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Thunderbolt 3 Modified Firmware Custom SSDT Discussion

That's right. My GC-ALPINE RIDGE cards and GC-TITAN RIDGE cards are in a Netstor NA255A connected to my Mac Pro 2008. The Netstor did not come with a SATA power cable so I made my own. I usually only use the add-in cards for USB 3.1 gen 2. Occasionally I use them to convert DisplayPort to Thunderbolt. My cards aren't flashed and I haven't installed an SSDT. Only the GC-TITAN RIDGE cards work for PCIe tunnelling (after warm boot from Windows). One day I'll get into looking at Thunderbolt drivers in Linux, UEFI (github and my Gaming 7 motherboard), Mac DSDT/SSDTs (I have a MacMini 2018), macOS, etc.

You likely could flash the GC Titan ridge with DSM2 modified firmware and SSDT sick it in slot 4 of your 2008 Mac Pro and have it working. I do not know to what degree but that is what got this whole Firmware flashing thing going was DSM2 modified firmware for older Mac Pros.
 
@NorthAmTransAm--
I'm trying to get my AR AIC to work reliably with the apple Thunderbolt Display.
in the ROM repo, Casey lists 2 rom's by Elias64Fr, and one by you. yours has NVM21 in the file name.
when I use Elias's ROM, the display functions properly but the display doesn't light up when I wake the computer from sleep. so I thought I would try yours.
I boot with a secondary monitor attached and at the transition to the desktop, the TB display never lights up. I've booted with the mobo header connected, pins 3 and 5 jumpered, and with nothing connected to the 5-pin connector on the AR.

in the About this Mac panel, I click Displays, and both displays are reported. in system information--thunderbolt, the TB display shows as connected. all looks good except nothing on the TB display!.

I noticed in system information--thunderbolt it says Firmware version 33. maybe that's why it's not fully operational. do you have an NVM20 version, or maybe the NVM21 version, since when I download what is named GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-NVM21-V3-NATA.bin reports as Firmware version 33.

thanks!

Check out my SSDT from the link below to see the ROM I came up with. Anything I've posted on this thread has been depreciated. To be clear this is for my EX3.

#16,751
 
@NorthAmTransAm
Hi, I'd like to flash my EX3, got a couple of questions.

My board is an Asus X99-a II, I'm running low on PCI lanes-actually I've ran out of- since I'm using a RAID card and a BMD mini monitor, these 2 together with the GPU take the 28 I got with the 6800k. Can I place the EX3 in a NB pci slot? Will it be recognised by Catalina? I'm currently away so can't check it now but would like to order the SOP8 clip before I get back home in about 2 weeks.

I have a raspberrypi B rev 2, will that do? I see it has the same pinouts as later versions, yet CaseySJ suggests using models 3B or 4.

Thanks!
 
@NorthAmTransAm
Hi, I'd like to flash my EX3, got a couple of questions.

My board is an Asus X99-a II, I'm running low on PCI lanes-actually I've ran out of- since I'm using a RAID card and a BMD mini monitor, these 2 together with the GPU take the 28 I got with the 6800k. Can I place the EX3 in a NB pci slot? Will it be recognised by Catalina? I'm currently away so can't check it now but would like to order the SOP8 clip before I get back home in about 2 weeks.

I have a raspberrypi B rev 2, will that do? I see it has the same pinouts as later versions, yet CaseySJ suggests using models 3B or 4.

Thanks!
I have used my RPi 2B successfully for flashing.
 
Check out my SSDT from the link below to see the ROM I came up with. Anything I've posted on this thread has been depreciated. To be clear this is for my EX3.

#16,751
the ROM I was trying was one I assume you submitted to Casey and he included it in the alpine ridge section of the repository. I've attached a screen shot. in the file name it is labeled NVM21 but when I flashed the GC-AR, it shows up in system information--thunderbolt as Firmware 33.0.

message 16,751 has the template for creating a custom DROM SSDT. I didn't see anything there about your custom ROM. I have created that SSDT and it works with the Elias v1 ROM. why I'm trying other ROM's is because the eliasv1 doesn't play well with wake from sleep.

is the EX3 alpine ridge?

thanks
 

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the ROM I was trying was one I assume you submitted to Casey and he included it in the alpine ridge section of the repository. I've attached a screen shot. in the file name it is labeled NVM21 but when I flashed the GC-AR, it shows up in system information--thunderbolt as Firmware 33.0.

message 16,751 has the template for creating a custom DROM SSDT. I didn't see anything there about your custom ROM. I have created that SSDT and it works with the Elias v1 ROM. why I'm trying other ROM's is because the eliasv1 doesn't play well with wake from sleep.

is the EX3 alpine ridge?

thanks
Ok I see whats going on here.

So the NVM21 is my cards OEM firmware version, the Alpine Ridge ASUS EX3. This card has two options, NVM18 and NVM21.

