29 replies to this topic

[thestevo]

Disclaimer: This thread is not for those with limited technical expertise. The GPU is NOT fully functional yet. If you read the entire post, you will see that it is not beneficial to test or try out this process yet. It does not produce a workable result. Please, do not post here asking how to get GMA 3100 working. I'm looking for assistance from those who have some expertise. I've been on the IRC numerous times but haven't received any suggestions that proved helpful. When/if I get the chip working I will post a different thread for instructions and include the kexts. This post is an attempt to reach a broader audience.

As many of you know, the GMA 3100 is the last, and fastest, of the 915 family. After successfully enabling the rest of the 965 family, I turned my attention toward getting the rest of the 915 family working. Andy4Life inspired my work by getting the GMA950 kexts to load for the GMA900 with some hex and DEVID editing. With his accomplishment, we now have two of the four in the family working. GMA 3000 and GMA 3100 are not working, and I have been able to get a hold of a 3100 to do some work.

My status right now is that I have monitor recognition and resolution change (framebuffer) and the system profiler shows QE/CI enabled. However, it goes very very slow. Meaning, it takes about 45 minutes to go from the blue screen to loaded desktop. Once the desktop is up, it is so slow that even dock magnification on mouseover takes five to ten minutes. Also, the mouse is an odd colored hash. It looks like red, blue, yellow, and green pencil shavings contained within the shape of a square. The Tiger framebuffer makes the square about twice the height and width of a normal mac cursor. Using any Leopard framebuffer makes the square hash size about six or seven times the size of a cursor. The upper left corner of this square of colored hash is the target of the cursor. In some kext combinations, it will display a normal black cursor for a split second when the blue screen comes up. However, that split second later the hash square appears over the same area.

SSH appears to be responsive, as much as command line really can be. When I run system_profiler it does show QE and CI as enabled, along with my monitor information.

I will try to get some screenshots up later.

I've used hex and DEVID edits to get here. For specifics on which IDs and where (hex), please PM me. Two files are involved, AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer and AppleIntelGMA950.

As I mentioned above, I've tried Tiger framebuffers (10.4.3, 10.4.4, 10.4.6) and all produce a small square of hash. Of course, Tiger kexts don't give Rotation (Not that it really matters right now anyway). I've also tried every Leopard framebuffer version. All produce the same result, a large square of hash. This hash is also present in safe mode.

AppleIntelGMA950 either "works" or it doesn't. I can't seem to detect any changes between versions. Tiger versions didn't work. Leopard beta didn't work. Leopard GM - 10.5.3 didn't work. 10.5.4 with 10.5.5 OpenGL Framework "worked" (both on 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 systems). 10.5.5 doesn't work. 10.5.5 graphics update and 10.5.6 (framebuffer, GMA950, OpenGL) "works."

Disabling DVMT in the BIOS seems to be a requirement before 10.5.5 graphics update. After, it seems to improve the odds of getting the desktop to come up. I don't know why, but it is sometimes hit or miss. I've tried replacing the Quartz framework with different versions, but that did nothing except screw me up a couple times. I've also tried adding the DSDT GMA950 fix, but it didn't seem to help any. I know the DSDT was loaded and everything, but it didn't help. Tried adding EFI strings (with modded kexts), no go.

So, basically I'm at my wit's end. I've ran out of new ideas, and I'm looking for intelligent suggestions. I don't have much time these days, but for promising assistance I'll work with it some more. I do have some questions, if anybody could help.

• There isn't a way to trick the system profiler is there? I'm hoping this means that the driver can truly provide hardware acceleration, and not that I've somehow bypassed some check.
  
• Is there a way to determine OpenGL functionality from the terminal (SSH)?
  
• Could this be a framebuffer problem, as the mouse is hash even when in safe mode and AppleIntelGMA950 is not loaded? Safe mode on other GPUs still makes a normal looking mouse, perhaps this is the clue to the problem.
  
• If I'm not truly hardware accelerated, and have just 'tricked' the system profiler, why is load time taking longer than if I have no kexts loaded at all?
  
• Shouldn't there be an error log being inundated with errors during these slow loads? None of the logs I've seen show anything special.

Thank you for your time and toughts. It appears we may be close, I would appreciate any help to get this working. Many people have this GPU, and it would be great to round out two families of Intel IGPs; especially since we won't have X4500.

theStevo

[cyclonefr]

u should go in your bios and choose memory Fixed RAM for the GMA3100

[thestevo]

Hey Cyclonefr, thanks for your input. Unfortunately, I have already tried that. I've tried with DVMT on and off, and RAM at AUTO, Fixed 128, and Fixed 256. Basically, I've tested every graphics related BIOS option.

