[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[scottkendall]

Good work, Elias64Fr and CaseySJ.
Flashing is involved. That's bad news. For flashing you need extra tools, it is a lot of work, it's risky and harder to undo.

I understand Apple does some TB stuff fundamentally different from Windows, and they will certainly not tell you how they do it. So that's what makes it difficult to make a proper SSDT? Intel and Gigabyte have information available, but that's not enough?

Copying parts of Apple ROM to a GA TB subsystem and see if it works sounds rather hit and miss. Can't this cause unforeseen and unwanted side-effects?

I'm not complaining or anything, I am admiring your perseverance, I'm just curious what info is freely available and what not.

If we really need to flash, I would rather get an extra TB card and flash that. If that is possible.

Flashing was easy at least for the two AIC I have, extra tools $60 raspberry PI maybe if you don't get it at Best Buy much cheaper and a $10 clip. I had writing fail a few times due to my tornado son coming in the office and did not realize he bumped the table. Took a deep breath hooked the clip on again and ran the flash.

You may get an extra TB card and flash it Casey has an SSDT for having a second card in the system.

Really it was super easy, just take it slow and make it happen. I would suggest maybe an alpine ridge AIC simply because I have it working almost perfectly right now at least for what TB3 devices I have.

 

[CaseySJ]

Good work, Elias64Fr and CaseySJ.
Flashing is involved. That's bad news. For flashing you need extra tools, it is a lot of work, it's risky and harder to undo.

I understand Apple does some TB stuff fundamentally different from Windows, and they will certainly not tell you how they do it. So that's what makes it difficult to make a proper SSDT? Intel and Gigabyte have information available, but that's not enough?

Copying parts of Apple ROM to a GA TB subsystem and see if it works sounds rather hit and miss. Can't this cause unforeseen and unwanted side-effects?

I'm not complaining or anything, I am admiring your perseverance, I'm just curious what info is freely available and what not.

If we really need to flash, I would rather get an extra TB card and flash that. If that is possible.

I tried to allay many of these concerns in the post you quoted, but let me add some additional comments:

• We have not given up on the SSDT approach. This post shows that the SSDT effort continues.
• Thunderbolt has been a closed, proprietary, and licensed protocol since its inception. But with the advent of USB4, Intel has removed many of those restrictions, including licensing. But that does not mean that low level programming guides will become generally available. So for the time being it's still difficult to find detailed "register control" documentation.
• We also did not guarantee that we would be able to succeed with the SSDT. We only promised that we would try. At some point a decision must be made whether to continue down that path or divert to a different path. Right now we are pursuing both paths, but a decision point may arrive soon.
• Most users do not need to do any of this because Thunderbolt is already functional and supports hot plug. This modification is only needed by those whose Thunderbolt devices or drivers require the Thunderbolt Bus. It is also needed for eGPUs.
• If the modified firmware works well, we will make the flashing guide as painless as possible. Yes there is more complexity and more risk involved, but notice how many folks are already flashing their GC-Titan Ridge cards with good results. I haven't heard of a single bricked card (so far).
• Buying and flashing a GC-Titan Ridge is definitely viable. That was the point of my earlier posts that show definite Proof of Concept that this approach works. We just need to jump pins 3 and 5 of the J1 header on GC-Titan Ridge, copy one SSDT into the CLOVER/ACPI/patched folder, and reboot.
  • If you have an available long slot (this requires one of the three long slots) then this is absolutely a viable option.
  • But you still incur the risk of flashing the GC-Titan Ridge.

 

[CaseySJ]

... I had writing fail a few times due to my tornado son ...

Of course! The adorable little "destruction machines".

... I would suggest maybe an alpine ridge AIC simply because I have it working almost perfectly right now at least for what TB3 devices I have.

Good suggestion. The modified firmware for GC-Alpine Ridge is more functional at this time than the modified firmware for GC-Titan Ridge. However @maleorderbride is working on an improved version for GC-Titan Ridge.

 

[scottkendall]

• If the modified firmware does work well, we will make the flashing guide as painless as possible. Yes there is more complexity and more risk involved, but notice how many folks are already flashing their GC-Titan Ridge cards with good results. I haven't heard of a single bricked card (so far).

I would like to also add I flashed the Alpine Ridge flash that is working onto the Titan Ridge just because. It did not work but I was able to put other firmware back, and it works again. I would like to stress that, even if it fails, chill. Fix the clip and try again. It seems overly hard to mess one up as I purposely messed one up, and it was easy to bring back by simply using the correct .bin file for the card type.

 

[scottkendall]

Of course! The adorable little "destruction machines".

Good suggestion. The modified firmware for GC-Alpine Ridge is more functional at this time than the modified firmware for GC-Titan Ridge. However @maleorderbride is working on an improved version for GC-Titan Ridge.

Yea I saw your post earlier I will try out your modified Titan for the Designare on my AIC when ever you want. Curiously do you have he USB header connected on the Titan AIC? or just the THB_C header?

 

[CaseySJ]

Yea I saw your post earlier I will try out your modified Titan for the Designare on my AIC when ever you want.

As you reported above, flashing GC-Alpine Ridge into GC-Titan Ridge did not work. Similarly, flashing Designare Z390 into GC-Titan Ridge is not expected to work. The unequivocal best option is to wait for @maleorderbride to post a modified NVM 43 for GC-Titan Ridge. @Elias64Fr is working on a modified NVM 47 for Designare Z390.

Curiously do you have he USB header connected on the Titan AIC? or just the THB_C header?

I tried with and without the USB header, but the DSB2.XHC2 ports do not show up in either case unless a USB-C device is connected before boot. The modified NVM 43 for GC-Titan Ridge might fix this -- at least that is the goal.

 

[phrfpeixoto]

Thanks again!

It indeed was USB-C devices blocked on Thunderbolt ports. I was able to test a USB 3 drive connected to Apple USB-C hub. The LG 4K USB-C monitor doesn't work with the cable it came with.

Will update more once I test a real thunderbolt device.

I'm also having issues connecting USB 3 devices to USB-C ports.

To clarify, did you simply add an apple hub between the USB-C port and the device?
did you use another USB-C cable to the device?

 

[phrfpeixoto]

@CaseySJ I see a lot of discussions about TB3 firmware patching, but this thread is very hard to follow back to the source of the discussion. Where can I find info about that?

 

[CaseySJ]

@CaseySJ I see a lot of discussions about TB3 firmware patching, but this thread is very hard to follow back to the source of the discussion. Where can I find info about that?

Please note that Thunderbolt is already working on your motherboard. And hot plug is working as well. The discussion about modifying and patching the Thunderbolt firmware can be ignored until a conclusion is reached. Right now we're still in the R&D phase trying to take Thunderbolt to the next level -- specifically, to make it do (nearly) everything that a real Mac can do with Thunderbolt.

 

[scottkendall]

As you reported above, flashing GC-Alpine Ridge into GC-Titan Ridge did not work. Similarly, flashing Designare Z390 into GC-Titan Ridge is not expected to work. The unequivocal best option is to wait for

Ok well I would still be willing to try it just to see if it does anything anyways.