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automate-eGPU EFI - Mac bootscreen on eGPU


euqlaog

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@ssamydla I used the automate-eGPU installer script to download the latest Nvidia drivers. I also downloaded the and installed the latest CUDA drivers. My dGPU is an AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB 

 

Before I upgraded to macOS Sierra I was unable to get the same setup to recognize the card for CUDA applications then too.

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42 minutes ago, goalque said:

“Load GOP drivers” must be set to ON and one restart is required before you can test screen switching. What is the manufacturer of your card?

Other menu options in demo version are limited to the MBP11,5.

 

With Load GOP set to on, I press F1 and it reboots into macOSX, but nothing is recognized. This is without your script being installed and without the Nvidia drivers installed. I can see on the EGPU boot drive that an eGPU.efi file is created and a settings fie as well. Do I still need to have the Nvidia drivers installed even with the eGPU EFI?

 

I get a black screen though, any time I try to boot back into the eGPU EFI. I have to delete the settings and eGPU.efi file to get it to come back up.

 

I have a Nvidia brand card. It comes up as this device https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/165256/nvidia-gtx970-4096-140826 however the VBIOS and other specs actually match this one https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/183593/183593 

IMG_2351.JPG

Edited by t00h0t
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@t00h0t oh yes i forgot the iMac 5K comes with R9

Maybe it's conflict with AMD driver? Since AMD did not have CUDA.

And most Color Grading / VFX strongly recommend to use Quadro cards instead of GeForce due to it's specific Driver / firmware. Though both cards has CUDA.

Is there any options on the script to download specific driver we want? Try to install lower branch version perhaps.

I just checked with my friend, he managed to get his GTX 760 CUDA on his Yosemite Hackintosh, Davinci Resolve.

I know its totally different case, but still, it was a PC GPU that successfully run on a Mac without flashing the card's BIOS.

so i assume that macOS Sierra has a different OS architecture

508205858b372037a520a19644f5081c.jpg

3dc2e1f6078aa9326d87b470d058bc2f.jpg

As you can see on the 2nd pic that the GTX card was unsupported for CUDA processing in After Effects. But we can modified this by editing the gpulist textfile and put your card's model to forced it available inside AE.

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@t00h0t

The demo app just demonstrates screen switching in EFI environment, nothing after OS kernel takes over. They are two separate worlds, so doesn’t matter whether Nvidia web drivers are installed. Hold Option key down after F1 restart and then select “EFI Boot” disk again, you should be able to switch between iGPU/eGPU in real time if “Load GOP drivers” is earlier set to ON. At least Gigabyte and EVGA ROMs do work. If you get a black screen, the extracted UEFI driver (eGPU.efi) is not compatible. Is it the same with the 2015 13" MBP?

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38 minutes ago, ssamydla said:

 

@t00h0t oh yes i forgot the iMac 5K comes with R9

 

Maybe it's conflict with AMD driver? Since AMD did not have CUDA.

 

And most Color Grading / VFX strongly recommend to use Quadro cards instead of GeForce due to it's specific Driver / firmware. Though both cards has CUDA.

 

Is there any options on the script to download specific driver we want? Try to install lower branch version perhaps.

 

I just checked with my friend, he managed to get his GTX 760 CUDA on his Yosemite Hackintosh, Davinci Resolve.

 

I know its totally different case, but still, it was a PC GPU that successfully run on a Mac without flashing the card's BIOS.

 

so i assume that macOS Sierra has a different OS architecture

 

508205858b372037a520a19644f5081c.jpg

 

3dc2e1f6078aa9326d87b470d058bc2f.jpg

As you can see on the 2nd pic that the GTX card was unsupported for CUDA processing in After Effects. But we can modified this by editing the gpulist textfile and put your card's model to forced it available inside AE.

The images aren't showing up... What text file did you have to edit?

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20 minutes ago, goalque said:

@t00h0t

The demo app just demonstrates screen switching in EFI environment, nothing after OS kernel takes over. They are two separate worlds, so doesn’t matter whether Nvidia web drivers are installed. Hold Option key down after F1 restart and then select “EFI Boot” disk again, you should be able to switch between iGPU/eGPU in real time if “Load GOP drivers” is earlier set to ON. At least Gigabyte and EVGA ROMs do work. If you get a black screen, the extracted UEFI driver (eGPU.efi) is not compatible. Is it the same with the 2015 13" MBP?