[cyclonefr]

if you could get it to work i would be the first one interested in
I know from sure source that you have to fix Memory at least. Then u definitly have to.
For the rest i get the same problem as you do with the blue screen. There must be a hack.

[thestevo]

Well that's what I'm hoping.

Can you elaborate on "fix memory"? Do you mean simply turning off auto memory management in the BIOS and setting it to fixed? That is one of the things that I have tried and it does produce better results. Before 10.5.5 graphics update, it produced the only results.

And, you mention that you get the same results, does that mean you have QE/CI also? What hardware do you have? I'm working on a Dell Vostro 400.

Thanks for your help, any and all welcome!
theStevo

[chronoswing]

Hmm, I'm new but is the consensus this card does not work period? Because I have this card working on my lenovo y410 with latest ipc release. Only problem is things like chess or screensavers crash and the report seems to point to the video card crashing them. But I get full resolutions and quartzgl works. Any way to fix these problems? And anything I can do to try to help?

[thestevo]

First off, welcome to the forums. It's always great to have new people. And, I know you were well intentioned with your post. Thank you.

With that said, I would like to offer a few pieces of advice:

1. The Lenovo Y410 is a laptop and has a GMA X3100, not a GMA 3100. GMA 3100s are not found in laptops, only in desktops, and are of a completely different family.
2. Similar to point one, research before you speak. Google is helpful to search the InsanelyMac forums, since the on-site search engine sucks. There are many threads dedicated to the GMA X3100 and getting it working properly. I'm sure that one of them can help you.
3. With your first post on InsanelyMac, you posted on a thread that was specifically marked for "Gurus/Tech Inclined Only." Perhaps you can now see why I specifically requested this.

Now, don't let this discourage you. I appreciate your willingness to help. That's great, you can make great contributions. But, in the future, do your research before you speak. Please, for everybody's sake.

theStevo

[cyclonefr]

My configuration is in my signature : gma3100 soldered to my ASUS p5evm do. I get the blue screen. Someone on irc has it to fully work with a different product id. His name is Turbo.

[stratogratte]

Hi!
Thanks for trying to make gma 3100 work!

After cyclone post about turbo, I have been interresting to know how he achieved that, and I found this post :
http://forum.insanel...mp;#entry906342

Perhaps it would help you, it seems like this patch fix the framebuffer problem. I haven't tried it yet though.

[thestevo]

Yeah, I remember seeing that too. Two things I noticed are: One, that his description of framebuffer status is the same as mine, and still having a mouse pointer issue. I have achieved the results he describes. And two, that he never specifically mentions that he got QE/CI running. He only describes that it boots, changes resolution, and screen shares. Perhaps Turbo has claimed on the IRC that he has acceleration, as cyclonefr suggested, but this post doesn't specifically say that. Good mention, though!

If he does have it running, that would be most helpful. I sure hope that he does and that he would be willing to help us out.

Thanks,
theStevo

[cyclonefr]

so TUrbo what's up with ur GMA3100?.  afaik Turbo does have artifact

[cyclonefr]

anything ,new??

[cyclonefr]

What about the gma950 topic on desktop with no artifact ? Turbo doesnt have QE/CI though...

[thestevo]

Well, crap, that sucks that Turbo doesn't have QE/CI.

I looked into the DSDT patch for GMA950. My knowledge of DSDT is limited, but I feel that I successfully implemented the equivalent patch for GMA 3100. However, it didn't change anything. I still think DSDT might have something to do with it, as many of the problems fixed by it are similar to ours, but I haven't gotten anywhere.

Anyone???

theStevo

[Tony Conte]

At least you tried but I'm pretty sure we will have it done someday.

[snoopy11hk]

Is this still working?
or no more people is doing the thing?

[Hagar]

As long as people don't fully publish their findings, there will be no progress.

[Galaxas0]

Hi everyone... I have a GMA3100 with DevID 0x29c2, and I am a complete stranger to this stuff... so... Is there anyway that I can learn and help you? theStevo, are there any updates?

[thestevo]

Hagar - I'm rather curious as to what you mean. I think I've been fairly open about what I know regarding this project.

Everyone - Currently there are no updates, nothing specifically to test, no leads. What we need is new ideas from those who can help. That is, if it is indeed even possible. The fact that we can't even get the framebuffer fully working worries me in terms of feasibility.

theStevo

[Galaxas0]

well.... may i have the files already posted?