Intel HD Graphics / i7 2600

[Kyle_C]

A less important drawback for me might be due to a sandbox issue, I guess -- full QE/CI support improves visual experience, while the overall graphics performance is not perfect. Interface is quite laggy sometimes.

 

I haven't noticed any lagginess, so I guess I'm lucky. I have HDMI out working now, although still no VGA. Good enough!

 

I think the only drawback I'm seeing with Lion is that my VoodooBattery doesn't work anymore, and I haven't really looked into that much.

 

One tricky thing was that the SNB graphics seems to rely on AppleHDA.kext, but if you install VoodooHDA at the same time then you may get a KP at boot. So I used an AppleHDA disabler kext that I found on this forum.

[lenovo3000]

I haven't noticed any lagginess, so I guess I'm lucky. I have HDMI out working now, although still no VGA. Good enough!

 

May I ask you about the Lion version, is it the latest DP3? I suspect the performance issue was caused by 2GiB RAM amount. After adding another DDR3 module temporary (4 GiB in total) it runs smoothly. And I was stunned by heavy amount of artifacts under SL + 10.7 kexts after upgrade (amount allocated for video also grew from 288MiB to 384MiB). And who knows what will happen after replacing the original module with 2 x 4 GiB pair.

 

Concerning VGA, I bet you see same ports #0, #5-7 (connector type 0x2, 0x4000 respectively) as I do, while our DSTSs definitely provide different connector layouts.

 

I think the only drawback I'm seeing with Lion is that my VoodooBattery doesn't work anymore, and I haven't really looked into that much.

 

One tricky thing was that the SNB graphics seems to rely on AppleHDA.kext, but if you install VoodooHDA at the same time then you may get a KP at boot. So I used an AppleHDA disabler kext that I found on this forum.

Thanks for warning. I have not yet tried any additional kexts, just bare minimum:

EvOreboot.kext

FakeSMC.kext

JMicron36xATA.kext

JMicron36xSATA.kext

LegacyAppleRTC.kext

NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

 

plus VoodooPS2 and Realtek.

 

UPDATE: And regarding OpenGL framework update, CINEBENCH score is notably higher: 10.58 in Lion vs 8.84 in SL, almost 20% increase. But it could also be RAM upgrade issue, may be I will re-run the benchmark with 10.6.8 kexts on SL via Screen Sharing later.

[Kyle_C]

May I ask you about the Lion version, is it the latest DP3? I suspect the performance issue was caused by 2GiB RAM amount. After adding another DDR3 module temporary (4 GiB in total) it runs smoothly. And I was stunned by heavy amount of artifacts under SL + 10.7 kexts after upgrade (amount allocated for video also grew from 288MiB to 384MiB). And who knows what will happen after replacing the original module with 2 x 4 GiB pair.

 

Yeah, it's DP3. That's really interesting about the RAM. By the way, have you noticed artifacts getting worse with a warm restart? I may just be imagining it. And now I've gotten into the habit of always powering off for 10 seconds or so before booting again!

 

Concerning VGA, I bet you see same ports #0, #5-7 (connector type 0x2, 0x4000 respectively) as I do, while our DSTSs definitely provide different connector layouts.

 

Yeah that makes sense. Do real 2011 MBPs actually have 4 ports? LCD + two thunderbolt channels + ??

[lenovo3000]

Yeah, it's DP3. That's really interesting about the RAM. By the way, have you noticed artifacts getting worse with a warm restart? I may just be imagining it. And now I've gotten into the habit of always powering off for 10 seconds or so before booting again!

 

Nice idea, have to try myself. Since no more boring issue "can't see anything again and don't have a spare laptop/iPad to connect via Screen Sharing, and there's no shotcut for blind restart, well, let's shutdown the power", most of my restarts are warm.

 

I did removed both the adapter plug and the battery before memory module installation. Thus, the most ugly artifacts issue in SL occured just after cold restart.

 

But after the final RAM upgrade -- pre-installed Elpida DIMM and spare Patriot removed, both were DDR3-1333Mhz, but timing mismatch quite possible; 2 x 4GiB Hynix installed -- no artifacts in SL. So it could be a driver issue, may be somehow related to dynamic memory re-allocation (remember 288MiB -> 384MiB increase).

