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Win7 x64 booting natively via EFI (no BIOS emulation)

jlpek17 said:
Before to email us you have to answer some question like type of your computer ... Etc ; the recipient know wich computer I have.

Here the question I wrote : "Are you planning to support EFI mode for your drivers. I regularly check this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/696523/ It seems that last Nvidia and Intel graphic drivers now support it but ATI/AMD drivers don't. It's important now with Windows 8. Kind regards"

Maybe I could return a "best" technical question ?
Click to expand...

Maybe something of this nature?

"To be clear, I am not asking for a driver for the UEFI, I am asking for a working driver for AMD cards on Mac hardware, i.e. Macbook Pros, iMacs, etc. (LIST YOUR SPECIFIC MODEL HERE, MINE IS A MACBOOK PRO EARLY 2011) that will allow me to use the AMD card in Windows 8 while using UEFI boot mode, versus Apple's bios emulation.

Current behavior? Windows does not list the AMD device in Device Manager, nor are any of the unknown devices using the Device ID of AMD or the particular graphics cards.

(THIS SECTION MAY BE TOO TECHNICAL, OR SPECULATIVE FOR YOUR CONTACT. USE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT.)

The issue may be that Windows uses bios features that are still present in your cards to detect the graphics card, but are not in the bios of the Apple sold hardware.

Other symptoms that may be related, but are not in your direct control? The audio device used by these same machines do not function in Windows under the same conditions. So it is feasible, though almost unbelievable in this day and age, that there is some sort of a resource conflict that needs to be addressed.

Please see this thread, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/696523/, for more detailed and technical details of this issue, and a few bugs that have allowed windows to see the AMD devices, such as putting the computer to sleep will sometimes allow Windows to detect the AMD graphics unit, yet still does not allow its use.

Thank You for your time and consideration.


Hope this helps.
 
Xdrqgol said:
For me is not working to boot in 32bit EFI mode... i cannot not, install Win 8 32 bit :(... can anyoane help?

EFI mode - Winodws 8 32 bit...

Windows8 64 , works...

Soo? what should I do to have the 32bit working?
Click to expand...


See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#Operating_systems

Microsoft DOES NOT PRODUCE a 32bit version of Windows that works under UEFI. So Xdrqgol is using BootCamp's BIOS, even if he doesn't know it.

The code path in Windows 7/8 may exist for 32bit UEFI, though I don't it, but it is most certainly not well tested, would contain show stopping bugs, and could easily corrupt your data as it IS the interface to your data.

Also, the UEFI will boot the processor to 64-bit mode, on processor that support it, which 32bit Windows does not know how to deal with. If you have a 64bit Mac, Your UEFI will most certainly be 64bit, and will only operate in 32bit mode if you use the BootCamp Bios.

Windows 64-bit can run 32-bit programs because it knows about them. Windows 32-bit is just plain lost.

Apple technically ships a hybrid 32/64bit system, that knows about all of these different modes, even if you are on a 32bit system. Though 32-bit support is now ending.
 
ATI/AMD just released drivers ver 12.9. Anything new with it ?

Maybe they follow NVIDIA ...

I couldn't test before 2 weeks
 
Edit:

Heh got Windows 8 with EFI to work on my Macbook Pro 6.2.

Disabled the Discrete Nvidia 330M GT GPU, and it seems to be using my Intel HD Graphics.
However, when I try to install the Driver from Microsoft Update, or the one that comes with Windows 8 (Standard WDDM) or even a modified Windows 7 driver (with Disabling Driver Signature stuff in test mode) the screen flickers, goes black and resets the laptop.

And everytime it boots up it loads until Windows is started and then resets again, no more screen :(
Anyone knows of a solution? I guess it probably has something to do with Apple's EFI which doesn't work properly with the Intel Driver? :(

Perhaps some PCI register editing is needed? It does seem to give it an address in the Driver properties, Port, Address and stuff, no errors it seems.
 
Last edited:
Mhh, I can set the VGAE register just fine with

mm 0001003E 8 -PCI

Also on another PCI/PCI bridge

mm 001C003E 8 -PCI


Confirmed it changed, but I cannot seem to change the VGA adapter one
(07)Do address/data stepping: 0

with mm 00020004 7 -PCI

Anyone an idea?

Oh and I've managed to unhide the Intel HD Graphics even with the BIOS emu layer with the following command in GRUB before I started Windows;

setpci -s 00:00.0 54.B=0b

But even then, after installing the drivers and disabling the Geforce 330M GT the laptop gives a BSOD on one of the driver dll's :(
 
Last edited:
Hey guys I was thinking about picking up a Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch. Does Windows 8 EFI work with the Nvidia Discrete card?
 
