GeForce GTX 260 in Snow Leopard
Some of you may have noticed that after a fresh Snow Leopard install, when you try to boot your computer (with a GTX 260 card) you just get a black screen when everything has finished loading. Here's the easiest way to fix this issue and…
- Primary Author
- @pcwiz Published 2009-09-12
- Collection
- OSx86 Core & 10.X
- Archival Footprint
- 273,816 historical reads · 32 curated field notes (from 35 dispatches) · 2009-09-12 – 2010-09-16
- Credited Voices (25)
- @elliotcater (3)@pcwiz (2)@rohizzle121 (2)@mecanoiz (2)@estravagancia (2)@fate17 (2)@mercury187 (2)@beastacular (2)@rdbram (2)@RMF@Joatmon@maKx86@motmots@sl_mac@thunderclap82@Jocelyn84+9 more
Some of you may have noticed that after a fresh Snow Leopard install, when you try to boot your computer (with a GTX 260 card) you just get a black screen when everything has finished loading. Here's the easiest way to fix this issue and get your GTX 260 100% working with full QE/CI in Snow Leopard.
What you need:
- This (real3x.perso.ne uf.fr/GFXstrings.zip) zip file of EFI strings
- If your internet on the hackintosh isn't working, then you'll need a USB thumb drive to transfer over the necessary files
- First of all, boot your computer in single user mode. That means when you get to the boot prompt (or the drive selection screen in Chameleon 2) type in "-s" (without quotes) and press Enter to boot. Eventually it should get to a #root prompt
- Run the following commands in order:
mount -uw /
mkdir /kext_backup
mv /System/Library/Extensions/NV* /kext_backup
rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches
reboot - That will move some of the problem kexts into a separate folder and rebuild the kext cache. Now the computer will restart, and start it up using verbose mode (-v at the prompt) to see how things are going
- If there are no other problems (other than the GTX 260) present in your installation Snow Leopard should eventually boot (although graphics will be ugly in low res, we'll fix that soon). Complete the Setup Assistant if needed, and get to the Desktop.
- Transfer over the GFXstrings zip over to your hackintosh using a USB thumb drive or some other method
- Place the zip on your desktop and unzip it, a folder called GFXstrings will be created
- Open Terminal and type in the following command
~/Desktop/GFXstrings/gfxutil -f display - The command will result in something like this (yours may be different so don't copy this one):
DevicePath = PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0xc,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0) - We don't need the DevicePath part, just copy the "PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0xc,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)" (once again, yours is probably different).
- Now in the GFXstrings folder, there is a GTX260 folder. Inside this GTX260 folder there is a gtx260 plist file. Double click on it to open it with Property List Editor
- In the editor, you will see under the Root key there is the PciRoot key. Double click on it to edit it, and paste your own PciRoot path in. Save the plist
- Open Terminal and run the following commands:
cd ~/Desktop/GFXstrings/GTX260
~/Desktop/GFXstrings/gfxutil -i xml -o hex ./gtx260.plist ./output.hex - In the Desktop / GFXstrings / GTX260 folder you will find a new file called "output.hex". Open this file with any standard text editor, and you will find a very long hex string. Copy this string.
- Open Terminal and run the following command:
cp /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist ~/Desktop/ - The com.apple.Boot.plist will now be on your desktop. Open it with a standard text editor like TextEdit (NOT property list editor).
- Right before the </dict> line, add two new lines:
<key>device-properties</key> <string>paste that long string here</string> - Now as you see above, paste that long string you copied from output.hex between <string> and </string>
- Save the plist and then run the following commands in Terminal:
sudo -s [enter password] rm -rf /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist mv ~/Desktop/com.apple.Boot.plist /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration chmod 644 /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist chown root:admin /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist mv /kext_backup/* /System/Library/Extensions/ chown -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/NV* chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/NV* rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches rm -rf /kext_backup
Phew! You're done. Now just reboot and everything should be working as planned
EDIT: The best part of this is that it will not be affected by updates, so you only do this once.
Author Updates & Technical Revisions
Follow-up dispatches by @pcwiz
rohizzle121,
Try typing "sudo su" instead of "sudo -s" and then run the commands.
