741 replies to this topic

[dlach]

driveparty, on Aug 23 2009, 05:36 PM, said:

Hi!

I've got Koalala's bios file, but i can't load it with the Qflash: it doesn't show this file on the flash card (other bios files like original f3a or saved from Qflash to the same disk are there and can be choosed).
I've noticed the size difference between original f3a and Koalala's. The orihinal is a 1 megabyte and Koalala's is 503 Kb.
Is there any trick to update?

Thanks in advance.

Koalala's is 1MB if you uncompress it.   If you tried to install it without uncompressing it would explain your problem.  I used stuffit.

[driveparty]

dlach, on Aug 25 2009, 12:47 AM, said:

Koalala's is 1MB if you uncompress it.   If you tried to install it without uncompressing it would explain your problem.  I used stuffit.

Hi!
I've uncompressed it on Vista 32, it was 503Kb uncompressed (Winrar). When i did in under Mac os it became ok (1M).

Thank's for attention

[dlach]

driveparty, on Aug 25 2009, 01:59 AM, said:

Hi!
I've uncompressed it on Vista 32, it was 503Kb uncompressed (Winrar). When i did in under Mac os it became ok (1M).

Thank's for attention

Excellent.  Yet another of the many reasons to use OSX.  Good luck with the install.

[tomtefar]

Hi

Are the efforts on making this MB work with more than 2Gb all halted? Is there a thread where it is being actively discussed?

Would be interesting to read how it was resolved if it ever will be...

Cheers!

[driveparty]

dlach, on Apr 10 2009, 01:41 AM, said:

Installing a retail 10.5.6 DVD on the GA-E7AUM-DS2H

Last Updated: 08/09/09
Any help with the sleep issues and 2GB limit welcome.

Hi. I wonder if it's a real help, but it may be a begining of some new investigations on 2GB limit.
There is a hidden menu in Gigabyte's BIOS setup. The manual does not explain it's options meaning, but in the section of FAQ it sais:

Q:In the BIOS Setup program, why are some BIOS options missing?
A: Some advanced options are hidden in the BIOS Setup program. Press <Delete> to enter BIOS Setup during the POST. In the Main Menu, press <Ctrl>+<F1> to show the advanced options.

So i did it and i've seen this (see attached images).
Any ideas if it can bdice used and which way?
Or their meaning...?

Attached Files

•  DSC582.jpg   981.76K   86 downloads
•  DSC583.jpg   927.45K   67 downloads
•  DSC584.jpg   865.88K   62 downloads

[dlach]

tomtefar, on Aug 25 2009, 12:08 PM, said:

Hi

Are the efforts on making this MB work with more than 2Gb all halted? Is there a thread where it is being actively discussed?

Would be interesting to read how it was resolved if it ever will be...

Cheers!

As far as I know they are stalled.  I haven't had time to study the issue of modding the SSDT to have the correct value.  Frankly I'm not too motivated because of the 2GB limit, it works fine with 2GB for my purposes.   I am a bit more motivated to learn how to patch the DSDT and SSDT to fix other problems like the audio sleep.  It will be interesting to see what SN adds to the mix, I pre-ordered so my disks will arrive Friday.  I am not expecting much, especially in the 2GB limitation problem since it is allegedly the Gigabyte BIOS that is not publishing the SSDT properly.  Who knows, we might actually get some action if someone wrote to Gigabyte or in their forum.

driveparty, on Aug 25 2009, 06:12 PM, said:

Hi. I wonder if it's a real help, but it may be a begining of some new investigations on 2GB limit.
There is a hidden menu in Gigabyte's BIOS setup. The manual does not explain it's options meaning, but in the section of FAQ it sais:

Q:In the BIOS Setup program, why are some BIOS options missing?
A: Some advanced options are hidden in the BIOS Setup program. Press <Delete> to enter BIOS Setup during the POST. In the Main Menu, press <Ctrl>+<F1> to show the advanced options.

So i did it and i've seen this (see attached images).
Any ideas if it can bdice used and which way?
Or their meaning...?

