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Win7 x64 booting natively via EFI (no BIOS emulation)

Missing a connecting dot here. I can locate the two graphics cards on my system using pci -i command but how do I know what PCI bridge is controlling a particular card? What information do I need from my graphics card output to link it to pci bridge controlling that card?
:confused:


away8907 said:
Start to finish on a 5,1 Macbook Pro (9400M / 9600M GT)

I created an unattended install of Windows 7 Professional using RT-Seven Lite. I took a factory ISO, stripped out a bunch of stuff I didn't need, and added the latest nVidia drivers (extracted from the downloaded .exe).

I booted ubuntu from a flash drive, wiped my hard drive, formatted to GPT, then created a 200mb EFI partition, 300mb Windows System Reserved partition, and a ~480gb primary NTFS partition.
(It seems my autounattend DID NOT format over what I had there, but YMMV. Be ready to restore refit (or some other efi shell) to your EFI partition.)

I restored my customized efi folder to the EFI partition, containing refit, devil's files (currently not using), and some documentation.

The install completed perfectly, however I'm only able to get output from the integrated (9400M) card so far. This requires setting 2 PCI config bytes, and one I/O register in the EFI shell.

Code: 
set 8 to  >  mm 0010003E -PCI
set 7 to  >  mm 03000004 -PCI
set 2 to  >  mm 0750 -IO

  • Setting register 3E on bus 00 device 10 (PCI Bridge controlling the integrated graphics) to "8" enables VGA.
  • Setting register 04 on bus 03 device 00 (the 9400M device) to "7" enables I/O access and sets Bus Master.
  • Changing I/O 0x750 from "3" to "2" disables power to the 9600M card, extending battery life, reducing heat, and in my case, allowing graphical output.

I have to change each of those values on each reboot before navigating to fs0:\EFI\boot\ and running bootx64.efi No loading screen, 9400M output begins when windows loads the nvidia driver for desktop.

I've spent days trying various configurations, PCI config space, I/O values, NVRAM dumps/edits/loads, yet I cannot get the 9600M to work. The 9600 is on Bus 2, and checking the PCI configuration returns all F's. That tells me something else in the config is disabling it, I just can't find it.

I can get 00-0c (PCI-X bus for 9600) to enable VGA, set the gmux (pulled IO reg's from the ubuntu driver), but haven't figured out how to get GraphicsOutput or the other NVRAM values to migrate from device E7 to E5. That's where I've been banging my head...

tl;dr:
if you're happy with only using integrated graphics, this method works on the 5,1.​




I don't have the bandwidth to share my install .iso, but I'll include my autounattend below.

Again, use rt7 to include nvidia drivers, and make sure you're able to use the EFI shell once windows has installed, or even the 9400m won't function.

PHP: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--This answer file generated by RT Seven Lite-->
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
  <settings pass="windowsPE">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <SetupUILanguage>
        <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
      </SetupUILanguage>
      <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>
      <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
      <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
      <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
    </component>
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <DiskConfiguration>
        <Disk wcm:action="add">
          <DiskID>0</DiskID>
          <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
          <CreatePartitions>
            <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
              <Order>1</Order>
              <Type>EFI</Type>
              <Size>100</Size>
            </CreatePartition>
            <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
              <Order>2</Order>
              <Type>MSR</Type>
              <Size>128</Size>
            </CreatePartition>
            <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
              <Order>3</Order>
              <Type>Primary</Type>
              <Extend>true</Extend>
            </CreatePartition>
          </CreatePartitions>
          <ModifyPartitions>
            <ModifyPartition>
              <Order>1</Order>
              <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
              <Label>System</Label>
              <Format>FAT32</Format>
            </ModifyPartition>
            <ModifyPartition>
              <Order>2</Order>
              <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
              <Letter>C</Letter>
              <Format>NTFS</Format>
              <Label>Windows</Label>
            </ModifyPartition>
          </ModifyPartitions>
        </Disk>
      </DiskConfiguration>
      <ImageInstall>
        <OSImage>
          <InstallFrom>
            <MetaData wcm:action="add">
              <Key>/IMAGE/NAME</Key>
              <value>Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL</value>
            </MetaData>
          </InstallFrom>
          <InstallTo>
            <DiskID>0</DiskID>
            <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
          </InstallTo>
          <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition>
          <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
        </OSImage>
      </ImageInstall>
      <UserData>
        <ProductKey>
          <Key>HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487</Key>
          <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
        </ProductKey>
        <Organization>efi</Organization>
        <FullName>away</FullName>
        <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
      </UserData>
    </component>
  </settings>
  <settings pass="oobeSystem">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <UserAccounts>
        <LocalAccounts />
        <AdministratorPassword>
          <Value>password</Value>
        </AdministratorPassword>
      </UserAccounts>
      <AutoLogon>
        <Password>
          <Value>password</Value>
        </Password>
        <Enabled>true</Enabled>
        <LogonCount>9999</LogonCount>
        <Username>Administrator</Username>
      </AutoLogon>
      <OOBE>
        <NetworkLocation>Home</NetworkLocation>
        <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
        <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
        <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
        <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
        <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
      </OOBE>
      <DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>true</DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>
      <TimeZone>Central Standard Time</TimeZone>
      <Display>
        <ColorDepth>32</ColorDepth>
        <HorizontalResolution>1440</HorizontalResolution>
        <VerticalResolution>900</VerticalResolution>
        <RefreshRate>60</RefreshRate>
      </Display>
    </component>
  </settings>
  <settings pass="specialize">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <ComputerName>mbp</ComputerName>
    </component>
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC-UX" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
    </component>
  </settings>
</unattend>

