VESA 3 fix for boot sector.

[YOLY]

sorry for more annoying questions haha, but after i boot from darwin under -s, i tried to do the startupfiletool, but i get permission denied/disk full (probably still referring itself to the cdrom). Also i tried to get into the other volumes' directories, and i get permission denied as well. Am i missing any commands to allow it to write/read the harddisk?

 

This is what i have for the startupfiletool command:

 

startupfiletool /dev/rdisk0s1 </dev/disk3s1>/boot

[macgirl]

if you are using the Darwin CD, you can leave th normal boot, but when it asks for on which device you wahnt to install just type shell

 

then even the CDROM is a ReadOnly device, type

mount -uw /

dont care for the error mesages, then mount your disk where you have boot, type

mount -t /dev/disk3s1 /mnt

then type

startupfiletool /dev/rdisk0s1 /mnt/boot

 

the type of your partition can be msdos ntfs hfs cd9660 udf or other

[ZOleg]

Dont work on my GF6600 PCIEx - refresh rate still 60Hz

[YOLY]

wow, it worked on super old geforce 2 MX400. Thank you very much macgirl for your detail instructions!

[macgirl]

You're welcome, great that it work for you, for me it's stuck at 60hz, I'll try with another monitor. Or finally get a LCD

[trac]

You're welcome, great that it work for you, for me it's stuck at 60hz, I'll try with another monitor. Or finally get a LCD

 

Sorry Macgirl, but it is not the monitor. Ur monitor would go into standby, if it had been a wrong frequency. Did u ever try to use linux's xorg with vesa and a modeline or any other vesa driver tools? I would be very interessted in new Geforce cards that simply ignore CRTC (aka. VESA frequencies). And ur Geforce is also VERY new. Try it! Please. Maybe NVidia reacts to a bug report that is not only about a single card, but about a few.

 

To all people who have better refresh rates now: PLEASE REPORT IT AT THE WIKI! I would like to see some cards with above 60hz in the hardware compatible list.

 

- TRAC

PS. Hope it is not too techy now

[RobertX]

Hi!

 

I managed to track down the cause of the reboot with Darwin 8.0.1 Images (could be the prob of others too). The problem is that

a subfunction uses SSE opcodes, that need to have some CR4 flags set.

This should allow people with Geforce or ATI cards to use more than

60hz. Unfortunatly i was unable to test it, because my GeForce 6200

TC is NOT VBE 3 compatible, although NVIDIA says so. Now I would like

to have some feedback on it.

Just replace the code below, compile, use startupfiletool and it

should work. (USE AT UR OWN RISK!)

 

...hey trac...being an old macuser...i just took your boot.txt file...copied and pasted it into a copy of the boot file...then dragged the modified file back into /i386 folder...replacing the original...rebooted to 1280x1024x32...haven't tried refresh rate change yet...but works fine...and I have SiS 650 sse2 32mb

[macintox]

...hey trac...being an old macuser...i just took your boot.txt file...copied and pasted it into a copy of the boot file...then dragged the modified file back into /i386 folder...replacing the original...rebooted to 1280x1024x32...haven't tried refresh rate change yet...but works fine...and I have SiS 650 sse2 32mb

 

Do you changed the boot without using startupfiletool? Could you describe how exactly you did it?

 

Thx

[RobertX]

Do you changed the boot without using startupfiletool? Could you describe how exactly you did it?

 

Thx

 

...as I said, I got trac's boot.txt file from the link here...I opened it in textedit, selected all from the edit menu, copied the highlighted text. I then opened the /i386 folder and dragged the file named boot to my desktop...this made a copy of the file...I opened the copied boot file in textedit and again select all from the edit menu and then hit paste...saved the changes and closed textedit...I then dragged the saved boot copy back into the /i386 folder ...you will be asked if you wish to replace the file already in /i386 answer yes...you will be asked to authenticate... do that with password bovinity...reboot your mac os using "Graphics Mode"="1280x1024x32"

...if this much works for you, try setting the refresh rate

[macintox]

...as I said, I got trac's boot.txt file from the link here...I opened it in textedit, selected all from the edit menu, copied the highlighted text. I then opened the /i386 folder and dragged the file named boot to my desktop...this made a copy of the file...I opened the copied boot file in textedit and again select all from the edit menu and then hit paste...saved the changes and closed textedit...I then dragged the saved boot copy back into the /i386 folder ...you will be asked if you wish to replace the file already in /i386 answer yes...you will be asked to authenticate... do that with password bovinity...reboot your mac os using "Graphics Mode"="1280x1024x32"

...if this much works for you, try setting the refresh rate

 

Thanks robertx.

[macintox]

Hey TRAC,

 

I was spending some time analising graphics.c and wondering if is possible to solve the problem of the black&white 16 colors desktop that occurs with some Geforces when going above 1024x768.

