Cuda - could you be a bit more explicit about how one would load a "rom from a drive in the shell". Please could we have idiot guide for people like me? In the last few weeks fiddling with injectors it took me ages to figure out what incantations were implicit it remarks like: "repair the kext permissions and you're done", or "just modify the PCI ID settings in the plist". My PhD was in math, not CS.
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PCs GTX285/275/260/295 working in any MacPro....
- Thread starter netkas
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install refit, go into efi shell then, with help of refit
in efi shell, go to folder with rom inside
loadpcirom blahblahblah.rom
id nothing happens - try also
reconnect -r
ok;
refit.sourceforge.net is not responding right now so will try later.
edit: refit loaded. Auto install did not work, but manual running ./enable.sh did
Now got pretty icons on start up. Well at least that is better than the <alt> thing!
Taking deep breath....
refit.sourceforge.net is not responding right now so will try later.
edit: refit loaded. Auto install did not work, but manual running ./enable.sh did
Now got pretty icons on start up. Well at least that is better than the <alt> thing!
Taking deep breath....
another combo for the list
Been lurking and just wanted to let everyone know I was able to get my PC EVGA GTX 285 1 gig card working in my 2009 2x2.26 Mac Pro, using the OEM Mac GT 120 as the "EFI capable" card.
The EVGA card I have is the one that mirrors the stats for the Mac GTX 285.
It is shown here: EVGA 01G-P3-1180-AR GeForce GTX 285
I used Netkas' method and injector. Was getting kernel panics at first, but remembered Netkas mentioning in a previous post that the location of the cards might be important. Switched my cards so the GT120 was in Slot 1, and the GTX 285 in slot 2. Booted up fine after that.
Benchmarks in Xbench and timedemos for L4D under Vista32 show expected improvements. Card is quieter than the XFX ATI 4870 it replaced.
Only issue I noticed is - under OS X the VRAM is being reported as 512MB and not 1024MB in System Profiler. Any idea why this is and how I can fix it?
Been lurking and just wanted to let everyone know I was able to get my PC EVGA GTX 285 1 gig card working in my 2009 2x2.26 Mac Pro, using the OEM Mac GT 120 as the "EFI capable" card.
The EVGA card I have is the one that mirrors the stats for the Mac GTX 285.
It is shown here: EVGA 01G-P3-1180-AR GeForce GTX 285
I used Netkas' method and injector. Was getting kernel panics at first, but remembered Netkas mentioning in a previous post that the location of the cards might be important. Switched my cards so the GT120 was in Slot 1, and the GTX 285 in slot 2. Booted up fine after that.
Benchmarks in Xbench and timedemos for L4D under Vista32 show expected improvements. Card is quieter than the XFX ATI 4870 it replaced.
Only issue I noticed is - under OS X the VRAM is being reported as 512MB and not 1024MB in System Profiler. Any idea why this is and how I can fix it?
Attachments
Run opengl extensions viewer and see real vram size on Extensions tab there
this glitch is purely cosmetic, tho you can fix it by changing VRAM,Totalsize value in nvidia section in Info.plist of ATY_Init.kext (little endian value)
OK..your turn to be more explicit. What did you do, and what did it fix?
Type very slowly, my degree is in TV Production.
BTW, was playing around with your "clocking up" issue. Pretty apparent that in Windows, the card JUMPS to 3D clocks the second any 3D program loads. It waits 15 seconds after the program stops and slows down to "medium" level.....10 more seconds and it hits basement speeds. Literally, double clicking on "OGL Viewer" in Windows instantly bangs the speeds up, so issue appears to be entirely due to OSX "trigger" ...as in how a 3D app is viewed by OS as NEEDING the extra oomph.
Sorry, I was not trying to be coy, I just did not know how, and was baiting netkas to let us know, and he did.
I'm a bit scatter brained, happened a few years back when I tried to understand how the NVDA,BMP changed with the Die Shrink of the NV5x( Don't ask, I'll warn you, don't ever ask.)
So, I'm trying to help, but most times, anymore, I'm just no help at all, please forgive
Or another way, to make sure All your VRam is seen and Usable( I say usable, in that when we where working on the Radeon 9100 PCI PPC FCode Rom By JoeVT, it was a 64MB card, at that time, all PCI Radeon cards for the Mac were 32MB, we had trouble using the last 32MB. System would KP if more than 32MB was accessed, all 64MB showed in ASP and such, but you could not use it.)
Anyway, if you have the latest /Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL Driver Monitor.app:
Open it->Monitors Menu->Driver Monitors->Select the Card
When the window opens Click Parameters Radio Button->Current Free Video Memory and Current Video Memory in use.
Now open Safari and Command+N about 100 times as fast as you can, watch OpenGL Driver Monitor.app( Helps to put it on another Screen ).
P.S. I think what we did to the Radeon 9100 was to disable 1 output(DVI) so the Rom I linked to can Only drive VGA, no 2nd display can be used, but all 64MB does now work.
