you mean it's encrypted with FileVault? or just a password in macOS? or something else?
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MBP 1,1-10,2 Force 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 with failed AMD GPU to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)
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A UEFI Password, or Bios password or how is it called.
It is provoked when you hold ALT (option) during boot for alternative boot devices.
It causes NVRAM not to reset, by just ignoring the command option + cmd + P + R
In theory protecting the UEFI mod used to disable the failed AMD Radeon card but in practice it seems High Sierra 10.13.6 goes messing with it and enables the AMD Radeon card again)
Result , a system protected from reset , UEFI protected and AMD Radeon Enabled.
Normally I would just reset and get along with my life using Sierra, El Captian or whatever works. But the password...
Why did I set a password?
Well, I read some advice here, but I was so stupid to set the password BEFORE removing a resistor to terminally disable the Radeon hardware: https://realmacmods.com/macbook-2011-radeon-gpu-disable/
A small warning: It has been tested that this mod will survive a SMC reset as well as Battery Removal. It is not yet known if it will survive a NVRAM reset. "For this (and other security related) reasons, it is recommended that you set an EFI Password. This will make it impossible to accidentally reset your NVRAM. Just don’t ever forget this password. Seriously, don’t. Ever."
For all of you having issues with system updates with your NVRAM-disabled dGPU: I would highly advise that you look into performing my permanent solution for disabling the dedicated GPU on these systems. Yes, I realize it does require a bit of soldering skill to perform, but it is well worth it, especially if you are disabling the dGPU to repair somebody else's machine. And now, with my new backlight control module that I've just finished developing, backlight brightness control will now work perfectly after this modification has been performed. You can read about that here. Once this permanent solution is performed on a machine, the system will still work perfectly after PRAM/NVRAM resets and system updates, and also does not require any modifications to your OS X system at all. You can also, of course, use firmware passwords and encrypted volumes if you want to, without having any issues.
In my search to HD3000 kext stability, I update from el Capitan to Sierra 10.12.4, and the macbook did a firmware upgrade
Then I updated to 10.12.6, the macbook did another firmware upgrade and it still working well.
BTW, the kext still crashing with some apps
Then I updated to 10.12.6, the macbook did another firmware upgrade and it still working well.
BTW, the kext still crashing with some apps
I used the guide in the pass and for many months was up and running with the OS High Sierra. Recently the MacBook wouldn't wake from sleep and the LoginHook wasn't working for me. In one of the posts there was a suggestion to downgrade to Sierra. It took a lot of doing but I was able to erase and install Sierra 10.12.6.
I was following the guide (#875) again and all was well until <touch /System/Library/Extensions/ – wait for the kextcache process to finish then>
Nothing happened? I tried to continue but now the MacBook boots into verbose mode, reboots with progress bar then the gray screen. This process repeats with a loop.
I put the MacBook into target disk mode and there is a Extensions-off folder and the AMDRadeonX3000.kext moved to it.
Problem with the touch command? Would appreciate help. Thanks
My 2011 MBP died last night, it was the third logic board that failed. This morning it wouldn't boot. I did the command line method, and so far, KNOCK ON WOOD, it is working just fine with High Sierra. I know I've lose the ability to use an external display, but for my purposes, it will work fine. I was freaking out last night because I'm in the middle of the trimester in my graduate degree program, and I have a ton of VMs and licenses and stuff set up for Mac, and I don't want to shell out $2800 for a new MBP or have to rebuild everything on Windows right now.
Big thanks to the OP for saving my butt on this one!
Big thanks to the OP for saving my butt on this one!
I just posted looking for help but I continued to try and troubleshoot.
I erased my 2011 MacBook Pro and was going to do a clean install of Sierra. I made a install USB that I know is good and when booting to the install USB I get the normal select WiFi and the install disk. After selecting the install USB I get the Apple progress bar than a gray screen. Nothing happens.
Next step was to reset the power and p-ram and try again...same problem...gray screen.
Now I tried to boot to internet recovery (Command+R). I get the globe with progress bar than the gray screen. Every time I get the gray screen the fans are full blast.
Once again, the MacBook Pro HD was erased to do a clean install before doing any of the above.
Please if someone knows if the MacBook is dead with no recourse please let me know so I can stop spending days waisting my time on a dead computer.
Thanks
TIf you don't have time to read my story (which also describes some interesting technical approaches) just scroll down this thread until a "100% WORKING SOLUTION" text
Discrete AMD GPU of my 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 has finally failed because of the reasons mentioned here ( http://logicboardmac.blogspot.ru/ ) and there ( https://www.macrumors.com/2015/02/19/2011-macbook-pro-repair-program-apple/ ) . It has been working perfectly for 6 years under quite a high load, even tried SETI@HOME mining at background! So I was confident that my MBP is not affected by bad solder / bad soldering quality and didn't want to bring it to Apple for a free repair program - partially because couldn't find the time to pause my important software projects, partially because I was afraid that Apple might give me a less reliable logic board or refuse a free repair because of the several unrelated repairs that I did manually by myself earlier to save money: changed thermal paste a few times, replaced the internal battery 2 times, replaced a keyboard with broken buttons, etc. But it finally broke down last week: laptop's screen image became distorted, it refused to boot OS X (always freezing half-way), and - Apple free repair program has already ended! I know there are affordable solutions like $50 BGA resoldering at unofficial local repair shop and that its possible to get a new replacement HD 6750M chip from AliExpress for $35 or cheaper ( http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-2...0028-216-0810028-BGA-Chipset/32764872143.html or https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-2015-New-216-0810001-216-0810001-Graphic-Chipset/32718112928.html , because don't know if this is true - https://www.rossmanngroup.com/board...0604-replace-216-0810005-gpu-with-216-0810028 ) to guarantee a successful repair, so the total price of repair would be either $50 or $50+$35=$85 - less than $100 in any case. But I don't like investing money to the old computers, so I have thought - what if there is some hack to force MBP to use integrated graphics ALL THE TIME, even while booting ? And then started to explore the possible solutions...
===
First of all, it is possible to successfully boot a MBP to OS X while still using the failed GPU, after you remove the AMD drivers by booting in command line mode (CMD+S) and entering these commands:
1) fsck -fy (to check a disk)
2) mount -uw / (mount a root filesystem with read/write permissions)
3) sudo mkdir /AMD_Kexts/ (make a directory to store the AMD drivers in case you'll need them in future)
4) sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /AMD_Kexts/ (move the AMD drivers)
5) sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (remove the AMD drivers cache)
6) sudo mkdir /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (just in case OS X will be dumb and will not recreate this directory, I am creating it for OS X)
7) sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/ (to update the timestamps so that new driver caches - without AMD drivers - will be definitely rebuilt)
8) sudo umount / (umount a partition to guarantee that your changes are flushed to it)
9) sudo reboot
The degree of your inconvenience while doing these steps - strongly depends on how heavily a screen's image is distorted in your case. In my case it was even more difficult because the OS X partition became a "read-only" partition (because of too many emergency shutdowns I did while desperately trying to boot OS X with a failed GPU) so I had to remove a hard drive from MacBook Pro and (using a USB to SATA 2.5" adapter taken from my portable HDD) attached it to a computer with Linux, then followed these instructions:
https://superuser.com/questions/961401/mounting-hfs-partition-on-arch-linux (1st answer) - carefully executed a number of commands, calculated a sizelimit for my parition layout, and finally ran sudo mount -t hfsplus -o force,rw,sizelimit=YOURNUMBER /dev/sdb2 /mnt to mount this HFS+ partition to /mnt directory in read-write mode. Then I performed these "1)-7)" steps you see above, and also repaired a filesystem by running sudo fsck.hfsplus -f /dev/sdb2 before unmounting a partition with sudo umount /mnt and putting a hard drive back to MBP...
