Does an unflashed PC graphics card prevent OS X booting from CD/DVD?

[pipkato]

Hello.
I have a problem booting from my DVD/CD drive with my (unflashed) PC version XFX ATI Radeon 5770 card.

I'm having some problems with one of my internal hard disks and want to run a utility to fix it. My Mac Pro and the 5770 card work fine once it's booted to the login screen, but I can't seem to force it to boot from my DiskWarrior CD or Snow Leopard DVD.

During the boot process I don't ever see the Apple grey screen or logo. This is normal with PC versions of the ATI cards. So I've tried timing the pressing of the 'C' keep or the Option key during startup without success. My Mac always just continues booting normally and ignores the CD or DVD in the drive. I'm wondering if my card needs the Apple EFI code to be part of the 5770 BIOS in order to boot from a CD/DVD?

Alternatively, can I safely force the CD/DVD drive to be the boot drive using System Preferences/Startup Disk?

 

[Cindori]

only snow leopard 10.6.8 graphic driver allows for booting on non flash cards

 

[kkanuck]

I too Have a flashed 5770 that has issues where my system will lock up if it goes to sleep, and I have to press the power to reboot. If I remove my flashed 5770 and reinstall the GT120, no issues.... Could these issues be related?


Mine is a 2009 4,1 Mac Pro

Will this snow leopard 10.6.8 graphic driver help? How does one know if they have it installed?

 

[Cindori]

I too Have a flashed 5770 that has issues where my system will lock up if it goes to sleep, and I have to press the power to reboot. If I remove my flashed 5770 and reinstall the GT120, no issues.... Could these issues be related?


Mine is a 2009 4,1 Mac Pro

Will this snow leopard 10.6.8 graphic driver help? How does one know if they have it installed?

you have 10.6.8 driver installed if.... yo ave 10.6.8 installed

you can try aty_init to eliminate problems

 

[pipkato]

Thanks Cindori.

I'm new to this graphics card flashing, and appreciate all the info I can get. As I wrote, my Mac Pro 3,1 is booting fine with the PC 5770.

I do have 10.6.8 installed and still have that problem with forcing it to boot from a CD/DVD. BTW I also discovered today that although data DVDs like DiskWarrior and Snow Leopard read fine, the Mac DVD Player app quits immediately when started. Is this also likely to be related to the PC version of the 5770?

If the PC card is the problem, should I just wait for Lion, or try some kind of fix? I did find a user who kindly uploaded a new Mac EFI/BIOS for the same manufacturer's card (but one revision earlier), but was hoping I wouldn't need to use it.

Regards.

only snow leopard 10.6.8 graphic driver allows for booting on non flash cards

 

[fouel]

Thanks Cindori.

I'm new to this graphics card flashing, and appreciate all the info I can get. As I wrote, my Mac Pro 3,1 is booting fine with the PC 5770.

I do have 10.6.8 installed and still have that problem with forcing it to boot from a CD/DVD. BTW I also discovered today that although data DVDs like DiskWarrior and Snow Leopard read fine, the Mac DVD Player app quits immediately when started. Is this also likely to be related to the PC version of the 5770?

If the PC card is the problem, should I just wait for Lion, or try some kind of fix? I did find a user who kindly uploaded a new Mac EFI/BIOS for the same manufacturer's card (but one revision earlier), but was hoping I wouldn't need to use it.

Regards.

I tried to plug PC card to mac pro.
Yes, it worked but non full function.
You can't do the following things:
1.Can't run DVD player app , if do that,it will quit immediately when started.
2.Can't shortscuts.

I tried those card: 5770,5870,5850,4870.

Maybe it is some problem with drivers.

If you want to do these ,please flash it.

 

[Cindori]

Thanks Cindori.

I'm new to this graphics card flashing, and appreciate all the info I can get. As I wrote, my Mac Pro 3,1 is booting fine with the PC 5770.

I do have 10.6.8 installed and still have that problem with forcing it to boot from a CD/DVD. BTW I also discovered today that although data DVDs like DiskWarrior and Snow Leopard read fine, the Mac DVD Player app quits immediately when started. Is this also likely to be related to the PC version of the 5770?

If the PC card is the problem, should I just wait for Lion, or try some kind of fix? I did find a user who kindly uploaded a new Mac EFI/BIOS for the same manufacturer's card (but one revision earlier), but was hoping I wouldn't need to use it.

Regards.

if you boot from a DVD, you boot from a DVD.

you will be loading the graphic drivers from the DVD.

the DVD probably contains Snow Leopard 10.6.0.

• 5770 drivers came in Snow Leopard 10.6.4
• drivers that allow unflashed cards to run came in 10.6.8

thus, booting from the DVD disc does not work. it wouldn't even work with an Apple 5770 (unless you have a relatively new Snow Leopard disc that contains 10.6.4 Snow Leopard or later)


to fix dvd player & steam problems with unflashed cards, try use injector
this one is for 6870 but should work:
http://www.groths.org/?p=431
(you only need to install the aty_init kext)

 

[kkanuck]

you have 10.6.8 driver installed if.... yo ave 10.6.8 installed

you can try aty_init to eliminate problems

Thanks much for the reply Cindori.

I have 10.6.8 installed OSX, the flash Bios not sure, I am very eager to fix this,
I am new to this flashing business, but good at computers so I need a quick lesson please...I have read a lot using search, but still feel confused. Can I undo the flash as I am on 10.6.8, or what is the easiest way to get my radeon HD 5770 currently flashed to work on my 4,1 Mac Pro with 10.6.8 OSX where it crashes presently when computer goes to sleep.