Instead of clarifying things, this acually makes them more muddy.
In place where I would choose which card, I see 2 @ GeForce8XXXgldriver
Nothing changes when I select one or the other, it seems that using the 8800GT to initialize GTX285 makes them appear as one to certain portions of OS.
BTW, nice work on 9100 PCI. I always liked that card, I still have one in my collection. At Strangedogs we used to toss around ideas on "fixing" the few loose ends with it, but never got around to it. We always had MUCH better luck with Nvidia stuff than ATI.
In place where I would choose which card, I see 2 @ GeForce8XXXgldriver
Nothing changes when I select one or the other, it seems that using the 8800GT to initialize GTX285 makes them appear as one to certain portions of OS.
BTW, nice work on 9100 PCI. I always liked that card, I still have one in my collection. At Strangedogs we used to toss around ideas on "fixing" the few loose ends with it, but never got around to it. We always had MUCH better luck with Nvidia stuff than ATI.
Attachments
Thinking of some of the older work we did reminded me of something that maybe relevant, as to the issue of 1 Mac NVDA Card + 1 PC NVDA Card = Success with the Injector.
I was thinking that the EFI Rom / Module was liking to the PC card, and that's why it worked, while ATI + NVidia did not, or NVDA PC with no other cards did not.
BUT THEN, I forgot about the NDRV, I'm now thinking that the EFI ROM is calling the NDRV From where ever Apple/NVidia Moved it in 10.2.x( It was in the /System/Library/Extensions/AppleNDRV before 10.2. something, but when the 5200FX shipped in the G5 they moved it. (I think into the /System/Library/Extensions/NVDAResman.kext)
If we can find the value that calls the NDRV, we may well be able to fix the Injector, so you can boot without another NVDA Mac card at all.
That's my thinking, I could be wrong, and never did find how they changed/moved the NDRV for NVDA Cards.
I was thinking that the EFI Rom / Module was liking to the PC card, and that's why it worked, while ATI + NVidia did not, or NVDA PC with no other cards did not.
BUT THEN, I forgot about the NDRV, I'm now thinking that the EFI ROM is calling the NDRV From where ever Apple/NVidia Moved it in 10.2.x( It was in the /System/Library/Extensions/AppleNDRV before 10.2. something, but when the 5200FX shipped in the G5 they moved it. (I think into the /System/Library/Extensions/NVDAResman.kext)
If we can find the value that calls the NDRV, we may well be able to fix the Injector, so you can boot without another NVDA Mac card at all.
That's my thinking, I could be wrong, and never did find how they changed/moved the NDRV for NVDA Cards.
Both cards use the /System/Library/Extensions/GeForce8xxxGLDriver.bundle
They did not make a new GeForceGTxxxGLDriver.bundle, they just put the code in the 8xxx one( for the GT120/GT130/GT260 ect.)
0 is one card, 1 is the other, use the steps I outlined above to find out.
I does not matter, at this point, as I do not think that VRam is not working correct, but when someone tries a 2GB card, it maybe useful for them to know< and it is the Correct App to use, that's why APPLE MADE IT.
If you want to run with the Pro's, get the right tools( Rominator, I'm not implying your not a Pro, I know well your work, and tip my binary hat to you Sir.)
Sorry....
So netkas told me to do something with refit. I found it and downloaded it. The install from a disk image seemed to work but did NOT produce the promised screen at startup. I went to the manual install instructions on the web and there is a script to run (enable.sh). When I ran that and restarted again I got a lot of pretty icons, including all the usual stuff I get when I hold down the <alt> key to switch between 10.5.7, 10.6Seed, bootcamp, plus this other efi shell thing that netkas wants me to use.
I am just at the point of moving the Mac 285 rom file to a directory where refit can find it, and wondering how I will get this nice startup screen when I only have the PC card in place - maybe refit drives it. Ran out of time and need to do real work now - will try later.
Agree 100% with your powerup/down comment for windows. OS X is very lazy about waking up.
I am stuck in chicken vs egg on this. I have installed refit and with a Mac card in place the refit screen comes up and I can pick one of three OS and refit shell. Fine so far.
If I turn off the Mac 285 and leave only the PC285, and reboot, the screen just stays dark as before - refit does not drive the PC card by itself, so I cannot run the shell and load the rom (which I have moved to the refit folder).
Maybe one can create a script to automate that - but without a Mac card to start off with how would one do it?
Ready to test 32bit ROMs for GTX285
I now have a GTX285 1Gig with a 256K EEPROM chip on it.
I flashed it with Mac EFI rom but as expected on my First Gen I got no boot screen.
Still works with Netkas injector and still requires additional Nvidia card but otherwise functions the same as it did with PC ROM on it.
So if we come up with 32bit ROMs to test, I can do it.
I now have a GTX285 1Gig with a 256K EEPROM chip on it.