also, don't use ^^^this^^^ if you aren't able to read it. I'm not liable if you break your stuff with my code :)
Click to expand...
 
hello,
english isn't my native language so i'm having a real trouble reading the hole thread i'm using a 5,5 macbookpro any chance i can get a hand or at least directions to the aproprate posts
 
Used Bootcamp Assistant to get an ISO of win8 on a jump drive.

Booted. Installed.

Restarts into a black screen.

I assume I need to set some PCI registers, but honestly, the information on how to do so has been spotty at best and the imgur images that guide one through it are... well... missing.

Can someone tell me how to set the proper PCI registers on a 2012 Macbook Air?

I would be greatly in debt. Thanks.

---

installed NTFS-3G and removed the /Windows/System32/drivers/igdkm64.sys file.
Booted, in Windows 8 now with basically no issues (aside from missing bootcamp drivers). Am I missing things by missing this driver file? Will setting the correct registers allow me to keep using this file? Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Umm... I am trying to find which bridge my graphics card is on, but im not exactly sure what i am looking for. Can someone please explain to me where to find this in the pci data i got by running "pci -i" (i ran this for each device on my system and each bridge and printed out all of them to look over)

The pics gatzby posted arent ther any more so i couldnt see them

Thanks

-cbowling
 
I am sorry I don't have anything directly informative to contribute to this thread, how ever I will say I am really interested in what you guys are doing.

I do feel a bit confused by all the numbers though, in terms of how far people have succeeded installing win7/8 on a macbook pro without boot camp (and without problems) ?

Also why do people want this? I assume that boot camp has either performance hits or is it the lack of dual graphics that makes people want this?

Thanks, I come from 24 years of PC and windows, got my first macbook pro, boot camp does the job for now when needed, but I am curious.

thanks
 
Advantages of EFI booting:

1. You can use a GPT partitioned disk
2. You do not have a limit of 4 partitions on a disk (which you have on a MBR partitioned disk.).
3. Faster bootup time (i.e. you won't see much of the "grey" screen).
4. Some Apples do not have AHCI enabled when booting via Bootcamp. In EFI, you will have AHCI enabled. This is particularly important when you have an SSD installed.
 
mark1234 said:
In EFI, you will have AHCI enabled. This is particularly important when you have an SSD installed.
Click to expand...

Wrong, trim works without AHCI.

AHCI is more usefull with a normal HDD for the command queing, the SSD can keep up with the stream of data while the HDD cannot and needs it.
 
mark1234 said:
Advantages of EFI booting:

1. You can use a GPT partitioned disk
2. You do not have a limit of 4 partitions on a disk (which you have on a MBR partitioned disk.).
3. Faster bootup time (i.e. you won't see much of the "grey" screen).
4. Some Apples do not have AHCI enabled when booting via Bootcamp. In EFI, you will have AHCI enabled. This is particularly important when you have an SSD installed.
Click to expand...

