I have started this thread in order for us to have a seperate space away from the GMA 950 issues that are being discuess in most other threads.

Just to explain this is a discussion thread dedicated to hopefully getting the GMA X3100 working on our laptops. Let me be clear on this though....there are already many systems out there with the GMA X3100 working. I would highly suggest that before you post here, you read this ongoing thread.

I have a compaq c727us. It has a GMA X3100, which is why I'm here. I have leo 10.5 9a581 installed and everything works so far except the video. I followed the previous thread mentioned above and as far as I've been able to get is the blue screen on the internal display and the external display working. The only way I can use it outside of -x safe mode is by removing the AppleIntelGMA3100.kext extension, which gives me the 1024x768 display resolution only. Of course it is hard to decipher from the previous thread wether or not I actually went through the right steps. I basically copied over the natit.kext provided by Paulicat and the AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext from the original Leopard install for 10.5. Repaired permissions and attempted a reboot. I was able to get the External display working fine, just not the internal. If there was anything I did wrong there, please let me know. I think maybe a step-by-step posted here, after we get this thing nailed down, would be a good idea.

GGavalas,
It sounds like you are in the same boat as us Dell folks. Stay tuned to this thread and hopefully we will get a solution at some point.

Same story here. In terms of the time these things take it's tempting to wait for one of the big guns to release a complete package. Well, almost tempting! In this instance I am using an Acer Extensa 5620 with 965M motherboard and GMA X3100. A lot of people bought this machine from Best Buy a few weeks ago when on promotion. Having a 200GB hard drive makes dual and tri boot an attractive proposition, at last!

I'm actually doing a triboot right now. Vista for work/support reasons and Xubuntu Gutsy Gibbon along with Leopard. I wanted to note that I did try earlier today installing EFI, thus utilizing the real kernel instead of the patched kernel. I was curious if the natit.kext trick would work once the system was updated given the posibility of an update to the stock AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext. I updated to 10.5.1 and applied Paulicats natit.kext and ended up with the same result--External Display working great, no internal display...just blue screen. Although efi did allow it to update, since it emulates the proper bios and the non-patched kernel can be used with it. Don't know if the same result would occur on the dells or the acer, but I just wanted to throw my experience out there for those interested. So I removed my AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext from the extensions folder again, restored the patched kernel, and am back to square one.

I think I'm going to have to buy Everest unless there is another way to get Vista to accurately report the vendor dev id of my X3100... though I'm fairly sure it's working already via the external monitor, certainly I can change the screen resolutions and the spot effects are there. I tri boot, Vista, Leopard, Tiger, though the latter two aren't worth booting into with just vesa.

Does anyone here also have an S-Video port? I'm wondering if this isn't the reason the natit.kext isn't working. Possibly a three display scenario causing the internal display to be a third device id. I'm not good at hardware level in Mac software, so I may be way off here, but I figured it was worth considering. I figured I would ask on this thread if anyone else here has the svideo port before bugging those with working setups to see if they have svideo ports or not. Just trying to go back to the possible obvious.

OK, I finally got it working. Here is what I did from a base brazilmac image.

1) copied the brazilmac image to the partition I wanted to run it from using dd under linux.
2) booted the system using the -x option to get into safe run mode.
3) under safe mode I moved /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext to /AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext to remove it from the extensions and keep a backup copy. This gave me a display to work with outside of safe mode. Not really necessary, but gave me the ability to reboot as I needed to without having to hit -x each time.
4) I rebooted to get out of Safe mode.
5) I installed efi using the following instructions
http://www.digitmemo.com/articles/734/howt...-in-hackintosh/
(in those instructions, after it tells you to reboot and hit f8, make sure you type mach_kernel.patched, not just kernel.patched...that was a typo in the instructions)
6) I booted the system with the real osx kernel and connected the external display.
7) I ran software update to update the system to 10.5.1
8) Upon reboot, only the external display would work. I backed up the copy of Natit.kext already in /System/Library/Extensions. I copied the latest Natit.kext made by Paulicat into /System/Library/Extensions, the ran "sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/Natit.kext" and "sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/Natit.kext". (You can get the Natit.kext from Paulicat at this thread - http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=70282)
9) And this was the key that I missed before. I removed the AppleIntelIntegratedFrameBuffer.kext file from /System/Library/Extensions, making sure to keep a backup but removing it from the folder altogether.

