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[GUIDE] Atari VCS (2020) Console

Just informing everyone I have made an update to the Atari VCS EFI.
This EFI will now run High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina and Big Sur (up to 11.3).
By default the file is setup for running in Big Sur, but should work in the
other OSes. Please add in your serials and rom as necessary for EFI.

I've made some improvements such as addition of USBMap.kext as well
as a modded SATA-unsupported.kext to allow the internal drive to finally be
usable/seen. I have also made a custom SSDT for the Vega 3 internal gpu,
which now allows it to run DRM such as Youtube and MP3 file playback
but it is not running official 3D hardware accelerated option as yet.
Sound may be a little choppy on Catalina. I had tried to reconfigure Rehabman's
FakePCIID_Intel_HDMI_Audio.kext for the AMD chip but it has proven
somewhat challenging despite the sound chips being recognised in System
Profiler PCI devices. 4K and HD res switching is now also available.

WiFi is also now fully functional in Big Sur, and Ethernet on LAN port is
available across all the OSes. USB 3.1 is now also available across all ports.

If you are using Mojave or earlier, please select and use the USBMapLegacy.kext
instead.
 

Attachments

  • EFI for Tonymac.zip
    21.6 MB · Views: 150
Can we get 3D acceleration on Vega 11 or at least basic display memory to run YouTube or any other video?

Edit* I had successfully booted Catalina, High Sierra with open core but wasn't able to get 2 gigs of display memory as i get in windows
 
Can we get 3D acceleration on Vega 11 or at least basic display memory to run YouTube or any other video?

Edit* I had successfully booted Catalina, High Sierra with open core but wasn't able to get 2 gigs of display memory as i get in windows
If you're able to boot into the OS, then you're halfway there! That means it should be running VESA mode.

Please understand not all AMD APUs can work because it is totally unsupported either with macOS or Dortania. There is a lot of trial and error and oftentimes will result in failure because of lack of support and drivers mainly.

But if you wish, to make it work properly you will have to refer to Windows and check the device hardware id and Location Path of your AMD IGPU in Device Manager.
You may also need to check your motherboard’s DSDT and refer to its path for your GPU ie. PEGP, and use those values to create your SSDT-GPU-Spoof.aml file to add in ACPI of your EFI folder (that enables the card). You will also have to check macOS’s AMD system kext files in /S/L/E to see if your GPU’s device-id is present in the Info.plists and whether they are the same series as your Vega 11. If not you may have to inject them. You can check against some of the AMD device IDs here and see if yours match > https://pci-ids.ucw.cz/read/PC/1002
 
This is a long long process… Can you help me out! I can provide you each and every information required from my PC ie from windows! Would try by myself though but if I fail please help me out.
 
If you're able to boot into the OS, then you're halfway there! That means it should be running VESA mode.

Please understand not all AMD APUs can work because it is totally unsupported either with macOS or Dortania. There is a lot of trial and error and oftentimes will result in failure because of lack of support and drivers mainly.

But if you wish, to make it work properly you will have to refer to Windows and check the device hardware id and Location Path of your AMD IGPU in Device Manager.
You may also need to check your motherboard’s DSDT and refer to its path for your GPU ie. PEGP, and use those values to create your SSDT-GPU-Spoof.aml file to add in ACPI of your EFI folder (that enables the card). You will also have to check macOS’s AMD system kext files in /S/L/E to see if your GPU’s device-id is present in the Info.plists and whether they are the same series as your Vega 11. If not you may have to inject them. You can check against some of the AMD device IDs here and see if yours match > https://pci-ids.ucw.cz/read/PC/1002
The thing is if I go and search in PCI ids in the given link, if I go by name it says this ID
1624249986142.png


If I go by the device manager which says this ID
1624250043005.png

I can see
1624250080427.png

But no name of my Graphic Card i.e. Vega 11
So which ID should I consider?


Well it is the Picasso Graphic card but am not able to see it in the website!
 
Last edited:
The thing is if I go and search in PCI ids in the given link, if I go by name it says this IDView attachment 522344

If I go by the device manager which says this ID
View attachment 522345
I can see
View attachment 522346
But no name of my Graphic Card i.e. Vega 11
So which ID should I consider?