The version of firmware that was used to patch your GC-AR was Apple's 33. So your card will show up as that now.

Head over to Casey's thread and follow his guide for a custom unique Thunderbolt ROM.

In the meantime, open Hackintool and look at your system log there. Search for "DROM" and see if you get any errors.
 
Ok I see whats going on here.

So the NVM21 is my cards OEM firmware version, the Alpine Ridge ASUS EX3. This card has two options, NVM18 and NVM21.

The version of firmware that was used to patch your GC-AR was Apple's 33. So your card will show up as that now.

Head over to Casey's thread and follow his guide for a custom unique Thunderbolt ROM.

In the meantime, open Hackintool and look at your system log there. Search for "DROM" and see if you get any errors.
so did you patch the EX3 with firmware 33, and that is the ROM in the Casey repository, or is the file in the repository labeled NVM21 the EX3 OEM ROM?

I guess the bottom line is the NATA NVM21 ROM from the repository doesn't light up the TB display, even though all other of the apple TB monitor functions work(camera, mic in, audio out, ethernet). it's just tempting to stay on this path since it seems to be so close to working.

I have to switch projects right now to mowing so I'll inspect the system log after a while.

thanks!
 
so did you patch the EX3 with firmware 33, and that is the ROM in the Casey repository, or is the file in the repository labeled NVM21 the EX3 OEM ROM?

I guess the bottom line is the NATA NVM21 ROM from the repository doesn't light up the TB display, even though all other of the apple TB monitor functions work(camera, mic in, audio out, ethernet). it's just tempting to stay on this path since it seems to be so close to working.

I have to switch projects right now to mowing so I'll inspect the system log after a while.

thanks!

It gets a little more nuanced with the Patched EX3 Firmware which is labeled as NVM21 because there are two EX3 cards floating around: NVM18 and NVM21. Both are firmwares are patched and it only took one byte to change actually. To recap, the NVMxx is for each card, referencing the OEM firmware.

The patch (one byte) is in all relevant Apple firmwares so it's version doesn't apply. My system information says I'm on version 40 which I assume is native to iMac 19,2 which I use.

I used the DROM from the OEM firmware and then made adjustments to get Port 5 and Port 7 to show correctly and to make sure there were no errors. I adjusted until it was good to go. It's likely different than whats on available SSDT.

I think this card and it's SSDT in particular requires more configuring. Admittedly, it's beyond me at the moment to figure out but would love to learn a thing or two. I'd love to know

1) Someone should test this with a Thunderbolt Display. I don't have one.

2) The second AppleHDMDevice (under Thunderbolt Port 3) doesn't connect to anything. Im not sure if it should but I see that other setups have a UUID and all the usual suspects there.

3) Sleep breaks the connection. It seems like it doesn't disconnect properly.
 
so did you patch the EX3 with firmware 33, and that is the ROM in the Casey repository, or is the file in the repository labeled NVM21 the EX3 OEM ROM?

I guess the bottom line is the NATA NVM21 ROM from the repository doesn't light up the TB display, even though all other of the apple TB monitor functions work(camera, mic in, audio out, ethernet). it's just tempting to stay on this path since it seems to be so close to working.

I have to switch projects right now to mowing so I'll inspect the system log after a while.

thanks!

The file in Casey Repository for GC-Alpine ridge the one NATA made is listed on the first page of this topic. It is the one I have on my alpine ridge and video pass threw does not work with it. Either something in the SSDT is not right or something in the firmware is not right but that is beyond my knowledge. I have tried replacing the DROM per Caseys instruction but it has not netted me the results I was looking for. I have also tried Caseys SSDT with modified DROM it also did not net the results I was looking for. Everything else I tested on the GC-Alpine Ridge with this firmware works just not video pass threw. There is only one firmware that I am aware of that gives you everything like a real Mac with the exception of Antelope UAD and that is NVM33 for Designare and it works great on GC-Titain Ridge AIC also.
 
The file in Casey Repository for GC-Alpine ridge the one NATA made is listed on the first page of this topic. It is the one I have on my alpine ridge and video pass threw does not work with it. Either something in the SSDT is not right or something in the firmware is not right but that is beyond my knowledge. I have tried replacing the DROM per Caseys instruction but it has not netted me the results I was looking for. I have also tried Caseys SSDT with modified DROM it also did not net the results I was looking for. Everything else I tested on the GC-Alpine Ridge with this firmware works just not video pass threw. There is only one firmware that I am aware of that gives you everything like a real Mac with the exception of Antelope UAD and that is NVM33 for Designare and it works great on GC-Titain Ridge AIC also.

I venture to say this card needs some special attention on the SSDT side. The reason is my issue listed above about the AppleHDMDevices can be altered with SSDT tweaks.

I hope to spend some time on this soon!
 
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