What to do when igpu acceleration won't initialize properly on its own?

[rakslice]

So I've recently set up 10.13.x on an Asus Zenbook UX303LN (Haswell version w/ i7-4510u) as a sort of retro machine and to get familiar with OC.

Config: https://gist.github.com/rakslice/8fc891c09419283a6848dce9391700db  (I've x-ed out the unique values in PlatformInfo there, roll your own serials with GenSMBIOS or similar and put them in there if you actually want to use this)

I started out with aduinovc's config for ux303l https://github.com/arduinovc/hackintosh-ux303l but that's really intended for ux303la and much newer os so I've replaced most of it at this point. 

 

My config works in most respects but there is a curious issue: When the system is cold booted from power off into opencore, the system works in most respects including everything in applications that use only 2d graphics, but in applications that use accelerated graphics, the rendered graphics don't output anywhere. However if I boot into Linux, even just the console with i915 framebuffer driver without doing anything graphical, and then restart and start opencore without powering off, everything works fine.

 

What do I mean by accelerated graphics not appearing anywhere? E.g. the firefox window is a big white rectangle with a grey rectangle near the top with just the window controls in the top left, unless you disable layers acceleration in about:config; in google earth pro the sidebar is shown normally but there's just a big black rectangle where the 3d image would be; in IORegistryExplorer 2.1 the search box is invisible: you just see the grey background where the search box would be and if you focus it a blue outline appears around it but no border or cursor or typed text is shown, etc. If I have intel power gadget open, and I launch a big 3d application, I can see the clocks ramp up normally as they would if it was actually rendering. There's no difference in the ioreg for the IntelAccelerator instance from AppleIntelHD5000Graphics that isn't just normal stuff changes run to run every time. It just really seems like some wings-stay-on switch that puts the rendered stuff on the screen is in wrong position.

 

Of course I can work around this by just by putting together some rubber bands solution with a local.d script and grubenv saved_entry shuffling to have a boot menu item that boots just enough linux and then automatically reboots into opencore.

But what I want to know is: what is happening, and is there any actual solution to just make it work normally in the first place?

Edited July 8, 2025 by rakslice
clarifications

[rakslice]

I should note that I've updated the gist with framebuffer 0a16000c because that's what I've generally been using; I was trying framebuffer 0a260006 just to see if it makes any difference, because it's the one a lot of guides recommend specifically for haswell.  And the difference it makes is: it blackscreens at boot sometimes, but on the boots that are successful there's still no acceleration if linux wasn't booted first. So strictly worse.

 

Some more info:

 

My inserted edid there is a dump of the edid from linux, modified with wxedid to make the horizontal sync width longer (suggested in various places as a workaround for the hd4400 when the initial switch to graphics mode is garbled because the display is out of sync and fixes itself if you reset it by shutting the lid momentarily). I found that going all the way up to 100 px leaves me stuck with only 48Hz mode, so I backed it off by trial and error to a value (68 px iirc) that works fine with 60Hz.

 

About the system generally:

 

I was originally going to go for a much older os ver, like maybe snow leopard, but that doesn't quite support haswell, and I thought if I'm going to up a couple releases might as well go to what has a functional voodoo80211 type solution again.

 

What works:

- usb afaict

- ps/2 keyb, focaltech trackpad (hence the good old ApplePS2SmartTouchPad.kext -- newer focaltech-supporting mac drivers I've seen around seem to be only for different trackpad models, rather than this OG one [acpi pnp id FLT0101] )
- wifi (I'm just using non-airport itlwm so it only comes up after login when its helper program loads)

- audio (I haven't tried an external mic on the trrs jack but everything else I've tested and it works)

- bluetooth

- webcam

 

What kinda works:

- Graphics, as described above

- My trendnet ax88179-based usb-eth adapter, which I'm just using the vendor-supplied installable mac drivers for (it works initially when you plug it in but any kind of sustained transfer makes it disappear, I think the original ax88179 chip is just flaky af and the vendor mac drivers don't have the level of workarounds of others so i don't know if this is solvable)

 

What doesn't work:

- Touchscreen (it's an atmel maxtouch, but judging from the lsusb output in linux it's a usb version which the atmel maxtouch drivers in voodooi2c presumbly just don't support at all)
 

Haven't tried:

- SD reader (idek, it's not in the hw-probe output either)

- External hdmi, displayport