iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

[Ausdauersportler]

To go the short way:
The 780m is flashed correctly, there is no incident that the power draw can avoid firing up the internal LCD, BUT recently we had users complaining about a black screen with Catalina 10.15.4 and at least one user was telling the same with High Sierra after applying the latest patches from Apple (May 2020).
Which version of High Sierra do you have installed?

 

[Kuyanov]

I have higt sierra 10.13.6 installed, I installed catalina 10.15.4 in parallel, but I can’t get to catalina because the black screen makes it difficult to select catalina.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I have higt sierra 10.13.6 installed, I installed catalina 10.15.4 in parallel, but I can’t get to catalina because the black screen makes it difficult to select catalina.

Probably you have to install the patched AppleGraphicsControl kext linked on page one - and please, please before posting go back and read this guide - into Catalina AND High Sierra to get around the black screen feature

 

[Kuyanov]

Probably you have to install the patched AppleGraphicsControl kext linked on page one - and please, please before posting go back and read this guide - into Catalina AND High Sierra to get around the black screen feature

Do you have this instruction?
"Installing macOS Sierra
Some users might see a black screen on macOS 10.12 "Sierra" after swapping to an NVIDIA card.
Link to information on getting macOS Sierra running with non-apple Nvidia graphics cards "
But I have Higt Sierra installed and I also can’t get into "safe mode" because the black screen on the internal monitor and the external via DP is not detected.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Do you have this instruction?
"Installing macOS Sierra
Some users might see a black screen on macOS 10.12 "Sierra" after swapping to an NVIDIA card.
Link to information on getting macOS Sierra running with non-apple Nvidia graphics cards "
But I have Higt Sierra installed and I also can’t get into "safe mode" because the black screen on the internal monitor and the external via DP is not detected.

Copied from the first post and the first page:

10.15.4 has been causing "black screen" issues for many folks. This is caused by a lack of kext initialization due to a lacking board-id in the AppleGraphicsControl.kext. A patched kext and a further explaination can be found HERE, thanks to @highvoltage12v.

My guess is that Apple has introduced the same changes giving us a black screen with 10.15.4 in the latest High Sierra (and probably Mojave) upgrade, too. So please give this kext a chance. There is at least one other user here who got High Sierra (latest) working following this advice. Disabling SIP in High Sierra has to be done, first...

 

[Kuyanov]

Thanks, but how to disable SIP? In the instructions that I found, you need to go into "safe mode" but I can’t get into it because of the black screen as I wrote above. Is it possible to disconnect from the original OS?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks, but how to disable SIP? In the instructions that I found, you need to go into "safe mode" but I can’t get into it because of the black screen as I wrote above. Is it possible to disconnect from the original OS?

Have you ever tried google "high sierra disable sip"

I guess you have already the Catalina or High Sierra bootable USB installer which gives you the chance to open a Terminal window?

 

[Kuyanov]

Now I will make the high Sierra boot installer, but I have concerns that the internal screen will be black and the external monitor through DP will not work.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Now I will make the high Sierra boot installer, but I have concerns that the internal screen will be black and the external monitor through DP will not work.

You can try to make the Catalina installation work the same way, even more easy, since SIP is disabled there by default after using the @dosdude1 installer.

You can add a second High Sierra installation using a new APFS container. I try to do the very same on one of my systems and upgrading it with all Apple patches available to check of there is a black screen issue with High Sierra.

Did not work since the USB installer expects a MacOS Journaled formatted partition, not an APFS container. The APFS conversion is made at later stages, I guess.

 

[Kuyanov]

[automerge]1590410287[/automerge]
I managed to output "safe mode" to the external screen via DP, I disabled SIP and replaced the KEXT that you suggested to me above. Now the HIGH SIERRA download freezes at the end of the download with the apple logo. I was able to run catalina (it also has only an external display, but the internal one is not displayed) FROM catalina I returned the original KEXT to system high sierra, but it also cannot start the OS. How can I return the OS to work? And what to do next with the black screen of the internal display? Please help.

 

[ZenSurfeur]

OPEN CORE > do I accept to download and install update?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

[automerge]1590410287[/automerge]
I managed to output "safe mode" to the external screen via DP, I disabled SIP and replaced the KEXT that you suggested to me above. Now the HIGH SIERRA download freezes at the end of the download with the apple logo. I was able to run catalina (it also has only an external display, but the internal one is not displayed) FROM catalina I returned the original KEXT to system high sierra, but it also cannot start the OS. How can I return the OS to work? And what to do next with the black screen of the internal display? Please help.

1. Download High Sierra using a @dosdude1 Patcher and just do not patch it. Create a USB stick using Apples method
2. Whenever you replace a kext copy the original to a save place in case you want to revert to the original state.
3. Try to get Catalina working on your LCD using the Patch

In any case after patching open Terminal and enter these commands (I do not trust Kext utility with Catalina any longer):

sudo chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*/
sudo chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E*/
sudo kextcache -i /
sudo kcditto
sudo reboot

4. Last but not least attached you will find the AppleGraphicsControl from one of my High Sierra installations.

I am sorry, but I will stop this now. You have to read more and you have to be able to find out these simple things (disable SIP, download High Sierra) on your own. This is a thread focussing on the graphics card upgrade, not on the MacOS system administrations basics.

