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Guide How to Patch AMD Framebuffers for High Sierra using Clover

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great guide, my amd works!
for whoever wants, the codes for amd 7950 vapor-x edition (2x dvi-d, not 1x dvi-d 1xdvi-i as the producer says, 1x dp, 1x hdmi) are:

Code:
AMD7000Controller
find: 02000000 00010000 00010151 00000000 22050202 00000000 02000000 00010000 00010261 01000000 12040101 00000000 00040000 04030000 00010343 00000000 11020303 00000000 00040000 04030000 00010433 00000000 21030404 00000000
replace: 00040000 04030000 00010400 00000000 12040501 00000000 00080000 04020000 00010300 00000000 22050104 00000000 04000000 14020000 00010100 00000000 10000306 00000000 04000000 14020000 00010200 00000000 11020603 00000000
 

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I have an Asus strix R9 380X, and I get boot to black screen in high sierra with both DVI ports, tried patching the framebuffer but still getting black screen even with the installer. can anyone help me ?
 
Thanks so much @carpentryplus25 for this awesome post. I have the same card on my desktop and with your patch it worked right away!

I also have a laptop with dedicated AMD card that suffers the same problem: I'm using HD 4400 for the internal display and was able to drive an external display with the FirePro M6100 which is native to AMD8000Controller.kext (it has the device id 6646). Up until High Sierra I was able to get a picture on the external screen with RadeonFramebuffer. Now my external display is detected but it stays black.
I've tried injecting Exmoor or Baladi Frambuffers without success. It always shows as RadeonFramebuffer with black screen. Could it have to do with ACPI? In my config HD4400 is renamed from GFX0 to IGPU. The FirePro then shows up as GFX0 (on PEGP).
My install is completely based on @RehabMan 's hotpatch method. All I did was to enable dedicated graphics in SSDT.
Thanks for your help!
 

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  • 1002_6646_190a103c.rom.zip
    41 KB · Views: 121
So if you recently installed High Sierra and have an AMD graphics card and were greeted at the end of the installation with black screens and Lilu.kext and WhateverGreen.kext wasn't able to resolve it, then try patching the framebuffer that corresponds to your graphics card to try resolving it. Initially I wasn't going to write this guide as there are plenty of other internet resources for doing this procedure, but after reading some AMD black screen post on High Sierra, I felt it is needed to have a dedicated guide here at Tonymacx86.com.

Originally I had absolutely no problems with my VisionTek AMD Radeon 7970 in all versions of macOS as long as I had the IGPU set as primary in UEFI/Bios settings, it always worked OOB. But then came High Sierra to mess that all up. The changes in High Sierra are mainly Metalv2. Apple is changing the way all the graphics drivers are working to support eGPU setups better. Before High Sierra I was using injectATI=true with Hamachi or Futomaki framebuffers, I could even not injectATI and use the RadeonFramebuffer with not problems. Since High Sierra AMD cards are pretty much required to be injected via some method, for a fully functional card. I noticed in the AMD7000Controller info.plist CFG_USE_AGDC was set to false on Hamachi framebuffer and all other that aren't listed in the info.plist, which lead me to start patching different framebuffers. I likely could have went a different method of using a dummy kext to override the default values in the native info.plist but it wasn't needed for me. Others may find that this is a needed step, it trying all framebuffers and still in failure.


Change log
Use Florian's version of radeon_bios_decode 12/2/2017
Add RadeonDeInit=True 11/15/2017
fix some typos and make changes to template, added some credits 10/27/2017
add missing info 10/25/2017
initial 10/23/17