===
This gave me a MBP which could boot to OS X although STILL using a broken AMD GPU: so it screen's image is very distorted (could browse the Internet but quite inconvenient to read a text), Launchpad is super laggy, and you can't switch to Integrated GPU using gfxCardStatus because: without AMD drivers (which we had to remove to successfully boot to OS X) Macbook Pro thinks its' internal screen is External Display and gfxCardStatus tells it is impossible to switch because External Display is using AMD GPU. Somewhere I found a suggestion that it is possible to rebuild a gfxCardStatus from the source code - https://github.com/codykrieger/gfxCardStatus - with removed or commented out 156-166 lines in the ./gfxCardStatus/Classes/GSProcess.m to make it to ignore the external display:
// find out if an external monitor is forcing the discrete gpu on
CGDirectDisplayID displays[8];
CGDisplayCount displayCount = 0;
if (CGGetOnlineDisplayList(8, displays, &displayCount) == noErr) {
for (int i = 0; i < displayCount; i++) {
if ( ! CGDisplayIsBuiltin(displays))
[list addObject:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
Str(@"External Display"), kTaskItemName,
@"", kTaskItemPID, nil]];
}
}
So I rebuilt a gfxCardStatus using the instructions from the last reply of this issue -
https://github.com/codykrieger/gfxCardStatus/issues/229
(also had to download a MacOSX10.11.sdk from here - https://github.com/phracker/MacOSX-SDKs/releases - unpack and copy it to XCode's /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.11.sdk - because of the Apple's stupidity the latest XCode for El Capitan does not include SDK for El Capitan!) However, it still didn't work - gfxCardStatus only pretended that it has switched to Integrated GPU, while in reality OS X did not let it switch! Even after I edited ./gfxCardStatus/Classes/GSGPU.m file to enable the mysterious "Nuke it from orbit switching" option, it still couldn't switch...
===
Then I discovered this interesting repository - https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch - which is partially similar by its' source code to gfxCardStatus but also has the "Login Hooks" (install_hooks.sh) to "automate the switching process for login/logout". Sadly it didn't work for me... However, there is a very interesting gpu-switch text file right at the root of this repository, which describes the EFI variables!
https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/blob/master/gpu-switch
After studying it and also reading this issue's comments - https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/issues/11 - I became confident to try this solution, but found out that my MacBook Pro 2011 8,2 with OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 is in a VERY problematic situation:
1) rEFInd is not installed, and to install it - must disable SIP protection. But I cannot boot to Recovery mode (Command+Option+R) or to OS X Installation DVD/USB (hold Option), (to disable SIP), because they freeze while booting! - although I removed AMD kexts from my system, of course these recovery tools are using AMD kexts integrated to their design. Also cannot use Rootfool hack ( https://github.com/gdbinit/rootfool ) to disable SIP during runtime, because it works only at OS X version older than 10.11.4
2) Tried overheating my Macbook Pro on purpose (forcing CPU usage to 100% and putting it to a tightly closed bag) to force it to shutdown from overheating and then quickly reboot so that Integrated graphics will be enabled during the boot time - making it possible to boot to Recovery. But because of the wonderful high end thermal paste I have applied not so long ago - cannot overheat it even after waiting for a long time! At this point I thought that could either: a) remove AMD kexts from Installation media, or b) to connect MBP's hard drive to a Linux machine again and run a bunch of chmods to remove the SIP flags from the directories mentioned here ( http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/193368/what-is-the-rootless-feature-in-el-capitan-really ) which could potentially make a system unbootable, or c) to try installing rEFInd to HFS+ partition directly from a Linux machine with root rights because it will bypass SIP --- but have not explored these options, although some of them might have worked...
3) Wanted to boot a Linux LiveCD to edit the EFI variables from there, but no matter what I did: tried booting straight without GRUB option modifications, tried editing GRUB boot options (with "e" key) to add nomodeset / remove quiet splash / or both in every combination , or like suggested in this article ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro8,1/8,2/8,3_(2011) ) also add i915.modeset=0 radeon.modeset=0 or radeon.modeset=0 i915.modeset=1 i915.lvds_channel_mode=2 ; and then pressed Fn+F10 or Shift+Ctrl+Fn+F10 to boot with these options: but the Linux boot process always failed at different boot stages, no matter what popular user-friendly Linux distribution or what version of it I am trying: tried many releases of Ubuntu / Lubuntu / Fedora , even the old "AMD64 Mac" and "Alternate AMD64 Mac" images, but they always failed - either at the very beginning of boot process (black screen, or a black screen with a blinking or stuck _ character at the left upper corner) or failed at the very end of it - right before it is supposed to show a graphical desktop environment...
Later, totoe_84 wrote that he was able to boot Ubuntu in graphical mode using the following setup for GRUB:
- To disable the AMD graphics card I added the following lines after set gfxpayload=keep
outb 0x728 1
outb 0x710 2
outb 0x740 2
outb 0x750 0(based on https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2157775 )
- Next I added the following after quiet splash
i915.lvds_channel_mode=2 i915.modeset=1 i915.lvds_use_ssc=0
===
Then I remembered that there are not-mainstream Linux distributions for advanced users, which have a LiveCD without any graphical interface: you are dropped to a pure console and you are supposed to install the system along with only those graphical interfaces and software packages / groups of packages which you explicitly select. For example: Arch Linux (https://www.archlinux.org/) and Gentoo Linux (https://gentoo.org/) . Because their LiveCD does not have a graphical interface, they could be booted without a problem to a pure Linux console and there you could edit the EFI variables ! So here is a...
===
=== 100% WORKING SOLUTION
===
=== Force your MBP to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)
===
=== to make it great again !
===
1) Create the Arch Linux LiveCD/LiveUSB :
You need a working computer for that and a spare CD/DVD/USB drive. After downloading archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso (see the links below) you have to check the integrity of the .ISO file to see if it is not corrupted (avoid I/O error, printf: not found, chattr: not found, etc). After checking the integrity of archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso and everything is OK, then you can generate an ArchLinux boot disk.
archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
MD5:
1d25235e7cebe45f93452fbc05a0fb66 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
SHA1
f426866ca632a35a3eeae8e4080cff25ec8da614 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Official website ArchLinux (only Torrent) - See MD5 and SHA1 hash numbers:
https://www.archlinux.org/releng/releases/2017.03.01/
The MD5 and SHA1 of the official ArchLinux website are the same as the mirrors Virtapi.org and Belnet.be. The archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso on Virtapi.org and Belnet.be are legitimate.
