An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-ins

[Gigamaxx]

Thanks a lot! In fact I was not worrying about the GT210 but rather the headless IGPU part of the issue: when Hackintool says "VDA Decoder : Fully Supported", can I be sure it really works? — I haven't found a proper way to test it... Some say Intel Power Gadget.app, but mine (3.7.0) shows a green line for "GFX AVG" that never moves from 0.35 GHz (that is when performing the GFX0 to IGPU rename without Whatevergreen).

Handbrake and VideoProC are two free apps to test with.

look into the list of WEG boot arg as well there are several for Nvidia cards to use with WEG. Acidanthera incorporated nvidiagraphicsfixup.kext into WEG long ago but not much attention to fixes as Nvidia cards are slowly being excommunicated from MacOS.

 

[Nodarkthings]

Handbrake and VideoProC are two free apps to test with.

look into the list of WEG boot arg as well there are several for Nvidia cards to use with WEG. Acidanthera incorporated nvidiagraphicsfixup.kext into WEG long ago but not much attention to fixes as Nvidia cards are slowly being excommunicated from MacOS.

I've just tested Handbrake and iFFmpeg but none seem to benefit from IGPU...
https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/1.3.0/technical/video-qsv.html says not before Skylake, so I think I won't lose too much time on this, as I'm not often doing video conversions...
Thanks anyway!

EDIT: Haaaa! (sigh of relief ). VideoProC made the green line move in Intel Power Gadget as shown below! — and that, without WEG, just the rename. At least, I know it works, even if there's only one app that uses it.

 

[jaymonkey]

VideoProC made the green line move in Intel Power Gadget as shown below! — and that, without WEG, just the rename. At least, I know it works, even if there's only one app that uses it.

@Nodarkthings,

Good to know that IGPU is working as seen by IGPU trace on Intel Power Gadget (IPG).

Intel QuickSync (IQS) is backed into MacOS ... it is part of the OS's VideoTool Box API so it's not just one app that will use the IGPU but any system service (eg: AirPlay, finder ..etc) or app. The App/Service passes the decode/encode request to the VideoTool Box API which then decides if it can accelerated on the IGPU or performed in software.

For instance using the preview function in finder on a image or video clip will use IQS if the target file is supported (H264 and MPEG image compression in your case). unless you increase the poll rate in IPG in many cases you wont see when macOS is using IQS as they can be very short bursts and IQS is very efficient.

Cheers
Jay

 

[Nodarkthings]

@Nodarkthings,

Good to know that IGPU is working as seen by IGPU trace on Intel Power Gadget (IPG).

Intel QuickSync (IQS) is backed into MacOS ... it is part of the OS's VideoTool Box API so it's not just one app that will use the IGPU but any system service (eg: AirPlay, finder ..etc) or app. The App/Service passes the decode/encode request to the VideoTool Box API which then decides if it can accelerated on the IGPU or performed in software.

For instance using the preview function in finder on a image or video clip will use IQS if the target file is supported (H264 and MPEG image compression in your case). unless you increase the poll rate in IPG in many cases you wont see when macOS is using IQS as they can be very short bursts and IQS is very efficient.

Cheers
Jay

Great information! Indeed, I've just tried the preview of a few h264 encoded files and some will create an occasional burst, some don't (even with same codec, same resolution), but it's good to know it's working when needed. Thanks again!

 

[mcerrato]

Awesome Guide..!, Finally have everything working without any problem. thank you very much..!

 

[vonian]

I'm trying to change AFGLowPowerState in AppleALC. Currently, it's <03 00 00 00>, but I don't really know what that means. Anyone knows the documentation for it?
I want to know if changing that will help me fix the cracking noise (?) problem which occurs in a specific case when you plug an audio jack after sleep and your laptop isn't charged. Since if you do the same thing when it's charged, it doesn't produce the noise.

 

[danideicide]

Hey @jaymonkey ! Do you know how to patch AppleALC? I use ALC887 and none of the layouts ids are working 100% for me. And I see that multiple people have been creating these patches so I wanted to create one myself, but the wiki guide is not at all beginner friendly.

 

[jaymonkey]

Do you know how to patch AppleALC? I use ALC887 and none of the layouts ids are working 100% for me. And I see that multiple people have been creating these patches so I wanted to create one myself, but the wiki guide is not at all beginner friendly.

@danideicide,

Unfortunately patching Audio is a complex task which a lot of beginners struggle with.

Many years ago i used this guide :-

[Guide] Anleitung patch AppleHDA (bedingt auch für Codec-Erstellung in AppleALC)

Einfache allgemeine Anleitung zum patchen der AppleHDA (AppleALC)Vorwort:In vielen oft nur englischen Artikeln wird anhand vieler Zahlen und damit ve...

www.root86.com

It's in German but it translated well to english using google/chrome translate, unfortunately it seems that google are withdrawing the on-line translate service but i'm sure they are other services available.