 

And by the way, I saw background corruption in the upper part of the "welcome screen" in Lion just after restart: several thick grey lines. But never noticed any artifacts in Lion Desktop or on the "welcome screen" after log off. Still have to check correlation with warm re-boot.

 

Yeah that makes sense. Do real 2011 MBPs actually have 4 ports? LCD + two thunderbolt channels + ??

As far as I know, MBP8,1 has one DisplayPort and a Thunderbolt port, which might be capable to handle a pair of external LCDs.

 

Thus, #0 for internal LCD, #5 for DP (works for me even in SL), #6-7 for Thunderbolt. Probably Thunderbolt support in SL is not as good as intended, and it could be a reason for disabling ports #6-7. Not sure whether "connector-type" 0x4000 should be the same for DP and Thunderbolt. May be Lion driver does probe the actual hardware and just ignores VGA/CRT0, but counts LVDS and 3 DP.

 

Let's wait for official announcement, something like: "Dear MBP early 2011 owners, we have received a lot of questions about connecting a brand new Apple LCD panel via Thunderbolt... Yes you can, but have to buy Lion first".

[wen1]

Thanks to Kyle_C s instructions and Lenovo3000 strings, i was able to get native resolution with my intel hd graphics in Dell XPS 15 L502x w/ i7-2630qm cpu. This one even has nvidia optimus. I have to figure out what to do to enable nvidia too.

[lenovo3000]

Thanks to Kyle_C s instructions and Lenovo3000 strings, i was able to get native resolution with my intel hd graphics in Dell XPS 15 L502x w/ i7-2630qm cpu. This one even has nvidia optimus. I have to figure out what to do to enable nvidia too.

 

Good news, I was quite sceptical about optimus chances under Mac OS. Did you also succeed with QE/CI hw support?

 

BTW, did you have to disable nVidia chip in BIOS setup? If it is possible to pre-select default adapter on your Dell, you may try Chameleon/Chimera built-in feature -- Graphics Enabler. It seems dealing pretty good with most nVidia hardware.

[wen1]

I need to read up on how to check QE/CI support. I thought it was in system profiler but did not see it there.

 

Front Row works if that is any indication.

 

Dell does not have a bios option to disable the nvidia card.

 

So currently it shows two display adapters in system profiler. One appears to be fully detected but the other (nvidia) is not.

 

Also, i have a mini display port (internally connected to intel HD). When i plug a monitor in to that i see display trying to switch over but then it switches back to internal LCD. Not sure what is happening there.

 

 

Edit:

 

YEs, With Full QE/CI support. I can use dashboard (ripples visible) and Front Row.

[lenovo3000]

Also, i have a mini display port (internally connected to intel HD). When i plug a monitor in to that i see display trying to switch over but then it switches back to internal LCD. Not sure what is happening there.

 

Edit:

 

YEs, With Full QE/CI support. I can use dashboard (ripples visible) and Front Row.

 

Congratulations!

 

For external monitor connection I would try to pre-select miniDP as default port in BIOS. And the latest drivers may help -- i.e. "tonymacx86 NVIDIA Update 2.0" (have no clue which NV chip is used in your laptop).

 

BTW, the first visible indicator of QE/CI support might be a transparent menu bar, AFAIK. But it could be more or less obvious depending on your background. You may run a free cross-platform Cinebench software for CPU and video (OpenGL) benchmarking.

[wen1]

Thanks for all of your insight.

 

When you say Bios, are you referring to actual BIOS for the laptop or smbios?

 

I do not really have an option to select anything in the laptop's BIOS.

 

Also, i see nvidia card listed in the system profiler and it says kext not loaded. Is it just a question of matching my cards IDs with what is in info.plist for the nvidia kexts ? Or do i need something like the device properties you listed for Intel HD. I am still learning a lot of this stuff.

 

Congratulations!

 

For external monitor connection I would try to pre-select miniDP as default port in BIOS. And the latest drivers may help -- i.e. "tonymacx86 NVIDIA Update 2.0" (have no clue which NV chip is used in your laptop).

 

BTW, the first visible indicator of QE/CI support might be a transparent menu bar, AFAIK. But it could be more or less obvious depending on your background. You may run a free cross-platform Cinebench software for CPU and video (OpenGL) benchmarking.

[Kyle_C]

I do not really have an option to select anything in the laptop's BIOS.