Thanks for the heads up.  Some of those settings (BIOS cachable and Mem power) might be interesting.  The spectrum modulation has to do with trying to reduct EMI from the clocks for the various devices.  By modulating down it should reduce EMI somewhat but also reduce performance.
I doubt it has anything to do with any of our issues.

[scoobydu]

dlach

I've PM'd you with the SL details

scooby

[e60]

@dlach
do you know if somebody tried to install Mac OS 10.6 on this Board? When i´m starting the Installation my Screen is getting black and nothing else happens.


*Edit*

Sorry, i´ve didn´t notice your entrya bout 10.6!

[KentWAhahaha]

I have this board with 4 GB of RAM.  No problems.  But I'm not using the integrated video.  I have an old 8800-GT tossed in it.  This is what I did:

Place a HD into an Intel chipset system.
Use standard install methods (boot-132) etc.  I used a 10.5 retail DVD.
Install 10.5.7.
Reboot from CD back to HD.
Let the patch spin on boot...  *WAIT 2-3 MINUTES after HD activity STOPS* All retail Macs reboot at this point, they do not spin forever.  Let it finish hitting the HD, wait and reboot.
Make sure it starts.  It should without a problem.
*DO NOT INSTALL ANYTHING ELSE*
Move HD to GA-E7AUM-DS2H based system.
Boot with the CD, start with HD 80 (or whatever it is)
Reinstall 10.5.7.
Reboot.  CD boot, HD the usual.
Let it spin again...reboot.
Install the nVidia drivers from the nVidia site (GTX-285).  Show contents, explore down into the package.  Install the 3 component package files (video, driver, GL).  This bypasses the version checker.  These drivers have full hardware acceleration.
Install the nVidia injector from Netkas. (the same one as GTX cards)
Reboot.  CD boot, HD the usual.
Install Chameleon v2 RC2.
Add AppleDecrypt, AppleNForceATA, Disabler, IOPCIFamily and OpenHaltRestart.  
Search for downloads here don't PM me.
mkexttool it.
Reboot.

Enjoy.  I don't have audio working correctly yet.

Came up recognized as a MacPro2.1.  Running a E5300 CPU, 4 GB 800 Mhz RAM.

I'll try flipping my video to built-in and see what it does.

*UPDATE*
4GB RAM with on-board video.  I did get it to panic and lock up eventually.    Does work fine with an add-on board though.

Note: I do not have a custom BIOS loaded into the motherboard.  All Gigabyte.

[dlach]

KentWAhahaha, on Sep 7 2009, 10:57 AM, said:

I have this board with 4 GB of RAM.  No problems.  But I'm not using the integrated video.  I have an old 8800-GT tossed in it.  This is what I did:

Place a HD into an Intel chipset system.
Use standard install methods (boot-132) etc.  I used a 10.5 retail DVD.
Install 10.5.7.
Reboot from CD back to HD.
Let the patch spin on boot...  *WAIT 2-3 MINUTES after HD activity STOPS* All retail Macs reboot at this point, they do not spin forever.  Let it finish hitting the HD, wait and reboot.
Make sure it starts.  It should without a problem.
*DO NOT INSTALL ANYTHING ELSE*
Move HD to GA-E7AUM-DS2H based system.
Boot with the CD, start with HD 80 (or whatever it is)
Reinstall 10.5.7.
Reboot.  CD boot, HD the usual.
Let it spin again...reboot.
Install the nVidia drivers from the nVidia site (GTX-285).  Show contents, explore down into the package.  Install the 3 component package files (video, driver, GL).  This bypasses the version checker.  These drivers have full hardware acceleration.
Install the nVidia injector from Netkas. (the same one as GTX cards)
Reboot.  CD boot, HD the usual.
Install Chameleon v2 RC2.
Add AppleDecrypt, AppleNForceATA, Disabler, IOPCIFamily and OpenHaltRestart.  
Search for downloads here don't PM me.
mkexttool it.
Reboot.

Enjoy.  I don't have audio working correctly yet.

