 using the stock OS X driver on my Mac Edition GTX 680 - even worse performance than my 5770. Hopefully the Nvidia driver will fix.
 
netkas - how would I go about finding this Beta driver manually from nvidia.com ?
 
Thanks, installed and working on Titan X.

Tip: Don't do what I did and forget to go into single user mode and do sudo nvram boot-args="nv_disable=1" prior to installing 10.10.4 or you'll get a cranky Mac after installing.
 
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Demigod Mac said:
Thanks, installed and working on Titan X.

Tip: Don't do what I did and forget to go into single user mode and do sudo nvram boot-args="nv_disable=1" prior to installing 10.10.4 or you'll get a cranky Mac after installing.
Click to expand...

Do I need to do this even if I installed beta from the link above???
 
Demigod Mac said:
Thanks, installed and working on Titan X.

Tip: Don't do what I did and forget to go into single user mode and do sudo nvram boot-args="nv_disable=1" prior to installing 10.10.4 or you'll get a cranky Mac after installing.
Click to expand...

EDIT: I've fixed this now, but still posting incase anyone has the same issues.

This update is not going well so far.

I appear to have got myself stuck in a bit of a boot loop. I added the boot arg to disable all graphics drivers, then restarted. The machine booted but the display didn't come on. Then I was able to go in via screen sharing, so I thought ok, I'll install the 10.10.4 and then use the web driver that I had already downloaded from this post. Screen sharing never came back.

After 20 mins or so I shut down the machine and installed my GT120 and rebooted. This caused a kernel panic and boot loop. Next, I zapped PRAM remembering that I had the no graphics driver boot arg. I thought that would clear it no?

This caused the machine to just restart endlessly about halfway through the boot process. No kernel panic now, screen just goes black then chimes and restarts. Things I've tried:

Booting holding shift for safe mode - same thing happens.
Booting to recovery partition - same thing happens

Booting with the 970 removed and just the GT120 in - managed to get to desktop and resolved from there.
 
I didn't install the beta webdriver prior to updating the system and experienced the same boot loop issue as Inutopia using an unflashed Titan X. Reinstalling my flashed 680 allowed me to finish the installation process.
 
Inutopia said:
EDIT: I've fixed this now, but still posting incase anyone has the same issues.

This update is not going well so far.

I appear to have got myself stuck in a bit of a boot loop. I added the boot arg to disable all graphics drivers, then restarted. The machine booted but the display didn't come on. Then I was able to go in via screen sharing, so I thought ok, I'll install the 10.10.4 and then use the web driver that I had already downloaded from this post. Screen sharing never came back.

After 20 mins or so I shut down the machine and installed my GT120 and rebooted. This caused a kernel panic and boot loop. Next, I zapped PRAM remembering that I had the no graphics driver boot arg. I thought that would clear it no?

This caused the machine to just restart endlessly about halfway through the boot process. No kernel panic now, screen just goes black then chimes and restarts. Things I've tried:

Booting holding shift for safe mode - same thing happens.
Booting to recovery partition - same thing happens

Booting with the 970 removed and just the GT120 in - managed to get to desktop and resolved from there.
Click to expand...

Stock drivers don't support the 970 or any Maxwell card, and last time I checked they were causing the Window Server to crash. That's why you need to run with nv_disable=1 in your boot args when updating the OS, per the sticky FAQ thread at the top of the forum. This will force software rendering mode while you update the OS and install the new web driver, at which point you can switch back to nvda_drv=1 to enable the web driver and get full acceleration again.
 
Asgorath said:
That's why you need to run with nv_disable=1 in your boot args when updating the OS, per the sticky FAQ thread at the top of the forum.
Click to expand...

That's why he noted he'd done that and had issues, I think.

Question: Just got an unflashed GTX 980 this past week. I forgot to do the boot argument and thus had to take the card out and use my old card (still in my MP) to install the newest drivers today. Since I'm new to this I want to confirm a few things before the next time an update comes up if someone would be so kind.