 

Yeah it seems like BIOSes on new laptops have gotten really bad! I think mine literally has like 6 or 7 settings total. Thankfully AHCI mode for SATA was one of them, at least.

 

Glad to see another success report!

[Krooklyn]

Guys I'm in the same boat as wen1. I have successfully gotten Hd3000 to work. But I also have a laptop with Optimus and no way of turning off the switchable graphics. I have a Alienware m14x. I am at this point on 10.6.8 with detected Intel HD3000 gfx. I have to use GraphicsEnabler=NO in order for it not to select my Nvidia Chip. In System Profiler I have two cards, but one is unidentified (Nvidia) and the other is obviously the 3000. You all have been wonderful help with this process, I have been following your progress and it has worked wonders. Now to figure out this Nvidia situation. Also, I have one other situation. I have 2 3.0USB ports, they are NEC, but the drivers included in [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] see them, but when I plug in something, it hangs my system. Also, I can't get my regular USB to work. I have tried rollback kexts, as well as other various kexts, still nothing. Any advice?

[Krooklyn]

Actually, I can still boot with GraphicsEnabler=Yes, it just hangs in console trying to figure out the Nvidia device, but eventually just continues logging after a minute or two and boots in with same situation. Recognizes the HD3000 but doesn't recognize the Nvidia chip. I reckon that there is a way to pull the device ID(like lenovo did for the Hd3000) cuppled with the Nvidia and inject that into the boot.com and have it recognize both. But I don't even know where to start looking for the info.plist that lenovo found the device ID for the hd3000 to begin with. I feel like it would be possible using gtxutil if I had the right plists. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm also fairly new at all this, but willing to experiment.

[lenovo3000]

Guys I'm in the same boat as wen1. I have successfully gotten Hd3000 to work. But I also have a laptop with Optimus and no way of turning off the switchable graphics. I have a Alienware m14x. I am at this point on 10.6.8 with detected Intel HD3000 gfx. I have to use GraphicsEnabler=NO in order for it not to select my Nvidia Chip. In System Profiler I have two cards, but one is unidentified (Nvidia) and the other is obviously the 3000. You all have been wonderful help with this process, I have been following your progress and it has worked wonders. Now to figure out this Nvidia situation. Also, I have one other situation. I have 2 3.0USB ports, they are NEC, but the drivers included in [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] see them, but when I plug in something, it hangs my system. Also, I can't get my regular USB to work. I have tried rollback kexts, as well as other various kexts, still nothing. Any advice?

 

AFAIK, there is no native support for USB 3.0 in SL. Those drivers in [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] might be compiled from Linux source. There are may be some properties for tweaking inside Info.plist. I remember some reports about USB 3.0 hanging the system when something is plugged-in the port. Probably a solution has already been discovered and published in that thread.

 

Concerning HD3000 it appeared, that 10.6.x refuses to detect the graphics chip unless you inject "AAPL,os-info" property, discovered by Kyle_C. I do not know how GraphicsEnabler works in details, most likely all the injections will be arranged for you automatically, or may be you will need to use additional options, like loading video BIOS from a file.

 

I would propose trying to force nVidia as the default adapter, either through BIOS Setup (but there are no options, as reported by wen1) or through editing your DSDT and placing DSDT.aml into /Extra/.

 

Knowing almost nothing about Optimus technology I still hope, that HD/NV switching does not involve a special device (some kind of muxer), otherwise it looks hopeless.

 

Thanks for all of your insight.

 

When you say Bios, are you referring to actual BIOS for the laptop or smbios?

 

I do not really have an option to select anything in the laptop's BIOS.

 

Quite right, I was referring to BIOS Setup accessible through F1, F2 or Del keys during the POST procedure, depending on the vendor. Laptop Phoenix BIOS seems to be rather clipped in comparison to Award Modular used on desktops, but I used to consider output selection as a basic option. May be Dell considers Optimus to be smart enough, not requiring any user interaction before OS loading.

 

Also, i see nvidia card listed in the system profiler and it says kext not loaded. Is it just a question of matching my cards IDs with what is in info.plist for the nvidia kexts ? Or do i need something like the device properties you listed for Intel HD. I am still learning a lot of this stuff.

 

I can only guess, but it seems that you still have to force nVidia as a primary device somehow. DSDT editing might be the way, given no options in BIOS Setup.