 

[cyberheater]

After a few days of fannying about I have installed a fresh build of Catalina on my mid 2011 iMac with K610M.

I'm now running the Valley benchmark with medium preset at 1080p. It looks to be around 8fps which is probably right for that card.
I've got no graphical issues. Everything seems to working.

A massive thank you to the folks on this board.

 

[elKikkoL290890]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive

I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login

Steps

Download
14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file

mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download


Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)

Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me

Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!)

Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password: flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac

Working Directory
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash

read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also

(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)

Hi, I'm stuck at the SSH to the iMac step. I can't log in. Who can help me ?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi, I'm stuck at the SSH to the iMac step. I can't log in. Who can help me ?

Nobody, you have to check your router and your DHCP settings at home yourself Use your working machine to do so. Have you checked your USB Linux stick before using another machine?

 

[bosscharles]

Hi all, does anyone know why safe mode doesn't work? I've installed a K2100 into a 2011 imac, installed Catalina 10.15.4, made the changes to kexts to enable sleep and fix the black screen problem. Could it be these kext changes? When safe mode is attempted it goes for about 30 seconds or so and then powers off.

Anyone? thanks.

 

[cyberheater]

Hi, I'm stuck at the SSH to the iMac step. I can't log in. Who can help me ?

1. On a working Mac or PC. Boot from the USB stick to check that it's booting correctly.
2. On the Mac that your trying to flash the gpu, unplug all boot drives so that the usb stick is the only bootable volume.
3. Connect a network cable from your system to the router
4. From another working machine log onto the same router. There will be section in the router where you can determine the connected devices.
5. Start the machine you're trying to fix. Wait a minute while checking the router. At some point a new device will be shown with it's own IP address.

This guide will show you the rest

Flash Guide

 

[elKikkoL290890]

Nobody, you have to check your router and your DHCP settings at home yourself Use your working machine to do so. Have you checked your USB Linux stick before using another machine?

I created the USB stick and found my IP address via DHCP (Ethernet cable) and wrote ssh root @ "myIP", but connection refused comes out ... if I remember correctly ...

 

[cyberheater]

I created the USB stick and found my IP address via DHCP (Ethernet cable) and wrote ssh root @ "myIP", but connection refused comes out ... if I remember correctly ...

You are connecting to the wrong device. Are you sure the USB key is working?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I created the USB stick and found my IP address via DHCP (Ethernet cable) and wrote ssh root @ "myIP", but connection refused comes out ... if I remember correctly ...

Are you serious?
Your IP (v4) should be something like this (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx format):

192.168.178.22

The command to be used is then exactly (no "", no spaces, just this line...)

ssh root@192.168.178.22

If you get a different IP - and I am nearly 100% sure of this - the you have to use this number instead.

 

[elKikkoL290890]

Are you serious?
Your IP (v4) should be something like this (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx format):

192.168.178.22

The command to be used is then exactly (no "", no spaces, just this line...)

ssh root@192.168.178.22

If you get a different IP - and I am nearly 100% sure of this - the you have to use this number instead.

Yes, I'm serious. My IP address has only one number after the second point.

 

[cyberheater]

Yes, I'm serious. My IP address has only one number after the second point.

Take a picture of your router page and share it here.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Yes, I'm serious. My IP address has only one number after the second point.

You do not get it:
I am not writing about different IPs, I was talking about the command line. You wrote

ssh root @ "myIP"

and is was answering with IP=192.168.178.22

ssh root@192.168.178.22

Please provide useful and more complete information than simply "it does not work". It would have worked using the "", but not using the spaces. We are just confused about what you really did there...

 

[elKikkoL290890]

You do not get it:
I am not writing about different IPs, I was talking about the command line. You wrote

ssh root @ "myIP"

and is was answering with IP=192.168.178.22

ssh root@192.168.178.22

Please provide useful and more complete information than simply "it does not work". It would have worked using the "", but not using the spaces. We are just confused about what you really did there...

... Okay ok ... I ran away too much space by writing with the smartphone ... however I have always written everything in the correct form without spaces or other punctuation on the terminal.
ssh root@192.168.178.22 but with my IP ... but connection always refused

 

[Ausdauersportler]

... Okay ok ... I ran away too much space by writing with the smartphone ... however I have always written everything in the correct form without spaces or other punctuation on the terminal.
ssh root@192.168.178.22 but with my IP ... but connection always refused

Then you have again first to check

- the USB stick working
- which IP you was trying to connect to

normally after less then 2 minutes the Linux system is up and running. I connect both machines with cables to the same router just to make sure not to end up in a different WIFI network etc...