Came up recognized as a MacPro2.1.  Running a E5300 CPU, 4 GB 800 Mhz RAM.

I'll try flipping my video to built-in and see what it does.

*UPDATE*
4GB RAM with on-board video.  I did get it to panic and lock up eventually.    Does work fine with an add-on board though.

Note: I do not have a custom BIOS loaded into the motherboard.  All Gigabyte.

Yes I should make it clear in my main post that it is the on-board video that causes the memory limitation.

[adidasprince]

Link for OrangeHDIcon

http://pcwiz computer.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=82&Itemid=74

[brownies]

dlach, on Sep 7 2009, 02:20 PM, said:

Yes I should make it clear in my main post that it is the on-board video that causes the memory limitation.

Hi dlach,
Do you mean that adding a gfx card will solve the 2Gb issue ?

[x4nd0r]

Chameleon 2 RC 3 is out. It has some intresting featurs, including:

VideoROM
You can pass an alternate video ROM image file to the system.

VBIOS
Using this boolean switch, you can control the injection of your video BIOS to device-properties. We got various reports if this switch is really needed to make your graphics device handled correctly by the system.




I think one or both of these features can resolve the 2GB issue's. I'm unable to test these features for the next two, so i hope that some one can test it on the e7-aum-ds2h.




Other strange thing that i have that i lost my audio after upgrading to 10.5.8. Is some one experiencing the same problems? and is there a FIX?

-x

[dlach]

brownies, on Sep 8 2009, 07:35 AM, said:

Hi dlach,
Do you mean that adding a gfx card will solve the 2Gb issue ?

Yes, I believe that people on the big thread reported that adding a gfx card and disabling the on-board video and avoids the 2GB limitation and KentWAhaha has just confirmed as a couple of posts ago.  I don't find this at all surprising because the problem has been reported to be video memory mapping in the SSDT.

x4nd0r, on Sep 8 2009, 10:16 AM, said:

Chameleon 2 RC 3 is out. It has some intresting featurs, including:

VideoROM
You can pass an alternate video ROM image file to the system.

VBIOS
Using this boolean switch, you can control the injection of your video BIOS to device-properties. We got various reports if this switch is really needed to make your graphics device handled correctly by the system.




I think one or both of these features can resolve the 2GB issue's. I'm unable to test these features for the next two, so i hope that some one can test it on the e7-aum-ds2h.




Other strange thing that i have that i lost my audio after upgrading to 10.5.8. Is some one experiencing the same problems? and is there a FIX?

-x

Did you re-apply the AppleHDA.kext from the first post?  I found that my audio worked after updating to 10.5.8 put then I installed iLife and got a kernel panic because 10.5.8 apparently did not completely overwrite the audio kext.  Re-applying AppleHDA.kext fixed the problem.  Of course I use the USB audio device I point to in the first post because it is cheap, works great and avoids the resume from sleep issue.

x4nd0r, on Sep 8 2009, 10:16 AM, said:

Chameleon 2 RC 3 is out. It has some intresting featurs, including:

VideoROM
You can pass an alternate video ROM image file to the system.

VBIOS
Using this boolean switch, you can control the injection of your video BIOS to device-properties. We got various reports if this switch is really needed to make your graphics device handled correctly by the system.




I think one or both of these features can resolve the 2GB issue's. I'm unable to test these features for the next two, so i hope that some one can test it on the e7-aum-ds2h.




Other strange thing that i have that i lost my audio after upgrading to 10.5.8. Is some one experiencing the same problems? and is there a FIX?

-x

Did you re-apply the AppleHDA.kext from the first post?  I found that my audio worked after updating to 10.5.8 put then I installed iLife and got a kernel panic because 10.5.8 apparently did not completely overwrite the audio kext.  Re-applying AppleHDA.kext fixed the problem.  Of course I use the USB audio device I point to in the first post because it is cheap, works great and avoids the resume from sleep issue.