 

I have no doubt that this problem is caused by some bug in the VESA bios of these kind of cards but, do you think is there any way of patching graphics.c (function "setVESAGraphicsMode") to fix it?

 

best regards,

 

 

 

Intel P4M 1.8GHz

MB Intel D850EMV

512Mb

20Gb OSX Tiger

AC97 sound fully functional

GeForce4 TI 4200 (ASUS)

[nek]

I am such a noob.. I have a problem understanding your instructions macgirl

 

I think I mess up right at the start.

 

So I boot with my generic install dvd. I get to where the install starts and I pull up a Terminal window from the menu. I type

 

mount -uw /

 

no error comes up...

 

then

 

mount -t msdos /dev/disk5s1 /mnt

 

and it gives me an error saying /mnt doesn't exist or something along those lines. I am sure that disk5s1 is the external drive I have root on. I checked in the disk utility before starting the terminal.

 

I guess I'm not typing those commands at the right spot, since I never had to specify that I wanted to install in shell...

 

help plz==

[trac]

Hey TRAC,

 

I was spending some time analising graphics.c and wondering if is possible to solve the problem of the black&white 16 colors desktop that occurs with some Geforces when going above 1024x768.

 

I have no doubt that this problem is caused by some bug in the VESA bios of these kind of cards but, do you think is there any way of patching graphics.c (function "setVESAGraphicsMode") to fix it?

 

best regards,

Intel P4M 1.8GHz

MB Intel D850EMV

512Mb

20Gb OSX Tiger

AC97 sound fully functional

GeForce4 TI 4200 (ASUS)

 

Hey Macintox,

 

unfortunatly (better luckily) i do not experience those problems myself, so i have no clue whether it is a VESA fault. If u have this problems and know a little bit low level programming, u can try to "hard code" a VESA mode like 0x11b (1280x1024x32 -> see the VBE 3 specs) in setVESAGraphicsMode. If it works, u will have a chance to look in the "getVESAModeWithProperties" function or in the "setupPalette" function where most probably the bug lays. But dont forget to check all other functions too.

For help send me a private message. Maybe u have more questions about it.

 

RobertX: Does this REALLY work? When i tried to find a solution for the boot sector, i removed the boot file in i386, but nothing happened!?! So i hardly believe this could work. Anyway maybe i am wrong with that...

 

- TRAC

PS. I am currently working on a "patch" for NVIDIA cards that do NOT support that VESA 3 stuff, although they should. -> MAYBE it works, MAYBE (most probably) it does not

[macgirl]

mount -uw /

 

no error comes up...

 

then

 

mount -t msdos /dev/disk5s1 /mnt

 

and it gives me an error saying /mnt doesn't exist or something along those lines. I am sure that disk5s1 is the external drive I have root on. I checked in the disk utility before starting the terminal.

 

The error becomes because a directory named "mnt" does not exist in the Dev DVD, it does exist in the Darwin CD, so a solution is making any directory to mount your disk.

 

to make a directory you type mkdir /any_name, could be mnt if you want.

[RobertX]

RobertX: Does this REALLY work? When i tried to find a solution for the boot sector, i removed the boot file in i386, but nothing happened!?! So i hardly believe this could work. Anyway maybe i am wrong with that...

 

...yes, it does work trac...a mac {inyourface edit) instead of creating a new boot and pointing the system to it, i simply edited the boot file the system already points to...although os x doesn't allow me to edit the file itself, using a copy i can replace it ...and now my system sees your generated boot...voila!

...as far as removing the boot file altogether, I'd assume the system would revert to default settings without it

(ie: on my machine, 1024x768x32)refresh n/a at 1280x1024x32 still no refresh option...but neither do I in WinBloze either...

[macintox]

Hey Macintox,

 

unfortunatly (better luckily) i do not experience those problems myself, so i have no clue whether it is a VESA fault. If u have this problems and know a little bit low level programming, u can try to "hard code" a VESA mode like 0x11b (1280x1024x32 -> see the VBE 3 specs) in setVESAGraphicsMode. If it works, u will have a chance to look in the "getVESAModeWithProperties" function or in the "setupPalette" function where most probably the bug lays. But dont forget to check all other functions too.

For help send me a private message. Maybe u have more questions about it.

 

RobertX: Does this REALLY work? When i tried to find a solution for the boot sector, i removed the boot file in i386, but nothing happened!?! So i hardly believe this could work. Anyway maybe i am wrong with that...

 

- TRAC

PS. I am currently working on a "patch" for NVIDIA cards that do NOT support that VESA 3 stuff, although they should. -> MAYBE it works, MAYBE (most probably) it does not

 

I think this is a bios bug because the function that shows the available video modes at boot using the "?video" reports that my card is capable of 1280x1024x16 (linear addr). So I cannot figure out why getVESAModeWithProperties returns 1280x1024x4 as the best closer match. I found too that getVESAModeWithProperties try to get first the highest color mode available and then, the closer highest res that matches with the color mode selected. I'll try to force the video mode as you suggest and see what happen, but first, I'll try some old DOS VESA tests to see if my card really support 1280x1024x16.