Virtapi.org:
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/md5sums.txt
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/sha1sums.txt
Belnet:
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/md5sums.txt
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/sha1sums.txt
Check for archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso integrity (Mac OS):
Boot in Safe Mode (press SHIFT key at boot) -> no freeze Mac OS -> El Capitan or Sierra.
HighSierra maybe freeze at boot time (Safe Mode). There were changes in the HighSierra in relation to the AMD kexts loaded during the Safe Mode. More tests are needed.
File downloaded -> /Users/Your_User/Downloads/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal:
MD5:
Code:cd Downloads/ md5 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso MD5 (archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso) = 1d25235e7cebe45f93452fbc05a0fb66
SHA1:
Code:cd Downloads/ shasum archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso f426866ca632a35a3eeae8e4080cff25ec8da614 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Or try the simplest way - No needed ArchLinux - Only MacOS:
1 - Boot Single User (press Command + S) at boot (If you have MacOS installed on your hard drive).
2 - If you have a blank HD, then use the USB stick/Pendrive with the MacOS installer (El Capitan, Sierra or HighSierra).
2.1 - Press Option key at boot, Position the mouse on the MacOS installer icon.
2.2 - Press Command + S and keep holding these two keys.
2.3 - Click the MacOS installer icon -> continue holding the Command + S keys until you finish the MacOS installer Single User boot .
Enter these commands (change gpu-power-prefs to Intel GPU and boot verbose):
Code:nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00 nvram boot-args="-v" reboot
If you've chosen the Arch Linux route, please continue reading:
Then you could either simply burn this ISO to CD/DVD (which later could be either inserted to MBP's SuperDrive or External DVD Drive connected to MBP by two USB cables) or create a bootable USB: use the great detailed instructions from this page, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_flash_installation_media
2) Boot to it: insert this CD/DVD/USB to Macbook Pro, hold Option key while booting, choose "EFI boot" (that is your bootable installation media), press "e" key to edit the GRUB options of the Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI CD menu entry while it is selected at the main screen, add nomodeset to the end of this line and press Enter. If everything is done correctly, you will find yourself at the Linux console!
3) Edit EFI vars: looks like efivarfs filesystem is mounted by default! So you can already cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars and ls to explore this directory and see if there is a "gpu-power-prefs-..." variable (where ... is UUID of this variable). If there is such a variable, its better to remove it with rm. In my case the efivarfs has been mounted by default with read/write permissions, but if you are getting the "operation not permitted" message while attempting to rm, it means that in your case efivarfs has been mounted as read-only and you need to remount it with read-write permissions and try again (credits to totoe_84 for this valuable addition) :
*) cd /
*) umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
*) mount -t efivarfs rw /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
*) cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
If your screen is so distorted that it is difficult to see the letters, just start typing the rm gpu-power-pre and then press TAB key for autocompletion. In my case there were not such a EFI variable, only "gpu-active-..." and maybe somehow related "gfx-saved-config-restore-status-..." . Then I looked again at that gpu-switch text file (mentioned above, https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/blob/master/gpu-switch),
and entered THESE COMMANDS:
*) chattr -i "/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/" <----- skip this command
Actually a gpu-switch script had "${sysfs_efi_vars}/${efi_gpu}" but I didnt have a "gpu-power-prefs-..." variable - so, partially by mistake, I didn't add that efi_gpu suffix and entered this incomplete path accidentally
*) printf "\x07\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9
Did not have a EFI "gpu-power-prefs-" variable so I thought that it will be OK to create a new one with a random UUID - in this case, taken directly from a gpu-switch script
*) chattr +i "/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9"
http://www.tecmint.com/chattr-command-examples/ - chattr (Change Attribute) is a command line Linux utility that is used to set/unset certain attributes to a file in Linux system to secure accidental deletion or modification of important files and folders, even though you are logged in as a root user.
...
Syntax of chattr ---> chattr [operator] [flags] [filename]
...
A file is set with ‘i‘ attribute (+i as you see in this command) ---> cannot be modified (immutable). Means no renaming, no symbolic link creation, no execution, no writable, only superuser can unset the attribute.
...
Operator
This chattr command is supposed to lock a file to make it accessible only by "superuser" - and so that, while booting, your EFI will have no chance to screw up your gpu-power-prefs-... variable under any circumstances
- + : Adds the attribute to the existing attribute of the files.
- – : Removes the attribute to the existing attribute of the files.
- = : Keep the existing attributes that the files have.
*) cd /
Could not unmount efivars if you are inside this directory, so change to the root directory
*) umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
Guarantees that your EFI variables are flushed to efivarfs filesystem, please unmount it safely before rebooting)
*) reboot
===> IF YOU DID EVERYTHING CORRECTLY, MOST LIKELY THAT YOUR MACBOOK PRO IS NOW USING INTEGRATED GRAPHICS WHILE BOOTING, AFTER BOOTING, AND IS WORKING GREAT AGAIN !
In the future maybe you could need to re-apply this solution if you would have to reset your PRAM / NVRAM / SMC because of some other problems, so remember this solution somewhere... Funny thing: now you can't switch to Discrete GPU even using gfxCardStatus, it is forever stuck at Integrated
I spent two working days to discover this solution, and really hope that it will work flawlessly for every MBP owner with a broken discrete GPU. Good luck!
=== NEWS ! YOU COULD ALSO FOLLOW THESE GUIDES FOR THE EXTRA IMPROVEMENTS : ===
Follow the MikeyN Guide - page 35 - #875 - to move the AMDRadeonX3000.kext from the /System/Library/Extensions directory and do not freeze Macbook Pro (at 75% progress bar or "IOConsoleUsers: gIOScreenLockState 3" message).
Rename old AMDRadeonX3000.kext and move new AMDRadeonX3000.kext after update - Page 57 - #1425
Shutdown or Restart Macbook Pro - avoid black screen freeze - Update 2 - Page 57 - #1425
Close the Lid - Sleep - Waking - Page 43 #1066 - Page 50 #1243
[doublepost=1538695050][/doublepost]If you don't have time to read my story (which also describes some interesting technical approaches) just scroll down this thread until a "100% WORKING SOLUTION" text
Discrete AMD GPU of my 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 has finally failed because of the reasons mentioned here ( http://logicboardmac.blogspot.ru/ ) and there ( https://www.macrumors.com/2015/02/19/2011-macbook-pro-repair-program-apple/ ) . It has been working perfectly for 6 years under quite a high load, even tried SETI@HOME mining at background! So I was confident that my MBP is not affected by bad solder / bad soldering quality and didn't want to bring it to Apple for a free repair program - partially because couldn't find the time to pause my important software projects, partially because I was afraid that Apple might give me a less reliable logic board or refuse a free repair because of the several unrelated repairs that I did manually by myself earlier to save money: changed thermal paste a few times, replaced the internal battery 2 times, replaced a keyboard with broken buttons, etc. But it finally broke down last week: laptop's screen image became distorted, it refused to boot OS X (always freezing half-way), and - Apple free repair program has already ended! I know there are affordable solutions like $50 BGA resoldering at unofficial local repair shop and that its possible to get a new replacement HD 6750M chip from AliExpress for $35 or cheaper ( http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-2...0028-216-0810028-BGA-Chipset/32764872143.html or https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-2015-New-216-0810001-216-0810001-Graphic-Chipset/32718112928.html , because don't know if this is true - https://www.rossmanngroup.com/board...0604-replace-216-0810005-gpu-with-216-0810028 ) to guarantee a successful repair, so the total price of repair would be either $50 or $50+$35=$85 - less than $100 in any case. But I don't like investing money to the old computers, so I have thought - what if there is some hack to force MBP to use integrated graphics ALL THE TIME, even while booting ? And then started to explore the possible solutions...