Interesting, is there anyway to see in boot camp if my current macbook pro does have AHCI enabled? It is a 2012 classic MBP ivy bridge, so I guess if any the latest ones should be the ones to have it but?
 
Is Integrated Graphics identified as well?

mark1234 said:
Advantages of EFI booting:

1. You can use a GPT partitioned disk
2. You do not have a limit of 4 partitions on a disk (which you have on a MBR partitioned disk.).
3. Faster bootup time (i.e. you won't see much of the "grey" screen).
4. Some Apples do not have AHCI enabled when booting via Bootcamp. In EFI, you will have AHCI enabled. This is particularly important when you have an SSD installed.
Click to expand...

In EFI, is the Integrated Graphics enabled/visible among with the Discrete Graphics under Windows 7?
 
MJL said:
Wrong, trim works without AHCI.

AHCI is more usefull with a normal HDD for the command queing, the SSD can keep up with the stream of data while the HDD cannot and needs it.
Click to expand...

Without AHCI when using a SSD, performance is significantly reduced. I posted a pic of AHCI enabled on win8 earlier in the thread. That to me is the main reason to use an EFI install.
 
solution: EFI replace

I wrote down the solution here in case some other "victim" find this thread through google:
there is a special service company on ebay, L2Computer, who repair Apple motherboards. They fix motherboards in flat rate price. So, after some hesitating, I send my Mac mini to them and two days after it arrived to them they repaired and send back to me.
I think they replace the EFI EEPROM chip, so my mini is working again.
I am very very happy to find them because as far as I know they are the only one service fixing apple motherboards.

acsikos said:
Just wanna tell you my story with Win 7 x64 install on mac mini (2010).
I switched to SSD (Agility 3) and decided to give it a try - install Win7 x64 without OSX (and bootcamp assistant).
Everything seemed perfect, Win7 boot in seconds but after a reboot my mac mini stuck at the grey screen. no apple logo, no spinning wheel. no respond to any keyboard combo and the PVRAM/SMC reset is useless, too :(
At the Service they said my EFI corrupted and there is no way to restore it.
So I got an iBrick :(
Do you guys have any idea how can I fix this? Or heard any service that can repair/replace EFI chip?
Click to expand...
 
acsikos said:
I wrote down the solution here in case some other "victim" find this thread through google:
there is a special service company on ebay, L2Computer, who repair Apple motherboards. They fix motherboards in flat rate price. So, after some hesitating, I send my Mac mini to them and two days after it arrived to them they repaired and send back to me.
I think they replace the EFI EEPROM chip, so my mini is working again.
I am very very happy to find them because as far as I know they are the only one service fixing apple motherboards.
Click to expand...

That's great! If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost? I hope it wasn't too expensive.
 
Wiki

I am keen to get a wiki started and so to collect a lot of the awesome information in this thread and the links within it. I am happy to put some time and a little bit of money into it (for hosting etc). I was thinking just a MediaWiki with maybe a phpBB forum and/or Wordpress blog for news. I have MediaWiki experience with doing some work with the Linux Media Wiki.

I stumbled across the domain www.tripleboot.org and sent the owner an email below.

Hello Henry,

My name is Robin and I recently became involved/interested in an internet community created out of the interest of triple booting our Macs (in particular in EFI mode with no bios emulation - so not using Bootcamp due to some of the associate problems such as needing to chain load among others ). There are a few developers that have developed software and others that have developed instructions / work arounds for specific models. Reading the content on your blog this may or may not be something you are interested in.

Feel free to read the main thread here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/696523/
There is also a ton of information on Rod Smiths page: http://www.rodsbooks.com/

There was discussion in the above thread about creating a wiki in order to tie all of this information together (and perhaps a forum and/or wordpress for news) and so in brainstorming possible domains to use I stumbled across yours. My idea is that whilst the site will start with a focus on triple booting Mac's - many of the tools / techniques are the same for triple booting PC's so there will be tie ins with the hackintosh community.

At the moment I can see you have set up a personal blog on the domain tripleboot.org.

Would you be at all interested in either:
- Option 1: donating your domain to be used for this purpose ? (I am happy to throw a bit of money in for hosting somewhere if that is required - Go Daddy or something)
- Option 2: selling your domain ? (and again I will throw some money down for some hosting)
- Option 3: ??? (I'm open to any ideas you might have)

Many thanks for your time,

Rob
Click to expand...

