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ATI Radeon x300 Mobility


iamshawn
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Hi, I am posting a new thread and I want to link it back to the Dell 6000 thread requesting that if someone has their ATI x300 Mobility video card working at full resolutions, we would absolutely love to hear your solutions. Could anyone who has what worked for them please post any kext files you used and instructions how to impliment it. Natit and Titan have not worked, they seem more to help NVIDIA cards more than ATI cards. So again, if someone has a solution for this specific card, please post the kext files you used and the instructions to impliment them.

A lot of us really need help with this, please help us... thank you!

Shawn

 

Edit: I just honestly think this method would be easier, that you send us the kext file you modified instead of giving us complex instructions on how to modify it, if we could just simply replace the file, that would be so much easier... anywho, my thoughts

Edited by iamshawn
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Thank you for your interest in helping us AdamWe, it is PCI-express on an Inspiron 6000 laptop! I just think it would be easier for someone to post their kext files instead of saying how to modify the kext file, since we all have different distros, that would be hard since we may not all have the same, say ATIRADION9700.kext file.

The trouble is for most people, once they get their solution, they don't need to site anymore so most don't come back so they don't know we are in need of help.

Shawn

Edited by iamshawn
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I feel your pain, I hope someone posts some kext files soon. I want to play more with the instructions that are in itallian, like the c0006 and c0008, if they work, I will repost them!

Shawn

 

Nope... they did absolutely nothing... they updated some of my kext files to larger files, may not mean better though, my system has been crashing more though... could be irrellavent, but I don't like it.

Shawn

 

Please someone post a solution with kext, I do a lot of graphic editing in my website designs... so having a stretched image just won't do... I don't want to go back to Windows and I can't go to Linux because I NEED dreamweaver.

Edited by iamshawn
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That is amazing news! The trouble is what OS do you have, I installed the C008 ATI Radeon x300 software, but alas, that is either for a previous version of Mac OS (I read that as they updated the OS, they did things to make some of the old patches not work) or it is for desktops and not mobility chips.

Thanks you for responding, where did you find put the device ID? Since there are several versions of Katana (I tried katana .3 and it said it was not compatible with my card, katana .2 installed fine, I e-mailed the guy who makes it, he informed me that katana .4 will probably not be out until summer, that and he doesn't have an ATI card, so he is not sure how it will work.

Anywho, as fascinating as all that is, could you do me an awesome favor and upload the exact version you used, and the kext file you modified (put the device ID in or what not) and I would be happy to give that a shot. I have 10.4.8, I would be more than happy to downgrade to whatever version you have if this works. I don't even really know what QE and CI are, but if I can get my 1280x800, I will happily keep mac. I will message this to you too in case you don't check back here.

Thanks again!

Shawn

 

Edit: I think what might be part of the problem is we have the special dell Radeon x300, for example, I can't just go to ati.com and download the x300 mobility drivers, I have to get the drivers from dell, it kind of sucks. But if you could be so kind as to upload your kext files and the katana installer you used, I would be very happy to try it.

Edited by iamshawn
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At least two X300 users have found eachother :)

muhammadbeig has been fighting that card for weeks now. Remember to post your results.

 

Good luck guys!

 

hecker

 

PS: The part about the x300 being "special" might be the place to start doing research. I will look around and let you guys know if I find anything interesting.

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Yes, I can tell you they are, because as I said, you can't just download right off ATI's website, which is what ticks me off the most, ATI updates the drivers on their website every few weeks, Dell hasn't updated their driver in 1.5 years (so most of my games, like GTA, won't play because that driver had memory management errors).

I am stupid when it comes to being able to look at a card and know how to modify the kext files. Any hardware programming knowledge I have is on Windows as I went to a windows based school, maybe all that would change is the ID number and we could just modify that. Since all I really care to work is having the full 1280x800, I don't know what QE and all that is... but I edit photos for webpages, so having a stretched screen simply will not do... I try to present to my clients, while they think it's the coolest thing I have the Mac OS on my dell, it is very unprofessional the screen does not show the true image.

Shawn

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Solution,

 

I have the same card installed on my IBM Thinkpad R52 and i changed the resolution manualy on the com.apple.Boot.plist file. It's the fastest and easyest way to change your screen resolution, but I can't give you a copy of that file since it contains settings valid only for my laptop. And you don't need any kext's for this since none seem to load correctly.