===
First of all, it is possible to successfully boot a MBP to OS X while still using the failed GPU, after you remove the AMD drivers by booting in command line mode (CMD+S) and entering these commands:
1) fsck -fy (to check a disk)
2) mount -uw / (mount a root filesystem with read/write permissions)
3) sudo mkdir /AMD_Kexts/ (make a directory to store the AMD drivers in case you'll need them in future)
4) sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /AMD_Kexts/ (move the AMD drivers)
5) sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (remove the AMD drivers cache)
6) sudo mkdir /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (just in case OS X will be dumb and will not recreate this directory, I am creating it for OS X)
7) sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/ (to update the timestamps so that new driver caches - without AMD drivers - will be definitely rebuilt)
8) sudo umount / (umount a partition to guarantee that your changes are flushed to it)
9) sudo reboot
The degree of your inconvenience while doing these steps - strongly depends on how heavily a screen's image is distorted in your case. In my case it was even more difficult because the OS X partition became a "read-only" partition (because of too many emergency shutdowns I did while desperately trying to boot OS X with a failed GPU) so I had to remove a hard drive from MacBook Pro and (using a USB to SATA 2.5" adapter taken from my portable HDD) attached it to a computer with Linux, then followed these instructions:
https://superuser.com/questions/961401/mounting-hfs-partition-on-arch-linux (1st answer) - carefully executed a number of commands, calculated a sizelimit for my parition layout, and finally ran sudo mount -t hfsplus -o force,rw,sizelimit=YOURNUMBER /dev/sdb2 /mnt to mount this HFS+ partition to /mnt directory in read-write mode. Then I performed these "1)-7)" steps you see above, and also repaired a filesystem by running sudo fsck.hfsplus -f /dev/sdb2 before unmounting a partition with sudo umount /mnt and putting a hard drive back to MBP...
===
This gave me a MBP which could boot to OS X although STILL using a broken AMD GPU: so it screen's image is very distorted (could browse the Internet but quite inconvenient to read a text), Launchpad is super laggy, and you can't switch to Integrated GPU using gfxCardStatus because: without AMD drivers (which we had to remove to successfully boot to OS X) Macbook Pro thinks its' internal screen is External Display and gfxCardStatus tells it is impossible to switch because External Display is using AMD GPU. Somewhere I found a suggestion that it is possible to rebuild a gfxCardStatus from the source code - https://github.com/codykrieger/gfxCardStatus - with removed or commented out 156-166 lines in the ./gfxCardStatus/Classes/GSProcess.m to make it to ignore the external display:
// find out if an external monitor is forcing the discrete gpu on
CGDirectDisplayID displays[8];
CGDisplayCount displayCount = 0;
if (CGGetOnlineDisplayList(8, displays, &displayCount) == noErr) {
for (int i = 0; i < displayCount; i++) {
if ( ! CGDisplayIsBuiltin(displays))
[list addObject:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
Str(@"External Display"), kTaskItemName,
@"", kTaskItemPID, nil]];
}
}
So I rebuilt a gfxCardStatus using the instructions from the last reply of this issue -
https://github.com/codykrieger/gfxCardStatus/issues/229
(also had to download a MacOSX10.11.sdk from here - https://github.com/phracker/MacOSX-SDKs/releases - unpack and copy it to XCode's /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.11.sdk - because of the Apple's stupidity the latest XCode for El Capitan does not include SDK for El Capitan!) However, it still didn't work - gfxCardStatus only pretended that it has switched to Integrated GPU, while in reality OS X did not let it switch! Even after I edited ./gfxCardStatus/Classes/GSGPU.m file to enable the mysterious "Nuke it from orbit switching" option, it still couldn't switch...
===
Then I discovered this interesting repository - https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch - which is partially similar by its' source code to gfxCardStatus but also has the "Login Hooks" (install_hooks.sh) to "automate the switching process for login/logout". Sadly it didn't work for me... However, there is a very interesting gpu-switch text file right at the root of this repository, which describes the EFI variables!
https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/blob/master/gpu-switch
After studying it and also reading this issue's comments - https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/issues/11 - I became confident to try this solution, but found out that my MacBook Pro 2011 8,2 with OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 is in a VERY problematic situation:
1) rEFInd is not installed, and to install it - must disable SIP protection. But I cannot boot to Recovery mode (Command+Option+R) or to OS X Installation DVD/USB (hold Option), (to disable SIP), because they freeze while booting! - although I removed AMD kexts from my system, of course these recovery tools are using AMD kexts integrated to their design. Also cannot use Rootfool hack ( https://github.com/gdbinit/rootfool ) to disable SIP during runtime, because it works only at OS X version older than 10.11.4
2) Tried overheating my Macbook Pro on purpose (forcing CPU usage to 100% and putting it to a tightly closed bag) to force it to shutdown from overheating and then quickly reboot so that Integrated graphics will be enabled during the boot time - making it possible to boot to Recovery. But because of the wonderful high end thermal paste I have applied not so long ago - cannot overheat it even after waiting for a long time! At this point I thought that could either: a) remove AMD kexts from Installation media, or b) to connect MBP's hard drive to a Linux machine again and run a bunch of chmods to remove the SIP flags from the directories mentioned here ( http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/193368/what-is-the-rootless-feature-in-el-capitan-really ) which could potentially make a system unbootable, or c) to try installing rEFInd to HFS+ partition directly from a Linux machine with root rights because it will bypass SIP --- but have not explored these options, although some of them might have worked...
3) Wanted to boot a Linux LiveCD to edit the EFI variables from there, but no matter what I did: tried booting straight without GRUB option modifications, tried editing GRUB boot options (with "e" key) to add nomodeset / remove quiet splash / or both in every combination , or like suggested in this article ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro8,1/8,2/8,3_(2011) ) also add i915.modeset=0 radeon.modeset=0 or radeon.modeset=0 i915.modeset=1 i915.lvds_channel_mode=2 ; and then pressed Fn+F10 or Shift+Ctrl+Fn+F10 to boot with these options: but the Linux boot process always failed at different boot stages, no matter what popular user-friendly Linux distribution or what version of it I am trying: tried many releases of Ubuntu / Lubuntu / Fedora , even the old "AMD64 Mac" and "Alternate AMD64 Mac" images, but they always failed - either at the very beginning of boot process (black screen, or a black screen with a blinking or stuck _ character at the left upper corner) or failed at the very end of it - right before it is supposed to show a graphical desktop environment...