 

Yep, it won't boot back into the eGPU EFI disk once I have selected Load GOP drivers. The VBIOS version installed says its UEFI compatible, based on the techpowerup site..

 

The 2015 13" MBP (On the latest El Capitan) refuses to warm boot with the thunderbolt eGPU cable plugged in. All I get is a black screen with no sound at all.

 

It will boot up from a cold shutdown and I can select the eGPU boot disk, but it never sees the eGPU. Even if I try to quickly plug it in the moment I hear the boot sound its never able to detect the eGPU.

 

However, when I plug it in right after a cold boot and let it boot into OSX, using your automate-eGPU script with the -a option, it finds the eGPU and is able to run CUDA applications as well as use an external monitor. So I CAN get it to work.

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6 hours ago, t00h0t said:

 

Yep, it won't boot back into the eGPU EFI disk once I have selected Load GOP drivers. The VBIOS version installed says its UEFI compatible, based on the techpowerup site..

 

When eGPU.efi is successfully created, the VBIOS is 100% UEFI spec compatible. However, none of the Nvidia UEFI ROMs are compatible with the Mac firmware but the app tries to bypass Nvidia’s validations. In most cases it works but some cards are problematic. I guess it depends on the brand.

 

6 hours ago, t00h0t said:

The 2015 13" MBP (On the latest El Capitan) refuses to warm boot with the thunderbolt eGPU cable plugged in. All I get is a black screen with no sound at all.

 

Do you mean F1 restart? Apple's startup manager never shows up?

 

6 hours ago, t00h0t said:

It will boot up from a cold shutdown and I can select the eGPU boot disk, but it never sees the eGPU. Even if I try to quickly plug it in the moment I hear the boot sound its never able to detect the eGPU.

 

However, when I plug it in right after a cold boot and let it boot into OSX, using your automate-eGPU script with the -a option, it finds the eGPU and is able to run CUDA applications as well as use an external monitor. So I CAN get it to work.

 

Please keep script’s -a mode turned off (sudo ./automate-eGPU.sh -m) when you test the EFI app. Does is still says “eGPU not detected” when you boot from cold power state?

 

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@t00h0t 

 

This from Resolve with GTX 760 on a Hackintosh Yosemite.

IMG_4546 copy.jpg

 

 

This from After Effects CS. the GPU is unsupported.

IMG_4547 copy.jpg

 

This only available on Adobe PPro & AE CS6

Here are the steps:

  1. Download the instructions here: CreatorUp-TechTips-Cuda
  2. Download the latest version of CUDA drivers here:  http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html
  3. Install CUDA drivers and make sure it is running on your system preference.
  4. Run GPUSniffer (/Applications/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6.app/Contents/GPUSniffer.app/Contents/MacOS/GPUSniffer)
  5. Edit CUDA Supports Text file in both Premiere CS6 and After Effects CS6 (/Applications/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6.app/Contents/cuda_supported_cards.txt)
  6. Open Adobe Premiere and After Effects and enjoy your new lighting speed rendering time.

For Adobe PPro & AE CC 2015 it should be able to use any recent CUDA supported cards.

To check: Open Terminal and Run /Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC\ 2015/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC\ 2015.app/Contents/AEGPUSniffer.app/Contents/MacOS/AEGPUSniffer

You should see your card details and below line: (mine is running on Intel Iris Pro, so it's Failed)

dlopen "/usr/local/cuda/lib/libcuda.dylib" failed!

dlopen "/usr/local/cuda/lib/libcuda.dylib" failed!

 

If not, Check the latest version of CUDA drivers here:  http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html

But i assume you've flash your VBIOS and installed the quick fix for CUDA below

 

Just hope it's not conflict it's original CUDA core feature. So try to install the closest match Nvida CUDA Driver http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html with the one shown here: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b3226/galax-gtx-970-oc-silent-infinity-black-edition

 

Do this with your own risk :)

 

What version is your Davinci Resolve? Here's for your references:

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 4.25.53 PM.png

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 4.25.19 PM.png

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 4.29.53 PM.png

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17 hours ago, goalque said:

Do you mean F1 restart? Apple's startup manager never shows up?

Yes that is correct. F1 restart.  OSX Restart, and Windows restart. If the eGPU is plugged into the Mac I get a black screen. 

The only time it boots with the eGPU plugged in is from a clean/cold shutdown.