Next update out, so I'll need to use the boot arguments above. Do I need to go into single user mode first or can I do that directly from my admin account? Will I be able to see anything from this card (Maxwell based) or must I use my old card for this? Should I disable the web drivers first or just leave that as is during all of this?

Thanks for the insight as I'm new to this. My old 4870 was just not up to par for current things so I have really enjoyed the new card although I am kicking myself for not doing a proper upgrade today and not asking these questions earlier.
 
Unlike the last few 10.10.x updates, 10.10.4 seems to work natively with my unflashed GTX 760.
I'd initiated the OS update using screen sharing on my Macbook Air as I thought I'd need that to download the new web driver but after restarting, I had video out on my Mac Pro without updating the web driver :)
 
Angelus said:
Unlike the last few 10.10.x updates, 10.10.4 seems to work natively with my unflashed GTX 760.
I'd initiated the OS update using screen sharing on my Macbook Air as I thought I'd need that to download the new web driver but after restarting, I had video out on my Mac Pro without updating the web driver :)
Click to expand...

That's a Kepler card though, isn't it? OS X has had Kepler drivers for a long time. Wouldn't you have had native support as far back as Mountain Lion?
 
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I have yet to ever successfully upgrade to a new version of OS X without hitting a black start up screen. I have an unflashed Geforce GTX 750 Ti. I ran with nv_disable=1 in my boot args and that booted me once again to a black screen. I must be dumb or something because I never manage to update successfully without putting my old card back in. I'd love to know what I've been doing wrong.
 
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ActionableMango said:
That's a Kepler card though, isn't it? OS X has had Kepler drivers for a long time. Wouldn't you have had native support as far back as Mountain Lion?
Click to expand...

The card worked natively in 10.9 but the upgrade to Yosemite resulted in me having no video out unless I reinstalled my stock Apple card. This is the first 10.10.x update so far for me that has not required a web driver.
 
Studio K said:
I have a Kepler card and have not been able to use it without web drivers since the dawn of Yosemite.
Click to expand...

Same with my GTX 760 on previous Yosemite updates. The Mac Pro booted without modifying boot-args, but I had to screen share in to install the web drivers.

A week ago I upgraded to a GTX 970 and was oblivious to the fact that additional steps were required for Maxwell cards. I was stuck in a failed boot cycle this morning similar to what Inutopia described when I upgraded to 10.10.4. I had to replace the GTX 970 with a GT 120 and finish the upgrade. (Note: the GTX 970 had to be removed; I first tried installing the GT 120 in an empty slot but the boot cycle continued to repeat.)

One odd thing is that the NVIDIA preference pane shows that I am using the OS X drivers, when I am actually using the web drivers.

(BTW, I upgraded to the Best Buy-exclusive NVIDIA-branded GTX 970 which is currently on sale. Very nice card.)
 
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One more tip: be sure to enable Remote Management before installing. That way you can get in via screen share on another Mac or a VNC app on iOS if something goes wrong. (test it first too)
 
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odin said:
That's why he noted he'd done that and had issues, I think.
Click to expand...

This is correct. With the boot arg nv_disable=1, my un-flashed 970 gives a black screen upon boot. It seems for now that the only way to update the OS is to swap in my GT120 and go from there.
 
Inutopia said:
This is correct. With the boot arg nv_disable=1, my un-flashed 970 gives a black screen upon boot. It seems for now that the only way to update the OS is to swap in my GT120 and go from there.
Click to expand...

Set up screen sharing (VNC) if you have another computer. Once the computer boots (even with a black screen) you can then reset boot-args and install the web drivers.
 
That's what I usually do. Sadly if the system is stuck on a boot loop you don't get screen sharing. I've never used "nv_disable=1". If I understand MVC's blog post correctly, it is supposed to work with EFI cards only and not of much help for those using unflashed Maxwell cards, am I wrong ? Thankfully I've kept my old card exactly for this kind of issues.
 
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