Creating EFI String for Asus 8400GS Silent

There are a number of ways of getting your graphics card working within OS X (in order of difficulty) : -

  • Adding “GraphicsEnabler=Yes” to Chameleon /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist
  • Adding EFI string to Chameleon /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist
  • Using an injector such as NVInject or NVEnabler
  • Patching your DSDT file

The first one didn’t work for my Asus Silent EN8400GS, so here’s how I generated and added an EFI string.

First, install “gfxutil”

Next, get the location of your graphics card by entering the following: -
gfxutil -f display

You should get something back like this: -

DevicePath = PciRoot(0×1)/Pci(0×1,0×0)/Pci(0×0,0×0)

Next, create a file called “graphics.plist” which is the following (but put your settings in): -

<?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>PciRoot(0×1)/Pci(0×1,0×0)/Pci(0×0,0×0)</key>

<dict>

<key>@0,compatible</key>

<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>

<key>@0,device_type</key>

<string>display</string>

<key>@0,name</key>

<string>NVDA,Display-A</string>

<key>@1,compatible</key>

<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>

<key>@1,device_type</key>

<string>display</string>

<key>@1,name</key>

<string>NVDA,Display-B</string>

<key>NVCAP</key>

<data>BAAAAAAAAwAEAAAAAAAABwAAAAA=</data>

<key>NVPM</key>

<data>AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==</data>

<key>VRAM,totalsize</key>

<string>0×20000000</string>

<key>device_type</key>

<string>NVDA,Parent</string>

<key>model</key>

<string>nVidia Geforce 8400GS</string>

<key>name</key>

<string>display</string>

<key>rom-revision</key>

<string>nVidia Geforce 8400GS OpenGL Engine</string>

</dict>

</dict>

</plist>

Next you need to generate a hex string to be inserted – run the following command: -

gfxutil -i xml -o hex graphics.plist graphics.hex

This will create a “graphics.hex” file in the current directory.

Lastly, copy and paste this string into your /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist file in the following format: -

<key>device-properties</key>
<string>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</string>

Reboot and voila! You should have Quartz Extreme (QI) and Core Image (CI) enabled – open up Front Row, if it works then you’re done!

13 Responses to “Creating EFI String for Asus 8400GS Silent”

  1. geekanddestroy  on March 22nd, 2010

    Hey Finster,

    I finally took the plunge and built myself a Hackintosh based on your guide. So, firstly I just wanted to say thanks for the posts – I found the really useful.

    However, I haven’t managed to get the audio to work as yet. I’ve tried a few things on the infinitemacthread, but none of them seem to work. Do you have any words of wisdom?

    G&D

  2. finster  on March 22nd, 2010

    Hey G&D,

    Glad you found it useful. My audio works fine.

    Have you copied “LegacyALC883.kext” to /Extra/Extensions?

    You also need to go to system prefs -> sound and choose internal speakers/built-in speakers in both sound effects & output.

    Think that’s right – I’m copying from my notes rather than looking at the machine.

  3. geekanddestroy  on March 24th, 2010

    Hey Finster,

    Hope you’re good. I finally got the sound working last night, however the graphics card isn’t working properly!

    I used one of the DSDT file on the InfiniteMac guide because I had trouble compiling my own. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind posting your DSDT fixed file one your site somewhere?

    G&D

  4. finster  on March 24th, 2010

    G&D,

    I’ve not gotten around to creating a DSDT file for mine yet, I’m just using the EFI string in /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist posted above.

    Have you got the same card?

  5. geekanddestroy  on March 29th, 2010

    Hiya,

    All up and running now. :-) Did a complete reinstall from scratch and upgraded to 10.6.2 relatively painlessly. I built my entire system based on your guide, so thanks for that. And the Geekbench score I got for it is almost twice that of my similarly speced MacBook.

    G&D

  6. tanmaniac  on April 19th, 2010

    Okay, I’m a complete newbie at this and I desperately need help. I’ve gotten the device path:

    DevicePath = PciRoot(0×0)/Pci(0×3,0×0)/Pci(0×0,0×0)/Pci(0×8,0×0)/Pci(0×0,0×0)

    but now what do I do? When it says to replace all of the information in the graphics.plist file, what information do I need to put?

    These are my system specs:
    Core i7 920 @ 3.2 GHz
    6GB OCZ XMP DDR3 1600 MHz RAM, triple channel
    MSI X58 Pro mobo
    Sapphire Radeon HD 4850X2 2GB
    Running Windows 7 x64 and Mac OS X 10.6.3 now, but Quartz Extreme doesn’t work at all, so I’m installing to a new HDD.

  7. finster  on April 19th, 2010

    Sorry tanmaniac, if you’re not using the same graphics card that I am, you won’t be able to use the graphics.plist file that I listed above.

  8. tanmaniac  on April 19th, 2010

    Yeah, I know. But it is possible to create a graphics.plist file for ATI, right? If so, how would you go about writing one?
    Thanks.

  9. LSP  on February 15th, 2011

    Thks I now appear to have acceleration and I can open Photo Booth but I have only 1024×768 in System Preferences so I am unable to change resolution
    Mac OSX 10.6.6
    Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L
    Asus 8400GS Silent
    Intel Core Duo 3.0 GHz
    Barracuda 500GB
    Corsair 2 Gig DDR2 800

    Any ideas on how get full resolution?
    Also cannot get sound working on this board using Realtek 888b

  10. finster  on February 15th, 2011

    Is this using VGA or DVI? I had problems with the VGA connector, so bought a DVI-VGA adapter and used the DVI port instead. Hope that helps.

  11. burtonium  on March 25th, 2011

    I did all this, created my EFI string and enabling it in com.apple……plist in /Extra. I have asus en8400gs 1gb. I had to change the ram part. I’ve putted 4 instead of 2 after 0x. In hw properties, now i see 1024mb of video ram, before it was only 32mb. Also i see my castom name for graphics card, but unfortunately when i run Front Row i still got blank screen.
    read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor returns The domain/default pair of (com.apple.windowserver, GLCompositor) does not exist. Does anyone have any clue how to force my GPU to do qe/ci/opengl???

  12. burtonium  on March 26th, 2011

    @LSP add this line to you com.apple.Boot.plist in /Extra

    Graphics Mode
    1280x1024x32@75

    This is for 1280×1024 but you can add your own resolution. I don’t know if you can add more than one resolution ;)
    I hope it helps.

  13. Sal  on November 20th, 2011

    Didn’t work, here’s what I got: invalid property list xml inputfile ‘graphics.plist’!


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