 

Quote

 

Please keep script’s -a mode turned off (sudo ./automate-eGPU.sh -m) when you test the EFI app. Does is still says “eGPU not detected” when you boot from cold power state?

 

I have tried it both ways. OSX  recognizes the eGPU if I plug it in immediately after I hear the apple boot up sound. But the EFI app never seems to detects the eGPU, even from a cold boot. EFI app doesn't detect it with the quick plugin trick either.

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We have a issue on Hackintosh that could use this method to maybe load the FB without needed patch anything and have oob support if you could help us please join us in insanelymac chat 

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Hi  goalque,

It's a really great work and thanks for your contribution to the egpu player.

I am going to build my egpu with the akitio enclosure after the release of gtx 1060. My laptop is late 2013 rmbp with the 750m dgpu. So I can test your 750m version as well.

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On 18 July 2016 at 4:15 PM, swordbing said:

Hi  goalque,

It's a really great work and thanks for your contribution to the egpu player.

I am going to build my egpu with the akitio enclosure after the release of gtx 1060. My laptop is late 2013 rmbp with the 750m dgpu. So I can test your 750m version as well.

Thanks, I’m waiting for the outcome of @P-Mac’s testing. If “Disable dGPU” option for the MBP11,3 turns out to work well, the new demo will be available for all on GitHub.

 

It’s still unclear why PCI bus scan for detecting the eGPU works randomly with the Thunder2 after restarts. The v0.0.2 is coded to identify only newer 156C Thunderbolt controllers.

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Hi  goalque,

It's a really great work and thanks for your contribution to the egpu player.

I am going to build my egpu with the akitio enclosure after the release of gtx 1060. My laptop is late 2013 rmbp with the 750m dgpu. So I can test your 750m version as well.

Thanks, I’m waiting for the outcome of @P-Mac’s testing. If “Disable dGPU” option for the MBP11,3 turns out to work well, the new demo will be available for all on GitHub.

 

It’s still unclear why PCI bus scan for detecting the eGPU works randomly with the Thunder2 after restarts. The v0.0.2 is coded to identify only newer 156C Thunderbolt controllers.

Does that script work on a mac mini to have display during boot?

Envoyé de mon EVA-L09 en utilisant Tapatalk

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An EFI application is written in C (does not use any scripting language).

 

@juniordiscart eGPU is not necessary in order to use this function. Anyone who is interested in testing with a fresh installation of Windows 10 and MBP11,3, please contact in PM and I can give the download link. It does work with the MBP11,5 but for some reason some Windows updates messed up something (maybe Iris Pro drivers).

 

@lilins

a 2014 Mac mini shows the custom boot screen via eGPU (not included in the demo).

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An EFI application is written in C (does not use any scripting language).

 

@juniordiscart eGPU is not necessary in order to use this function. Anyone who is interested in testing with a fresh installation of Windows 10 and MBP11,3, please contact in PM and I can give the download link. It does work with the MBP11,5 but for some reason some Windows updates messed up something (maybe Iris Pro drivers).

 

@lilins

a 2014 Mac mini shows the custom boot screen via eGPU (not included in the demo).

Is the script using temporary efi parameters (wich can be returned to default using pram reset?)

If yes i'd be glad to test it. I'm not a developer but i'm a mac certified tech, so i should be able to get out of some mess :)

Envoyé de mon EVA-L09 en utilisant Tapatalk

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On 19/06/2016 at 11:58 PM, goalque said:

The eGPU ROM must be UEFI compatible, otherwise screen switching doesn’t work. Incorrect ROM might work, but better to use the original. One restart (F1) is required after "Load GOP drivers" is set to ON. Thanks for testing!

I've just seen the zotac 960 gtx vbios is not uefi compatible... if i understand well, some of the features may not work with it

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  • 2 weeks later...
On Friday, July 22, 2016 at 6:05 AM, goalque said:

Thanks, I’m waiting for the outcome of @P-Mac’s testing. If “Disable dGPU” option for the MBP11,3 turns out to work well, the new demo will be available for all on GitHub.

 

It’s still unclear why PCI bus scan for detecting the eGPU works randomly with the Thunder2 after restarts. The v0.0.2 is coded to identify only newer 156C Thunderbolt controllers.

Sorry for my late reply. It is a rather busy period for me. However I have successfully built my egpu with a zotac 1070 and the internal display works well. So I think i have a system which could be used for the test of your  750 version. 