Later, totoe_84 wrote that he was able to boot Ubuntu in graphical mode using the following setup for GRUB:
- To disable the AMD graphics card I added the following lines after set gfxpayload=keep
outb 0x728 1
outb 0x710 2
outb 0x740 2
outb 0x750 0(based on https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2157775 )
- Next I added the following after quiet splash
i915.lvds_channel_mode=2 i915.modeset=1 i915.lvds_use_ssc=0
===
Then I remembered that there are not-mainstream Linux distributions for advanced users, which have a LiveCD without any graphical interface: you are dropped to a pure console and you are supposed to install the system along with only those graphical interfaces and software packages / groups of packages which you explicitly select. For example: Arch Linux (https://www.archlinux.org/) and Gentoo Linux (https://gentoo.org/) . Because their LiveCD does not have a graphical interface, they could be booted without a problem to a pure Linux console and there you could edit the EFI variables ! So here is a...
===
=== 100% WORKING SOLUTION
===
=== Force your MBP to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)
===
=== to make it great again !
===
1) Create the Arch Linux LiveCD/LiveUSB :
You need a working computer for that and a spare CD/DVD/USB drive. After downloading archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso (see the links below) you have to check the integrity of the .ISO file to see if it is not corrupted (avoid I/O error, printf: not found, chattr: not found, etc). After checking the integrity of archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso and everything is OK, then you can generate an ArchLinux boot disk.
archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
MD5:
1d25235e7cebe45f93452fbc05a0fb66 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
SHA1
f426866ca632a35a3eeae8e4080cff25ec8da614 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Official website ArchLinux (only Torrent) - See MD5 and SHA1 hash numbers:
https://www.archlinux.org/releng/releases/2017.03.01/
The MD5 and SHA1 of the official ArchLinux website are the same as the mirrors Virtapi.org and Belnet.be. The archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso on Virtapi.org and Belnet.be are legitimate.
Virtapi.org:
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/md5sums.txt
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/sha1sums.txt
Belnet:
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/md5sums.txt
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/sha1sums.txt
Check for archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso integrity (Mac OS):
Boot in Safe Mode (press SHIFT key at boot) -> no freeze Mac OS -> El Capitan or Sierra.
HighSierra maybe freeze at boot time (Safe Mode). There were changes in the HighSierra in relation to the AMD kexts loaded during the Safe Mode. More tests are needed.
File downloaded -> /Users/Your_User/Downloads/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal:
MD5:
Code:cd Downloads/ md5 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso MD5 (archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso) = 1d25235e7cebe45f93452fbc05a0fb66
SHA1:
Code:cd Downloads/ shasum archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso f426866ca632a35a3eeae8e4080cff25ec8da614 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Or try the simplest way - No needed ArchLinux - Only MacOS:
1 - Boot Single User (press Command + S) at boot (If you have MacOS installed on your hard drive).
2 - If you have a blank HD, then use the USB stick/Pendrive with the MacOS installer (El Capitan, Sierra or HighSierra).
2.1 - Press Option key at boot, Position the mouse on the MacOS installer icon.
2.2 - Press Command + S and keep holding these two keys.
2.3 - Click the MacOS installer icon -> continue holding the Command + S keys until you finish the MacOS installer Single User boot .
Enter these commands (change gpu-power-prefs to Intel GPU and boot verbose):
Code:nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00 nvram boot-args="-v" reboot
If you've chosen the Arch Linux route, please continue reading:
Then you could either simply burn this ISO to CD/DVD (which later could be either inserted to MBP's SuperDrive or External DVD Drive connected to MBP by two USB cables) or create a bootable USB: use the great detailed instructions from this page, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_flash_installation_media
2) Boot to it: insert this CD/DVD/USB to Macbook Pro, hold Option key while booting, choose "EFI boot" (that is your bootable installation media), press "e" key to edit the GRUB options of the Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI CD menu entry while it is selected at the main screen, add nomodeset to the end of this line and press Enter. If everything is done correctly, you will find yourself at the Linux console!
3) Edit EFI vars: looks like efivarfs filesystem is mounted by default! So you can already cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars and ls to explore this directory and see if there is a "gpu-power-prefs-..." variable (where ... is UUID of this variable). If there is such a variable, its better to remove it with rm. In my case the efivarfs has been mounted by default with read/write permissions, but if you are getting the "operation not permitted" message while attempting to rm, it means that in your case efivarfs has been mounted as read-only and you need to remount it with read-write permissions and try again (credits to totoe_84 for this valuable addition) :
*) cd /
*) umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
*) mount -t efivarfs rw /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
*) cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
If your screen is so distorted that it is difficult to see the letters, just start typing the rm gpu-power-pre and then press TAB key for autocompletion. In my case there were not such a EFI variable, only "gpu-active-..." and maybe somehow related "gfx-saved-config-restore-status-..." . Then I looked again at that gpu-switch text file (mentioned above, https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/blob/master/gpu-switch),
and entered THESE COMMANDS:
*) chattr -i "/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/" <----- skip this command
Actually a gpu-switch script had "${sysfs_efi_vars}/${efi_gpu}" but I didnt have a "gpu-power-prefs-..." variable - so, partially by mistake, I didn't add that efi_gpu suffix and entered this incomplete path accidentally
*) printf "\x07\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9
Did not have a EFI "gpu-power-prefs-" variable so I thought that it will be OK to create a new one with a random UUID - in this case, taken directly from a gpu-switch script
*) chattr +i "/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9"
http://www.tecmint.com/chattr-command-examples/ - chattr (Change Attribute) is a command line Linux utility that is used to set/unset certain attributes to a file in Linux system to secure accidental deletion or modification of important files and folders, even though you are logged in as a root user.
...
Syntax of chattr ---> chattr [operator] [flags] [filename]
...
A file is set with ‘i‘ attribute (+i as you see in this command) ---> cannot be modified (immutable). Means no renaming, no symbolic link creation, no execution, no writable, only superuser can unset the attribute.
...
Operator
This chattr command is supposed to lock a file to make it accessible only by "superuser" - and so that, while booting, your EFI will have no chance to screw up your gpu-power-prefs-... variable under any circumstances
- + : Adds the attribute to the existing attribute of the files.
- – : Removes the attribute to the existing attribute of the files.
- = : Keep the existing attributes that the files have.
*) cd /
Could not unmount efivars if you are inside this directory, so change to the root directory
*) umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
Guarantees that your EFI variables are flushed to efivarfs filesystem, please unmount it safely before rebooting)
*) reboot
===> IF YOU DID EVERYTHING CORRECTLY, MOST LIKELY THAT YOUR MACBOOK PRO IS NOW USING INTEGRATED GRAPHICS WHILE BOOTING, AFTER BOOTING, AND IS WORKING GREAT AGAIN !
