Force usage of one connected DVI monitor on a dual-DVI card

[Drag0nFly]

Greetings everyone!

I have what I hope is a simple problem with a simple solution after a quite time-consuming Hackintosh install on a system deemed 'unsupported' on this forum; and I am still quite new to the Hackintosh universe. I am running Lion 10.7.2 on a Dell Dimension 9200 (xps 410), using a Nvidia Quadro 4500 card for the main display (modified VGA BIOS to make it Mac compatible). I am using gfx string injection for the gfx card as well as the built-in Ethernet (combined string) + a DSDT for the board (82801H/ICH8 chipset). The (gfxutil) plist contains the relevant string indicating two DVI outputs present on the card (only pertinent option as the others were for a mix of VGA & DVI)

The problem is that OS X--unfortunately--does not always detect the monitor properly. It is very eager to boot the system with two monitors, thinking there must be a second monitor there somewhere.

This might seem trivial if it wasn't for the fact that OS X always configures the one connected monitor as the secondary and the non-existing monitor as the primary; i.e, it is impossible to do anything apart from looking at a dull background: no icons, menus, no hotkeys (that I know of) to show the desktop.

Now, to me this wouldn't be a problem, but I set it up for a non-technical family member whose only option is to force a non-clean shutdown when it occurs.


So my question is simple:

o Is there a way to disable the OS X monitor autodetection? I have no options under System Prefs.-> Monitors (no way to set mirroring, or monitor assignments, only display resolution and color depth)

-or-

o A hotkey that can be pressed to force 'Detect Monitors' (which can also be performed on a keyboard with PC layout)

-or-

o A way to hard-code this in the plist

-or-

o A way to hard-code it in some /Library/Preferences/[...] setting

-or-

o Some other way I haven't thought of

Any thoughts around this are welcome!

 

[Drag0nFly]

Ayone? I doubt I am the only one who has encountered this. I've found numerous references to this occurring on Mac Pro's online, but no real solution apart from disconnecting/reconnecting the monitor(s). There must be a better way.

 

[Alkazander]

Hi!
I have a Xps 410 (dimension 9200 actually but...) currently its running with 10.6.3 and I haven´t dared to update it further.
But.. I just got my other CustoMac (ga-p55m-ud2) up to 10.7.3 and started to wonder about the other one.
Did you use Unibeast/Multibeast and a custom DSDT to get it running?

Sorry I can´t help you with the monitor thou!

 

[Drag0nFly]

@alex - yes I had expected that some other members on the forum would know how to force use of only one monitor in OS X. I thought it would be an easy fix, as the rest of the ‘‘hard issues’’ such as AHCI boot, CMOS resetting & gfx had been dealt with.

The Dimension 9200 system is using a custom DSDT. I've included it here as an attachment.

With the exception of OS X sometimes booting with the display set to the dead DVI port, the install has been working well (*knock wood*)

 

[Alkazander]

Thanks for the dsdt, however I have problems with booting on the Unibeast stick.
My hopes was that I could just boot on it and install but no, it cant find the hd.
Then when I reboot on the hd I have to reset raid to off to get the hd booting.
How did you get past that?

 

[Drag0nFly]

Should have a dedicated topic for this, but anyway.

The Dim9200 was a b*tch to get to boot initially. The root cause is as you are probably aware AHCI, and with the BIOS not having clear on/off settings for it (in addition to it clearing the CMOS every time if something is amiss), it is a bit tricky to get working.

I'm a bit unclear whether you get the UniBeast installer booting. If you do, try a ‘‘diskutil list’’ and see what it detects. I've also found you need the UUID of the root drive inserted into org.chameleon.boot.plist in /Extra (on both the stick and the HDD as UniBeast does not take care of this automatically)

The non-standard kexts I have on the Dim9200 (no longer have direct access to it, but I kept it for future reference) are:

Index Refs Address    Size       Wired      Name (Version) <Linked Against>
   16    0 0x5863f000 0x4000     0x3000     es.osx86.driver.EvOreboot (1.0.3) <4 3>
   17    0 0x58869000 0x4000     0x3000     com.psystar.driver.OpenHaltRestart (1.0.3) <4 3>
   18    0 0x58889000 0x4000     0x3000     org.tgwbd.driver.NullCPUPowerManagement (1.0.0d2) <7 4 3>
   19    0 0x5866c000 0x3000     0x2000     net.osrom.kext.Disabler (1.0.1) <4 3>
   29    0 0x58a8a000 0x6000     0x5000     com.evosx86.driver.lspcidrv (1.0) <4 3>
   42    0 0x58bf0000 0x7000     0x6000     org.netkas.FakeSMC (3.1.0) <13 7 5 4 3>
   52    0 0x5efec000 0x37000    0x36000    org.voodoo.driver.VoodooHDA (0.2.1) <51 14 7 5 4 3 1>
   56    0 0x5f056000 0x2e000    0x2d000    com.insanelymac.driver.AppleIntelE1000e (1.2.10) <22 14 5 4 3 1>

During boot you'll also need ‘‘AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext’’ and ‘‘AppleAHCIPort.kext’’. I've included all the kexts as a zip file.

I think I also disabled speedstep in the BIOS.

Keep at it. It was a pain to get working, but worth it in the end.

If only there was a way to figure out the monitor detection is OS X and get proper OS X support for the Logitech C310 webcam I'd be happy...

 

[Alkazander]

Hi!
got the bugger to work, used a guide at insanelymac to make a working usb, updated to 10.7.3 now and no problems.
Only issue is that sims 3 doesnt like my graphic card 9400gt in lion for some reason...

Thanks for you help!

 

[Drag0nFly]

@Alkazander - congrats! I agree the Dimension 9200 is a bugger at first to get working. Haven't tried many games on it, though, so I'm not familiar with your problem with the Sims. (using a Quadro 4500 myself, which isn't exactly a very supported card btw.)

 

[Alkazander]

Thinking of getting a geforce 210 or equal to maker the user (ie daughter) happy...

 

[Drag0nFly]

The 210 should be well supported, according to the hw-compatibility lists. I was thinking of getting one of those myself before I got the Quadro card working with a custom EFI-string injection.