There is also this guide which for a long time was considered the holy bible of audio patching on MacOS :-

Complete AppleHDA Patching Guide

Hi friends, This is a complete AppleHDA patching guide for the Audio codec in the Notebooks (but theory works for Desktop too). I'm writing this guide based on my knowledge and experience gained myself doing so many patches and details from the web. Hoping this could help many people looking to p...

osxlatitude.com

Both of those guides cover the basic steps of dumping and decoding your audio codec, however they then go on to explaine how to directly patch the AppleHDA kext which is now considered a legacy method as everyone uses AppleALC these days, so you only really need to read the first section of the guides. Once you have dumped your codec and deciphered the information you can create the PlatformsXX.xml and LayoutXX.xml files that the AppleALC kext can use to patch AppleHDA on the fly at boot up. you will also need to add the appropriate details to the info.plist.

That said there are already 18 different layouts (1,2,3,5,7,11,12,13,17,18,20,33,40,50,52,53,87,99) for the ALC887 codec in the AppleALC database :-

AppleALC/Resources/ALC887 at master · acidanthera/AppleALC

Native macOS HD audio for not officially supported codecs - acidanthera/AppleALC

github.com

Are you sure that none of them work on your system ?

If not it could be as simple as just editing the pin config, which you can do using this tool :-

GitHub - benbaker76/PinConfigurator: HDA Audio Codec verb configuration application

HDA Audio Codec verb configuration application. Contribute to benbaker76/PinConfigurator development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

If you have to create a completely new set of patches can use any of the existing ALC887 layout and platform XML files as a template and pick a new unused layout id for your custom patches. If the process of creating the patches yourself is too much i would recommend posting your codec dump to the AppleALC support thread as stated in the AppleALC section of the main guide :-

If after testing all valid values of layout-id for your codec, audio is still not working then you may have a codec configuration that needs a new patch set ... as with a non-supported codec, the best place to get help is the official AppleALC help thread. Create a post with the details of your codec (see post #1 in the help thread) ) and write that none of the existing layouts work on your system. Hopefully one of the AppleHDA/AppleALC guru's should see your post and offer to help.

Cheers
Jay

 

[danideicide]

@danideicide,

Unfortunately patching Audio is a complex task which a lot of beginners struggle with.

Many years ago i used this guide :-

[Guide] Anleitung patch AppleHDA (bedingt auch für Codec-Erstellung in AppleALC)

Einfache allgemeine Anleitung zum patchen der AppleHDA (AppleALC)Vorwort:In vielen oft nur englischen Artikeln wird anhand vieler Zahlen und damit ve...

www.root86.com

It's in German but it translated well to english using google/chrome translate, unfortunately it seems that google are withdrawing the on-line translate service but i'm sure they are other services available.

There is also this guide which for a long time was considered the holy bible of audio patching on MacOS :-

Complete AppleHDA Patching Guide

Hi friends, This is a complete AppleHDA patching guide for the Audio codec in the Notebooks (but theory works for Desktop too). I'm writing this guide based on my knowledge and experience gained myself doing so many patches and details from the web. Hoping this could help many people looking to p...

osxlatitude.com

Both of those guides cover the basic steps of dumping and decoding your audio codec, however they then go on to explaine how to directly patch the AppleHDA kext which is now considered a legacy method as everyone uses AppleALC these days, so you only really need to read the first section of the guides. Once you have dumped your codec and deciphered the information you can create the PlatformsXX.xml and LayoutXX.xml files that the AppleALC kext can use to patch AppleHDA on the fly at boot up. you will also need to add the appropriate details to the info.plist.

That said there are already 18 different layouts (1,2,3,5,7,11,12,13,17,18,20,33,40,50,52,53,87,99) for the ALC887 codec in the AppleALC database :-

AppleALC/Resources/ALC887 at master · acidanthera/AppleALC

Native macOS HD audio for not officially supported codecs - acidanthera/AppleALC

github.com

Are you sure that none of them work on your system ?

If not it could be as simple as just editing the pin config, which you can do using this tool :-

GitHub - benbaker76/PinConfigurator: HDA Audio Codec verb configuration application

HDA Audio Codec verb configuration application. Contribute to benbaker76/PinConfigurator development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

If you have to create a completely new set of patches can use any of the existing ALC887 layout and platform XML files as a template and pick a new unused layout id for your custom patches. If the process of creating the patches yourself is too much i would recommend posting your codec dump to the AppleALC support thread as stated in the AppleALC section of the main guide :-



Cheers
Jay

Wow, thank you very much Jay!
I found layout 52 to be working partially. Also layout 1, 2, 5. At layout 1 the microphone pin is not being recognized, so I just need to set up the pins accordingly.

Right now I am battling with my demons because I bought an Asus z590 prime-a with a i5 11600k CPU and can't make it work (ethernet is not working (i225-v is supported natively but for some reason it doesn't work)). Also there are a tons of other issues ... the sadness, hackintoshing is soo hard and exhaustive on mind

 

[Superbogey]

Wow, thank you very much Jay!
I found layout 52 to be working partially. Also layout 1, 2, 5. At layout 1 the microphone pin is not being recognized, so I just need to set up the pins accordingly.

Right now I am battling with my demons because I bought an Asus z590 prime-a with a i5 11600k CPU and can't make it work (ethernet is not working (i225-v is supported natively but for some reason it doesn't work)). Also there are a tons of other issues ... the sadness, hackintoshing is soo hard and exhaustive on mind

Just out of curiousity, have you checked Gigabyte's website to see if they might have an updated BIOS?