 

The procedure is like this:

 

1. Make a copy of the com.apple.Boot.plist on your desktop (it's located under /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/)

 

2. Delete the original file under /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ (enter password when prompted)

 

3. Edit the copied file using TextEdit, adding a string with your desired screen resolution. I wanted my resolution to be 1400x1050 and 32 bit color so I added this right bellow the Boot Graphics string in the file:

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1400x1050x32</string>

 

So after I edited the file it looked something like this:

<dict>

<key>Boot Graphics</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1400x1050x32</string>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Quiet Boot</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>1</string>

</dict>

</plist>

 

You must enter the same key and your desired resolution under the string but make sure you don't enter settings your monitor cannot display. Leave the rest unchanged.

 

4. Save the changes and put the edited file back in its original location. (enter password when prompted)

 

5. Repair disk permisions with the DiskUtility application and restart you computer.

 

It will start up with your new resolution even starting with the boot section (the one with the grey apple)

 

That's it

 

BTW: When QE and CI are supported it means that your cards 3D rendering capabilities are working. You can notice it's functionality when working with applications that need 3D rendering such as Chess (which is probably not working right now)

 

I am struggling to get mine working. I tried different procedures but nothing works satisfactory at the moment.

 

Good luck

 

JabbaJaws

Edited by dementul
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I do think it goes back to the Dell having special drivers, that was a solution on another forum I saw, I think in the tutorials for "optimizing your OS", anywho, I couldn't wait, so I am back to windows now (I didn't have iLife at the time and I find it takes a lot of the fun out of having a mac if you don't have ilife), I may attempt a dual boot whenever I get vista, so please keep up posts and I will take notes of any ideas that work, thank you for your efforts dementul

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Ah, this forum is more for the mobility processor, that's probably why yours worked right away. It's the mobility that's iffy.

Shawn

 

Mine works, but on a low resolution, normaly i have 1680 * 1050 as my native resolution.

When i click on something, it leaves "rest" on the screen, so he isn't working flawless at all.

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Solution,

 

I have the same card installed on my IBM Thinkpad R52 and i changed the resolution manualy on the com.apple.Boot.plist file. It's the fastest and easyest way to change your screen resolution, but I can't give you a copy of that file since it contains settings valid only for my laptop. And you don't need any kext's for this since none seem to load correctly.

 

The procedure is like this:

 

1. Make a copy of the com.apple.Boot.plist on your desktop (it's located under /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/)

 

2. Delete the original file under /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ (enter password when prompted)

 

3. Edit the copied file using TextEdit, adding a string with your desired screen resolution. I wanted my resolution to be 1400x1050 and 32 bit color so I added this right bellow the Boot Graphics string in the file:

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1400x1050x32</string>

 

So after I edited the file it looked something like this:

<dict>

<key>Boot Graphics</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1400x1050x32</string>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Quiet Boot</key>

<string>Yes</string>

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>1</string>

</dict>

</plist>

 

You must enter the same key and your desired resolution under the string but make sure you don't enter settings your monitor cannot display. Leave the rest unchanged.

 

4. Save the changes and put the edited file back in its original location. (enter password when prompted)

 

5. Repair disk permisions with the DiskUtility application and restart you computer.

 

It will start up with your new resolution even starting with the boot section (the one with the grey apple)

 

That's it

 

BTW: When QE and CI are supported it means that your cards 3D rendering capabilities are working. You can notice it's functionality when working with applications that need 3D rendering such as Chess (which is probably not working right now)

 

I am struggling to get mine working. I tried different procedures but nothing works satisfactory at the moment.

 

Good luck

 

JabbaJaws

 

I followed the guide, now i have 1280*1024 resolution...

Still have this weird problem: sometimes when i click with my mouse in something, it makes a 'hole' in my screen :angry:

Edited by buffalobitch
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I was able to use the instructions above (manually adding the Graphics Mode) to get 1920x1200x32 on my Dell Inspiron 9300.

 

I started off with a fresh Jas 10.4.8, then did the Graphics Mode step. Works great so far (no cursor tearing / 'holes').

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