Requirements:
  • Native AMDXXXXController.kext
    • Rerun the installer if you've been tampering with it
  • A full UEFI system with CSM disable if an IGPU or helper graphics card is not available
    • If you don't have an IGPU or helper Nvidia card and go the full UEFI method you must use RadeonDeInit=True in the graphics section of you config.plist
    • Older systems will require a Helper card in which scenario might as well not use AMD.
  • A way to retrieve the rom file for your graphics card can be done in Windows.
  • Ability to use terminal.app can be done on versions earlier than High Sierra.
    • You still need to be able to dump some stuff in terminal on High Sierra.
Tools:
  • redsock_bios_decoder attached to thread
  • radeon_bios_decode
  • Pavo's script to dump all AMD framebuffers available here
  • DPCIManager to dump the GFX rom file from macOS or GPUZ to dump it from windows
  • Clover Configurator
Step 1.
Extracting the GFX rom file from the GFX card. This can be done with DPCIManager in macOS or GPUZ in windows. I will not be covering the windows method though.

View attachment 287704

Save it to a location for use later.

Step 2.
Pick a proper framebuffer for you card. It should have the same number of ports as your card. You may have to try patching all the framebuffers with the same number of ports to find the right one, I will cover this later in the guide. So dump all the AMD framebuffers with Pavo's Sierra script. It's a python script so open terminal and type php one space then drag in the script and hit enter. It will then list all the default framebuffers connector information in hex values. Open a new text edit document and copy and paste the data to it for future reference.

Step 3.
Gather the information from the rom file using radeon_bios_decode and redsock_bios_decoder. So open terminal and drag radeon_bios_decode into terminal one space and type < one space and drag in the rom file and press enter. Repeat the same process for redsock_bios_decoder and save the output to your text edit document for later use.

Step 4.
Getting the connector information from the decoders. Looking at my example from my AMD Radeon HD 7970.
radeon_bios_decode output. Get radeon_bios_decode from here attached to first post in thread.
Code:
ATOM BIOS Rom:
    SubsystemVendorID: 0x1545 SubsystemID: 0x7970
    IOBaseAddress: 0x0000
    Filename: SV2A01.001
    BIOS Bootup Message: TAHITI XT PCIE 3G/384B GDDR5 DLDVI-I/HDMI/2XMINI-DP 925E/1375M
PCI ID: 1002:6798

Connector at index 0
   Type [@offset 43422]: DisplayPort (10)
   Encoder [@offset 43426]: INTERNAL_UNIPHY2 (0x21)
   i2cid [@offset 43540]: 0x90, OSX senseid: 0x1
   HotPlugID: 5
Connector at index 1
   Type [@offset 43432]: DisplayPort (10)
   Encoder [@offset 43436]: INTERNAL_UNIPHY2 (0x21)
   i2cid [@offset 43567]: 0x91, OSX senseid: 0x2
   HotPlugID: 4
Connector at index 2
   Type [@offset 43442]: HDMI-A (11)
   Encoder [@offset 43446]: INTERNAL_UNIPHY1 (0x20)
   i2cid [@offset 43594]: 0x93, OSX senseid: 0x4
   HotPlugID: 1
Connector at index 3
   Type [@offset 43452]: DVI-I (2)
   Encoder [@offset 43456]: INTERNAL_UNIPHY (0x1e)
   i2cid [@offset 43631]: 0x95, OSX senseid: 0x6
   HotPlugID: 3
Connector at index 4
   Type [@offset 43462]: DVI-I (2)
   Encoder [@offset 43466]: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1 (0x15)
   i2cid [@offset 43631]: 0x95, OSX senseid: 0x6
   HotPlugID: 3
and redsock_bios_decoder output
Code:
SV2A01.001  :
TAHITI XT PCIE 3G/384B GDDR5 DLDVI-I/HDMI/2XMINI-DP 925E/1375M
Subsystem Vendor ID: 1545
       Subsystem ID: 7970
Object Header Structure Size: 389
Connector Object Table Offset: 48
Router Object Table Offset: 0
Encoder Object Table Offset: 118
Display Path Table Offset: 12
Connector Object Id [19] which is [DISPLAY_PORT]
    encoder obj id [0x21] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY2 (osx txmit 0x12 [duallink 0x2] enc 0x4)] linkb: false
Connector Object Id [19] which is [DISPLAY_PORT]
    encoder obj id [0x21] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY2 (osx txmit 0x22 [duallink 0x2] enc 0x5)] linkb: true
Connector Object Id [12] which is [HDMI_TYPE_A]
    encoder obj id [0x20] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY1 (osx txmit 0x11 [duallink 0x1] enc 0x2)] linkb: false
Connector Object Id [2] which is [DVI_I]
    encoder obj id [0x1e] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY (osx txmit 0x10 [duallink 0x0] enc 0x0)] linkb: false
Connector Object Id [2] which is [DVI_I]
    encoder obj id [0x15] which is [INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1 (osx txmit 0x00 enc 0x10?)] linkb: false