What is ATY-init to eliminate problems, please let me know in better detail if you would be so kind on where I find this and what I must do...a link to another page etc where it best explains would be greatly appreciated. I mod iphones and apple tv's but never a graphics card as of yet!


I got his from Netkas: It states that ATY_Init will not work on Mac Pro's and I do have a Mac Pro.....I am trying to get a 5770 to work however, not a 6870....so notr sure if this applies.....

Archive for the 'ATI' Category
May 21, 2011

ATY_Init for 6870.
May 21st 2011 Posted to ATI
Tested it myself. what works:
minidp ports, active and passive adapters
hdmi port
upper dvi port
dvdplayer/geekbench/steam
what doesnt work:
second dvi port
dvi->vga adapter on upper dvi port, for vga displays you will need active mdp->vga
Untested:
dl-dvi on upper dvi port, dl-dvi should work via apple’s minidp->dl-dvi adapter tho, the adapter was tested to work, dl-dvi wasn’t
To install it you need this ATY_Init and ati drivers from 10.6.7 update for newest imacs.

MacPro users – this will not work, for macpro bios of 6870 need to be embeded into Info.plist of aty_init.
To use with Lion, install framebuffer (atiframebuffer, atisupport, ati6000controller kexts) from that imac update.



Should I wait until Lion and then fix??

Many Thanks in advance!

 

[pipkato]

Thanks Cindori.

That info about DVD booting is obvious now, but didn't occur to me earlier.

However that wasn't the point I was making. I never even got near that stage. I was trying to bypass the HD boot and boot from a CD of DiskWarrior or my Snow Leopard 10.6 DVD (to get to Disk Utilities). I realise now that I would not have been able to display anything from the Snow Leopard anyway. I'm pretty sure that neither the CD or the DVD even began their booting process.

What I wondered was whether the absence of the Apple EFI code from my PC 5770 BIOS prevented me from booting at all from a CD or DVD.

I'm going to try and flash the 5770 card with a BIOS from a poster who has the same model card as I have (but with an earlier revision No.) and see what happens. If that doesn't work I'll try your 'injector' suggestion - although right now I've no idea what an 'injector' is But I'll do some research, read your flashing guide, and take it from there.

BTW I think I saw you say you were working on the Zeus flashing tool for the ATI 5000 cards. Is it near completion or available?

I appreciate your help with this. Thanks again.

if you boot from a DVD, you boot from a DVD.

you will be loading the graphic drivers from the DVD.

the DVD probably contains Snow Leopard 10.6.0.

• 5770 drivers came in Snow Leopard 10.6.4
• drivers that allow unflashed cards to run came in 10.6.8

thus, booting from the DVD disc does not work. it wouldn't even work with an Apple 5770 (unless you have a relatively new Snow Leopard disc that contains 10.6.4 Snow Leopard or later)


to fix dvd player & steam problems with unflashed cards, try use injector
this one is for 6870 but should work:
http://www.groths.org/?p=431
(you only need to install the aty_init kext)

 

[Cindori]

Thanks Cindori.

That info about DVD booting is obvious now, but didn't occur to me earlier.

However that wasn't the point I was making. I never even got near that stage. I was trying to bypass the HD boot and boot from a CD of DiskWarrior or my Snow Leopard 10.6 DVD (to get to Disk Utilities). I realise now that I would not have been able to display anything from the Snow Leopard anyway. I'm pretty sure that neither the CD or the DVD even began their booting process.


What I wondered was whether the absence of the Apple EFI code from my PC 5770 BIOS prevented me from booting at all from a CD or DVD.

I'm going to try and flash the 5770 card with a BIOS from a poster who has the same model card as I have (but with an earlier revision No.) and see what happens. If that doesn't work I'll try your 'injector' suggestion - although right now I've no idea what an 'injector' is But I'll do some research, read your flashing guide, and take it from there.

BTW I think I saw you say you were working on the Zeus flashing tool for the ATI 5000 cards. Is it near completion or available?

I appreciate your help with this. Thanks again.

as long as you set the DVD as startup disk in System Preferences before you reboot, having a PC graphic cards does not matter. your mac will behave like a PC.

as I said though, to get display when booting from a DVD, the DVD must contain the right drivers. If it does not, it will crasch almost instantly upon booting, atleast OSX discs, don't know about disk warrior boot discs.

Injectors are drivers that emulate graphic card EFI.

here is thread on testing with zeus and 5000 / 6000 series
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,921.0.html

does not seem to be much interest

 

[pipkato]

Thanks once more, Cindori.

I'll read up on those Injectors. From what you've written, does it mean it avoids the need to flash the card's ROM? If I understand you correctly the missing Apple EFI code is supplied by the 'injector' drivers.

Thanks for the link about the 5000/6000 drivers. I'm certainly interested.

Do you know what Lion is likely to have in store for PC versions of the ATI 5770. I'm guessing some of the developers must have given an indication by now, no? With less than two weeks to go before its arrival, now is probably not the time to do anything rash.

as long as you set the DVD as startup disk in System Preferences before you reboot, having a PC graphic cards does not matter. your mac will behave like a PC.

as I said though, to get display when booting from a DVD, the DVD must contain the right drivers. If it does not, it will crasch almost instantly upon booting, atleast OSX discs, don't know about disk warrior boot discs.

Injectors are drivers that emulate graphic card EFI.

here is thread on testing with zeus and 5000 / 6000 series
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,921.0.html

does not seem to be much interest