8800GT Blank screen problem -- solved?

[halberstam]

I've spent quite some time trying to get my XFX 8800GT 512 to work with my OSX86. Most of the time, I would see the gray apple logo screen, and then get dumped to a blank screen.

 

There have been times where I had my 8800GT working, using a variety of methods (NVinject, NVinstaller, EFI), but once I got it working with CI/QE, the next time I would reboot, I would get the blank screen again.

 

However, I think I've figured out a workaround. I've seen posts which state to delete NVinject.kext, but all that gets you is standard VGA output (Or, if you're using EFI like me, I had to update the com.apple.Boot.plist to remove the ID). After digging around, the problem seemed to be the kext caches getting corrupted--so if I boot in single user mode, and:

 

rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/

rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/Caches

rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.mkext

 

then reboot with -f -v, my osx86 boots up with CI/QE! All three need to be deleted--I spent perhaps a day just deleting Extensions.mkext without any luck. And I've only had luck forcing the reload with -f as a boot option.

 

I don't want to have to do this each time I boot up, however. Is there a way for me to automatically do my rm functions on shutdown or something like that? I'm not an OSX programmer, but maybe someone can use this idea and run with it?

 

Hopefully this helps people who have the blank screen / black screen issue...

[funwithaph72]

THANK YOU SO MUCH

 

Same exact card, and same exact issue. I know that you can use the osx86 tools program to always boot with a certain flag, -f -v etc. I've laso heard of being able to run a script to do all the removals, but I'm not experienced enough to know how at this point, although i'll probably give this a shot.

 

If you figure out something please let me know... it's been so frustrating booting up with QE/CI and then losing it on next reboot.

 

EDIT: I found some applescript tutorials and wrote a script that pops up a nice little dialog box that asks whether you want to shutdown or restart. As soon as you run it it removes the files that you specified. Right now its sitting on my desktop and whenever I want to shutdown or restart I just double click it and pick an option.

 

Here is the script:

 

do shell script "rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/; rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/Caches; rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.mkext" with administrator privileges

 

set dialogResult to display dialog "Shutdown?" buttons {"Shutdown", "Restart", "Cancel"} default button "Shutdown" cancel button "Cancel"

 

if button returned of dialogResult is "Shutdown" then

do shell script "shutdown -h now"

else if button returned of dialogResult is "Restart" then

do shell script "shutdown -r now"

end if

end

 

 

If you paste that into script editor and hit run it should work- I take no responsibility for any damage it may do, but if anyone sees this that has known applescript for more than a day and you see any problems with it let me know.

[DanielNTX]

I have a similar issue, but my screen doesn't go blank (it used to in kalyway 10.5.2, but not in 10.5.3). On my 8800GTX, every time I reboot I loose hardware accelerated Core Image and Quartz Extreme if I let it use the cache when using NVInstaller 0.52, NVInject 0.21 or NVKush. Using the boot option -f at the Darwin bootloader didn't work most of the time to bring back hardware CI and enable QE.

 

Only if I cleared the Extensions.mkext and associated Caches, hardware accelerated CI and QE works every single time. The disadvantage is the cache has to be rebuilt every single boot and for me that adds a little under 10 seconds to the boot time if it was already cached.

 

To automate the clearing of the cache you need to create two files as root named rc.shutdown.local and rc.reboot.local in /etc with the following content:

 

#!/bin/bash
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/Caches/
rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/

 

Make sure you change the permissions of each file to be executable (chmod +x). Now people say that rc.shutdown.local and rc.reboot.local have been deprecated since the release of Leopard, but it still works as of 10.5.4. Also, you don't need to set the kernel flag -f in com.apple.Boot.plist or call it in the boot options because of the missing caches it will automatically rebuild no matter what. I've been able to reboot and keep my CI:QE every single time now. Hope this helps.

[funwithaph72]

Thanks a lot Daniel... I just have a quick question which may sound a little dumb, but I'm confused. I found /etc but, how exactly do I create files rc.shutdown.local and rc.reboot.local? Do I just use text edit and type in those commands? What would I save it as?