From this information we can construct our connector code

Notice the numbers that are colored these are the numbers of interest. I will start with the connector at index 0 for and explanation of how this works.

Some guides may use Connector at index for hotplugid values and when you use Florian's version of radeon_bios_decode it will reveal the correct hotplugid. So use the version attached to this thread or in the Compatibility thread.
Display Port at index 0 will use HotPlugID 05

So pulling these numbers together for the connector at index 0 is as follows.
Code construction: 12040501
The first two digits of the constructed code from the decoders is Transmitter (12) the next two are the encoder(04) the next two are hotplug ID (05) the next two are sense ID (01)

For my example I had to use the Namako framebuffer the Hamachi and Futomaki framebuffers would not work in High Sierra mainly due to all the graphics changes in Metel v2. So the Namako unpatched Frambuffer connectors are as follows.
Code:
Namako (4) @ 0xed900
LVDS, LVDS, DP, DP[/COLOR]
020000000001000000010151000000002205020200000000
020000000001000000010261010000001204010100000000
000400000403000000010343000000001102030300000000
000400000403000000010433000000002103040400000000

The numbers in red are where we change to the number we construct from the decoders (12040501)
The numbers in green are the connector type
The numbers in blue are the ATY, Control Flags
The numbers in purple are Features

Now my connector types are completely wrong with this frame buffer as I need DP, DP, HDMI, and DVI-I, So I needed to change the green numbers in the framebuffer. Here's a list of all the different connector types and their respective digits.

Connector Type LVDS 0 × 00000002 = 02 00 00 00 Note: Laptop Monitor
Connector Type DVIDL 0 × 00000004 = 04 00 00 00 Note: Dual Link DVI
Connector Type VGA 0 × 00000010 = 10 00 00 00
Connector Type SV 0 × 00000080 = 08 00 00 00
Connector Type DP = 0 × 00000400 00 04 00 00
Connector Type HDMI 0 × 00000800 = 00 08 00 00
Connector Type DVISL 0 × 00000200 = 00 02 00 00 Note: Single Link DVI

For my example I need to change all the connector sections of this framebuffer.
Old:
020000000001000000010151000000002205020200000000 (LVDS)
020000000001000000010261010000001204010100000000 (LVDS)
000400000403000000010343000000001102030300000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010433000000002103040400000000 (DP)
New:
000400000001000000010151000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000001000000010261010000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000403000000010343000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200000403000000010433000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)

Now I need to change the control Flags to match the connectors which are completely wrong at this point for my card. Here's a list that explains them.

0×0002 : LVDS ControlFlag : 0×0040 and 0×0100
0×0004 : DVI-DL ControlFlag : 0×0016, 0×0014, and 0×0214
0×0010 : VGA ControlFlag : 0×0010
0×0080 : S-Video ControlFlag : 0×0002
0×0200 : DVI-SL ControlFlag : 0×0014, 0×0214, and 0×0204
0×0400 : DisplayPort ControlFlag : 0×0100, 0×0104, 0×0304, 0×0604, and 0×0400
0×0800 : HDMI ControlFlag : 0×0204


Translated in to standard control flags:

Connector Type DP 04 03 00 00
Connector Type HDMI 04 02 00 00
Connector Type DVIDL 14 02 00 00
Connector Type DVISL 04 02 00 00
Connector Type S-VD 02 00 00 00
Connector Type LVDS 00 01 00 00
Note: some connectors have multiple control flags that can be used if the first isn't working like on the Display port or DVI

Secondary control flags that can be tried:
Connector Type DP 04 06 00 00
Connector Type DP 04 01 00 00
Connector Type DP 00 01 00 00
Connector Type DP 00 04 00 00
Connector Type DVI-DL 14 00 00 00
Connector Type DVI-DL 16 00 00 00
Connector Type DVI-SL 14 00 00 00
Connector Type DVI-SL 14 02 00 00
Connector Type LVDS 40 00 00 00
Bringing that together old vs new now.

Old:
000400000001000000010151000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000001000000010261010000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000403000000010343000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200000403000000010433000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)

New:
000400000403000000010151000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010261010000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010343000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010433000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)

Now I need to change the feature a bit and this is a section I don't fully understand yet but it is said that you can simply just zero the last two digits of the purple section the third pair of the purple section represent the order of connector activation. So I change it like so old vs new
Old:
000400000403000000010151000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010261010000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010343000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010433000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)
New:
000400000403000000010400000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010300010000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010100000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010200000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)

I changed mine to have the connector activation start at HDMI then DVI then DP then DP since my monitors are connected to the HDMI and DVI. You should be able to order then how you want them activated.

Now notice that lonely red 1 it needs to become a zero.
Old:
000400000403000000010400000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010300010000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010100000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010200000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)
New:
000400000403000000010400000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010300000000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010100000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010200000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)

Lastly we add our constructed code from earlier old vs new
Old:
000400000403000000010400000000002205020200000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010300000000001204010100000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010100000000001102030300000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010200000000002103040400000000 (DVI-I)
New:
000400000403000000010400000000001204050100000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010300000000002205040200000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010100000000001102010400000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010200000000001000030600000000 (DVI-I)

Now to compare the original Framebuffer Namako to the patched
Original:
020000000001000000010151000000002205020200000000 (LVDS)
020000000001000000010261010000001204010100000000 (LVDS)
000400000403000000010343000000001102030300000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010433000000002103040400000000 (DP)
Patched:
000400000403000000010400000000001204050100000000 (DP)
000400000403000000010300000000002205040200000000 (DP)
000800000402000000010100000000001102010400000000 (HDMI)
000200001402000000010200000000001000030600000000 (DVI-I)

Now we can simplify this process by using this set based on your connectors.
LVDS 02000000 00010000 08010000 00000000 + (add your code construction) 00000000
VGA 10000000 10000000 00010000 00000000 + (add your code construction) 00000000
DP 00040000 04030000 00010000 00000000 + (add your code construction) 00000000
DVI-SL 00020000 04020000 00010000 00000000 + (add your code construction) 00000000
DVI-DL 04000000 14020000 00010000 00000000 + (add your code construction) 00000000
HDMI 00080000 04020000 00010000 00000000 + (add your code construction) 00000000