In the future maybe you could need to re-apply this solution if you would have to reset your PRAM / NVRAM / SMC because of some other problems, so remember this solution somewhere... Funny thing: now you can't switch to Discrete GPU even using gfxCardStatus, it is forever stuck at Integrated
I spent two working days to discover this solution, and really hope that it will work flawlessly for every MBP owner with a broken discrete GPU. Good luck!
=== NEWS ! YOU COULD ALSO FOLLOW THESE GUIDES FOR THE EXTRA IMPROVEMENTS : ===
Follow the MikeyN Guide - page 35 - #875 - to move the AMDRadeonX3000.kext from the /System/Library/Extensions directory and do not freeze Macbook Pro (at 75% progress bar or "IOConsoleUsers: gIOScreenLockState 3" message).
Rename old AMDRadeonX3000.kext and move new AMDRadeonX3000.kext after update - Page 57 - #1425
Shutdown or Restart Macbook Pro - avoid black screen freeze - Update 2 - Page 57 - #1425
Close the Lid - Sleep - Waking - Page 43 #1066 - Page 50 #1243
Thank you AppleMacfinder, my 2011 MBP has come back to a useful mode! I used the "simplest way" to get it up and running. The problem I now have is that Photos will not open, freezes and I have restart the computer. Nothing I do will open Photos. Any suggestions?
Did you forget your EFI password?
Does the Single User Mode (Command + S at boot) ask for the EFI password?
With the Single User Mode you can reset the gpu-power-prefs to Intel GPU and enter Recovery Modee (Graphical - Command + R at boot) and run EFI utility.
I think in the Recovery Mode - EFI utility - your EFI password will be asked to reset.
If you do not ask for the EFI password, then it's a major security flaw from Apple. Anyone (thief) could reset your EFI.
https://www.cnet.com/news/efi-firmware-protection-locks-down-newer-macs/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/efi-reset-tool.1648075/
Last edited:
That article is from 2012. The Early 2011 MBPs were made before that. Mine did not have anything protecting the EFI, the command line method was pretty easy other than checking the hex code to make sure it was exactly right 3 times.
Hi,
I do the simple way:
nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00
nvram boot-args="-v"
reboot
but when the apple appears nothing more happens. The bar is empty and after minutes remains empty.
Is there any way to revert this commands?
I tried the RealMacMods steps but now the mac only boot in safe mode.
I think is because I did this commands before try the RealMacMods mode.
Thanks
I do the simple way:
nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00
nvram boot-args="-v"
reboot
but when the apple appears nothing more happens. The bar is empty and after minutes remains empty.
Is there any way to revert this commands?
I tried the RealMacMods steps but now the mac only boot in safe mode.
I think is because I did this commands before try the RealMacMods mode.
Thanks
The article is from 2012 but it does reference to 2011.
"These fallbacks made the Mac's firmware password almost laughable as a security measure, but this has changed with newer Mac systems. Starting in 2011, users began finding they could no longer reset their firmware passwords simply by modifying the hardware configuration. ".
https://www.cnet.com/news/efi-firmware-protection-locks-down-newer-macs/
I also used the simple way to disable my dGPU, and photo's works just fine on my MacBook Pro...
are you on High Sierra?
Hello fella's; i stumbled upon your thread with regard to the AMD/Intel retargetting after a quote, professional mac repair facility, unquote.....told me that my motherboard was junk because of the blown AMD onboard graphics card and would cost around 500 to fix; or that he would be happy to take my mac off my hands for 150 as it was junk!......i kindly thanked him; then came home to do a deep dive online where i stumbled upon your article........my question for you collectively; is.......i get to the point of "mkdir backup".....and it tells me that the directory already exists......so i move forward and try to move the AMDRadeonX3000.kext file to it......it sets it up then asks me for a yes or no prompt.......when i tell it Y.....the system replies with "operation not permitted".........couple of questions.......is there a way to remove the contents of the directory created with the command "mkdir backup".....so as to start fresh if you will.....and also.......why am i getting "operation not permitted" when trying to mv kext's to the backup dir.???? Thank's a million guy's......i am not a super user; i am merely following your directions; and obviously am at a loss if i don't get the result that you describe..... : )
,
,
You have some options.
Linux mod is possible if you install it on your primary HD. You'll want to remove your MacOS HD and use another computer to make a clone of it first, so you could clone it back once the procedure is complete. Then what you do is delete its content and install Linux plus the mod and reconnect it and boot up, and then remove PW via RecoveryOS once the NVRAM string does its thing. (if you get stuck, a comment by DrAmsterdam on this article is worth a read)
An quicker option if you have access to a heat gun (or a hair dryer) would be to apply heat directly to the GPU after removingthe heatsink for about 10-15 minutes. I tried this solution on mine once and it made the laptop bootable long enough to startup normally and force iGPU using gfxCardStatus, and then run the sudo nvram command using Terminal.
Another potential solution would be to hook up an external mouse and keyboard and boot up RecoveryOS (command+R) and then enter password. Wait for a couple of minutes after gray screen. Press enter. Move mouse all the way to the top left corner and then click once, and the press the left arrow botton twice and up arrow botton once and press enter. This should start Terminal, which makes entering the NVRAM command possible and then rebooting via the command reboot.
I've tried the method above after my laptop screen became pitch black like it normally does when booting up without the nvram iGPU fix, and it works via an external keyboard but not the laptop keyboard for some reason. Mind you, I'm using MacOS Sierra so I'm not sure if the RecoveryOS has the same layout for accessing Terminal, you may have to figure out if it's the same on HS for yourself if you decide to give this method a try.
Last-ditch solution is to take the computer to Apple with proof of purchase and ask them to remove firmware password for you.
[doublepost=1538923033][/doublepost]
Please see if suggestion above works for you.
"An quicker option if you have access to a heat gun (or a hair dryer) would be to apply heat directly to the GPU after removingthe heatsink for about 10-15 minutes. I tried this solution on mine once and it made the laptop bootable long enough to startup normally and force iGPU using gfxCardStatus, and then run the sudo nvram command using Terminal."
If it does, you may enter nvram command using Terminal via RecoveryOS.
[doublepost=1538923202][/doublepost]
try entering the following using terminal and redo the procedure
sudo nvram boot-args="rootless=0"; sudo reboot
once the procedure is complete type
sudo nvram boot-args=""; sudo reboot
Many thanks to AppleMacFinder, FGuarini and all who have contributed to this thread.
Friday evening my trusty early 2011 15” Macbook Pro went “dead before my eyes". Reboots would get halfway, go to a white screen and start to endlessly reboot.
This couldn’t have happened at worse time in Apple’s upgrade cycle for me. Apple no longer makes a Macbook Pro that interests me. And rumors are that Apple will introduce new iMacs and Mac Mini “real soon now”.
After following the clear instructions in FGuarini’s post, my MBP is back running with the “internal” graphics
It’s not as swift as it used to be. But then, neither am I.
FWIW I had to go through the procedure twice. I removed those pesky AMD_kexts the 2nd time. And since my HDD is partitioned I went straight to cd /Volumes/…, mkdir etc.