 

Speaking frankly, HD3000 with native resolution and QE/CI is not so bad, unless you paid for Optimus to play modern game titles under Mac OS May be the best choice is to wait a bit, until Chameleon team updates GraphiscEnabler.

 

Yeah it seems like BIOSes on new laptops have gotten really bad! I think mine literally has like 6 or 7 settings total. Thankfully AHCI mode for SATA was one of them, at least.

 

Glad to see another success report!

 

Well, I am not quite familiar with recent consumer series trend (most of those laptops do not offer mate anti-glare option, while my half-blind eyes hate glossy screens), but those business series (ThinkPads, ProBooks, etc.) still have pretty long list of BIOS Setup options, while mostly related to security. But in general you might be right. May be there is a hidden engineering menu inside setup, but have never see one.

 

Concerning Dell Alienware series I would expect a lot of performance tweaking options for gamers, so, I was really surprised. On the other hand, if a laptop is intended to run W7 exclusively, why should vendor provide any means for pre-OS tweaking?..

[Krooklyn]

Quick question about DSDT. Do I need to start with a fresh vanilla instal to get a proper DSDT extract? Also, is there a dummy way to extract and patch? Because everything I have read seems rather difficult to equate for a fairly new guy at this stuff. Although I would like to learn.

[lenovo3000]

Quick question about DSDT. Do I need to start with a fresh vanilla instal to get a proper DSDT extract? Also, is there a dummy way to extract and patch? Because everything I have read seems rather difficult to equate for a fairly new guy at this stuff. Although I would like to learn.

 

The briefest guide:

 

-- download openSuSE LiveCD

-- boot GUI, if you are not quite comfortable with console

-- dump the table "acpidump -t DSDT -b -o /tmp/DSDT.asl"

-- study the dump & edit with "mc" (midnight commander) built-in editor or whatever you like

-- compile modified DSDT: "aisl -d DSDT.asl"

-- use "man acpidump" and "man aisl" for details

-- put DSDT.aml into /Extra (not sure whether 11.4 LiveCD supports direct writing to HFS+, but you may copy file via flash-drive, etc.)

-- before loading Mac OS type additional options "-v Wait=Yes" and "DSDT=dell.aml" if you named DSDT-file differently

-- use bdmesg and "ioreg -lw0" to study the progress.

 

Good luck. I would provide more info, but I have stopped my own experiments with DSDT just after starting them, thanks to Kyle_C's solution.

[bcc9]

AFAIK, there is no native support for USB 3.0 in SL. Those drivers in [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] might be compiled from Linux source. There are may be some properties for tweaking inside Info.plist.

Last I checked, the "[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]" USB3 driver was just a re-pack of the usb3 driver for osx from lacie. In other words, not compiled form source.

This is one of the big problems with using a repack distribution - you don't know where stuff comes from or who to ask about it. (And in the tonymac case, they certainly have a chronic problem with failing to give attribution for the work of others).

 

Also last I tried, the vanilla PXHCD kext worked fine for me, showing "USB Super-Speed Bus" under system profiler, and the ports actually worked as well.

 

Now we're really off topic - this stuff belongs in a general sandy bridge thread.

[lenovo3000]

Did anyone succeed with backlight control of internal LCD?

 

There is a property "backlight-control" in MBP8,1 ioreg. And I now for sure, that it was working on vintage laptops with Intel GMA950 -- just with standard Fn+Del, Fn+Home keys.

 

It seems I have tried everything, even native Apple BT Keyboard, but still can't change brightness in Mac OS.

[Krooklyn]

Last I checked, the "[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]" USB3 driver was just a re-pack of the usb3 driver for osx from lacie. In other words, not compiled form source.

This is one of the big problems with using a repack distribution - you don't know where stuff comes from or who to ask about it. (And in the tonymac case, they certainly have a chronic problem with failing to give attribution for the work of others).

 

Also last I tried, the vanilla PXHCD kext worked fine for me, showing "USB Super-Speed Bus" under system profiler, and the ports actually worked as well.

 

Yeah, I'm not too sure why these will not work, but I will take it to another thread for sure.

 

Now we're really off topic - this stuff belongs in a general sandy bridge thread.