I think overall, my problem here was that I didn't have the full instructions. I'm not necessarily dependant on step-by-step instructions, but I just saw the reference to removing the AppleIntelIntegratedFrameBuffer today as I was going back through the threads. On Nov. 12th, paulicat had stated "If you are dealing with an X3100, you DO NOT care about AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer as that is ONLY for gma950's." I didn't realize that removing that file was the key for me. I hope this helps.

I want to make sure I was clear in the above post. I went through all of those steps, except for removing AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext and it didn't work for me. In fact I tried to use the stock version of that file as indicated was necessary for the 950 chipset. When I removed it, it immediately began working, I assume because it was then able to use the AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext instead.

errandwolfe:
I have a a Dell D630 with a X3100 same as you and currently am unable to use the accelerated internal display, external display is fine. I can use the internal display removing the X3100 kext and using VESA mode but @ 1024x768

Tried paulicats new X3100 Natit (No Luck) - Same result just ext. display. Also removed the AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer and 950 kexts - same.

This is all on a stock Leopard 10.5.1, stock kernel and pc efi v5.

My CRT/LCD switch (Fn-F8) works but I get a corrupted internal display. I wonder if there is a way to inject a resolution change into the driver with a shortcut key?

Hoping for a solution...

Ah, I really hoped the answer was installing pc efi and using 10.5.1, which seems to have worked for some. Still to try that on my Acer though my heads too fuggy with flu at the moment. Not good news. Don't give up!

Still working on getting EFI running on my laptop. Putting up a lot more of a fight then my desktop, but I do hope to have some time to dedicate to this and I will report back my results. In the meantime please if anyone else discovers simply loaded PC-EFI fixes things for you, please let us know.

Am I reading it correctly that the X3100 internal display issue is affecting primarily Dell machines? Does anyone have any idea whether the vanilla driver will work fine on my X3100 'IBM' ThinkPad (x61 tablet)?

It should work fine on your machine. Other Lenovo machines work fine (including somebody reporting a Thinkpad X-series tablet, although I can't remember which one.)

Hardboil,
Please I am trying to keep this thread as on topic as possible. If you have installation questions NOT regarding the X3100 please take those to the appropriate forum. I am not trying to be rude, but I have watched a simple thread about one specific issue bloat up with other non-related questions. This makes it very difficult for people to find answers regarding the issue the thread was originally started to discuss.

Quote:-

05:52 Detosx Hi netkas. Stuck with X3100, here, lol. Works with an external screen but not the laptop's own screen.
05:52 Server ToT (ToT@4FC34717.27F676BB.AC5DDFA6.IP) has joined the room
05:52 Server Koen2X (Koen2X@freedom-AF357626.hsd1.mi.comcast.net) has joined the room
05:53 netkas get IODT ioreg dump from macbook with gmax3100
05:53 netkas if u want it working
05:54 Detosx Ah, I need to find someone with a new macbook.
05:54 Server alqaseer has quit IRC (Broken pipe)
05:54 Server taribowest is now known as taribo|away
05:55 netkas ioreg -l -w0 -p IODeviceTree > dump.txt - that's what u need to get and then to give me


05:57 netkas and i need such dump from macmini


Any takers?

I have an Apple Store 5 minutes down the street from me; I could check to see if they have the new Macbooks yet, and grab an ioreg from it, but I won't promise anything.

Dax,
If you could do that we would all REALLY appreciate it. Most of the Dell and Compaq users as well as a few of the Acer one are all stuck with this problem, it is extremely frustrating.

Thank you in advance for any help you could provide.

Should I get any Macbook kexts too?

Netkas in his blog is saying that he found out we can get rid of natit in some situations and that he needs infor frorm real macs. In the P.S he adds "P.S. we already have this dumps from MBP with gf8600 (15″ and 17″) and from MacBook. do not post dumps from this systems." He must have posed this after speaking to me, I dip in and out of the room on irc and saw he'd linked to it. So, keep an eye on his blog!

Well, I bring bad news. The two Apple Stores near me still have the crappy GMA 950 Macbooks. Maybe they'll get the new ones in a couple weeks. Ergo, I was unable to grab said kexts/ioreg. Sorry.

Hmm, I wonder if Netkas isn't referring to the older Macbook with said G950.

I'm in irc.osx86.hu #leopard

Yep, saw netkas briefly this morning and asked - the macbook he got a IODT ioreg dump from was an older model with GMA G50. I'm asking around but not much luck finding anyone, yet.