Step 5.
Clover injection and patch on the fly. In the graphics section of your config.plist you need to select your framebuffer that you wanna patch and inject ATI. Also for me I still need the IGPU helper, which to me is fine as I use it.
Code:
<key>Graphics</key>
    <dict>
        <key>EDID</key>
        <dict>
            <key>Inject</key>
            <false/>
        </dict>
        <key>FBName</key>
        <string>Namako</string>
        <key>Inject</key>
        <dict>
            <key>ATI</key>
            <true/>
            <key>Intel</key>
            <true/>
            <key>NVidia</key>
            <false/>
        </dict>
        <key>RadeonDeInit</key>
        <true/>
        <key>NvidiaSingle</key>
        <false/>
        <key>ig-platform-id</key>
        <string>0x0d220003</string>
    </dict>
Then you need to add the AMDXXXXController to the KextsToPatch section. For me it was like this.
Code:
<dict>
                <key>Comment</key>
                <string>connectors patch</string>
                <key>Disabled</key>
                <false/>
                <key>Find</key>
                <data>
                AgAAAAABAAAAAQFRAAAAACIFAgIAAAAAAgAAAAABAAAA
                AQJhAQAAABIEAQEAAAAAAAQAAAQDAAAAAQNDAAAAABEC
                AwMAAAAAAAQAAAQDAAAAAQQzAAAAACEDBAQAAAAA
                </data>
                <key>Name</key>
                <string>AMD7000Controller</string>
                <key>Replace</key>
                <data>
                AAQAAAQDAAAAAQEBAAAAABIEAQEAAAAAAAQAAAQDAAAA
                AQIBAAAAACIFAgIAAAAAAAgAAAACAAAAAQMAAAAAABEC
                AwQAAAAAACAAAAQCAAAAAQQAAAAAABAABAYAAAAA
                </data>
            </dict>
Note your hex connector patch is translated to base64. This is easiest done with clover configurator. It will automatically convert it for you.

Step 6.
Once you have the needed changes in your config.plist you need to reboot. You will likely not see a change on the first reboot. You will have the rebuild kextcaches first. Also you will need to rebuild them after updates. To do so open terminal and type.
Code:
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/
hit enter then type in your password and hit enter then type.
Code:
sudo kextcache -Boot -U/
and hit enter. Then reboot again and if you did everything correctly your graphics card should be working properly.

Notes.
You must use RadeonDeInit=True in the graphics section of your config.plist and have clover version 4296 or greater for full UEFI mode with CSM disabled in UEFI/BIOS for working sleep.
You should remove WhateverGreen.kext from your system if you installed it and it didn't work. If it did work for you why are you here?
You may have to change the injected framebuffer in your config.plist and the find data to match it from Pavo's script. Until you find one that is working for you.
You will need to be able to reach the desktop some how by some means to do this process. May need to use a Nvidia helper card or an IGPU. I was able to do it with the IGPU. But I could also get all my monitors working with a safe boot, so I could have went that route.

If you request for help you must provide problem reporting files and your patched framebuffer data along with framebuffer you intend to patch. I will help you not do it for you.


If this method has worked for you hit the like button.

Problem reporting/Support request
If you are having trouble upload your clover folder as a zip omitting themes folder, your GFX card rom, and your IOReg and I do what I can to assist you as I have time.

Credit:
Florian for their version of radeon_bios_decode and their compatibility thread here
Pavo for the script to dump framebuffers
Toleda for pointing out errors in the template
Vlada for their guide on framebuffer patching
Clover developers
Apple

Hello. I wonder if some of you can help me to get my VBIOS extracted.
I've tried GPU-Z (Windows), DPCIManager(macOS) and using the PCI sysfs interface to dump the video bios rom (Ubuntu).
It's an AMD Radeon HD 6770M, device id 1002:6740, from an HP Pavilion dv6-6196ss laptop (very similar to an MBP8,3).

I've tried a different approach, to get VBIOS from a Bios update package (called sp55068.exe) using Universal Extractor, Radeon Bios Editor and Phoenix-Insyde-EFI SLIC (Windows). The problem is that "Universal Extractor" reads only the first 64 KB and my VBIOS is 128KB long.

I attach here the BIOS (bin file) that contains the VBIOS, the three VBIOS 64KB files I could get and some images showing the errors I'm facing.

Thank you very much.
 

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Is this still working in High Sierra 10.13.5? This is a great guide and I have 3 Radeon HD 7970's, one is a Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7970 6GB with 5 ports (2xDP, 1xHDMI, 1xDVI-SL, 1xDVI-DL). Another Sapphire 3GB memory that has all the ports except DVI-DL and a Gigabyte same as the 3GB Sapphire 4 ports. The assigned data from OP is basically the same as mine, I just get a black screen on boot. All the ports are active according to the monitor. I have WEG and Lilu in Clover/kexts/Other. All the same settings as in OP. Tried 3 FB so far the ones mentioned in the OP. Also tried one of the 5 port FB's from FB list that Pavo's script generates.