Well it is the Picasso Graphic card but am not able to see it in the website!
From what I understand it should be Raven Ridge? Because according to here that's what it states
> https://www.notebookcheck.net/Vega-11-vs-Radeon-RX-560X-Laptop_8470_8810.247598.0.html

Anyways I used 67B0 (or B0670000) as the device-id on my VCS. However I think SSDT-GPU-Spoof.aml might be a way forward. What you need to do is check the ACPI path of your AMD GPU. Go into Windows Device Manager and lookup the Location Path of the Vega GPU - that sets the PCI path for your GPU. Now after getting a copy of the SSDT-GPU-Spoof from Dortania, use MaciASL to replace the values in the file from Dortania guide with those according to the path shown in your Windows. And then put B0, 67, as the ID values in the file as well as changing the name to 'AMD RX Vega 11'. Save the file and then copy it to your OC/ACPI folder, enabling it in the EFI with Plist Editor or equivalent.

Then using the device id (15D81002) from Windows for your Vega 11 card add it in the Device Properties section. Insert it as D8150000 in the device properties section as device-id. This is an important part of the process.

Also don't forget to add agdpmod=pikera -radcodec in the boot-args in NVRAM. And if you are using anything else other than Big Sur, you could also try -radpg=15 or shikigva=40 shiki-id=Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94.
 
The processor is of desktop it’s 3400g Ryzen 5 and has vega 11 graphics of 2 gigs memory.
 
Just thought to inform everyone Atari has a new BIOS update (no.3) and it seems to have broken the usual EFI booting for the unit meaning the USB drive isn't detected in normal way. However not to worry, there is still a way in! If your BIOS has been updated there is a way into the boot process and it's quite simple. All you have to do is keep your USB unplugged until you see the initial BIOS screen after pressing Escape, then insert your USD drive just before you select the Boot Manager selection.

Aside from this, it seems that they have added 4K acceleration into the GPU BIOS. I've tested it in Windows and rendering seems a bit faster with Unigine Heaven - between 22fps to 40fps in 1080p mode and 5fps in 4K mode. There is now a RAVEN2 selection in the BIOS video menu area and also a GPU UMA section near one of the end menus. The UMA allows the system to utilise the Above 4G Decoding, and can be set to either Legacy, Non Legacy, Hybrid or Auto. Just don't forget there is also a second Above 4G Decoding selection in the Peripherals section of the BIOS menu that can be enabled.
 
I just got macOS Catalina up and running on my VCS (running on a 64GB PNY USB 3.0 Pen drive), but it's running incredibly slow. Moving the mouse causes it to freeze while it loads, and it takes about 15 minutes for any programs to load. Is there a BIOS setting I need to change, or did the install just not work entirely?
 
I just got macOS Catalina up and running on my VCS (running on a 64GB PNY USB 3.0 Pen drive), but it's running incredibly slow. Moving the mouse causes it to freeze while it loads, and it takes about 15 minutes for any programs to load. Is there a BIOS setting I need to change, or did the install just not work entirely?
Have you followed my guide to set the BIOS settings? Because they are quite crucial.

If you are experiencing slow USB ports you may need to use something like USBMap or SSDTTime by corpnewt to recreate your ports.
> https://github.com/corpnewt/USBMap (for Mac)
> https://github.com/corpnewt/SSDTTime (for Windows/Linux)

All you have to do is run your VCS system with USBInjectAll and USBPortLimit enabled in the EFI (disable any current USBPort or USBMap/USBMapLegacy.kext), boot with it, and all the ports will be enabled. You then run say USBMap by downloading the file, running the .command script by right-clicking it and running it in Terminal. You then press D to discover your ports; plug USB 2 or USB 3 devices or drives into the rest of the VCS ports for them to detected and create the end USBMap.kext and USBMapLegacy.kext files. Those files will be saved in the USBMap/Results folder and you then transfer them to your EFI/OC/Kexts folder, add and enable one of them in your config.plist (mostly USBMap.kext for Catalina) and disable your USBInjectAll and XHCIPortLimit quirk. That should make a difference if anything.
 
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