I've got a couple of Apple Stores around here and a Fry's. I'm thinking about stopping by to get an extra SATA drive and to get an IO dump from an X3100 MB. Can anyone post detailed instructions of how exactly I would do that? Would I need an admin password? Can I just bring a USB key to dump to?

If admin password is needed, can I just bring a full install of OS X on a USB disk and boot off that?

My head is messed up with flu so I hope I come across with some clarity. I will check over and edit tomorrow. Best of luck to others, especially errandwolfe and other Dell users.

Okay, got it working on my ACER Extensa 5620-6830 laptop which has the famous Intel GMA X3100 on a 965M motherboard. I did so without EFI or the latest 10.5.1 vanilla or otherwise kernal (that's for a later date).

First off, I am assuming that along with the TOH RC2 install DVD you have done the right thing and bought Leopard from your Apple dealer. It's not expensive and they deserve a visit. Who knows, you might find yourself leaving with a Mac Mini or iMac! wink.gif

To get this working (in my case) you need the following kexts and Natit.kext. I won't upload but want instead give credit and links to the original posters. So, the specific ones that I used I found here:-

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...0282&st=140

Page 8 of the thread qz1722's post

Kext_Helper.zip ( 1.2MB )
10.5.1GMAX3100.zip ( 259.38K )

I didn't use his link to Natit.kext but this one:-

Page 9 of the thread, mitro's post

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...0282&st=160

Natit.kext.zip ( 19.68K )


Pop these onto a CD or onto an SD card.

Here's what I did.

1. Having used Gparted to partition the hard drive I used uphuck 10.4.9 v1.3 (later uphucks don't see the Sata hard drive on this particular laptop) install DVD to format two F32 partitions to Mac OS Extended Journalled, giving those partitions the names Tiger and Leopard; I installed Tiger on the second one (partition table is mbr Vista / Leopard / Tiger) and Leopard on the first. I will need to repair the Vista boot, obviously, but there are threads elsewhere for how to set that up and I hardly use Vista so I'm not in a hurry!

If you have problems installing Leopard as I did try using the -x command, by which I mean press F8 when booting from the Leopard IOH RC2 install DVD and type -x

When installing Leopard make sure you de-select all of the options in Customize.

Once you have installed Leopard, don't boot into the hard drive yet. Using the -x command again with the TOH DVD, let Leopard installer boot up again and then go to Terimal and type the command

/usr/misc/script.sh Leopard

(assuming you called your partition "Leopard", which in my case I did, otherwise substitute whatever name you gave it).

You are now ready to boot Leopard, albeit in my case it was a convoluted process initially requiring an external monitor, though I'm sure a shortcut could be found booting into the Tiger partition and accessing the Leopard partition from there...

Right, you're plugged into an external monitor?

It may be that you are able to boot straight into Leopard and find that X3100 works fine with an external monitor straight off.

In my case I had to - press F8 while booting. Type: -legacy cpus=1

Once Leopard is up and running, go to your Extensions folder. In my case, I click on my Leopard named hard drive, click on System, then click on Library, then click on Extensions.

I now removed all of the G950 kexts - there are four of them - to a folder on the desktop that I called Moved Kexts.

I removed AppleIntigratedFrameBuffer.kext also.

Now, pop in your CD with the Kexts that you downloaded and burned to CD or pop in your SD card reader and card. Drag the contents to the desktop.
Now unpackage the kext's zips on the desktop.
Now startup Kext Helper. Drag the Natit.kext and the two x3100 kexts - the latter two of which were in the 10.5.1GMAX3100.zip - into Kext Helper's window. Type in your admin password and click Easy Install. This will do all of the Terminal commands that you would otherwise have to type... chown and chmod, etc.

Now, this worked for me. Mileage will most probably vary. I was able to boot into Leopard without problem, without having to type either legacy or cpus=1. I can change screen resolutions (no more bleeping vesa...) and the graphical spot effects are all there and smooth.

Good luck

you test the multiboot with Acronis os selector?
anyone go OK with this procedure?

bye

The links I gave were dead. I updated them. If they go down again the thread you are looking for is: InsanelyMac Forum / Homebrew Macs (Home of OSx86). / Hardware / Drivers and the thread is called 'Users with GMA 950 / 3100 Real Macs needed here, Help us to fix the resolution change for hackintosh users'.

The Slug, Acronis OS Selector works fine, it even automatically detects the OS X partition as being bootable. I've been using that for a few months now on my old E1505

Hi ggavlas,
I was wondering if you have tried the non-efi method for the X3100 before you put in the efi, cuz the non-efi solution doesn't work for me, and I have heard in same cases even with efi installed, it doesn't solve the blue screen problem.