4.1 MacBook Pro, Windows 8 EFI install

Hello everyone,
I registered here because I'm trying to install Windows 8 RTM on my MacBook Pro 4.1 (early 2008, last non-unibody) with 8600m gt gpu and I can't even get it to install. (Well, actually I registered earlier but didn't post too much before) I read a lot of thid topic but not all. I created a usb install disk with the upgrade assistant and I can only load it with refit. After the two loading bars are full I only get a black screen. I tried to change the pci registers via mm in the refit shell but it still doesn't change anything. Also I found out that can only load the install stick directly out of apples efi menu, if I change the resolution to 1024*768 in OSX before.
It makes no difference, if I try to boot from usb or dvd nor if I change the boot loader with the consumer preview one.
Is there anything I could do or is mac just too old?
Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for my bad English!

EDIT: Connecting to an external display also doesn't make anything better.
 
Last edited:
samy1024 said:
Hello everyone,
I registered here because I'm trying to install Windows 8 RTM on my MacBook Pro 4.1 (early 2008, last non-unibody) with 8600m gt gpu and I can't even get it to install. (Well, actually I registered earlier but didn't post too much before) I read a lot of thid topic but not all. I created a usb install disk with the upgrade assistant and I can only load it with refit. After the two loading bars are full I only get a black screen. I tried to change the pci registers via mm in the refit shell but it still doesn't change anything. Also I found out that can only load the install stick directly out of apples efi menu, if I change the resolution to 1024*768 in OSX before.
It makes no difference, if I try to boot from usb or dvd nor if I change the boot loader with the consumer preview one.
Is there anything I could do or is mac just too old?
Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for my bad English!

EDIT: Connecting to an external display also doesn't make anything better.
Click to expand...

Try to boot WinPE 4.0 via EFI. If you can do this, an install should work. Just to update this thread, I have a 2009 Mac Pro with the 2010 Firmware. I just bought an ssd from OWC (Accelsior). I was able to install Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, OS X, and Arch Linux. EFI booting is somewhat improved, but for me to get any output in Windows 8, setting the registers is still necessary. It may just be my outdated hardware.
 
kkrull said:
You may have to install in BIOS mode. I don't know of any utilities to switch between EFI and BIOS installs, although it couldn't be that hard to write.
Click to expand...

It's a bad idea. Windows booted in BIOS mode expects to see an MBR boot disk. Windows booted in UEFI mode expects to see a GPT disk. The bootloaders are totally different as well. And a major plus of Windows UEFI is avoiding the hybrid MBR (maybe better called hybrid MBR+GPT) which is what Boot Camp depends on if you have both OS X and Windows on the Mac.
 
Hi, i have a mb air 2012 and also want to get w8 fully working in efi mode (graphics hd4000 & sound).
i've read about the last 15 pages of this thread a few days ago.

About the DUET Efi approach:
you tried to install w8 with duet efi but it failed.
couldnt you also start a live linux and then read the memory map inside the linux and then try to set the memorymap settings in refit? try to boot w8 in true efi mode and see if drivers work?

i also read my computer hardware with sisoft sandra under efi and under bios mode.
one thing that occured to me was the following difference:

BIOS Mode:
Code: 
<< SMBus (Mainboard) Deviceregister >>
<< Intel ICH SMBus (efa0) >>
  < Bus 0, Device 2C, Function 0 >
    00 - 0F:              00 00 00 FC 00 6D 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
    .....

EFI Mode:
Code: 
<< SMBus (Mainboard) Deviceregister >>
<< Intel ICH SMBus (a0617000) >>
    Error (1200):        No devices found.

Does this help in any way? As wikipedia says the smbus is responsible for switching devices on/of or dimming the display. if the intel driver cant access it then we might have problems with display and sound. so somehow we have to get the Intel ICH SMBus back in place under efi!?

Greetings
ganomi
 
Referencing a (rather technical) post that seems to go back to August 2011, I understand that user "d3vi1" (among others) has confirmed it's POSSIBLE to install and boot Win7Pro x64 NATIVELY on a Mac. In my case, I'm VERY interested in achieving this on a 2010 Mac Mini (MC270xx) that I plan to upgrade with a SSD. Are there any current conclusions / pointers that would help me reach this goal?
 
Well, I got windows 8 working on my Macbook Pro retina and OSX still works also. However, I find it lame that I have to hold the option key upon boot in order to choose the OS I want to go into. Installing Refit didn't work, but I was told that reFIND might work. Will it? I'm a little sketched out.
 