[x4nd0r]

dlach, on Sep 8 2009, 02:14 PM, said:

Did you re-apply the AppleHDA.kext from the first post?  I found that my audio worked after updating to 10.5.8 put then I installed iLife and got a kernel panic because 10.5.8 apparently did not completely overwrite the audio kext.  Re-applying AppleHDA.kext fixed the problem.  Of course I use the USB audio device I point to in the first post because it is cheap, works great and avoids the resume from sleep issue.

Strange, after, again, re-applying AppleHDA.kext it did *not* fix the problem. But after re-seating the audio plug in to it socket, it works. This is realy strange behaviour.

dlach, do you have any luck running sl?

-x

[dlach]

x4nd0r, on Sep 8 2009, 04:37 PM, said:

Strange, after, again, re-applying AppleHDA.kext it did *not* fix the problem. But after re-seating the audio plug in to it socket, it works. This is realy strange behaviour.

dlach, do you have any luck running sl?

-x

Not yet but I know it can be done.  I am mostly focused on getting the boot123 iso ready and being able to document the process.

[tomtefar]

dlach:

I read on the first page that you have reported the SSDT / memory mapping issue for the onboard GPU to Gigabyte. It would be interesting if you could post some details on what you actually reported to them. Maybe it could be used for others to form personalized versions of your report (and thus increasing the chance of it being resolved as from Gigabyte's perspective there would seems as more ppl being affected by the bug).

Please?

Cheers!
/Tom

[dlach]

tomtefar, on Sep 12 2009, 03:20 PM, said:

dlach:

I read on the first page that you have reported the SSDT / memory mapping issue for the onboard GPU to Gigabyte. It would be interesting if you could post some details on what you actually reported to them. Maybe it could be used for others to form personalized versions of your report (and thus increasing the chance of it being resolved as from Gigabyte's perspective there would seems as more ppl being affected by the bug).

Please?

Cheers!
/Tom

Glad to.  Unfortunately I'm not sure exactly what the problem is.  One guy over on the big thread insisted it was SSDT.  But then I went through and could only find a reasonable assertion that it was in the DSDT.  Here is the text from the post I sent Gigabyte.  Note that they haven't responded to me since I sent this.  They  told me they didn't support OSX and there were no guarantees but then they came back as asked me what version of OSX I had the problem with.  I told them I had seen it in 10.5.5, 10.5.6, 10.5.7 10.5.8 and it had been reported in 10.6.

Before you bug Gigabyte, please lets just see what they respond to me with.

Here is the note from the big thread:
"The test was with a very simple ACPI table called MCFG.CFG which is a "Memory Mapped Configuration table".

The Gigabyte one looks like:
CODE
/*
    * Intel ACPI Component Architecture
    * AML Disassembler version 20061109
    *
    * Disassembly of MCFG.dat, Thu Nov 27 19:59:58 2008
    *
    * ACPI Data Table [MCFG]
    *
    * Format: [HexOffset DecimalOffset ByteLength]  FieldName : FieldValue
    */

   [000h 000  4]                    Signature : "MCFG"    /* Memory Mapped Configuration table */
   [004h 004  4]                 Table Length : 0000003C
   [008h 008  1]                     Revision : 01
   [009h 009  1]                     Checksum : 14
   [00Ah 010  6]                       Oem ID : "GBT   "
   [010h 016  8]                 Oem Table ID : "GBTUACPI"
   [018h 024  4]                 Oem Revision : 42302E31
   [01Ch 028  4]              Asl Compiler ID : "GBTU"
   [020h 032  4]        Asl Compiler Revision : 01010101

   [024h 036  8]                     Reserved : 0000000000000000

   [02Ch 044  8]                 Base Address : 00000000E0000000
   [034h 052  2]         Segment Group Number : 0000
   [036h 054  1]             Start Bus Number : 00
   [037h 055  1]               End Bus Number : 1F
   [038h 056  4]                     Reserved : 00000000

   Raw Table Data

     0000: 4D 43 46 47 3C 00 00 00 01 14 47 42 54 20 20 20  MCFG<.....GBT
     0010: 47 42 54 55 41 43 50 49 31 2E 30 42 47 42 54 55  GBTUACPI1.0BGBTU
     0020: 01 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E0  ................
     0030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1F 00 00 00 00              ............