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Hi @goalque, I tested it on my set-up:

 

MBP 11,3 w/ 750m

Akitio Thunder 2

Zotac GTX 970 (GPU-Z says it's UEFI compatible)

 

and it never recognizes the eGPU.  I wait for wi-fi to finish loading like you said.  I got the VBIOS from techpowerup.com/vgabios/ and made sure the version was the same as gpu-z.

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On 8 August 2016 at 5:49 PM, swordbing said:

Sorry for my late reply. It is a rather busy period for me. However I have successfully built my egpu with a zotac 1070 and the internal display works well. So I think i have a system which could be used for the test of your  750 version. 

No problem. I’ve been busy as well after vacations, fortunately no deadlines with this project :)

 

 

@UncleGravity

Yeah, eGPU detection with the Thunder2 doesn’t work well. Anyone who has a Sonnet III-D/NA211TB & MBP11,3 combo?

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23 hours ago, goalque said:

No problem. I’ve been busy as well after vacations, fortunately no deadlines with this project :)

 

 

@UncleGravity

Yeah, eGPU detection with the Thunder2 doesn’t work well. Anyone who has a Sonnet III-D/NA211TB & MBP11,3 combo?

 

Hiya, back from the dead here.

 

I have a 11,3 and a III-D combo, which from my previous experience are worse at detecting the Maxwell cards than the Thunder2 and/or the SEL, both of which I've killed due to tinkering about. The 780 Ti that I first had worked great with the III-D under both OS X and Windows, however.

 

My setup was a 11,3 + III-D + Titan X (Maxwell). I wasn't able to get this to work on Windows last year, so I gave up and just built a gaming PC in the meantime.

 

However, hot-plugging just after the Apple logo worked a treat and I was able to use the eGPU regularly on OS X.

 

However, as much as I would love to try this out, my Titan X has just died and I have to send it in for a replacement, which can take a week or so. The only GPU I have is a 1080 which is currently useless as there are no Mac drivers for it yet :/

 

UPDATE: I did some preliminary testing and it looks like Pascal might work the same way for me as Maxwell did on Mac OS, hot-plugging the eGPU just after the Apple logo has detected the 1080 as a "Display" which was the result that I expected, as there are no Pascal drivers on Mac OS just yet!

Screen Shot 2016-08-10 at 20.13.11.png

Edited by Mark
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@Mark

It’s nice to hear from you! :) Yes, generally single-slot backplanes are easier to deal with - I still believe that the cause of the eGPU detection issue lies in my EFI function.

 

No Mac drivers for your 1080, but you can test screen switching, “disable dGPU” option, and if it displays an Apple logo on the eGPU monitor.

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45 minutes ago, goalque said:

@Mark

It’s nice to hear from you! :) Yes, generally single-slot backplanes are easier to deal with - I still believe that the cause of the eGPU detection issue lies in my EFI function.

 

No Mac drivers for your 1080, but you can test screen switching, “disable dGPU” option, and if it displays an Apple logo on the eGPU monitor.

 

So with the 1080 plugged into my III-D I tried "disable dGPU" but it says it's not supported, since I'm on an 11,3 not 11,5 :P

 

As with Maxwell cards I also get a black screen (i.e. no chimes, nothing at all) when I press the power button with the eGPU plugged in. The lights on the GPU light up and the fan spins like it should but nothing was happening with the MBP. Hot-plugging it at any stage on your EFI program causes it to freeze.

 

UPDATE: I have also switched on GOP drivers, it seemed to have no effect on the whole thing at all either! I've also tried hot-plugging the eGPU on the boot selection screen after waiting for the Wi-FI, I was unable to select the drive at all despite repeatedly clicking/pressing enter on it.

Edited by Mark
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13 minutes ago, Mark said:

 

So with the 1080 plugged into my III-D I tried "disable dGPU" but it says it's not supported, since I'm on an 11,3 not 11,5 :P

11,3 is now unlocked. I invited you into private conversation, did you get the download link? Try setting on “Warm restart” option.

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Hi @goalque, as you know from my other thread I have the Macbook Pro 11,3 with the Sonnet III-D and am having trouble getting Windows 10 to recognise the eGPU. I was wondering whether this script might help if I was able to disable the dGPU before booting Windows? The only problem with setting this up is obtaining the VBIOS file as I can't dump it from Windows and there is no file yet available for the GTX 1060. Any ideas?

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