Since I'll have to wipe out my existing Vista installation with efi, I want to make sure if the effort is going to worth it

THanks

We may have some development here. Please check out the link below from Netkas' blog.:
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,9.msg307.html#msg307

Once you read that, what I say now will make sense....

OK, so I got to the point where I have an editable plist file. My question is, what exactly AM I supposed to edit?

Because I'm in a place where (1) Internet access is not very reliable and thus downloads are hard to come by, and (2) I don't have access to any extra hardware, I've been forced to try to find creative solutions to get Leopard working on my Lenovo R61i.

1) Boot from the CD. The one I have is ToH RC2. Boot with the "-x" option
2) Install.
3) Reboot from the CD. Again, boot with "-x".
4) Install the bootloader. ToH doesn't seem to do it on its own.
5) Edit com.apple.Boot.plist on the boot drive. Add the parameters "-v -s".
6) Install Natit.kext and dsmos.kext
7) Reboot from the hard drive. It should boot into single user mode
8) Run "kextload /System/Library/Extensions/Natit.kext; kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext"
9) Type "logout"

I suspect that Natit.kext needs to load before AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext, but I'm not familiar enough with Apple's setup to know exactly what's going on. Unfortunately, as I have it set up right now, I need to do the kextloads on every startup. Not very convenient, but it gets the system going.

Try the x3100-string file as your graphics string for the com.apple.boot.plist...
or just use my com.apple.boot.plist and see if it will work (put into /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist)

Cloud,
I appreciate your response, but I have already tried that method, and even tried it again just now using your files with no luck. The internal display simply goes black. That is the whole point behind the gfxutil app I referenced in my prior post. That app converts the hex string to a plist file. You then need to edit something in the plist file and then convert the new file back to hex, and THEN use that new string in the boot.plist file.

So I am left with the question, once I do convert the hex string to a plist, what exactly am I supposed to edit in that plist file?

UPDATE: OK, I am pretty sure once you create that plist file, what you need to edit is the EDID. Now if I only knew how to get the hex code (or whatever is in that plist) I could test it out.

putting in an EDID will cause a kernal panic :/

Well then what is the whole point of getting the hex dump into a plist file? If you are not supposed to change the EDID, what ARE you supposed to change?

OK, I made a little more progress here....I think.....

Once I had converted the GMAX3100 dump from a Macbook to the plist file, I removed the EDID identification string. I then converted that plist file back to hex format. I inserted the string into my Boot.plist file and....for a brief second I saw a blue screen before my LCD went dark.

My thoughts are that possibly the solution is not remove the EDID string from your converted plist file, but actually use an EDID string you generate from your own laptop. My main issue is I have no idea how to get the EDID string to use in the file.

Use moninfo under windows http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm and scroll down to RAW EDID base you'll see:
00: 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 0E BF 18 24 00 00 00 00
(etc)

copy it and put it in notepad or similar

remove the 00: 01: through to 70: and the join the remaining hex digits up to give
00FFFFFFFFFFFF000EBF182400000000 ... (total 128 bytes, it should be the same length as the plist data when you're done.)

This is the EDID data that you'd need for the file, if you need it in base64 (AP/////// etc) take the hex string and paste in into the top right box on http://www.paulschou.com/tools/xlate/ and click the button below the box, the base64 version will be in the bottom left box

Jim, Thanks for the assist. I was able to get the EDID string from my LCD, did all the converting back and forth, put the new device string in my boot.plsit and....

Still a no go. Have tried both with and without Natit and get the exact same results. When loginwindow.app starts up I get a brief blue screen and then the LCD goes black. Pretty sure the LCD is actually being powered down, not just a lack of a video signal.

Can you post the converted plist errandwolfe, and I'll take a look? I'd convert it myself but I trashed my leo partition.

Jim,
Here are both the converted plist and a text file with the Macbook string and the string for my laptop.

Thanks,

1st thought, width, height & refresh in plist are 1280x800@59 not 1440x900@60

change:
<key>AAPL01,Height</key>
<data>
hAMAAA==
</data>

<key>AAPL01,Refresh</key>
<data>
PgAAAA==
</data>

<key>AAPL01,Width</key>
<data>
oAUAAA==
</data>

If that doesn't work, another thing to try is deleting all of the AAPL01 keys as something may be affecting the internal display. I'm not sure if this will work but it's worth a try.