Joshua531 said:
ah. I must have misunderstood.. I thought BIOS emulation was only used when you used bootcamp from within mac os x.
Click to expand...

In either case there's a script to run to permanently bless the boot manager. Without that, you will need to hold down the option key.
 
cobrien84 said:
Referencing a (rather technical) post that seems to go back to August 2011, I understand that user "d3vi1" (among others) has confirmed it's POSSIBLE to install and boot Win7Pro x64 NATIVELY on a Mac. In my case, I'm VERY interested in achieving this on a 2010 Mac Mini (MC270xx) that I plan to upgrade with a SSD. Are there any current conclusions / pointers that would help me reach this goal?
Click to expand...

Very difficult to do this because of numerous BCDErrors and generally poor EFI Support for Win7. It is possible. I had Windows 7 working on my Mac Pro for a long time.
 
Another possible factor is the difference between Intel EFI 1.10 and UEFI 2.x. I don't know how much UEFI 2.x specifics Windows really needs, but the system requirements say UEFI 2.x or higher, whereas all Macs to date use a non-standard EFI based on Intel EFI 1.10, not UEFI 2.x.
 
MANY thanks to "DaGr8Gatzby" and "murphychris" for taking the time to respond to my inquiry; I've done enough reading on the topic over the last few days to believe that it IS possible if one is persistent enough~! Since I'm new to these forums, can anyone suggest the best way to contact "d3vi1"? (He seems to have put quite a bit of effort into this ~August '11.)
 
cobrien84 said:
MANY thanks to "DaGr8Gatzby" and "murphychris" for taking the time to respond to my inquiry; I've done enough reading on the topic over the last few days to believe that it IS possible if one is persistent enough~! Since I'm new to these forums, can anyone suggest the best way to contact "d3vi1"? (He seems to have put quite a bit of effort into this ~August '11.)
Click to expand...

He seems to be AWOL. Been trying to find his app for a while as well. No dice. Windows 7 will never have support for a graphical diagnostic boot screen so safe mode is gone in EFI. If you can live with this, you can try this procedure to install Win7 via EFI:

1. Set up EFI shell to set your registers as the first step
2. Boot from a WinPE 4.0 enabled boot disk. I used a FAT32 formatted USB drive with MBR type partition (GPT did not work).
3. Extract the ISO contents of Win7 CD to another USB drive or use the same one.
4. Boot into WinPE 4.0 and find the volume letter where the ISO contents are located using diskpart

diskpart> list vol

5. Run setup.exe and install. WinPE 4.0 gave me NO issues detecting EFI/GPT. I usually use parted to create hard boundaries between my partitions.
6. Reboot and let EFI Shell set your registers. Then you can load the /efi/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi (path may differ I don't have access to my desktop at home)

You will have a black screen. Check if activity is occurring by hitting caps lock/num lock. As long as this is going, you should be ok. Eventually you will need to reboot and then your desktop should be up. This process works for me. No BCD error were generated. I would like to personally help you get this, as I have limited access to Mac machines and I am curious to get back into this again. Windows 8 is not really my cup of tea.
 
Dear DaGr8Gatzby, I reached "d3vi1" one time via his e-mail address over a month. He told me, that he has not the needed resources (time & money) at the moment and is on another special project as far I could understand.

For now I would be happy, if I could especially know, how to make this:
DaGr8Gatzby said:
1. Set up EFI shell to set your registers as the first step
...
6. Reboot and let EFI Shell set your registers.
Click to expand...

I own a MacBook Pro 5.2 17" Mid 2009. Please would you tell me, which values are needed to set and how. Is DawinDumper helpful to find the right values?

Best regards
HerrT
 
After using a combination of https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15483249/, https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/14631912/, and my own "simplified" method at http://thetecherra.com/2012/12/11/tutorial-install-windows-8-on-a-mac-via-native-efi/.

I'm to the point where I can get into Windows 8 without a problem. However, the only problems I'm facing are the lack of official GPU drivers that work and the lack of audio. I installed Apple's Windows Support software without a problem, and can access the Boot Camp Control Panel by using Command Prompt and running runas /trustlevel:0x20000 "C:\Windows\System32\AppleControlPanel.exe".

I've manually downloaded and installed Intel's drivers, but they didn't work.

Is anyone aware of a fix for audio and the integrated Intel HD 4000? This reminds me of hackintoshing, except that I'm going the other way around this time :cool:.
 
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