RMF, thanks, fixed it in the main post
Synthesized Community Field Notes
32 technical responses curated from 35 original dispatches
@pcwizcd ~/Desktop/GFXstrings/GTX260 ~/Desktop/GFXstrings/gfxutil -i xml hex ./gtx260.plist ./output.hex
Just a little mistake. It's actually
cd ~/Desktop/GFXstrings/GTX260
~/Desktop/GFXstrings/gfxutil -i xml -o hex ./gtx260.plist ./output.hex@RMFJust a little mistake. It's actually cd ~/Desktop/GFXstrings/GTX260 ~/Desktop/GFXstrings/gfxutil -i xml -o hex ./gtx260.plist ./output.hex
i was like freaking out becuase i thought i did somthing wrong and i kept like redoing this tutorial, tryig to fix it.
Anyways, i did everything in the tut. And the last part just said "permission denied" on every thing. So I Judy manually typed sudo -s before everyone of the lines and rebooting and nothing happened! Still in ugly mode. What should I do?
also, is this any different than usuing osx86 tools to get a efi string?
like i am looking to get FULL resolution on my snowleo/leo install
all i get is like 1600xsomthing
and not 1920?
PCWIZ … You rock.
Used your guide with RMFs correction went smooth.
Now my Gigabyte EX58-UD5 has a fully working eVGA GTX 260 on Snow Leopard 10.6.1
Thanks so much guys.
i have the same probem (no screen output after boot) but with an asus gtx 275. Any chance you can help me out with that?
I've come to the point that i've removed all the NV files and now i can get into snow leopard. But is there anyway to generate a correct hex string for the gtx275 ?
@estravaganciathanks, it seems that worked for me on a nVidia GTX275
Hi, how u did for e GTX 275 in SL? can upload e file if there is?
how to see whether e gpu have QE/CI in snow leopard?
@fate17Hi, how u did for e GTX 275 in SL? can upload e file if there is?
does it also works for NVidia GeForce GTX 260M? (Asus gamer notebooks/Alienware notebooks/...)
ok, So i've followed your guide fully, to the degree that i've inputted the code into -s mode meaning I could log into 10.5.8 with my 260 active, and then done all terminal codings with no errors, but then when I come to reboot, it goes back to sleep on start up [monitor] :\
Anyone have any ideas of what im missing?
running a GTX260, which worked on the 285 drivers in 10.5.7
I have a GTX260 and I've done this, but I cannot get games in full screen to work. Just black screens I have to reboot to get rid of. Otherwise, I'm good. Any ideas?
Quake 4 and Warhammer Online are the games.
@mercury187ok, So i've followed your guide fully, to the degree that i've inputted the code into -s mode meaning I could log into 10.5.8 with my 260 active, and then done all terminal codings with no errors, but then when I come to reboot, it goes back to sleep on start up [monitor] :\ Anyone have any ideas of what im missing? running a GTX260,…
So, I have retried it again, to no avail - Fresh Install using the 200 graphics driver, and still nothing once reboot after process is finished, one thing i can do though is boot into safe mode at 1680 x 1050, which is bothering me slightly...
Have a missed something vital here :|
Does this guide work for GTX 260M
Awesome guide.
I'm eyeing on the Dell Alienware m15x which comes with 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M along with Intel Core i7. Except for the wireless card (hopefully can be swapped for a Dell 1397 PCIe card or better that is supported on SL), it will be a awesome machine running Snow Leopard 10.6.1.
I'm just pasting the info from Dell site:
SYSTEM COLOR Alienware M15x, Cosmic Black
PROCESSOR Intel Core i7 820QM 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
VIDEO CARD 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M
LCD PANEL 15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 at 1333MHz
HARD DRIVE 256GB Solid State Drive
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
BATTERY OPTIONS Primary - 9-cell (85Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery
SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
WIRELESS CARDS Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11AGN Half Mini Card
Please let me know.
sl_mac
I've followed your instructions but am still stuck in a resolution of 1280x1024. I didn't receive any error messages when going through the instructions either. Any ideas? I have the MSI GTX 260 (nVidia). I have a second card in the system too, the nVidia 9800GT but it's not actually connected to a monitor. It's in for PhysX on the Windows side of my system.
UPDATE: Ultimately I had to do a clean install of SL. Everything went perfectly until I use the Migration Assistant. Some setting from the old system transferred over and messed up the new install. So, had to re-install and manually install all my software again. No biggie though considering everything now works.
Can someone please upload the GFXStrings file? /Beg
Ok,
I'm crying into my keyboard, all the instructions are here but the GFXStrings.zip link to that french site is dead! Will anyone come to our rescue?
