Gigabyte X299X - Catalina Support

[oli.mathieu]

Even faster with Dual ethernet 10G !
Have you tried to see how the TitanRidge Thunderbolt works like on the X299 Creator ?

Not yet, I will
I have only an Ethernet adapter.
is there a better way ?

 

[Loloflatsix]

Not yet, I will
I have only an Ethernet adapter.
is there a better way ?

The TitanRidge offers 40G if you have a nas server close ( 2 m max) your workstation it should be faster, but your right if you have the right cable in your enterprise : for copper cat
- 100 m : cat 6a
- 50 m : cat 6
- 30 m : cat 5e
You can have a good 10G that is already very fast
Why not optic fiber...

 

[dolgarrenan]

The TitanRidge offers 40G if you have a nas server close ( 2 m max) your workstation it should be faster, but your right if you have the right cable in your enterprise : for copper cat
- 100 m : cat 6a
- 50 m : cat 6
- 30 m : cat 5e
You can have a good 10G that is already very fast
Why not optic fiber...

Problem is TB not being able to load method _INI ans proper BUS, if those two requirements are not met then 10G over TB is not possible, same goes for connecting certain devices that require Thunderbolt BUS to be loaded like Antelope TB audio cards and some proprietary card readers.

Most brands don't actually need TB BUS like Universal Audio but some do...

So far no one has managed to load those two, therefore no network over Thunderbolt.. I have tried to connect to my NAS over TB through Ethernet protocol with no success.. We would need some mastermind to pull something like that. The only capable people I know might be able to pull something like this might be PikerAlpha (who now works for Apple), @RehabMan (who hasn't been seen since last year, I guess he is working for Apple too by now) and perhaps @nmano who used to help KGP allot when he was creating his guide for TB (which has been the basis for all TB SSDT around).

In order to use max bandwidth you would need two or three or four Ethernet cat 6/7 cables to be connected to the same switch, and that switch would have to be manageable ($$$) in order to be able to sum+ the connections and gain up to 40G Ethernet connection. A Mellanox would do ($$$$$)

 

[stevomilo]

Does anyone have the internal sound working on gigabyte x299x Designare? Everything else is working great.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE X299X DESIGNARE 10G LGA 2066
CPU: Intel Core i9-9940X Skylake X 14-Core 3.3 GHz
Video: Gigabyte AMD Radeon Vega 64 Liquid Cooled
Drives: WD Blue 3D and ssd 500gb
Memory Corsair CMK32GX4M2B3200C16
Drive: WD Blue 3D and ssd 500gb

Great job on this btw!

 

[oli.mathieu]

Does anyone have the internal sound working on gigabyte x299x Designare? Everything else is working great.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE X299X DESIGNARE 10G LGA 2066
CPU: Intel Core i9-9940X Skylake X 14-Core 3.3 GHz
Video: Gigabyte AMD Radeon Vega 64 Liquid Cooled
Drives: WD Blue 3D and ssd 500gb
Memory Corsair CMK32GX4M2B3200C16
Drive: WD Blue 3D and ssd 500gb

Great job on this btw!

Mobo's Optical output works fine

 

[dolgarrenan]

Does anyone have the internal sound working on gigabyte x299x Designare? Everything else is working great.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE X299X DESIGNARE 10G LGA 2066
CPU: Intel Core i9-9940X Skylake X 14-Core 3.3 GHz
Video: Gigabyte AMD Radeon Vega 64 Liquid Cooled
Drives: WD Blue 3D and ssd 500gb
Memory Corsair CMK32GX4M2B3200C16
Drive: WD Blue 3D and ssd 500gb

Great job on this btw!

All outputs are working fine with AppleALC.kext in EFI folder, no need to set device audio ID in clover, the SSDT for HDEF has the needed devices implemented.

 

[dolgarrenan]

Thanks to @CaseySJ and @Elias64Fr we might have a way to mod and flash our TB DROM onto our onboard Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 chips and finally have TB Bus correctly working, leading to Thunderbolt netowrking and much else. His post is the most is one of the comprehensive guides so far and has some good insight on Thunderbolt and many other things.

With this damned virus I'm stuck at home and don't have access to my Designare build, only my AMD, so I will try and reach @CaseySJ with our original Thunderbolt firmware asap to see if we can achive what has been done on Z390 Designare.

The method is (mainly) done through a SPI programmer, so it might not just be as simple as swaping a kext, but surely we will find a way to simplify this for everyone.

Keep in touch folks!

 

[CaseySJ]

@dolgarrenan,

If you can extract the entire firmware using an external SPI chip reader (even Raspberry Pi Model 3B and 4 can do this), then we can try to modify it for you.

You can also perform a partial firmware extraction using any current version of Linux that supports Thunderbolt, such as Ubuntu 19.04 or Ubuntu 20.04. If you burn the ISO image to a USB flash disk using Balena Etcher on Mac, you can boot from the USB Disk and choose the option to Try Ubuntu Without Installing. It will run directly off the USB Disk.

When Ubuntu starts up, open a Terminal window and type:

cd /home/ubuntu
sudo dd if=/sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/nvm_active0/nvmem of=./x99x-designare-tb3-original.bin bs=4096 count=256

This should create a dump of the entire Active Partition of the Thunderbolt firmware chip into a file called x99x-designare-tb3-original.bin. It may be necessary to change file ownership and group ownership of that file, as follows:

sudo chown ubuntu x99x*
sudo chgrp ubuntu x99x*

We can use this file to develop a patch, but an external chip reader/programmer such as Raspberry Pi or CH341A will still be needed to flash the modified firmware to the chip.

 

[dolgarrenan]

@dolgarrenan,

If you can extract the entire firmware using an external SPI chip reader (even Raspberry Pi Model 3B and 4 can do this), then we can try to modify it for you.

You can also perform a partial firmware extraction using any current version of Linux that supports Thunderbolt, such as Ubuntu 19.04 or Ubuntu 20.04. If you burn the ISO image to a USB flash disk using Balena Etcher on Mac, you can boot from the USB Disk and choose the option to Try Ubuntu Without Installing. It will run directly off the USB Disk.

When Ubuntu starts up, open a Terminal window and type:

cd /home/ubuntu
sudo dd if=/sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/nvm_active0/nvmem of=./x99x-designare-tb3-original.bin bs=4096 count=256

This should create a dump of the entire Active Partition of the Thunderbolt firmware chip into a file called x99x-designare-tb3-original.bin. It may be necessary to change file ownership and group ownership of that file, as follows:

sudo chown ubuntu x99x*
sudo chgrp ubuntu x99x*

We can use this file to develop a patch, but an external chip reader/programmer such as Raspberry Pi or CH341A will still be needed to flash the modified firmware to the chip.

Thank you very much @CaseySJ for offering help! I will try to send the whole thing with the SPI programmer (still need to do the 3V mod), better in the end! Expect a message soon and thank you very much again

 

[CaseySJ]

Thank you very much @CaseySJ for offering help! I will try to send the whole thing with the SPI programmer (still need to do the 3V mod), better in the end! Expect a message soon and thank you very much again

Many folks have reported no problems when using CH341a without the 3.3V mod... But I'm not suggesting anything!!