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ATI X850XT, Dual Booting, etc


o0godspeed0o
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Hey guys, I'm new around here and I just got done installing OS X on my PC and everything is running pretty good.. no crashes, very fast and stable all around. I just have a few questions that perhaps some of you could shed some light on for me.

 

1. Currently, I have two hard drives in my CPU, one specifically for windows on the SATA interface, and the other for OS X on the IDE interface. Now, since I'm not running both OS's on the same drive, is there any way I can get a boot loader to allow me to select between operating systems which are on different drives?

 

Currently, I have to change the drive priority in the BIOS setup and then reboot in order to switch between operating systems. The BIOS system setup my computer manufacturer used is pretty stupid. I can't even select my other hard drive is I hold down F10 to boot into what drive I want to boot in. It only lists the primary drive and the DVD-RW drive.

 

2. I have an ASUS ATI X850XT with 256 megs of VRAM. I realize that OpenGL acceleration in OS X won't be around for a long time, at least for the card I have. What I am wondering though is if anyone can recommend what method I should use in order for OS X to recognize my card so I can change resolutions and whatnot. Should I go the callisto way, or another? With whatever choice you recommend, any specific version of it? (Links to tutorials or something like that would be extremely helpful to me!).

 

That's pretty much it for now, I look forward to working with all of you on getting this awesome operating system to run flawlessly on a PC.

 

Here are my current computer specs:

3.2GHz Pentium 4 w/ HT

ASUS ATI X850 XT PCI-Express 256MB

1.5 gigs of RAM

Intel Mobo (model #D915GAG)

160 gig SATA (Windows)

60 gig IDE (partitioned for OS X and storage)

 

Also, I used the JaS OS X image for installation, if thats any help.

 

Thanks in advance for the help! :lol:

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For the first question, try Acronis boot loader it does a great job for me with a configuration just alike. Just remember to unselect the cd boot option in Acronis to speed it up.

 

Second question, if it is only a question of changing the resolution, then callisto is your friend.

 

Ah, and last but not least, search feature in the forum is your friend, use it, you will get a lot of information on all the question you asked.

 

Cheers.

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I also have an X850XT card. I installed the callisto drivers and modified the ATIRadeon9700GA.plugin (see documentation for callisto) and got QE/CI working perfectly (besides the mouse tearing problem):

 

Radeon X850 XT (PCIE):

 

Chipset Model: Radeon X850 XT (PCIE)

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x5d52

Revision ID: 0x0000

Displays:

IBM P260:

Resolution: 1600 x 1200 @ 85 Hz

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Supported

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

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I also have an X850XT card. I installed the callisto drivers and modified the ATIRadeon9700GA.plugin (see documentation for callisto) and got QE/CI working perfectly (besides the mouse tearing problem):

 

Radeon X850 XT (PCIE):

 

Chipset Model: Radeon X850 XT (PCIE)

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x5d52

Revision ID: 0x0000

Displays:

IBM P260:

Resolution: 1600 x 1200 @ 85 Hz

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Supported

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

 

Thanks for the responses guys, I got callisto up and running, but I'm having a bit of a problem getting QE and CI working. I edited the ATI9700GA plugin but to no avail. Do you have the enable the plugin? or what? Did you install the callisto drivers and then just edit ATI9700GA, or are there extra steps?

 

Here's the info from my system profiler:

 

Radeon X850 XT (PCIE):

 

Chipset Model: Radeon X850 XT (PCIE)

Type: Display

Bus: PCI

Slot: PCI

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x5d52

Revision ID: 0x0000

Displays:

DELL P1110:

Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 85 Hz

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Not Supported

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Not Supported

 

Thanks again for your help!

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Hey hellspawn, what version of OS X86 are you running? Is it the new 10.4.8 kernel? And also what version of Callisto drivers did you use, 006? Did you have to do any other hacks

I ask because I have the exact same card and could never get different resolutions working, never mind QE/CI. And every bit of documentation I've seen states that the x850XT does not work. I'll have to update the wiki if this actually works..

 

This thread is making my day.

 

Oh, and I almost forgot: do you by any chance have widescreen resolution capabilities? This is the only thing keeping my from using OS X full time, I can't stand a messed up aspect ratio.

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I started with version 10.4.6 and later upgraded to 10.4.8 using JaS combo-update patch.

That was before the new and improved 10.4.8 kernel was out. I didn't try this one yet.

I then installed the Callisto drivers version 008.

After that I found the X800XL thread and followed the instruction there.

That was all.

