netcastle Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 BTW - the >2Gb is quite a simple fix. its in the bios (not in dsdt), have fun searching. -D- Do you even have this board? Don't be a child and then call others children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreekoNature Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Hi there, Im mostly interesting in this mobo + 3D-Card combination, because I want a multi-purpose setup: - energy efficient when running 24/7 for torrents using the internal GF9400 - some extra-potential for gaming with extra 3D-card Can I deactivate the 3D-card manually when I dont use it? (BTW: How is this feature designed on "original Apple Hardware"?) How would you rate this board regarding energy efficiency? I want to run it on Pentium Dual E2200 @ 45W Thanks-a-lot! FoN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrizzle Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 no, you can't toggle between the two graphics boards, you use one or the other. this feature doesn't work on anything that I know of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreekoNature Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Yes, you can choose which GPU to use: you can control the whole thing via system settings / energy options: see: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?m...17� there you can define which GPU to take (i.e: Battery: NF9400 / Cabled: NF9600) Anybody using this mobo for their hackintosh: can you tell the OS to use only the embedded GPU 9400 even though you are not in battery but 'cabled' mode? Can you choose that without rebooting? that would be a solution :-) thanks! Admin: check this doc's encoding... its served as UTF-8 but declared as ISO-8859-1 :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrizzle Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 As far as I know, there isn't any way to do this with this mainboard...but, what's the point? To save a couple of watts when you're not gaming? I'd just throw whatever gpu in it you'd normally use and call it good. Any environmental savings involved are negated by virtue of the manufacture of TWO graphics boards in this situation. Will the watts-to-cents make sense when you consider you've purchased two gpus? I can see doing this with a notebook, but what's the point in a desktop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreekoNature Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 running 24/7 a system as router/mailserver/torrent on about 19W or 120W makes a huge difference for ya pocket in quick time :-) have you recently heart about climate changes, ... by the way? so my idea was to set up this bord with efficient components for 24/7 uptimes, but still will be able to boost some potential for at least medium 3D experience through a dedicated 3D-card tuned in when I need it. I dont speak of ultra low voltage cpu, but sth like Pentium E2200 Dual. Combined with a 2,5"-drive, 4 gig of 667 ram and and a descent graphic unit with 512mb it will still cope with good quality settings of most games at 1280x720 (I use a projector) whilst being able to dim performance down to let it run for long instances and energy saving ... cu FoN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrizzle Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Cite your sources on 19w versus 120w. One is at base draw and one is under load. Basically you're assuming that the climate will shift back to normal if you save a few watts while the system isn't under load (you do realize the the 9800's draw isn't significantly higher than the 9400 when neither are under load) That's silly. Climate change....c'mon, the manufacture of the second video card just negated any environmental benefit you think you would get. Not to mention the separate shipping, packaging, etc that went into both GPUs. Sorry, I think you're just being silly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreekoNature Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 are you an american kid or what? That's silly. Climate change....c'mon ... Sorry, I think you're just being silly thats not silly... read the facts about IT and energy consumption ... globally .. not me alone, of course :-) besides: calculate the whole year for energy prices getting higher and higher ... why should I waste when I can prevent wasting? Cite your sources on 19w versus 120w. One is at base draw and one is under load. ... and yes, this was my intention. please read. I want a full capable gaming machine that can low down performance when I let it run for long instances ... you dont want to understand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrizzle Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I understand, I just think it's a bit misguided. It might save you some watts in the long run, but it doesn't account for the manufacture, disposal, shipping, etc of the second GPU and everything associated with it. Also, you misquoted me and I would appreciate it if you either removed it or replaced it with the full quote. Your post makes it seem that I call climate change silly. I think your approach is silly. It's like buying foreign grown organic apples. Sure, it's organic, but it's an ecological nightmare creating and shipping them. Either way, I hope it works out for you. I'll just agree to disagree