macOS Sierra PB: Need testers for new AMD Radeon drivers!

[jerryy2345]

That is good news. I have been keeping an eye on the prices for the RX 560 card ....

Are you familiar with using the nano editor in the Terminal app? As in trying the following:

sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9520Controller.kext/Contents/Info.plist

doing some editing then saving by using the control-o key combination followed by control-x to exit the editor?

Just a hunch...

Speaking of the 9520 controller, if you open it up in a hex editor and do a search for audio, it has hooks for Iceland, Greenland and Tonga, but I have not been able to find any for ellesmere or Baffin.

It helps to use the right case in doing the searching. Using 'Audio' instead of 'audio' brings up a lot of audio such as the following exerpt:

HdmiConnection10setupAudioEv__ZN18J135HdmiConnection10superClassE__ZN18J135HdmiConnection11isMyEncoderEh__ZN18J135HdmiConnection11setupAzaliaEv

and a whole lot more, in both the 9520 and 9515 controllers. So the code is there, but it does not work yet, at least for my RX 460 card. I have a variety of SSDT.aml patches to get the HDMI controls to show up, but essentially they are all the same. So I am wondering if something needs to change in my approach to getting audio going over the HDMI connector or if this means that the Apple code is still just broken.

 

[oldMac7]

@Gigamaxx
Are your benches the same using 9520 and 9500 with RX480?

@jerryy2345
Re: sudo nano...
Can you edit the Info.plist in-place and skip Kext Utility this way?

 

[Gigamaxx]

@Gigamaxx
Are your benches the same using 9520 and 9500 with RX480?

@jerryy2345
Re: sudo nano...
Can you edit the Info.plist in-place and skip Kext Utility this way?

Yes, they are very similar.

 

[jerryy2345]

@Gigamaxx
Are your benches the same using 9520 and 9500 with RX480?

@jerryy2345
Re: sudo nano...
Can you edit the Info.plist in-place and skip Kext Utility this way?

That is the idea. Actually you have to use sudo or the nano editor will not let you save any changes because you are not the file owner. (You can still open the file for reading because the permissions allow you to do that.) You can be certain of what is going on by using the ls -la command before and after to make sure you did not accidentally do something bad, for example:

$ cd /System/Library/Extensions/AMD9510Controller.kext/Contents

$ ls -la

total 24
drwxr-xr-x  4 root  wheel   204 May 15 20:07 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root  wheel   102 Mar 16 21:24 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  6514 Apr 28 01:15 Info.plist  <--- this is the one that will change.
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel   102 May 15 20:07 MacOS
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel   102 May 15 20:07 _CodeSignature
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   463 Apr 28 01:15 version.plist

$ sudo nano Info.plist

edit, edit, edit. Save and exit.

$ ls -la

total 24
drwxr-xr-x  4 root  wheel   204 May 15 20:07 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root  wheel   102 Mar 16 21:24 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  6514 Jun 17 15:13 Info.plist    <---- this was changed.
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel   102 May 15 20:07 MacOS
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel   102 May 15 20:07 _CodeSignature
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   463 Apr 28 01:15 version.plist

One step above sudo is the actual root user, but I tend to avoid recommending that to folks until they have a good understanding of how badly they can mess things up by using sudo before trying root.

Edit: Note this type of approach does not cause any cache refreshing, etc. You will have to do that separately.

 

[MacPack]

you can copy out the plist to the desktop - edit it - and then copy it back into to the kext.
You will be prompted to enter you password - enter it - rebuilt kext cache - done

Nano isn't technically needed.
But as far as editing a plist in place. Just not possible with out using the terminal (nano)
Although, you could try "get info" on the plist file, and add your user with read/write permissions.

 

[jerryy2345]

...

Although, you could try "get info" on the plist file, and add your user with read/write permissions.

That might cause problems depending on the SIP settings, Apple has been slowly restricting what we can do to edit the system kexts, I suspect they will continue doing that.

 

[oldMac7]

Neat! Thanks for the lesson jerryy2345.
Next time I alter the kexts I'll give the nano editor method a try.

 

[Gigamaxx]

Not sure if these are the real deal but pretty cool! My pentium g3258 and RX 480 beat the compute score but that single thread makes this a gamer changer for iMac.

My RX 480 with a Helper card Nvidia gt210

 

[Gigamaxx]

you can copy out the plist to the desktop - edit it - and then copy it back into to the kext.
You will be prompted to enter you password - enter it - rebuilt kext cache - done

Nano isn't technically needed.
But as far as editing a plist in place. Just not possible with out using the terminal (nano)
Although, you could try "get info" on the plist file, and add your user with read/write permissions.

Always good to make a copy of original plist before edits and or keep extra complete Extensions folders handy.

 

[jerryy2345]

Not sure if these are the real deal but pretty cool! My pentium g3258 and RX 480 beat the compute score but that single thread makes this a gamer changer for iMac.
...

Durn, they finally beat my old Haswell (4512 and 12779). Ahh it was fun while it lasted. Sniff. I guess I will have to shut it down now, obviously it will never run any more stuff.