That table on all of the other 730i boards I have in my sig looks like
CODE
/*
    * Intel ACPI Component Architecture
    * AML Disassembler version 20080926
    *
    * Disassembly of acpitbls/MCFG.aml, Wed Jan 28 18:25:06 2009
    *
    * ACPI Data Table [MCFG]
    *
    * Format: [HexOffset DecimalOffset ByteLength]  FieldName : FieldValue
    */

   [000h 000  4]                    Signature : "MCFG"    /* Memory Mapped Configuration table */
   [004h 004  4]                 Table Length : 0000003C
   [008h 008  1]                     Revision : 01
   [009h 009  1]                     Checksum : 38
   [00Ah 010  6]                       Oem ID : "010809"
   [010h 016  8]                 Oem Table ID : "OEMMCFG "
   [018h 024  4]                 Oem Revision : 20090108
   [01Ch 028  4]              Asl Compiler ID : "MSFT"
   [020h 032  4]        Asl Compiler Revision : 00000097

   [024h 036  8]                     Reserved : 0000000000000000

   [02Ch 044  8]                 Base Address : 00000000FC000000
   [034h 052  2]         Segment Group Number : 0000
   [036h 054  1]             Start Bus Number : 00
   [037h 055  1]               End Bus Number : 1F
   [038h 056  4]                     Reserved : 00000000
   Invalid zero length subtable

   Raw Table Data

     0000: 4D 43 46 47 3C 00 00 00 01 38 30 31 30 38 30 39  MCFG<....8010809
     0010: 4F 45 4D 4D 43 46 47 20 08 01 09 20 4D 53 46 54  OEMMCFG ... MSFT
     0020: 97 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FC  ................
     0030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1F 00 00 00 00              ............

See the difference in address?

Anyway I tried a bios with the Gigabyte's addressed changed to FC and I didn't see the video memory range move up in memory like I thought it would. In the end it looks like it just relocated ACPI. Didn't do any further tests as it looked like we were back to needing a vgabios update.

So here's the deal with that - the DFI is the only other 9400 board on the market as far as I can tell. I couldn't directly use that vga bios on the Gigabyte as their video out ports are different and has a different nvcap. You basically end up with non-working video on boot because of it.

Arti's tool for decoding nvcap (nvcapmaker) for our hackintosh use knows where to locate this information in a nvidia vgabios but damn if I can. It's encoded (as in not the same hex you see generated by nvcap maker) and could possibly be in several locations.

I've tried contacting Arti through email to ask him about this but he hasn't responded and doubt he will.

Only way to easily compare is to get vgabios's that are identical releases for the same gpu with different ports on each card (i.e. let's say a 7300GT with dual dvi vs. a 7300GT with vga+dvi). That's been a needle in a haystack.

Reverse engineering Arti's program (nvcap located in NVCapMaker's resources directory) isn't something easy for me to do either.

If anybody finds that info out, let me know.

My only other choice is to take one of the 9300 vgabios's and make it think it's a 9400 for a test. Those vgabios's share the same nvcap.

Anyway, here's the bios for the Gigabyte with the one byte MCFG.CFG change and nothing else touched. It's based on F3a. I doubt it helps at all but you can give it a shot if you like."

[netcastle]

dlach,

Your dedication to this board is becoming legendary.  Thanks for all your hard work.  I wish there was a way I could throw you some karma.

net

[olegischinski]

hallo,

my experiences with this board are a little bit different.
I installed 10.5.6 for month using this Guide (Thanks!), only using the patched BIOS and kexts described above (optional only OpenHaltRestart.kext), but there were no problems with this 2GB limitation - here are 2x2GB-Rams in it. I had many problems with the update to 10.5.7, solved it (don't know how) with my MBP and an extern HDD. I tried the update to 10.5.8 via Apple-Software-Update ... and it works. No try with SL.

Only for information, no question - sorry ...