How to update Yosemite with GTX 980

[Ethosik]

So I ordered a EVGA GTX 980 that I would like to use in my Mac Pro. From other topics around here, it appears that I would need to have the NVIDIA drivers in order to use it. However, every time a update is available 10.10.x, the web drivers no longer work and you need to download new ones.

How can I download new ones for the OS X update if I cannot see the screen? Do I have to remove my 980 and replace it after every update?

Hopefully it will be included in OS X soon like the 680 was.

Thanks.

 

[omvs]

You might be able to enable screen sharing and then log from another mac to fix the drivers. I did this when I disabled my drivers accidentally through a PRAM reset - had already had screen sharing setup, and my macbook was able to connect just fine. Switched drivers back, rebooted, and all was good.

If you've got MVC's flashed card, you can boot into single user mode and apparently do the driver install. Looking forward to him having the EFI for 970 so I can use that method instead.

I wouldn't expect native drivers until either a mac ships with a 9xx card, or maybe 10.11. Neither of those seem too likely in the immediate future.

 

[Ethosik]

Screen sharing sounds like a nice idea.

Do I have to be logged in already on the Mac Pro before I can screen share? If so, I will need to enable auto login?

How does it work? I have never used it before.

 

[omvs]

I don't think you need to be logged in - pretty sure it will work from the normal login too (but not filevault login, since thats before the OS comes up)

Go into Sharing control panel, turn on screen sharing. Other macs on the network should now show the computer on the sidebar, and you can click on it and then hit screensharing. If you want to do access outside your network, you can do that by activating Back to my Mac under the icloud preferences, but not needed for this use.

Actually, you can also do this trick with a windows machine rather than a different mac -- under screen sharing hit Computer Settings and then turn on the "VNC viewers may control screen with password", put in a password, and then a vnc client can connect. However, the vnc connection is slower and less secure than the native mac client.

 

[Ethosik]

So I will be able to screen share and get the drivers installed from a second computer? That does not use the graphics hardware?

 

[matthewtoney]

You might be able to enable screen sharing and then log from another mac to fix the drivers. I did this when I disabled my drivers accidentally through a PRAM reset - had already had screen sharing setup, and my macbook was able to connect just fine. Switched drivers back, rebooted, and all was good.

If you've got MVC's flashed card, you can boot into single user mode and apparently do the driver install. Looking forward to him having the EFI for 970 so I can use that method instead.

I wouldn't expect native drivers until either a mac ships with a 9xx card, or maybe 10.11. Neither of those seem too likely in the immediate future.

This is an awesome way to deal with it - gonna enable that on mine since I'm about to put a 970 in it. I use that on a Mac Mini in the closet all the time but hadn't thought of that solution.

 

[omvs]

So I will be able to screen share and get the drivers installed from a second computer? That does not use the graphics hardware?

Yes, I believe so. When my pro booted without the drivers, it screen-shared a low-res single display rather than the dual high res screens I normally get, so I think it goes into a headless mode in this case.

You'll have to try it to be sure though - have a spare compatible card handy just in case. I upgraded to 10.2 before I thought of the screensharing trick, so I had to swap in my old 680 first. Maybe next public beta i'll give this a shot, though there always seems to be some lag on the public betas and functional web drivers.