About This Mac // Modify to show AMD CPU

lazybon3 · #1 09-19-2010, 07:15 AM

Hello!

I have seen a few Screenshots on this Forum that show AMD-CPU correctly on the "About-This-Mac" Screen.

I searched a lot on other Forums and this one, but i didn't find any useful Information on how to change CPU Type shown in About-This-Mac.

Thing i have already tried:
- CPUinjector.kext >> works only for my Intel based PCs
- OSx86Tools >> never really got it to show my CPU as AMD Athlon X2

So, i really wonder how you guys are getting this done.

CPU (AMD Athlon X2 4200+ @ 2.8gHz) ist currently shown as Core2Solo.
Both Cores are used by the System and working.
OS X 10.6.3 with mach_kernel.test7

Thanks in advance!

eMatoS · #2 09-19-2010, 06:06 PM

If you're using a voodoo based kernel (don't know about the test7) this is a feature implemented to allow certain software, that checks the cpu type, to run. Anyways, the about this Mac window is just cosmetics.

lazybon3 · #3 09-19-2010, 08:06 PM

Thanks for the quick answer, is there a Voodoo-based-Kernel for 10.6.x ?

I just used Voodookernel 9.5 for Leopard, didnt know that there was a Voodoo-based one for SL.

Do you have any idea how exactly to "inject" the CPU-info? I know that it is not really important for running the System, but i really care about the cosmetics.

eMatoS · #4 09-19-2010, 09:49 PM

There are some voodoo based kernels for snow leopard, like AnV's, qoopz, Blacknight, etc. Andy's latest release is quite good and stable, at least for me, and now he's working on full 64bit support for AMD cpus.
As for the CPU info injection, I don't know hot to do it in snow but it shouldn't be very hard, I think chameleon handles that now, ckeck out the Lizard app, it lets you type your own CPU string but I haven't tested that yet.

lazybon3 · #5 09-19-2010, 11:46 PM

Thanks!

I knew Lizard before, but i never really used it, since i do all the .plist stuff with vi and Textwrangler.
I will give it a try as soon as i get to my AMD-System.

About the full 64bit support for AMD-based-Systems:
So there is no possibility to get it to run in 64Bit Mode at the moment?
Because i got rid of all my 32Bit(only) Kexts, and used -force64 Kernel Flag but it still wont boot in 64Bit mode.
Does mach_kernel.test7 even support 64Bit Mode?

eMatoS · #6 09-20-2010, 01:28 AM

The only kernel I know that can run 64bit and 32bit apps for AMD cpus is Andy's 10.4.0. Try it and good luck!

lazybon3 · #7 09-23-2010, 12:10 PM

Hello Again,

in the last few days i found the time to test "Lizard 0.62" on my AMD based System.
Lizard is a very nice App.

Everything works pretty well, except, guess what, ...
The CPU-Injection for "About this Mac"

When i enter something manually it alway switches to "Intel Core 2 Duo (Default)"

As far as i found out it just changes the

<key>SMcputype</key>
<string>769</string>

Values in smbios.plist and since there are no Values for AMD CPUs, i guess i just have to change one of the other CPU Values on the "target-file" from smbios.plist.

So, do you have any idea where the CPU-Strings that SMcputype is based on are stored?
I guess if i change an other CPUtype to "AMD Athlon X2" it would work ??

So i basicly just need to know in which file the CPU-types are stored.
Anyone got an idea where I find this, or any other suggestions to change the CPUtype to AMD?

lazybon3 · #8 09-23-2010, 05:31 PM

Update: Found Solution for this!

There is a small and handy Application called About This Mac found at Insanelymac

The Function of this Application is pretty simple, it just adds your current CPU Information as the default-value for unknown CPUs

The command to show your current (real) CPU-Information is
sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string

The file where the Systems unknown CPU-Information is stored is:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Resources/YourLanguage.lproj/AppleSystemInfo.strings

The Value to change is named UnknownCPUKind, "About This Mac" does this automaticly, i just tell this for people who want to do this manually.

After you installed About This Mac (and of course rebooted your System) and your CPU still isn't shown as expected, i found a workaround for this, but it is pretty dirty.

Just put CPUInjector.kext from here in your /Extra/Extensions/ or /S/L/E Folder.
After that edit the Info.plist file in CPUInjector.kext

Just add any invalid value for cpu-type (so that your CPU will be recognized as unknown CPU on the next boot)

Example from my CPUInjector.kext/Contents/Info.plist:

<key>cpu-type</key>
<data>
AMD=
</data>

Now my CPU is shown as AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ in about this Mac. The only bad thing is that it doesn't show up in System Profiler anymore.

I also tried adding invalid SMcputype in /Extra/smbios.plist, but this did not work for me, and my CPU still got shown as Core 2 Duo.

Maybe there is a more simple way for doing this, but since i had no idea where to start this works pretty good for me.

lazybon3 · #9 09-24-2010, 09:47 AM

Hey eMatoS,

now i have also tried the Kernel you recommended, but is there some kind of Tutorial on how to install it, because, if i just boot with the -force64 Kernel Flag 64Bit Apps run pretty well, but everthing that is 32Bit only just seems to crash.

Any Idea on how to fix this?
I have seen there is a "amd_insn_patcher" but i got no idea on how to handle this, and didn't find any good information until now.

Simply run ./amd_insn_patcher_ext and ./amd_insn_patcher or is there any additional commands i need to add?

So, it would be nice if you could help me a little on this, or just post a link to a Tutorial/HowTo for this.
For the moment i am sticking with legacy_kernel 10.4.0 with 32Bit mode and this works pretty good for me.

Thanks in advance!

eMatoS · #10 09-24-2010, 08:09 PM

You'll have to patch the sysenter to get 32bit apps running over a 64bit system, and don't worry about the amd_insn_patcher, I'm sure you won't need it.

To use the patch download it from this thread, then unzip it and run these commands on a terminal:

Code:

cd (path to the unzipped folder)
sudo ./runpatch.sh
sudo update_dyld_shared_cache

You should backup these files before the patch, just in case.

Code:

/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
/usr/lib/libSystem.B_debug.dylib
/usr/lib/libSystem.B_profile.dylib
/usr/lib/dyld