at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlach Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 [GUIDE] Installing a retail 10.5.6 DVD on the GA-E7AUM-DS2H ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Caveat: I have gotten this installed to an IDE HD from both an IDE and a SATA DVD drive. I see no reason why this wouldn't work with a SATA HD, but I haven't tried. Also, this method works for me if you have better kexts, I'd like to hear about them. Other people advocate using a MBP restore disk, which may well be a fine approach. UPDATE: Blueknight says he used this guide to install on a SATA HD. You'll want the OrangeHDIconFix.kext (see necessary files below). WARNING - follow this guide at your own risk I take no responsibility if you bork your board. I have done this several times while working it out so it is pretty low risk. KNOWN ISSUES: As of now, this mobo only works with 2GB of ram. Diabolic is currently teasing everyone in the topic with a hint that it can be fixed in the BIOS which has "the wrong allocations". Any clarity welcome. Restart doesn't work. Shutdown does. Sleep works but audio and ethernet are hosed after returning from sleep. Rumor has it that nForceLAN.kext fixes the ethernet after sleep issue, I haven't tried it yet. UPDATE: Blueknight has verified that nForceLan fixes LAN problem upon wake from sleep. He also reports that OpenHaltRestart fixes the restart problem (see necessary files below). The audio problem on wake from sleep remains unresolved as does the 2GB limit. Steps ------- 1) Acquire the necessary files, listed at the end of this post, and prepare a boot CD with the image also listed at the end of this post (NEWISO.iso). 2) Flash your BIOS with Koalala's updated bios. You must do this. Flashing the bios on this mobo is low risk due to its dual bios feature. Just unzip e7aumd2hf3x.zip and copy to a FAT formatted USB stick. Reboot and go into Qflash at the first screen. 3) Boot from the NEWISO boot CD. Hit return twice at the prompt. Remove the boot CD and put in the Retail 10.5.6 DVD. When it prompts for device ID take the default (9f). 4) Once the retail disk boots, pick your language and then before proceeding, open the disk utility from the uitilities menu bar. If you don't see your disk listed on the left hand side, you didn't get your disk cabling/jumpers set properly for IDE master slave. 5) Select your disk from the left hand pane and pick partition from the right hand pane. Create your partitioning scheme however you like but be sure click on the option button and many sure it is GUID partition otherwise you can't install a retail DVD. If you don't know how to do this look HERE for a reasonble guide. Also make sure to take the default format (Mac OSX Extended journeled). If you find yourself reinstalling, erase the partition you are installing to before proceeding. 6) Exit the disk manager and continue with the installation. When the installation is done, put your boot cd back in as it reboots. When you get to the prompt for device id pick 80 if you have only one drive, otherwise you may have to fiddle with the number 81, 82 to get to your drive. 7) After OSX has booted and you've done all the account creation stuff, get the following on to your desktop either via ethernet or a USB stick (get them at the bottom of this post). UInstaller.zip (OSX Univeral installer), dsmos.kext, SMBIOSenabler.kext, AppleHDA.kext. 8) Open UInstaller.zip by double-clicking an navigating into the folder (it is a good idea to read the user guide at this point). Start UInstaller by double clicking on it. 9) Choose the Hard drive to install on at the top (your OSX partitiion). Select the "Install PC_EFI V9 Chameleon" check box. Select the "Install Custom Kexts from HD" checkbox and browse to the location (desktop) of the dsmos.kext, SMBIOSenabler.kext and AppleHDA.kext and select them all. They will appear in the box next to the browse button. 10) Do NOT select any other check box. In particular make sure that the "Apply kext package" check box under "Select motherboard package to install" is NOT checked. 11) Click on the "Install" button at the bottom left corner. When it is done, exit the Universall Installter. 12) Open the disk utility, in the finder under Applications->Uitlities. Select your OSX volume in the left pane and click on "Repair Disk Permissions". Wait for it to complete, it will take a few minutes. 13) Remove the boot CD and Shutdown (not restart). 14) Thats it! Start up and enjoy. Necessary Files: ------------------- UIinstaller (I used V1.2) look HERE (thanks PCWiz!) Koalala's BIOS -e7aumd2hf3x.zip from Koalala's post 403 in this forum HERE (thanks Koalala!) NEWISO.ISO, DSMOS.kext and SMBIOSenabler - get the NEWISO.zip HERE (thanks Wingrunr21!). After you install OSX open the iso by double clicking, double click on initrd.img navigate into Extra->Extensions and pull out dsmos.kext and SMBIOSenabler.kext onto your desktop. AppleHDA.kext - pull it out of ALC889A_1056_fix.zip from HERE. (thanks tmongkol!). You don't need the other kext thanks to Koalala work getting dsdt into the BIOS (also don't need NVkush or any other graphics injector). nForceLAN.pkg - get it HERE be sure to install using the pkg.zip. OpenHaltRestart - get it HERE OrangeHDIconFix - (only if you have STATA hard drives) get it HERE (thanks PCWiz!) Any help with the sleep issues welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreekoNature Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 hey, thanks for that! FoN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phamtq Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Thanks! I'm just getting started with this and now I have a guide. Thanks a million! Update: Just went through the steps and I've hit some problems. Here's my system first: Intel E5200 @ 2.5GHz 2GB RAM (1 stick) 80GB drive for Vista 64-bit (attached at SATA2_0) 250GB drive just for OSX (attached at SATA2_1) Using Macbook (Unibody Alu) restore disk Using only DVI I've made it to step 3 and when I get to the light gray screen with the darker Apple logo, the "wait" icon spins for a couple of minutes and then I get a kernel / system panic. I haven't tried any other method at all except downloading the boot 132 (the one for "noobs") and I got farther with that one (it goes to the colorful purple background and the spinning rainbow ball keeps spinning). The only thing I've done since I've bought the board was update the bios to the one in the instructions and changed my BIOS settings back to what they originally were. I've read a few post and it seems like I need to install EFI v9 or disable power management to get rid of the panics. Is there something I need to enable/disable/change in the BIOS to get things running? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x4nd0r Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Diabolik, disable nx-bit and or scale down up or down the Memory allocated for the 9400? -x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiaboliK Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Diabolik, disable nx-bit and or scale down up or down the Memory allocated for the 9400? -x i believe its a byte swap in the ssdt section of the bios, something called memory allocation. you may have to check in with Signal64 to be 100% sure. dont pm him here just find us @ irc.osx86.hu #natit -D- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signal64 Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 The test was with a very simple ACPI table called MCFG.CFG which is a "Memory Mapped Configuration table". The Gigabyte one looks like: /* * 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 /* * 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. f3amod1.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlach Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Thanks! I'm just getting started with this and now I have a guide. Thanks a million! Update: Just went through the steps and I've hit some problems. Here's my system first: Intel E5200 @ 2.5GHz 2GB RAM (1 stick) 80GB drive for Vista 64-bit (attached at SATA2_0) 250GB drive just for OSX (attached at SATA2_1) Using Macbook (Unibody Alu) restore disk Using only DVI I've made it to step 3 and when I get to the light gray screen with the darker Apple logo, the "wait" icon spins for a couple of minutes and then I get a kernel / system panic. I haven't tried any other method at all except downloading the boot 132 (the one for "noobs") and I got farther with that one (it goes to the colorful purple background and the spinning rainbow ball keeps spinning). The only thing I've done since I've bought the board was update the bios to the one in the instructions and changed my BIOS settings back to what they originally were. I've read a few post and it seems like I need to install EFI v9 or disable power management to get rid of the panics. Is there something I need to enable/disable/change in the BIOS to get things running? Sorry the Guide was not clear enough. I have only done this with a Retail 10.5.6 DVD. You should follow a different set of instructions for the restore disk. There is a lot of discussion about this on the first couple of pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalala Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Signal64, here is the VGA BIOS module with fixed NVCAP. I didn't try to integrate it in a BIOS. I extracted it from DFI, corrected NVCAP with Gigabyte one and corrected the checksum. I'm not sure it will work since because it's difficult to understand NVCAP location in BIOS. The NVCAP is recognized correctly in NVCAP Maker 1.4. I let you test it, I don't have my PC during week, only week-ends. NVCAP : 0400000000000100020000000000000700000000 9400DFIGBNV.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phamtq Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 My goal with this board is to get Plex running playing 720p movies and tv shows and Optical Out working. I don't mind that the Ethernet doesn't wake up from sleep or that I have to select Shutdown instead of Restart. Heck, I'm willing to do with 2GB RAM at this point. With that in mind, here's what I've done and the problems I've encountered: - Downloaded koalala's firmware and update the BIOS - Used Disk Utilities on my MBP to partition the drive (selected the GUID option) - Did the 'open OSInstall.mpkg' from the terminal (used an original Macbook Unibody restore disk) - Grabbed the AppleDecrypter.kext from the Uinstaller - Ran Uinstaller with the following settings: - Timeout 8 seconds - Resolution to 1360 x 768 - Installed PC_EFI v9 - Installed custom kexts: AppleDecrypter.kext, SMBIOSEnabler.kext - Put the drive into the Gigabyte system - Went into Safe Boot - Set up account, etc.... - Deleted Don't Steal..........kext - Shutdown the computer and turned it back on Here are the problems I've encountered: - When I boot into regular mode, it kernel panic'd. Using verbose mode it said it had a problem with AppleHDA. I moved AppleHDA.kext out of Extensions and when I tried again. This time is didn't panic but hung at NVEthernet. I then downloaded nForceLan.kext and used kexthelper to install it. It shows that it recongnizes the ethernet and then immediately does a panic. I've tried it with older versions of nForceLan.kext with the same result. - On my previous attempts, I used the default BIOS (F3a) and Uinstaller's OSx86_Essentials kext package, IntelCPUMDisabler.kext, SMBIOSEnabler.kext, and then ran DSDT patcher to create DSDT.aml. First time I did it, it had 1 error but I used the -f flag and it created one for me. After booting into safe boot, I placed the dsdt.aml on / and when I restarted into regular mode it made the panics go away. - I tried to combine the two methods: upgraded BIOS, minimal kexts, and placing my dsdt.aml on /. That also made it hang on NVEthernet but also made it so that Graphics/Displays wasn't correct (Audio too) in safe boot. Removing dsdt.aml brought back the correct Graphics/Displays information but causes a panic in regular boot. I see that netcastle has his system up and running so I'm hopeful that I can do something to made this all work so I can run Plex. I might look over DiaboliK's #71 post again. Any insight you folks can give would be helpful. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalala Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 If you use patched BIOS + DSDT.aml it's like you use original F3A since the only part modified in the BIOS is overrided. And you don't have to delete Don't Steal Mac OS X.kext. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlach Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 Can't comment much on the restore disk method, but I did have trouble with AppleDecrypt so I used dsmos.kext. You should try the dsmos.kext and definitely the AppleHDA.kext from my guide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phamtq Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Booyah! I got the system running just the way I like it! I want to thank everyone who posted information on how to get all this running. Here's what I did this time around: - I downloaded OSx86 Tools and ran in it safe boot. I then enabled Quartz GL and checked: - Repair permissions - Set Extension permissions - Clear extension cache - Update prebinding - Touch Extension folder I think repairing permissions did the trick. With audio I had to select the device (Digital Out). I also applied the Info.plist modifications that were in netcastle's signature. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get more than 2GB's of RAM working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radov4n Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Would anyone of you, success-stories, answer a simple question: is there a way to get hdmi audio working with this board? Or is it completely hopeless? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HardwareMack Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Booyah! I got the system running just the way I like it! I want to thank everyone who posted information on how to get all this running. Here's what I did this time around: - I downloaded OSx86 Tools and ran in it safe boot. I then enabled Quartz GL and checked: - Repair permissions - Set Extension permissions - Clear extension cache - Update prebinding - Touch Extension folder I think repairing permissions did the trick. With audio I had to select the device (Digital Out). I also applied the Info.plist modifications that were in netcastle's signature. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get more than 2GB's of RAM working. please keep us updated sir, this is the new generation of osx86, Thank You! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalala Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Signal64, video memory mapping is in DSDT, the table you modified is the memory allocation for ACPI tables. There is a MEM section in IGPU, I think we need to modify this to DFI one. But this section is veeeeeery long (1/4 of the DSDT !). It will require a lot of work but we can do it. I think changing BIOS version will not change anything. Could you confirm after your 9300 VBIOS test ? The best thing to do is to try loading DFI dsdt directly and then correct it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signal64 Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Signal64, video memory mapping is in DSDT, the table you modified is the memory allocation for ACPI tables.There is a MEM section in IGPU, I think we need to modify this to DFI one. But this section is veeeeeery long (1/4 of the DSDT !). It will require a lot of work but we can do it. I think changing BIOS version will not change anything. Could you confirm after your 9300 VBIOS test ? The best thing to do is to try loading DFI dsdt directly and then correct it. Yea, It's acpi.. that's what i said. Since I don't get kernel panics it was something to test anyway. Where in DSDT.. If your refering to the WMI info, no that's not it. What heading are you looking under? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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