 

I agree, partially my fault. Although I will say that I have HD3000 full support now. I'm actually trying to add to this knowledge for everyone else that has new laptops with the, what I consider {censored}, nVidia Optimus graphics. In my system profiler it shows the HD3000 fully recognized, and PCIe gfx (nVidia) but this one isn't detected fully yet. Not too sure how to get any further. I tried editing the GeForce.kext and NVAGF100HAL.kext with proper ID but still no go.

 

Anyway, I will keep trying different things, but open to suggestions.

 

P.S. - Been running this HD3000 for a day now, have not seen any artifacts at all. hmmmm

[lenovo3000]

Last I checked, the "[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]" USB3 driver was just a re-pack of the usb3 driver for osx from lacie. In other words, not compiled form source.

 

Oh, thanks for info. I was not aware of LaCie and USB 3.0 products like this:

 

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10493

[iLeopod]

Is there a special chip for this Device in MacBookPro 8,3 DSDT or can this enable swichable gfx and backlight control?

  Device (GMUX)
			{
				Name (_HID, EisaId ("APP000B"))
				Name (_CID, "gmux")
				Name (_STA, 0x0B)
				Name (_CRS, ResourceTemplate ()
				{
					IO (Decode16,
						0x0700,			 // Range Minimum
						0x07FF,			 // Range Maximum
						0x01,			   // Alignment
						0xFF,			   // Length
						)
				})
				Name (_PRW, Package (0x02)
				{
					0x16, 
					0x03
				})
				Scope (\_GPE)
				{
					Method (_L16, 0, NotSerialized)
					{
						Notify (\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.GMUX, 0x80)
					}
				}

				Name (GMGP, 0x16)
				Method (GMSP, 1, NotSerialized)
				{
					If (LLessEqual (Arg0, 0x01))
					{
						Or (GP06, Arg0, GP06)
					}
				}

				Method (GMLV, 0, NotSerialized)
				{
					Return (GP06)
				}
			}
		}

[Krooklyn]

Lenovo how exactly did you pull that efi string for the hd3000?

[lenovo3000]

Lenovo how exactly did you pull that efi string for the hd3000?

 

If you want to inject your own strings with Chameleon, google for "gfxutil". Concerning "my" string, all the credits go to Kyle_C, who discovered the role of "AAPL,os-info" property.

 

Is there a special chip for this Device in MacBookPro 8,3 DSDT or can this enable swichable gfx and backlight control?

 

Looks like a separate device and no matter how exactly it was implemented -- a separate chip on Foxconn m/b, etc. -- since it deals with Intel/ATI and should not be compatible with Optimus. What might be easier: to force nVidia working separately, or to enable Optimus switching functionality under Mac OS? IMHO the former could be possible, while the later seems to be a sort of time waste.

[wen1]

Lenovo3000, i was able to change the brightness from display applet in system preferences.

 

That does seem to adjust the backlight and not the picture brightness.

 

My Fn keys for brightness do not work.

[lenovo3000]

Lenovo3000, i was able to change the brightness from display applet in system preferences.

 

That does seem to adjust the backlight and not the picture brightness.

 

My Fn keys for brightness do not work.

 

Hm, do you have a separate brightness control or do you mean Calibrate button of Color tab of Display applet?

 

BTW, happy to inform everybody, that it is possible to use 10.7 framebuffer on 10.6.7 with full QE/CI.

 

Initially I took 6 kexts from 10.7:

 

+AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext

+AppleIntelHDGraphicsGLDriver.bundle

+AppleIntelHDGraphicsGA.plugin

AppleIntelSNBVA.bundle

AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

AppleVADriver.bundle

 

It gave me the native resolution with HD3000 but no QE/CI. Now it appears that the first 3 kexts marked with (+) should be kept from 10.6.7MBP unmodified. In fact, it may be enough to update AppleIntelSNB* only.

 

Since most HD3000 users do not need use 10.7 kexts, this final solution is only important for those unlucky, who have the issue with internal LCD/VGA on 10.6.7 kexts as I do.

[wen1]

ONce you go into the "Displays" in System Preferences, It is right on the display tab underneath the resolutions.

 

This appears to be a backlight control and seems to completely turn back light off on the lowest setting.

 

 

I see have screen display corruption ocassionally. Does it still exist with the 10.7 kexts?

 

 

Hm, do you have a separate brightness control or do you mean Calibrate button of Color tab of Display applet?