GetRealBro
Friday evening my trusty early 2011 15” Macbook Pro went “dead before my eyes". Reboots would get halfway, go to a white screen and start to endlessly reboot.
This couldn’t have happened at worse time in Apple’s upgrade cycle for me. Apple no longer makes a Macbook Pro that interests me. And rumors are that Apple will introduce new iMacs and Mac Mini “real soon now”.
After following the clear instructions in FGuarini’s post, my MBP is back running with the “internal” graphics
It’s not as swift as it used to be. But then, neither am I.FWIW I had to go through the procedure twice. I removed those pesky AMD_kexts the 2nd time. And since my HDD is partitioned I went straight to cd /Volumes/…, mkdir etc.
GetRealBro
i've just hardware disabled the gpu, is there any way to get the brightness controls working?
Do i really need more modding? Because brightness control in Linux works fine. Sleep and wake of the display too, even though i didn't do the mod to make that work.
It is physically impossible for brightness control to work if you did a hardware dGPU bypass... To be clear, you did the process outlined here?
If you don't have time to read my story (which also describes some interesting technical approaches) just scroll down this thread until a "100% WORKING SOLUTION" text
Discrete AMD GPU of my 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 has finally failed because of the reasons mentioned here ( http://logicboardmac.blogspot.ru/ ) and there ( https://www.macrumors.com/2015/02/19/2011-macbook-pro-repair-program-apple/ ) . It has been working perfectly for 6 years under quite a high load, even tried SETI@HOME mining at background! So I was confident that my MBP is not affected by bad solder / bad soldering quality and didn't want to bring it to Apple for a free repair program - partially because couldn't find the time to pause my important software projects, partially because I was afraid that Apple might give me a less reliable logic board or refuse a free repair because of the several unrelated repairs that I did manually by myself earlier to save money: changed thermal paste a few times, replaced the internal battery 2 times, replaced a keyboard with broken buttons, etc. But it finally broke down last week: laptop's screen image became distorted, it refused to boot OS X (always freezing half-way), and - Apple free repair program has already ended! I know there are affordable solutions like $50 BGA resoldering at unofficial local repair shop and that its possible to get a new replacement HD 6750M chip from AliExpress for $35 or cheaper ( http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-2...0028-216-0810028-BGA-Chipset/32764872143.html or https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-2015-New-216-0810001-216-0810001-Graphic-Chipset/32718112928.html , because don't know if this is true - https://www.rossmanngroup.com/board...0604-replace-216-0810005-gpu-with-216-0810028 ) to guarantee a successful repair, so the total price of repair would be either $50 or $50+$35=$85 - less than $100 in any case. But I don't like investing money to the old computers, so I have thought - what if there is some hack to force MBP to use integrated graphics ALL THE TIME, even while booting ? And then started to explore the possible solutions...
===
=== 100% WORKING SOLUTION
===
=== Force your MBP to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)
===
=== to make it great again !
===
1) Create the Arch Linux LiveCD/LiveUSB :
You need a working computer for that and a spare CD/DVD/USB drive. After downloading archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso (see the links below) you have to check the integrity of the .ISO file to see if it is not corrupted (avoid I/O error, printf: not found, chattr: not found, etc). After checking the integrity of archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso and everything is OK, then you can generate an ArchLinux boot disk.
archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
MD5:
1d25235e7cebe45f93452fbc05a0fb66 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
SHA1
f426866ca632a35a3eeae8e4080cff25ec8da614 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Official website ArchLinux (only Torrent) - See MD5 and SHA1 hash numbers:
https://www.archlinux.org/releng/releases/2017.03.01/
The MD5 and SHA1 of the official ArchLinux website are the same as the mirrors Virtapi.org and Belnet.be. The archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso on Virtapi.org and Belnet.be are legitimate.
Virtapi.org:
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/md5sums.txt
http://archive.virtapi.org/iso/2017.03.01/sha1sums.txt
Belnet:
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/md5sums.txt
http://ftp.belnet.be/pub/archlinux.org/iso/2017.03.01/sha1sums.txt
Check for archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso integrity (Mac OS):
Boot in Safe Mode (press SHIFT key at boot) -> no freeze Mac OS -> El Capitan or Sierra.
HighSierra maybe freeze at boot time (Safe Mode). There were changes in the HighSierra in relation to the AMD kexts loaded during the Safe Mode. More tests are needed.
File downloaded -> /Users/Your_User/Downloads/archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal:
MD5:
Code:cd Downloads/ md5 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso MD5 (archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso) = 1d25235e7cebe45f93452fbc05a0fb66
SHA1:
Code:cd Downloads/ shasum archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso f426866ca632a35a3eeae8e4080cff25ec8da614 archlinux-2017.03.01-dual.iso
Or try the simplest way - No needed ArchLinux - Only MacOS:
1 - Boot Single User (press Command + S) at boot (If you have MacOS installed on your hard drive).
2 - If you have a blank HD, then use the USB stick/Pendrive with the MacOS installer (El Capitan, Sierra or HighSierra).
2.1 - Press Option key at boot, Position the mouse on the MacOS installer icon.
2.2 - Press Command + S and keep holding these two keys.
2.3 - Click the MacOS installer icon -> continue holding the Command + S keys until you finish the MacOS installer Single User boot .
Enter these commands (change gpu-power-prefs to Intel GPU and boot verbose):
Code:nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00 nvram boot-args="-v" reboot
If you've chosen the Arch Linux route, please continue reading:
Then you could either simply burn this ISO to CD/DVD (which later could be either inserted to MBP's SuperDrive or External DVD Drive connected to MBP by two USB cables) or create a bootable USB: use the great detailed instructions from this page, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_flash_installation_media
2) Boot to it: insert this CD/DVD/USB to Macbook Pro, hold Option key while booting, choose "EFI boot" (that is your bootable installation media), press "e" key to edit the GRUB options of the Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI CD menu entry while it is selected at the main screen, add nomodeset to the end of this line and press Enter. If everything is done correctly, you will find yourself at the Linux console!
3) Edit EFI vars: looks like efivarfs filesystem is mounted by default! So you can already cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars and ls to explore this directory and see if there is a "gpu-power-prefs-..." variable (where ... is UUID of this variable). If there is such a variable, its better to remove it with rm. In my case the efivarfs has been mounted by default with read/write permissions, but if you are getting the "operation not permitted" message while attempting to rm, it means that in your case efivarfs has been mounted as read-only and you need to remount it with read-write permissions and try again (credits to totoe_84 for this valuable addition) :
*) cd /
*) umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
*) mount -t efivarfs rw /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
*) cd /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
If your screen is so distorted that it is difficult to see the letters, just start typing the rm gpu-power-pre and then press TAB key for autocompletion. In my case there were not such a EFI variable, only "gpu-active-..." and maybe somehow related "gfx-saved-config-restore-status-..." . Then I looked again at that gpu-switch text file (mentioned above, https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch/blob/master/gpu-switch),
and entered THESE COMMANDS:
*) chattr -i "/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/" <----- skip this command
Actually a gpu-switch script had "${sysfs_efi_vars}/${efi_gpu}" but I didnt have a "gpu-power-prefs-..." variable - so, partially by mistake, I didn't add that efi_gpu suffix and entered this incomplete path accidentally
*) printf "\x07\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00" > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9
Did not have a EFI "gpu-power-prefs-" variable so I thought that it will be OK to create a new one with a random UUID - in this case, taken directly from a gpu-switch script
*) chattr +i "/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9"
http://www.tecmint.com/chattr-command-examples/ - chattr (Change Attribute) is a command line Linux utility that is used to set/unset certain attributes to a file in Linux system to secure accidental deletion or modification of important files and folders, even though you are logged in as a root user.