 

I don't see any widescreen resolutions in the list, but that may be because my monitor doesn't report these.

AFAICS the resolutions available are the ones that the callisto driver gets from the monitor.

(See the boot messages below "Callisto: Monitor EDID retrieved")

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Did you use the 10.4.5 KEXTs like the others had to? If not, Ill update to 10.4.8 and then follow those directions..

 

Luciferin, I also don't see any widescreen resolutions, but I don't have a widescreen monitor. But, I can change resolutions and the refresh rate just fine ;). Just gotta get that QE and CI working.

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Hm, sounds promising. I'll have to update to 10.4.8 and try again. I've made a mess of my system right now so I have to reinstall, it's going to take a couple of hours but it should be well worth it. I'll report back if it works for me and update the wiki for 10.4.8. Thanks for all the information guys, I was beginning to think it was hopeless.

 

 

Addendum:

Callisto's driver works flawlessly with the update, but I haven't been able to get CI/QE working yet. I'm going to keep messing around and I'll wait on the wiki until I'm certain it does/doesn't work. I just want to thank you for posting your success hellspawn, it kept my trying. Oh, and it does work flawlessly with widescreen resolutions, just no DVI as with every other card.

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I just tried using the guide Rammjet posted, and now OS X won't boot. After the apple logo, the screen goes black, and then lines appear that resemble the apple logo on boot. However, Safe Boot DOES work, but says CI/QE is not supported. I'm going to try it with a fresh install of 10.4.8 and get back to you guys. This probably won't be done until Saturday or Sunday though..

 

Meanwhile, anyone got any ideas why this would happen? Anything I can do to fix it since SafeBoot works?

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I just tried and had the same problem o0godspeed0o. If you boot up in SafeBoot and remove your device ID from your ATIRadeon9700.kext it should boot up with just Callisto working (no garbage). For the record I did 10.4.6 then combo update to 10.4.8 just as hellspawn did.

I'm going to try to get a hold of his driver and kext and see if there's something I messed up on in there/special about his.

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I've had no luck with hellspawn's .kext and .plugin files. Whatever is different about your system that makes it work isn't them.. I tried install the Radeon Mobility driver thinking that might be it but no such luck.

 

Any ideas on something I could have missed?

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From what I gather, hellspawn, the files are exactly the same.. there has to be something else contributing to this.. perhaps your monitor can hold the resolution at the loading screen. Maybe it has something to do with that?

 

Isn't there a tutorial somewhere that explains changing the loading screen's resolution and whatnot? Perhaps we could find a solution in there..

 

When I boot using the same files as hellspan, my monitor WANTS to refresh and change to a higher resolution, but it seems something is getting in the way and I'm getting those "apple lines" after the apple boot logo.

 

One more thing, didn't Apple fully support the X850 XT at one point for the desktop computers (PowerMacs, I think.. not intel Macs). I think they were supported in 10.3.x, was the support dropped, or what?

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There was no difference as far as I could tell. I know there was some talk about the 10.4.5 kexts being the only ones that worked with Callisto drivers, maybe our problem lies there?

 

Hm, it does look like the resolution is too hi, but I have a LCD monitor that doesn't display when a signal is out of range, so I don't think that's it. Although I would like to chance the resolution anyway, it looks crappy at the moment.

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One funny problem that I have is when I modify my com.apple.Boot.plist.

When I try to change the boot graphics mode there, my screen goes blank as soon as the OSX GUI would appear.

My monitor then shows that the signal has 35 Hz and 19.x kHz which it can't display.

I haven't had time to figure out why this happens.

 

The only settings in my Boot.plist are (from my memory):

- kernel: mach_kernel

- boot graphics: yes

- graphics mode 1024x768x32@85 (which is ignored since I actually get 1024x768@60 Hz)

 

I can post the complete file in a few hours, if this would be of any help.

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It couldn't hurt :angel:

 

I know that the Callisto directions say to remove any video modes from com.apple.Boot.plist, so it might be a driver problem..

 

I'm pretty much out of ideas for now on this, other than trying the 10.4.5 kexts. I don't have high hopes for that though, since Callisto hasn't worked up to this point.

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Ok, here's the file:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Boot Graphics</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1024x768@85</string>

</dict>

</plist>

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Like you said, there's nothing different about it there. I tried the older system files but they didn't change a thing. Have you run a software update at all through OS X, maybe Quicktime or iTunes 7? I can't think of anything else that would be different on our systems.. I really am out of ideas, but I'm content to just wait for the latest JaS release and see if it works any better with the new kernel.

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