Fix for Nvidia 8400GS in Mountain Lion

[Zamber]

Henties sorted out how to get Nvidia 8400GS working on Mountain Lion.

This thread describes how he got it working (basically coping lion kexts, injecting an EFI-String and fixing premissions) http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...d3r-hangs-macx_swapon-success.html#post463798

I would be willing to write a patch for it but I'm new to MultiBeast internals. Are there any docs that would get me on the right track?

 

[MacMan]

Closed, not valid as of 10.7.5 and 10.8.0 as they no longer includes specific device ids in the kexts.

 

[Henties]

Hi MacMan !

I think you are jumping the gun a little bit too soon in knocking my method off.

You are right, device IDs are not used anymore , read my original post and you will see that I discovered that as well. It seems it's now all based on serial numbers, as I tried to explain. The ML kexts have completely different structures compared to the Lion kexts!

Nevertheless my method works, it's actually quite simple to implement, stable and cost effective as it does not cost a dime. By this method the hardware of the Lion rigs have a new lease of life with all the video cards that Lion used to support now also working in Mountain Lion. FULLSTOP

I have done a great deal of software development in my prime years, that's why I was able to pick this up when I
analyzed the kexts.

The generation of EFI strings is not required at all, I only use EFI strings because I am using multiple video cards.

Lots to ponder about.

Greets

 

[MacMan]

There is no method described, just I hacked the kexts.

 

[Henties]

The "method" is to transfer the serial numbers of the 2 ML kexts to the Lion kexts, install the latter with kexbeast
or whatever other method one prefers. After this the video cards that were rejected by ML before this exercise
will work again, provided they used to work in Lion prior to installing ML. The net is full of posts by guys unable
to get their video cards that worked in lion also working in ML. This is a solution for those people that do not want to
buy new video cards to get ML up and running

 

[MacMan]

The "method" is to transfer the serial numbers of the 2 ML kexts to the Lion kexts, install the latter with kexbeast
or whatever other method one prefers. After this the video cards that were rejected by ML before this exercise
will work again, provided they used to work in Lion prior to installing ML. The net is full of posts by guys unable
to get their video cards that worked in lion also working in ML. This is a solution for those people that do not want to
buy new video cards to get ML up and running

There is no such thing as "serial numbers" in kexts.

 

[Henties]

Well I am really surprised !

Opening the ML and Lion info.plist files with textedit side by side reveals - 8.. series - numbers (NUMBERS STARTING WITH an 8)
in the ML info.plist file, whereas the numbers in the Lion info.plist file, FOUND AT THE SAME LOCATIONS,
are 7.. series numbers (NUMBERS STARTING WITH a 7) .

The same also applies to the version.plist files.

Transferring the ML - 8.. series - numbers from its info and version plist files to the Lion info and version plist files and then installing
these Lion number modified plist files into ML makes video cards that used to work in Lion work again in ML.

Whether one calls these numerals SERIAL numbers, IDENTIFICATION numbers, PRODUCTION numbers, VERSION numbers or whatever,
is to me irrelevant.

Doing as I suggested here on numerous occasions, solves a real problem albeit temporarily.

Requiring that these numbers are called by their correct names, however makes no contribution to helping the MANY people out
there that are looking for a solution to video card problems introduced by ML

Greets

NB. The .. plist files mentioned above are found by opening the ML and Lion NVDANV50Hal.kext and NVDAResman.kext folders.
In my particular case I got a 8400GS working in ML by number swapping as explained above. I chose the NVDANV50Hal.kext
simply because that kext controls access to the "driver" for this particular nVidia graphics card.

 

[cpetterborg]

The "method" is to transfer the serial numbers of the 2 ML kexts to the Lion kexts, install the latter with kexbeast
or whatever other method one prefers. After this the video cards that were rejected by ML before this exercise
will work again, provided they used to work in Lion prior to installing ML. The net is full of posts by guys unable
to get their video cards that worked in lion also working in ML. This is a solution for those people that do not want to
buy new video cards to get ML up and running

How do you get your device's "serial number?"

What do you change/add to the files in order to get it to work?

Can you provide an example of how it was done?

 

[Henties]

Hi cpetterborg !

You need NO serial numbers whatsoever, you also need NO device IDs either.
All you need is to transfer all the numbers starting with an 8... in the info.plist and version.plist files contained within the ML NVDANV50Hal.kext and NVDAResman.kext to the corresponding inf.plist and version.plist files contained within the Lion NVDANV50Hal.kext and NVDAResman.kext. The numbers you find in the Lion inf.plist and version.plist files of the NVDANV50Hal.kext and NVDAResman.kext all start with the Lion sub version number of 7.. It makes sense as the Lion version number proper starts with 10.7.... whereas the ML version number starts with 10.8... In the .plist files under discussion here, the differentiation between a ML kext and a Lion kext manifests itself in the difference between the sub version numbers ie. 8 and 7 for ML and Lion respectively.

After you transferred these numbers copy, the modified Lion kexts to your ML installation and you are ready to go.

The structure of the ML .plist files within the ML kexts differs from the structure of the Lion .plist files within the Lion kexts. Don't let that put you off. The point with this method is to make ML believe that the kexts it is handling are actually it's very own.

Ill hope this explanation helps, I have got some chores to attend to for the next couple of days but will monitor this
spot in case some extra help/explanation is needed to get you going.

Wishing you luck. I have done this to another three machines with a 100 percent success rate.


Greets

 

[ech1965]

There is no method described, just I hacked the kexts.

Hello,

Please multibeast developers,

Mould you be kind to explain what would be the "approved" method to be added in multibeast to make those "older" graphic card work on ML ?

Right now, the only way I found was to install kext found elsewhere.....

Thanks,
Etienne