...
Syntax of chattr ---> chattr [operator] [flags] [filename]
...
A file is set with ‘i‘ attribute (+i as you see in this command) ---> cannot be modified (immutable). Means no renaming, no symbolic link creation, no execution, no writable, only superuser can unset the attribute.
...
Operator
This chattr command is supposed to lock a file to make it accessible only by "superuser" - and so that, while booting, your EFI will have no chance to screw up your gpu-power-prefs-... variable under any circumstances
- + : Adds the attribute to the existing attribute of the files.
- – : Removes the attribute to the existing attribute of the files.
- = : Keep the existing attributes that the files have.
*) cd /
Could not unmount efivars if you are inside this directory, so change to the root directory
*) umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
Guarantees that your EFI variables are flushed to efivarfs filesystem, please unmount it safely before rebooting)
*) reboot
===> IF YOU DID EVERYTHING CORRECTLY, MOST LIKELY THAT YOUR MACBOOK PRO IS NOW USING INTEGRATED GRAPHICS WHILE BOOTING, AFTER BOOTING, AND IS WORKING GREAT AGAIN !
In the future maybe you could need to re-apply this solution if you would have to reset your PRAM / NVRAM / SMC because of some other problems, so remember this solution somewhere... Funny thing: now you can't switch to Discrete GPU even using gfxCardStatus, it is forever stuck at Integrated
I spent two working days to discover this solution, and really hope that it will work flawlessly for every MBP owner with a broken discrete GPU. Good luck!
=== NEWS ! YOU COULD ALSO FOLLOW THESE GUIDES FOR THE EXTRA IMPROVEMENTS : ===
Follow the MikeyN Guide - page 35 - #875 - to move the AMDRadeonX3000.kext from the /System/Library/Extensions directory and do not freeze Macbook Pro (at 75% progress bar or "IOConsoleUsers: gIOScreenLockState 3" message).
Rename old AMDRadeonX3000.kext and move new AMDRadeonX3000.kext after update - Page 57 - #1425
Shutdown or Restart Macbook Pro - avoid black screen freeze - Update 2 - Page 57 - #1425
Close the Lid - Sleep - Waking - Page 43 #1066 - Page 50 #1243
Hi, I've been doing this disabling GPU permanently trick for almost a year and works just fine. and i never do any update since it takes me alot of energy to do these all instructions.
My question is: is it safe to update my macos to latest hi sierra or even to mojave? or it will erase all my kext setting and make my broken gpu appears again, and i have to do all the process all over again from the begining which i highly avoid it.
Sorry if this question been asked before, since i cant find this question somewhere else.
Last edited:
i did this: https://realmacmods.com/macbook-2011-radeon-gpu-disable/
i didn't do the additional step for high sierra.
If you've been doing it for almost a year, and works just fine, why update??
Just stay where you are and enjoy
Thanks for your kind writup help, NeroWolfe19.
To recap for those that drop in, I was complaining about difficulties regaining control over the Macbook early 2011 after an involuntary upgrade to latest High Sierra in combination of an EFI password:
What was done:
-EFI software mod to disable the AMD graphics board
-set password "to protect the mod" (did remember the password)
-somehow High Sierra updated to latest 10.13.6 and did something that looks like "the oposite" of the software mod: make AMD enabled all the time or preferably as quickly as possible.
Due to the bios / EFI password resetting Nvram and single user mode etc are ignored.
No way to get to the Utility that lets us remove the password, then reset the Nvram to re-apply the software mod and get rid of High Sierra.
Followed DrAmsterdam in above link with 2. USB sticks at hand and hopeful.
Fedora boot from USB gives 3 options that don't work:
-Fedora Media (ends in folder with question mark, grey background) ,
-EFI Boot (command line scrolling , graphics get corrupted fast, fade and finally hang so it is probably running on AMD) ,
-EFI Boot (same).
Ubuntu gives 2 options:
-EFI boot and
-EFI boot.
Both offer try or install Ubuntu.
Hangs on complaining about "modsign couldn't get UEFI db list".
Did not try yet. Would have to look up what exactly happens during this process for better understanding of what am I doing.
Am I correct that assuming that heating the AMD makes the computer ignore it due to thermal alert and move to use the intel 3000 instead untill the AMD revives?
Yes I tried it without success.
The high Sierra combo to blindly reach the terminal from recovery would be:
-enter once for language select
-move cursor to upper left
-left click once
-arrow 4 times to the right
-arrow 3 times to the bottom
-enter
But it did not work, display stays gray.
That would be a defeat but I think it is possibly the easiest solution at this point.
[doublepost=1538923033][/doublepost]
Please see if suggestion above works for you.
-->> So far not but will stay trying.., thanks for the suggestions!
To recap for those that drop in, I was complaining about difficulties regaining control over the Macbook early 2011 after an involuntary upgrade to latest High Sierra in combination of an EFI password:
What was done:
-EFI software mod to disable the AMD graphics board
-set password "to protect the mod" (did remember the password)
-somehow High Sierra updated to latest 10.13.6 and did something that looks like "the oposite" of the software mod: make AMD enabled all the time or preferably as quickly as possible.
Due to the bios / EFI password resetting Nvram and single user mode etc are ignored.
No way to get to the Utility that lets us remove the password, then reset the Nvram to re-apply the software mod and get rid of High Sierra.
Followed DrAmsterdam in above link with 2. USB sticks at hand and hopeful.
Fedora boot from USB gives 3 options that don't work:
-Fedora Media (ends in folder with question mark, grey background) ,
-EFI Boot (command line scrolling , graphics get corrupted fast, fade and finally hang so it is probably running on AMD) ,
-EFI Boot (same).
Ubuntu gives 2 options:
-EFI boot and
-EFI boot.
Both offer try or install Ubuntu.
Hangs on complaining about "modsign couldn't get UEFI db list".
Did not try yet. Would have to look up what exactly happens during this process for better understanding of what am I doing.
Am I correct that assuming that heating the AMD makes the computer ignore it due to thermal alert and move to use the intel 3000 instead untill the AMD revives?
Yes I tried it without success.
The high Sierra combo to blindly reach the terminal from recovery would be:
-enter once for language select
-move cursor to upper left
-left click once
-arrow 4 times to the right
-arrow 3 times to the bottom
-enter
But it did not work, display stays gray.
That would be a defeat but I think it is possibly the easiest solution at this point.
[doublepost=1538923033][/doublepost]
Please see if suggestion above works for you.
-->> So far not but will stay trying.., thanks for the suggestions!