I flashed it with Mac EFI rom but as expected on my First Gen I got no boot screen.
Still works with Netkas injector and still requires additional Nvidia card but otherwise functions the same as it did with PC ROM on it.
So if we come up with 32bit ROMs to test, I can do it.
ROM is 156K.
Your card likely has a 128K chip. If you try flashing, you will turn your card into a brick, not easily rescued.
Run NVFLash -C and find out what size EEPROM you have.
Also, at this point I would like to suggest that anyone who flashes a 285GTX make the greatest possible effort to do so on an EVGA board.
This is first time I remember an individual vendor making a card for us. THey should be rewarded. If you make a point of flashing an EVGA board, they still get a sale. (Also...they are more likely to work)
Aside from which, still don't know if this works. Needs to be tested.
Your card likely has a 128K chip. If you try flashing, you will turn your card into a brick, not easily rescued.
Run NVFLash -C and find out what size EEPROM you have.
Also, at this point I would like to suggest that anyone who flashes a 285GTX make the greatest possible effort to do so on an EVGA board.
This is first time I remember an individual vendor making a card for us. THey should be rewarded. If you make a point of flashing an EVGA board, they still get a sale. (Also...they are more likely to work)
Aside from which, still don't know if this works. Needs to be tested.
Agreed. If there are enough sales as a result of this - not terribly likely, but a guy can hope - maybe the other manufacturers will start competing in this market. Support EVGA!
Call me crazy but I don't think we should try to flash PC GTX285 cards. EVGA went out on a limb to bring Mac Users the most powerful single GPU card to the mac, if we flash their PC cards they won't see the sale as a MAC sale and will be less likely to bring future cutting edge cards to the Mac. Besides the difference in price is really NOT that much. Sure it could be useful if you ALREADY have a PC version, but if not, just buy the Mac version and let EVGA and Nvidia know there is a market for such products. Just my 2 cents.
Or they'll come to their senses (as it seems they already partially have) and offer every card with both. Or supply a utility that will convert the card to either system. Remember, in general the market follows the buyers, not the other way around.
There are at least 4 reasons for investigating these ROMS
(i) giving people who have already paid for a PC card, e.g. to work under bootcamp, the chance to make use of them under OS X. We can already do with injectors - the ROM just adds the last layer of compatibility and (perhaps) the ability to use a card in isolation;
(ii) allowing a 06 or 07 Mac Pro to use a card - the current ROM does not support these machines.
(iii) finding out why the released Mac Product does not run at full speed under some circumstances when it should
(iv) allowing some people to save a few quid.
(i) is sales neutral, (ii) is sales +ve; (iii) might well be sales +ve if resolving it is done quickly (iv) will sell a few PC cards at the expense of Mac versions.
The legal question aside (am I am not posting my mac 285 rom to download!) my guess is that these antics are overall neutral.
Yeah, the scary thing is that Nvflash is a SIMPLE DOS program.
It does not check to see if a ROM will fit. It does what you tell it. And trying to put 156K into a chip that holds 128K will get you a simple error message."Error in 256byte page mode programming" (or something that rhymes with that)
At that point it is IMPERATIVE that you flash your original ROM back on the chip BEFORE you reboot. If you do not, a ROM file is on there which starts...has a nice middle.....and then kind of wanders off into nowhere, leading whatever machine is trying to boot with it off into NOPLACE. Mac Pros don't like cards like that and you will typically need to find a PC and then use the right Combo of onboard/PCI/PCIE other card to flash from. I find it helpful to have cards from the OTHER company to use, my cheapo ECS based PC has PCIE, AGP, and PCI slots....but sometimes mixes them up at flash time. So always best to use an ATI card to flash an Nvidia one and vice versa. Note that this extreme method is only needed when you do some flash that allows Mac to START loading card but hit snag.
But for some time, Mac cards have had larger ROM files than their Windows counterparts and this has greatly slowed flashing of certain cards. My PC GTX285 came with a 128K chip, I'm guessing most if not all will as well.
I don't have a PC GTX 285 (yet). And the big problem for me is the lack of availability of the MAC GTX 285 in The Netherlands at the moment.
The Apple store doesn't even list it (yet).
I just bought a MacBook Pro with almost 2100 Euro, so I will wait a little bit till buying the GTX 285 in whichever form ;-) but if by the end of july nothing changed I will try to get a PC GTX 285 with enough ROM space.
As great as the injectors and everything is, I want a usable EFI as well, and not only a OS that I can't use till the login screen.
That is why I so much want that EFI ROM.
The Apple store doesn't even list it (yet).
I just bought a MacBook Pro with almost 2100 Euro, so I will wait a little bit till buying the GTX 285 in whichever form ;-) but if by the end of july nothing changed I will try to get a PC GTX 285 with enough ROM space.
As great as the injectors and everything is, I want a usable EFI as well, and not only a OS that I can't use till the login screen.
That is why I so much want that EFI ROM.