Namako framebuffer does not work for me, monitor shows no active ports, the Hamachi and Futomaki framebuffers both show ports as active just black screen when I get to Desktop, helper card shows Desktop.

My Helper card is Nvidia GT 640 on the 16x primary PCIe slot and AMD on the 8x PCIe slot. I reversed that and made no difference.

No Problem reporting files now until I find out if these cards still work in 10.13.5.

Thanks!

Edited:

Solved didn't realize you cannot have both Nvidia and AMD installed at the same time, AMD will give black screen but Nvidia works just fine with the AMD card.
 
Last edited:
the algorithm is not understandable, where do the numbers of colored tints come from? Can you mark them with arrows? please))
 
Hello. I wonder if some of you can help me to get my VBIOS extracted.
I've tried GPU-Z (Windows), DPCIManager(macOS) and using the PCI sysfs interface to dump the video bios rom (Ubuntu).
It's an AMD Radeon HD 6770M, device id 1002:6740, from an HP Pavilion dv6-6196ss laptop (very similar to an MBP8,3).

I've tried a different approach, to get VBIOS from a Bios update package (called sp55068.exe) using Universal Extractor, Radeon Bios Editor and Phoenix-Insyde-EFI SLIC (Windows). The problem is that "Universal Extractor" reads only the first 64 KB and my VBIOS is 128KB long.

I attach here the BIOS (bin file) that contains the VBIOS, the three VBIOS 64KB files I could get and some images showing the errors I'm facing.

Thank you very much.
Finally I left the config as it was, not trying to get the HD6770M working anymore. Thank you.
 
The guide works perfectly in 10.13.6, it is a bit confusing to look for the first digits.

First, you have to search in DPCI which framebuffer uses the video card.

Second, create your custom framebuffer with the video output you are using.

Third, patch the original with the new one.
 
Last edited:
I tried 2 mod on Namako and Futomaki but none is success. Still black screen on DVI, worse HDMI not working too. Please can people with more experiences help me to check if these patches are correct?
have you ever succeeded? i have the same card. i can get 2 monitors without any problem if i use one DVI and one HDMI.
if i plug in the second DVI the first DVI and HDMI get the same picture and no screen on the second DVI port.
i tried already a lot of options but still only 2 monitors are working.
what i do not understand is, why the BIOS shows 5 ports if i have only 4 physical ports

Code:
R927XO2D.F1 :

GV-R927XOC-2GD/F1                                                           

Subsystem Vendor ID: 1458
       Subsystem ID: 2272
Object Header Structure Size: 355
Connector Object Table Offset: 48
Router Object Table Offset: 0
Encoder Object Table Offset: fd
Display Path Table Offset: 12
Connector Object Id [19] which is [DISPLAY_PORT]
   encoder obj id [0x21] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY2 (osx txmit 0x12 [duallink 0x2] enc 0x4)] linkb: false
Connector Object Id [12] which is [HDMI_TYPE_A]
   encoder obj id [0x21] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY2 (osx txmit 0x22 [duallink 0x2] enc 0x5)] linkb: true
Connector Object Id [2] which is [DVI_I]
   encoder obj id [0x1e] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY (osx txmit 0x10 [duallink 0x0] enc 0x0)] linkb: false
Connector Object Id [2] which is [DVI_I]
   encoder obj id [0x15] which is [INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1 (osx txmit 0x00 enc 0x10?)] linkb: false
Connector Object Id [4] which is [DVI_D]
   encoder obj id [0x20] which is [INTERNAL_UNIPHY1 (osx txmit 0x11 [duallink 0x1] enc 0x2)] linkb: false
 
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