INSTALLING EFI GRAPHICS STRINGS:
This tutorial covers the installation of EFI
graphics strings for PC_EFI, and was made upon request by Thrawnhex who needs people to test out the graphics strings he has tried to make for different graphics cards. As always, we would all like as many string drumps from real Mac Pro's as possible, so if you have one we don't have, please share it on a relevant thread on the forums or find someone someone on #efi-gfx on irc.osx86.hu
Please note, before trying this out, EFI graphics strings do apparently not work on G33 chipset or P35 chipset motherboards. They are confirmed to work on 945~ series chipsets. Also, if you have NATIT/Titan whatever .kexts installed you'll have to remove these before you test out the graphics string method (e.g sudo mv Natit.kext Natit.kext.back). Update - time ed has reported that graphics strings don't work on his Asus P5LP-LE which has a 945 chipset. I have a Gigabyte ga-g33m-ds2r which has a G33 chipset, and I can't get EFI graphics strings to work with it. Check out this post to see what we need to do to get EFI strings to work on all motherboards. EFI strings are now working on all(?) motherboards. Make sure the string you insert is correct for your motherboard. Check out
MoDs or
mcmatrix's thread for how to make one that will work for you.
Also, this tutorial does not tell you in detail how to mod your own graphics string - this is however relatively easy and is described in some other threads, basically you need to convert a string dump (hex) to bin, then to plist with a util called gfxutil, whereafter you can edit it, and once done convert it back.
TO INSTALL:
Download and extract the contents of the zip file you have downloaded which contains the string relevant to your graphics card. The zip file, if made by Thrawnhex should include two files, one with the extension BST and the other with a HST extension. The HST file is the one you need, this is the file that contains the hex string. They are both basic text files. Open the HST file up with a text editor. If you have made your own string or obtained it from somewhere else it'll probably just be in a text file and should be an extremely long list of alphanumerical characters.
Find the com.apple.Boot.plist file in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/. Copy it to another directory, and adjust its user permissions so you may edit it (in terminal):
cd /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
sudo cp com.apple.Boot.plist ~/
sudo chmod 777 ~/com.apple.Boot.plist
open it with its default application.
open ~/com.apple.Boot.plist
I have plist editor pro installed so this opens it up in that, otherwise I believe it'll just open it up in a text editor which is fine. if it doesn't, open it up with a text editor (open -t ~/com.apple.Boot.plist)
Go down to last </string> value and hit enter. On mine this string pertains to kernel boot options. Hit enter (for a new line, trying to keep it neat, follow the formatting that has been used on the previous strings). type in
<key>device-properties</key>
<string></string>
switch back to the .hst file in the text editor, select all, and paste this long set of characters inbetween <string></string>. The whole string is one line, inbetween <string> and </string>
then save, and close the text/plist editor.
copy the file back to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
sudo cp ~/com.apple.Boot.plist /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
restore permissions on the com.apple.Boot.plist:
sudo chmod 644 com.apple.Boot.plist
and maybe also ownership:
sudo chown root:admin com.apple.Boot.plist
and you should be done! -- reboot to test out.
your plist should look something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "
http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>
<key>device-properties</key>
<string>1FB[... alot of characters]87FA</string>
</dict>
</plist>
edit: fixed spelling mistake, added that graphics strings work on all mobos.
