Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R + El Capitan + GT 730: No go

[alexander750]

Continued from here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/lion-desk...ckintosh-en-route-el-capitan.html#post1181131

After doing a test install of Linux on a spare drive to verify my new GT 730 actually works, I took the plunge, blew away Lion and installed El Capitan. Of course, I had to use "nv_disable=1" to get it working, and it looked awful, but it worked. Multibeast went without a hitch (audio now works! yay!) But when I rebooted...

...same problem as before, OS X starts to load and then screen goes blank. Have to nail the reset button and use nv_disable=1 again to get to the login screen and Finder. Located the proper 'alternate' nVidia drivers for 10.11.2 here:

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/96651/en-us

and installed them (installer worked properly, identifying my card as a GT 730). Rebooted.

Same result, need nv_disable=1 to boot successfully. Trying to enable it in the nVidia preferences doesn't work; also, for some reason, the ECC tab shows "no device found".

Oh, this is odd...locked up on spinning bar thingie on shutdown...hmm...

EDIT: Also installed latest CUDA drivers from above link, and tried "nvda_drv=1" to explicitly force use of the nVidia driver. Same result.

 

[alexander750]

Now I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere. Looks like I'll be needing to inject a Fake ID into /EFI/Clover/config.plist (in the /Devices/FakeID/NVidia key) for my display card. Also, I note that the /Graphics/Inject/Intel key has "true", which is most certainly not true for this Gigabyte mobo. Hmmm...

Digging into Wikipedia and the Nouveau open-source driver docs for Linux, I've learned that:
1) My "GT 730" is really a GT 430...
2) ...of the NVC1/GF108 family...
3) ...which uses the Fermi architecture...
4) ...which includes the following:

GeForce GT series:
415M, 420, 420M, 425M,
430, 435M, 520M, 525M,
530, 540M, 550M, 555M,
620, 630M, 635M, 640M LE

Quadro series:
600, 1000M

Looking in /System/Library/Extensions (with the Terminal, natch) yields a whole panoply of kexts starting with "GeForce" and "NVDA", half of which have "Web" as part of their names. The closest matches I can find are a pair called "NVDAGF100Hal.kext" and "NVDAGF100HalWeb.kext". But digging further to the info.plist (using pico) contained in each says nothing about which models they support...AFAIK.

So now I'm on a quest to find out which ID corresponds to which nVidia model, and (presumably) use that as my Fake ID for the card.

EDIT: Found 'em here: https://gist.github.com/roalercon/51f13a387f3754615cce

 

[alexander750]

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R + El Capitan + GT 730: SUCCESS!

QA'PLA! (sorry if my Klingon is a bit rusty )

After trying a number of Fake IDs and failing, I suddenly remembered "wait a minute...don't those older cards require graphics injection?" So, I enabled that, along with the Fake ID for the GT 430: 0x10DE0DE1 (and changing the name to "NVDA GeForce GT 430" couldn't hurt). It worked. Using the Apple driver, no less.

Going into /EFI/Clover/Config.plist, I changed:
1) In /Boot/Arguments, added "nvda_drv=1"
2) In /Devices/FakeID/NVidia, changed "0x0" to "0x10DE0DE1"
3) in /Graphics/Inject, changed "Intel" to "false/" and "NVidia" to "true/"

Last problem to solve: freeze on shutdown...

Postscript: The actual ID of the GT 730 is 0x10DE0F02.

 

[slim.jim]

You shouldn't need the fake ID stuff. Just the injection.

 

[alexander750]

You shouldn't need the fake ID stuff. Just the injection.

Depends on the manufacturer, I suppose. My guess is, Apple's drivers don't recognize an "EVGA GeForce GT 730" as either an "nVidia GeForce GT 730" (which I couldn't find a Fake ID for) or an "nVidia GeForce GT 430" (which is what it should identify itself as). Even if the Fake ID isn't needed, it couldn't hurt, right?

To recap:

When I initially tested the EC installer, I had graphics injection turned on (since I was using the 8400 GS at that time). After installing the GT 730, the installer no longer worked, until I used the "nv_disable=1" flag. Thinking (wrongly) that injection was the problem, I temporarily reinstalled the 8400 GS, rebuilt the installer with injection off, then reinstalled the GT 730, along with a spare hard drive on which I installed Ubuntu 15.10 to check the card's operation. The card checked out OK in Linux. Removing the spare hard drive, I proceeded with the El Capitan install...for which I still needed the "nv_disable=1" boot flag. The rest is detailed above.

Anyway, it's still a learning experience, and in no way detracts from the great work the CustoMac team has done!

 

[alexander750]

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R + El Capitan + GT 730: Golden...

Postscript: I tried it without the Fake ID. It works.

I also edited /EFI/Clover/Config.plist on my EC installer, as above, but without the Fake ID. It also works.

Had a problem with slow networking, for which I installed the Realtek8111.kext from the file section. Problem solved.

The crash on shutdown somehow resolved itself. Haven't tried sleep though (no need, really; this is a desktop, and I'm running BOINC; with CUDA enabled, SETI@home, Einstein@home, and even Climateprediction.net are flat-out flying).

At this point I'd call my build golden; according to About this Mac, I'm running OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 on a fully functional "Mac Pro (Early 2008)" with a 3 GHz Core 2 "Xeon" (even though it's a Yorkfield Q9650, not a Harpertown E5450), 8 GB DDR 800 RAM, and an EVGA GeForce GT 730 display card.

Right now I'm experimenting with dual-booting Ubuntu 15.10 with EC. So far, I've had to use the brute-force expedient of nailing F12 on boot and selecting the second HD to bypass Clover and get to GRUB. Transferring files from Ubuntu to EC is a bit of a chore, as I have to use my old MacBook (running Lion) as a go-between! Once I get what I need off the Ubuntu drive, I'll erase it and use it as extra space.

 

[RDraxler]

Thank you for this short guide! works perfect with an low profile HP GT 730 in a shuttle PC (core 2 duo and 4 GB ddr2 Ram)

 

[axl21]

Continued from here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/lion-desk...ckintosh-en-route-el-capitan.html#post1181131

After doing a test install of Linux on a spare drive to verify my new GT 730 actually works, I took the plunge, blew away Lion and installed El Capitan. Of course, I had to use "nv_disable=1" to get it working, and it looked awful, but it worked. Multibeast went without a hitch (audio now works! yay!) But when I rebooted...

...same problem as before, OS X starts to load and then screen goes blank. Have to nail the reset button and use nv_disable=1 again to get to the login screen and Finder. Located the proper 'alternate' nVidia drivers for 10.11.2 here:

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/96651/en-us

and installed them (installer worked properly, identifying my card as a GT 730). Rebooted.

Same result, need nv_disable=1 to boot successfully. Trying to enable it in the nVidia preferences doesn't work; also, for some reason, the ECC tab shows "no device found".

Oh, this is odd...locked up on spinning bar thingie on shutdown...hmm...

EDIT: Also installed latest CUDA drivers from above link, and tried "nvda_drv=1" to explicitly force use of the nVidia driver. Same result.

i have the same problem when i try to boot always enable nv_disable=1 .the graphics was sucs.when iinstall hdmi audio in the next reboot they became a miracle.all works fine.i have h81 m+ gt 730?