 

Thanks...

[nek]

The error becomes because a directory named "mnt" does not exist in the Dev DVD, it does exist in the Darwin CD, so a solution is making any directory to mount your disk.

 

to make a directory you type mkdir /any_name, could be mnt if you want.

 

thanks, that helped me move forward a bit, but then I get this when I try to use startupfiletool I get:

startupfiletool: unknown command or something like that...

 

I'm confused lol

[macgirl]

Posibly the Dev DVD does not have it.

[JaS]

...as I said, I got trac's boot.txt file from the link here...I opened it in textedit, selected all from the edit menu, copied the highlighted text. I then opened the /i386 folder and dragged the file named boot to my desktop...this made a copy of the file...I opened the copied boot file in textedit and again select all from the edit menu and then hit paste...saved the changes and closed textedit...I then dragged the saved boot copy back into the /i386 folder ...you will be asked if you wish to replace the file already in /i386 answer yes...you will be asked to authenticate... do that with password bovinity...reboot your mac os using "Graphics Mode"="1280x1024x32"

...if this much works for you, try setting the refresh rate

 

Well i tried it this way but i get no change.Cant set refresh rates on my aiw 9600 128 mb card.

[Roland77]

I think ur right macgirl; sofar I wasnt able to use the tool with the patched dev-dvd.

 

downloading the darwin iso now, I'm sure it will work fine with that one

 

and to JaS; I tried it with the suggested method as well, didnt work :s (6600GT pci-e)

I think u really need to use the startuptool; cant imagine it will work in the way he suggested.

if anyone else gets it to work using that method plz post back.

[macintox]

I think ur right macgirl; sofar I wasnt able to use the tool with the patched dev-dvd.

 

downloading the darwin iso now, I'm sure it will work fine with that one

 

and to JaS; I tried it with the suggested method as well, didnt work :s (6600GT pci-e)

I think u really need to use the startuptool; cant imagine it will work in the way he suggested.

if anyone else gets it to work using that method plz post back.

 

 

 

I can confirm. Its works. Really!!!

[nek]

ahhh I was afraid that would be it.... thanks for clearing it up macgirl.

 

Now is there any other way for me to get this working besides d/l the darwin iso? I already busted my bandwith limit for the month with the damn dvd lol

[macgirl]

As I said I use VMWare with a Virtual HD image as boot/primary Disk and the Physical HD as slave/second Disk, so I could unmount the 2nd disk and apply the startupfiletool without the DVD or the Darwin CD.

 

Is your method of installation was deadmoo image you already got the image, if it was the Generic DVD you can install on a VMWare Image.

[jordanvanbergen]

Did the things below and it didn't screw my startup. I'm still able to boot with another boot file in /usr/standalone/i386. Don't forget to

 

chown root:wheel boot

 

to set the correct permissions. I used the following below from the quote and the resulting boot file has less KB's compared with the original one and my system is still booting but if I set a higher resolution it won't work and ?video doesn't show 1280x800x32 as well. I don't care about the 60 hz limit as my notebook can't go higher anyway using the GeForce FX GO 5700. But of course I want to have the maximum resolution this notebook is capable of and that's 1280x800x32. This didn't work with the below "solution" for me sadly....

 

...as I said, I got trac's boot.txt file from the link here...I opened it in textedit, selected all from the edit menu, copied the highlighted text. I then opened the /i386 folder and dragged the file named boot to my desktop...this made a copy of the file...I opened the copied boot file in textedit and again select all from the edit menu and then hit paste...saved the changes and closed textedit...I then dragged the saved boot copy back into the /i386 folder ...you will be asked if you wish to replace the file already in /i386 answer yes...you will be asked to authenticate... do that with password bovinity...reboot your mac os using "Graphics Mode"="1280x1024x32"

...if this much works for you, try setting the refresh rate

 

Regards

Jordan

[Roland77]

I have osx installed by patched dvd, tried using both methods described above, it didnt work

 

bye bye eyes

 

I dont think it works on a patched dev-dvd and does work work on Darwin-based install, but thats just a guess.

 

I have a winchester amd 3200 with nforce4 and 6600GT pci-e

 

[EDIT: weird thing is, I can boot with "Graphics Mode"="1280x1024x32@85" .

normally it would immediately restart when I tried setting the refresh rate, now it will boot, but stay on 60 Hz]

 

[EDIT2: this might be of interest for some of u code godz a little app toi force refresh rate; http://archive.macosxlabs.org/tools_and_sc...SetDisplay.html ]