Pretty Please with sucralose on top!
link is dead
the link from the french website is dead. does anyone have the gtx 260 string available? can you please either post it or show me how i can go about obtaining it?
thnx
Still doesn't work, clean install of snow leopard (10.6) on Gigabyte EX58-UD5 board (using the installer script over on insanely mac) with Gigabyte factory overclocked GTX 260 (dvi-vga-hdmi). Followed the guide completely (Not scared of terminal, I live and breath nix), even tried editing the NVresman plist by adding the dev id's. No res, no qe/ci/opencl - i.e no translucent menu bar, jerky screensaver.
I'm at my wits end now, I've tried the GT2XX driver from nvidia and the plists. The trouble is, people who have it working aren't letting us know what their setup is so we can try and work out why other setups don't work correctly. It's all well and good saying, THIS IS WORKING! WOO HOO! We need to know why.
I'm not giving up with this card. It's got so much potential in SL.
Thnx for posting string. Figured another method
unfortunately it still doesnt work with the string.
however… i figured out how to make my gtx 260 work. i basically used the string for the gtx 280 and i get full range of res including 1920x1200 and full CI/QE. does anyone know if this going to damage my card? it works perfectly the only diff is the memory. the string said the 280 has 1024 and my 260 only has 800something.
How did you even install with this card? i get the black screen as soon as the installer starts
So I've spent days trying to get this to work and it isn't. I have an Asus P5B-Deluxe motherboard and a EVGA 896-P3-1264-AR GeForce GTX 260 SSC Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card .
I installed OS X by formatting my external HD with 2 partitions. I copied my Snow Leopard installer to one partition and installed Snow Leopard to the other. I removed all the NV kexts from /System/Library/Extensions on the installer and used to EmpireEFI to boot the installer. Once it was installed, I booted into Single User Mode and followed GeForce GTX 260 in Snow Leopard → of moving the NV kexts. I booted into Snow Leopard ok and ran MyHack from the EmpireEFI disc osx86.soju garden.com/installer/ installing com.apple.Boot.plist, GraphicEnabler, FakeSMC, FramebufferDisabler, JMicronATA, LegacyAppleRTC, NullCPUPowerManagerment, OpeHaltRestart, PlatformUUID, and SleepEnabler. I then ran System Update and updated to 10.6.2 and completed the rest of the guide on getting my GTX 260 working. When I booted I got a kernal panic on SleepEnabler, and realized I needed a newer one for 10.6.2, which I did. Next boot I got a black screen.
So I remove the NV kext's Snow Leopard boots perfectly and everything works great, but if I put them back I get a black screen still. Anyone have any idea why it isn't working? I added the stuff to both my com.apple.Boot.plist in /Library/Prefereces/SytemConfiguration and /Extras.
GFX EFI string needed
Hi! All links to the EFI string seem to be broken. Plz someone post a good one or a workaround.
Is anybody watching this thread? Several people are having trouble (including me) getting this guide to work. I've tried it several times with my GTX 260 and Snow Leopard and continue to get the black screen. I'm not sure what else to do.
Hip-hipp hooray!
Works like a charm for my GTX 260. Thank you so much - I was already desperate so many things I already tried. But it was woth the patience; I have now a fully working Hack (I call it "MacBobo") on a P5Q DeLuxe with untouched legacy BIOS, Q 9300 @ 2,5Ghz (stockspeed), 8GB DDR 2 GEIL @ 1066 Mhz, ASUS GTX 260.
Initial setup done on a 2nd rig with P5Q Pro mobo and modded BIOS from JUZZI, E 8400, 4GB DDR 2 800 and ASUS EN 8800 GTX EE; then transplanted the HDD into my main rig and everything booted right on exept the gfx card,which is done now also.
Info added: Actually I run Slowleopard in 32-bit mode. Once i have all the 65-bit extensions together I will boot into 64bit mode. I hope the gfx card will still work then...
I just wanted to ask if anybody managed to get dual screen support running this way. I am using the Hazard SL release and everything worked fine with 10.6.3. I have QE enabled ootb and I can also use 2 Screens but only in extended view. As soon as I try to go into the clone modus then I can only see on 1 screen the actual image. The other one is blue, showing me the mouse and the movement but it doesnt respond to any mouse click and so on.
Did anyone tried it yet? Btw. I am using a Dual DVI 260 GTX.
Kind regards,
Valmar
Huge problem.
The initial actions were great, booted me right into the GUI. It appears though that the actions taken afterward (which I double checked, to write everything in terminal verbatim) some how rendered my drive unboootable.
I now get:
Non-system disk
Press any key to reboot
right before it should be hitting Chameleon. I have yet to be replied to on any thread here I've posted in, it'd be appreciated if someone could help.
