Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P issues

[emice]

I have downloaded the DSDT for this board from the database and placed it in /Extra after renaming it to dsdt.aml. I am running BIOS F7C + Chameleon RC4 w/ the AcerBLN 1.1.9 modifications. I have not tried putting in the RealtekR1000SL.kext because my understanding is that the DSDT by itself should enable the network cards to work with the included drivers from Apple. They don't show up under "Ethernet Cards" in System Profiler though.

I am pretty sure the dsdt.aml is getting loaded because I stopped having nasty CMOS reset issues once I dropped it into /Extra. Every time the CMOS was reset the system would not boot even after I restored the correct settings in BIOS setup. I would simply get a blinking cursor after the usual BIOS boot sequence. I haven't read about this happening to anyone else, so I want to put it out there that my MBR got trashed every time the CMOS reset happend.

I fixed it by using fdisk to write the boot0 file to the MBR after booting into the system with the tonymacx86 boot cd beta. I had to modify the iso to use the 10.2.0 Qoopz kernel in order to get back into the 10.6.2 upgraded system because some kexts that came w/ the 10.6.2 upgrade are not compatible with the older kernel. I initially tried to replace the trashed MBR by running tonymac's installer for AsereBLN 1.1.8, but that didn't work. Wouldn't writing boot0 to MBR be part of that installation?

Anyway, I'm getting a bit sidetracked. My main question is about getting the ethernet working without the additional kext. I have used DSDTSE to read the dsdt.aml and it looks like the edits are made in the right places, so what gives?

Secondary question - I found display@0 in the IORegistryExplorer program but there is no NVCAP property and gaart-width is wrong. Says 0x40 for a 256MB Nvidia 7300 GS card. I may just use the NVEnabler 64.kext but would like to do it via DSDT. I will try using the enabler kext later and see if an NVCAP value appears. Looking for other ideas on how to get the NVCAP as well.

I have been keeping notes as I figure things out, so I will try to post some sort of guide once I get things running w/ the absolute minimum of kexts. I see MultiBeast is coming but wonder if it keeps things as vanilla as possible, considering how much different hardware it supports. Thanks for reading, any help appreciated!

System specs:
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P Mainboard
Core i3-530 processor
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 7-8-7-20
Sony Opticarc AD-7241S DVD Writer
Nvidia 7300 GS 256MB

 

[tonymacx86]

I use the RealtekR1000SL.kext for ethernet. I haven't done anything to the DSDTs in the DSDT Database to enable network without kexts.

If you're worried about MultiBeast handicapping your Vanilla system, install one thing at a time, and delete it after if you don't need it. The descriptions tell you where the kexts go (either /System/Library/Extensions or /Extra/Extensions)

One thing I'll say though about your 7300- you'll need to use the 10.6.1 graphics kexts to avoid kernel panic on 10.6.2.
Public/10.6.1%20Graphics%20Kexts.zip

Check out the nVidia DSDT graphics guide at the blog for advice about non-kext graphics method.
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/01/ ... phics.html

Hint for more vanilla system: You can install the RealtekR1000SL.kext to the /Extra folder if you include a copy of IONetworkingFamily.kext. I don't do this, as it actually makes the Extra folder have 1 more kext, but many people like to leave S/L/E untouched. Also, NVEnabler can live there as well.

 

[emice]

Thanks for the tip on the 7300 GS card. I wasn't aware of the kernel panic issue with 10.6.2, but I will run into it pretty soon. That will save me some confusion and time. It looks like a DSDT only solution for graphics is not going to happen with this card.

As for the Realtek 8111D onboard networking, I was under the impression that it should work with just DSDT edits after reading the Sleep Issues thread. If the dsdt.aml in the database is the one that winstonace provided you, it sounds like he is using only DSDT edits to get ethernet working. On page 4 of the thread he mentions he is only using fakesmc.kext and legacyhda.kext.

To verify that the DSDT does have the edits for the 8111D I used IORegistryExplorer to find that the LAN0 & LAN1 devices are under devices PEX6 & PEX7 respectively. I then opened the dsdt.aml in DSDTSE, and found LAN0 & LAN1 under PEX6 & PEX7 there too, with the edits described for the 8111D in this posting right where they belong. That posting also mentions operating without additional kexts. Below I have pasted the Device (LAN0) section I extracted from the DSDT-GA-P55A-UD4P-F7.aml I got from your database.

                Device (LAN0)
                {
                    Name (_ADR, Zero)
                    Method (_STA, 0, NotSerialized)
                    {
                        Return (0x0F)
                    }

                    Name (_PRW, Package (0x02)
                    {
                        0x09, 
                        0x03
                    })
                    Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
                    {
                        Store (Package (0x08)
                            {
                                "built-in", 
                                Buffer (One)
                                {
                                    0x01
                                }, 

                                "device_type", 
                                Buffer (0x09)
                                {
                                    "ethernet"
                                }, 

                                "location", 
                                Buffer (0x02)
                                {
                                    "1"
                                }, 

                                "name", 
                                Buffer (0x2B)
                                {
                                    "Realtek RTL8168D/8111D PCI-E Gigabit NIC 1"
                                }
                            }, Local0)
                        DTGP (Arg0, Arg1, Arg2, Arg3, RefOf (Local0))
                        Return (Local0)
                    }
                }

It looks very similar to the LAN section for the 8111D posted at infinitemac.com link above. Except where it says "Name (_PRW, Package (0x02) { 0x09, 0x03 })". 0x09 and 0x03 are 0x0b and 0x04 in the infinitemac posting. I've seen the 0x0b and 0x04 values in at least one other posting about the 8111 series chip too. I tried changing LAN0 in the dsdt.aml to these new values, recompiling, copying to /Extra, and rebooting, but no luck. Any idea what _PRW represents? Does dsdt.aml get cached in any way so that the changes don't take effect right away?

I have to step out for a couple hours but will play around some more when I get back. A lot of boards use this network interface card, at least most all the new Gigabyte P55A boards, so it would be helpful to get to the bottom of this.