What do people think ? I'm open to suggestions.
 
Setting up a wiki on www.tripleboot.org

Hi,

I've just answered Rob, sure I can transfer the domain in order to setup a wiki. It's a good idea, and something I would benefit from as well: i.e. I'm expecting my MBP Retina next week and are interested in booting Win8 and Ubuntu on it as well. Triplebooting here we go :)
 
magn3ts said:
Used Bootcamp Assistant to get an ISO of win8 on a jump drive.

Booted. Installed.

Restarts into a black screen.

I assume I need to set some PCI registers, but honestly, the information on how to do so has been spotty at best and the imgur images that guide one through it are... well... missing.

Can someone tell me how to set the proper PCI registers on a 2012 Macbook Air?

I would be greatly in debt. Thanks.

---

installed NTFS-3G and removed the /Windows/System32/drivers/igdkm64.sys file.
Booted, in Windows 8 now with basically no issues (aside from missing bootcamp drivers). Am I missing things by missing this driver file? Will setting the correct registers allow me to keep using this file? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I did the same with my MacBook Air 2011. It boots perfectly but apparently you can't install specific Windows 8 drivers from Intel cause they too result in a black screen. Does anyone know how to install these official Intel drivers?
 
acsikos said:
@mac-hacks
I think that my EFI is corrupted and this is why I can't bring up startup manager or can't boot from OSX DVD. I am not an expert so maybe I am wrong but I don't know other way to avoid logic board replacement.

I have tried to reset SMC - the same grey screen at boot time, no respond to option key. And this is why I can't boot to rEFIt or anything else.

Memory: I have two 2G modules. I've tried to boot only one or the other - no change, the same grey screen appears at boot. I have no other RAM but this two but I think it is highly unlikely that they went wrong at the very same time.
Click to expand...

Don't know if you resolved this already or not as i'm catching up on this thread and haven't read past this yet, but something not so related happened with one of the macbook pros i serviced here at the helpdesk.


It seems if certain things happen to the hard disk, nothing will boot and even efi will fail - you'll be stuck at a grey screen.

Solution - try pulling out the hard drive and boot from a usb, WITHOUT the hard drive in the mini, hold the option key to select the usb to boot from. USB should be formatted with an osx installation, so hopefully you have one handy.

IF this works, then you're going to have to invest in a 2.5" sata hard drive usb enclosure ($20 on amazon or newegg). Boot up into the osx installation from usb stick without the hard drive inside, once booted up into the installation, run disk utility from the installer and plug in your enclosure with the corrupt hdd. Use disk utility to zero it out and create new partitions. After that, shut down, plug the hard drive back in, and re-install os x or whatever it is you're going to install.

Something similar happened with a few macbook pros we have here, though not because of windows. We were hesitant to update to Lion because no company likes having to update all the OS's on their equipment EVERY YEAR, so we were trying to stick to snow leopard for as long as possible. Unfortunately, Snow leopard has a feature called "Safe Sleep" that works differently in Lion, and this feature isn't supported on the 2011 macbook pros, so what it ends up doing is corrupting a file called 'sleepimage' which in turn ends up making the entire hdd unbootable, and rendering any efi options in the boot environment useless (option, command-c, command-r, etc). The fix that i mentioned above was the only way to get it to work.
 
So I'm running Windows 8 in EFI mode - initially I would always get a driver irql not less or equal error when trying to boot - but it did occasionally boot all the way. I then installed the bootcamp drivers and now it seems to boot consistently.

My only issue is I can't get the integrated sound to work. Under System Devices, there's a "High Definition Audio Controller" that is unable to start. I've tried reinstalling drivers several times to no avail. Anyone have similar issues, and if so, does anyone know of a workaround?

I'm on a retina MacBook pro.
 
kraades said:
Now Windows 8 is released, I was wondering if someone made some progress? Or am I still stuck to bios mode?
Click to expand...

Booting directly to the RTM iso (at least enterprise) is... iffy at best. Most of the time it crashes. If you boot into Windows PE 4 and then load the installer from there, it does install. It is a bit unstable until you install the bootcamp drivers. It sometimes take several boot attempts before you can get in far enough to install the drivers. Once the drivers are installed the system is pretty stable.

From that point, everything except sound seems to work. And you can't access the bootcamp configuration utility.
 
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