Edit: I'm a goddamn moron. I left my USB stick in from the GFXstrings. You're a savior OP, thanks so much.
@motmotsI have a GTX260 and I've done this, but I cannot get games in full screen to work. Just black screens I have to reboot to get rid of. Otherwise, I'm good. Any ideas? Quake 4 and Warhammer Online are the games.
Same exact problem here. Specifically, The Sims 3. Audio works just fine (can hear the intro video, but not see it).
does anyone have this zip file? It doesnt seem to be working. You can email it to me if you got it ([email protected]) Thanks!
Show 2 additional community field notes (#31–#32)
An update-
As the other posters have mentioned, moving the NV* "problem" kexts, regardless of fixing the permissions, will still result in a black screen (does for me at least)
My QE/CL is still crippled, seeing as the Flurry screensaver, Spaces, and Chess.app all run terribly.
I really need your help in installing/configuring my PC to run Snow Leopard on top of it.
My PC config:
CPU: Intel Core Duo E2160
Videocard: NVidia Gigabyte GV-N26OC-896H (GTX260)
Motherboard: Asus P5B
6 GB Memory ( 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 )
2 HDD drives
I know, that my configuration is not ideally for MacOSX, but...
So, my first attempt to install SnowLeo was iAtkos S3 v2. I installed it a lot of times before figuring out what kexts/drivers/patches should I install to boot it up.
The approach, that was giving me almost successfull result was: enable GraphicsEnabler, boot into single user mode and remove everything from /System/Library/Extensions/NV*. Then I can boot into system using normal mode, but expose and any other graphics-related features were working very slow. When I put the NV*-drivers back to /System/Library/Extensions/ - I get a black/gray screen after boot and nothing happens after. If a boot in verbose mode - I see my system loads and then again I see the same black screen.
I vas trying to use EFI strings and NVEnabler. Effect is the save - when drivers are in /System/Library/Extensions/ - I cannot move further, than black screen after booting. If I delete drivers - everthing loads, but no hardware acceleration is enabled, of course.
I tried to use the method explained here: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/iboot-multibeast… ↗ (except I didn't take out hdd and additionsl memory). The result is interesting - I cannot boot the MACOSX Retail DVD 10.6.3. I get into the same black screen I was in before. The same result I got using MacOSX Retail DVD 10.6.0 from my friend's MacBook Pro.
Please, help me to enable these NVidia Drivers or what else could cause such symptoms?
Sources & Contributor Provenance (25 credited usernames · Thread #4057)
| Username | Dossier Contribution | Dispatches | Active Window |
|---|---|---|---|
| @elliotcater | Core Contributor | 3 | 2009-11-18 → 2009-11-19 |
| @pcwiz | Primary Author | 2 | 2009-09-12 → 2009-09-18 |
| @rohizzle121 | Contributor | 2 | 2009-09-15 |
| @mecanoiz | Contributor | 2 | 2009-09-25 → 2009-09-26 |
| @estravagancia | Contributor | 2 | 2009-10-01 → 2009-10-05 |
| @fate17 | Contributor | 2 | 2009-10-04 → 2009-10-05 |
| @mercury187 | Contributor | 2 | 2009-10-15 |
| @beastacular | Contributor | 2 | 2009-11-19 → 2009-11-20 |
| @rdbram | Contributor | 2 | 2010-07-06 → 2010-07-24 |
| @RMF | Contributor | 1 | 2009-09-15 |
| @Joatmon | Contributor | 1 | 2009-09-17 |
| @maKx86 | Contributor | 1 | 2009-10-12 |
| @motmots | Contributor | 1 | 2009-10-15 |
| @sl_mac | Contributor | 1 | 2009-10-23 |
| @thunderclap82 | Contributor | 1 | 2009-10-26 |
| @Jocelyn84 | Contributor | 1 | 2009-11-15 |
| @ydnar22 | Contributor | 1 | 2009-12-21 |
| @Bootes | Contributor | 1 | 2010-01-22 |
| @alexodus | Contributor | 1 | 2010-02-10 |
| @MilesCrew | Contributor | 1 | 2010-04-16 |
| @Idontknow | Contributor | 1 | 2010-04-22 |
| @Valmar | Contributor | 1 | 2010-04-28 |
| @uRabbit | Contributor | 1 | 2010-07-16 |
| @iluve2yo | Contributor | 1 | 2010-07-22 |
| @fxposter | Contributor | 1 | 2010-09-16 |