3 replies to this topic

[Tony Aiello]

I've got a PowerColor X1600 XT PCIe w/ 256 MB VRAM. Using the version of Natit off of Uphuck's 10.4.9 v1.3 DVD, I'm able to get:

• Full resolution support and switching
• Monitor sleep
• Full Color
• QE/CI
• Rotation

What I can't get is dual display - neither dual DVI (which is the what's on the back of the card) nor DVI + VGA; haven't tried dual VGA 'cause it's not important to me.

There are numerous threads related to the Natit extension, and many, many mentions of dual display across them (as a Google search will reveal). The trouble is, some of the best (sounding) fixes I've encountered are over a year old and seem to break the current kernel extension (in particular, the .plist supplied by gaucho - in a thread with 37 pages to date). There's so much information, it's just too much to wade through - and since so much of it seems out of date....

Is there a more current discussion on the subject of dual display with x1600 cards? Does anyone know of a fix for my card?

Thanks in advance for your help!

On a broader note: while these forums are helpful, it's unfortunate that the wiki seems to be languishing. The forums are great for in-flight discussions, but the real power of the wiki is that it aggregates knowledge about a topic once the discussion has been settled. The most recent references to the Natit drives on the wiki date back to the end of 2006. I'm sure things have happened between now and then!

[bofors]

The trouble is, some of the best (sounding) fixes I've encountered are over a year old...

Regarding the age of Natit releases, the point is that this versions of Natit continue to work for most people. Personally, I am running 10.4.8 and use Natit dual v 0.02 and probably continue this until the 10.5 issues get flushed out. I will only consider developing a new version of Natit if the existing ones fail to provide me with dual display support on 10.5

... and seem to break the current kernel extension (in particular, the .plist supplied by gaucho - in a thread with 37 pages to date).

While I certainly have not read the thread you mention, I do not understand what you mean by this.

There's so much information, it's just too much to wade through -

Sure, but nobody wants to spend their time organizing things here either. I am certainly not doing it any more.

and since so much of it seems out of date....

The information here should be current with respect to 10.4 (Tiger).

OSx86 development occurs in cycles, the last major round of development which gave us a new kernel and Natit, was almost a year ago. Now, that 10.5 (Leopard) has been released, we are in middle of new developement round (that actually may be less significant that last one in terms of the amount of work needed to break through issues and the significance of those break throughs).

Because there appear to be few technical barriers to upgrading OSx86 to 10.5, I would expect that 10.5 (Leopard) OSx86 development will largerly be done in the next month or so, perhaps with the release of OSx86 10.5.1. This will be probably represtate the state of OSx86 for the next year or so.

Frankly, if you are still not getting dual display support on Leopard by a month or so from now, I would just get another graphics card, specifically, an Nvidia one known to work. They really are not that expersive compared to the amount of time and skill needed to develop new versions of Natit.

[Tony Aiello]

I gave the Natit Dual v .02 a shot - sadly, it didn't seem to recognize my card at all.... But then, all I did was run the package installer off of Uphuck's disk. Perhaps I missed a step in there?

I hope you didn't infer from my post that I was necessarily complaining about the age of the Natit releases. I actually find it quite encouraging to know that they are stable enough to not have needed an update since the wiki made mention of them. Since, however, that has not been my experience with other bits of OSx86, I assumed that meant the wiki was out of date.

The Natit driver, aside from the lack of dual display support (for me, at the moment), really is very slick. It correctly identifies the card in System profiler, sleeps, runs like a rocket.... I'm truly very pleased with the amount of functionality I have at the moment, so if the answer is "dual display's not feasible for your card" I'll not cry - I'll still be very grateful for what I have! I'd just like to know if there is a reasonably-easy way to get at that last little bit of missing functionality.

While I certainly have not read the thread you mention, I do not understand what you mean by this.

I replaced the Info.plist in the Natit x1600 kext with the dualx1600.plist file in the archive guacho supplied - renaming guacho's file to "Info.plist". I rebooted my machine, and the driver didn't load. When I tried to put the original Info.plist back in the kext, the OS complained (on reboot) that the kext was broken and needed to be reinstalled.

Sure, but nobody wants to spend their time organizing things here either. I am certainly not doing it any more.

Fair enough. Can't think of a good solution, other than encouraging people to keep the wiki up to date with their findings. (Of course, if people like me disbelieve what they see on the wiki....)

Frankly, if you are still not getting dual display support on Leopard by a month or so from now, I would just get another graphics card, specifically, an Nvidia one known to work. They really are not that expersive compared to the amount of time and skill needed to develop new versions of Natit.

Again - fair enough. I truly am grateful for the effort that has gone into the current state of OSx86. Truly impressive.

Thanks for the reply!

[bofors]

I gave the Natit Dual v .02 a shot - sadly, it didn't seem to recognize my card at all.... But then, all I did was run the package installer off of Uphuck's disk. Perhaps I missed a step in there?

I doubt it.

I hope you didn't infer from my post that I was necessarily complaining about the age of the Natit releases.

Not at all, I was trying to give you my perspective.