 

Sorry if i'm a little newbish and thanks again.

[DanielNTX]

1) Open up Terminal from Utilities

2) Type "sudo su" without the quotes and enter your password.

3) Type "cd /etc"

4) I use vi to create the files. "vi rc.shutdown.local" and then type I for insert and type out my code above. Press escape and then type "wq!" and press enter. Do the same for "rc.reboot.local".

5) Type "chmod +x rc.shutdown.local" and do the same for "rc.reboot.local".

6) Type exit and close the terminal.

 

Oh yeah I also recommend dumping NVinject, NVkush or whatever injector you are using and use an EFI configuration string instead. It's real easy with EFIStudio and even solved my UUID error. I originally thought my problem was with the injectors causing me to loose CI:QE, but I think it has to do with something about caching the core graphic drivers.

[funwithaph72]

YES, thanks a bunch man... works like a charm.

I also found that EFIstudio was the easiest to work with, so I was already using that.

 

thanks again for your help its much appreciated

[Dewdman42]

I have a question about using the EFI string for video vs using NVinject, NKKush, or more specifically...the NVinject that is provided in NVInstaller which is supposed to be native Nvidia drivers provided by Apple for MacBooks.

 

Which is the best way to go? I'm using EFI string now, but the image quality seems not quite as good in a subtle way compared to before with NVinstaller. Resolution is the same. Subtle. Is the font aliasing that doesn't look as good. How can I verify that i have CI and QE happening? Maybe that is the problem?

 

I recently switched from Kalyway with NVinject to pure vanilla and EFI strings and while I'm very happy with the generic install and everything seems functional, the video quality does not quite seems as good, but maybe my mind is playing tricks, not sure.

 

One thing I have never been able to understand is how the EFI strings work. Is this some kind of generic video driver being used? Wouldn't the actual NVidia drivers provided by NVinstaller be better? but i guess I need to remove the EFI string if I want to try NVinject yes?

[DanielNTX]

I say EFI string because it absolutely identifies your graphic card. NVinject/NVkush detect your card and inject it into the proper driver. NVInstaller uses NVinject and the core kext drivers from 10.5.2 as far as I know. To make sure that you are using CoreImage hardware accelerated check the System Profiler and then fire up iMovieHD 7.02, if it crashes out then you don't have CI happening. If it says software then it's rendering your UI in software which to me looks crappy. QE will be listed in the profiler as Supported.

 

The EFI string is not a video card driver. Think of it as an embedded string that identifies the equipment you have installed and in this case you are using the string to identify your hardware and the EFI emulator passes it off to the OS, so the injectors don't have to detect and then pass it off to the real drivers. NVinstaller 0.41 has the same drivers that are in the 10.5.2 official so it's not going to make a difference.

[Dewdman42]

i see. So NVinject is not the actual video driver....Apple is providing that. I guess that is what is in my GeForce kexts. I'll stick with the EFI strings then. Thanks.

[funwithaph72]

Well it pooped out on me again. I did a fresh Kalyway 10.5.2 install and used the nvidia drivers that you can choose as an option. Everything booted and worked, but I still had to clear the caches before rebooting, and boot with -f. Creating the rc.reboot.local and rc.shutdown.local previously stopped working after a few reboots. After installing Aperture 2 and using it a little bit, I now always get a black screen after the grey apple screen, even if I delete caches and boot with -f. I can still boot into safe mode, but Quartz Extreme and Core Image don't work.

 

I now strongly believe that this is a problem caused by Aperture 2 because my last install failed to boot with QE/CI after playing around in aperture. Does anyone have any ideas about what might be happening here?

 

Core 2 Quad Q6700

XFX Geforce 8800GT

Gigabyte X48 DS4

[DanielNTX]

I have Aperture 2.1.1 installed, no problems if I let my rc.shutdown/rc.reboot script take care of the caches.