Jim,
Made the edits you suggested and recreated the hex string. Again tried both with and without Natit and am getting the exact same results. Once loginwindow.app starts I get a brief blue screen followed by my LCD going dark.

errandwolfe-

I am running a Dell D630 and was having the same issues that you have mentioned above (internal monitor goes black after blue screen). I hooked up my computer to an extrenal monitor and it pushed the video to that one properly; however, i still couldn't get the video to go internally. I then deleted all of my AppleIntelX3100 kexts and the AppleIntelFramBuffer kexy and voila! I had internal video. The next issue that i now have is that fact that my internal mouse doesn't work.

hope this helps.

ejlax

ejlax,
That does not mean your video is working. You are currently running in VESA mode. You have no quartz extreme and no core image. If you are more familiar with windows, it would be the equivalent of running a generic VGA driver versus the actual driver for your video card.

Okay that makes sense...i wasn't sure if yuo didn't have internal video at all or if you were jsut missing the QE/CI. I am in your same boat then...everytime i use a AppleIntelx3100.kext my internal monitor disappears. I fixed the mouse issue (reinstalled kext). My brother has a new macbook with the X3100 is there anything that i can copy off of that to aid in this process?

hi everyone,

Its nice to hear that there is progress with the X3100 problem.

I managed to make my Sony CR190E work with Paulicats Natit but its very hard to install. Everytime I try to reformat my hard drive (test purposes) and install Leo on it, when the time comes to install Natit, I have to boot in safe mode, remove AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext (version 1.4.20), install Natit.kext from Paulicat, repair permission, reboot. After reboot I see a white moving distored screen. To solve this, I have to enable voice over (command +F5) and imagine hovering blindy my mouse to the WHITE screen, or using the keyboard (arrow keys) to go to System Preferences (the voice will help me go there) and then go to DISPLAY to change my resolution. The display will only show if I reach 1024x768 .. I started from 800x600 .. the voice over getting totally annoying already .. lol. Anyway, the max resolution that my laptop can handle is supposedly 1280x800 (Windows) but In my OSX86 Leo install, it only has 1280x768 and I notice that bottom line is totally distored. To solve this, I have to install SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX and install a modified resolution which is 1280x800. It actually solve the resolution problem but I dont feel the RealMac touch, eventhough QE/CI is enabled. I feel like DisplayConfigX just forced it to view 1280x800 and my screen is ok but kinda blurry (far off from the real mac with x3100, display wise). Note: I'm using efi ver 8.0/MBR

Now that Ive explained the complication of my install, I was hoping there is an easier way for me not to do all the things listed above.

Here comes gfx-string!!! I kinda got excited and hoped I DONT have to do the voice over again! lol ...

Here is the problem. Im not as techy as you guys but I am really interested in learning and hoping to help/contribute too. I tried to read gfx-string forum from netkas and I might say that I got SOOO CONFUSED!! I didn't understand anything!! =(

I humbly request for a STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE (for noobs) on how to install GMAX3100 using GFX-STRING.

I honestly dont know where to start with gfx-string. What programs/tools that will be needed? What files? I only know how to get my EDID via Windows.

I understand that this is not yet confirmed to be working, but by this we can also share our experiences that might help others too. The chances of this to be solved will be quicker since more people is trying this new method possibility.

Your help will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

jabs

Jabonga,
Making a FAQ or instructions at this point would not really solve anything as we haven't really come upon a solution yet. As for instructions on how to use the gfxutil to create and editable plist file and then convert that back to a device string, all the instructions were in the post where you can download the gfxutil app.

Basically it is this:
1. Use xxd (this is a command line util included in OS X) to convert the GMA X3100 hex dump from a Macbook with the GMA X3100 to a binary file.
2. Use gfxutil to convert that binary file to a plist file.
3. Use the Propertly List Editor from XCode to edit the plist file for your specific hardware. Now this is the tricky part here as we have not yet figured out WHAT exactly to edit. I have already tried several things such as my EDID string, default screen resolution, and refresh rate.
4. Use gfxutil to convert the plist file back to binary.
5. Use xxd to convert the binary back to hex.
6. Insert the hex string into you boot.plist file.

There has been a lot of reported success using this method to get nVidia cards working. There has not yet been any success with the GMA X3100 though. Hopefully as more minds are applied to the problem we will figure out a solution.

confused

Not sure if I understand your question theSlug.

hey errandwolfe,

THanks for the guide. Im gonna try it tomorrow Im not sure if I can do it .. but Ill update you on what happened on my Troubleshooting. Thnx again