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0xbb / gpu-switch

gpu-switch is an application that allows to switch between the graphic cards of dual-GPU Macbook Pro models
MIT License
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Tested with Macbook Pro 15inch early 2011 #11

Open baongoc124 opened 8 years ago

baongoc124 commented 8 years ago

Because my discrete gpu is broken, I cannot use gfxcardstatus to change to integrated card. Luckily, my 15inch MacbookPro early 2011 model works with this tool. Although the id after "gpu-power-prefs-" is different. I just created this issue to report that so it may help other. Thank you for this great tool!

ah- commented 8 years ago

Great to hear that!

What id did you use? How does the switching work then? I think there were a couple of other people with dead gpus looking for a way to just use the igpu.

emersonf commented 8 years ago

I just hit the OP's issue today. @baongoc124 can you write up what you did please?

baongoc124 commented 8 years ago

@ah- @emersonf Sorry, I don't have the machine near me now so I can't fetch the correct id for you but here're the steps that I took:

These are the steps that I tried and worked on my machine on osx 10.10.

emersonf commented 8 years ago

Thanks @baongoc124. Unfortunately I don't have a SuperDrive in there, so I can't get past step 1. I tried booting using USB to no avail but might try the hard way next.

baongoc124 commented 8 years ago

I also don't have superdrive. I used dd method to create a ubuntu boot usb from iso. Then I booted it with "nosplash nomodeset xforcevesa" as params. It may not boot to graphics but it will start up to console so I can use the method described above to switch to igpu.

emersonf commented 8 years ago

@baongoc124 just to clarify, when you say you booted with those params, are you referring to setting the EFI "boot-args" parameters on the MBP or referring to something else?

I'm also guessing that this won't work for me. I can set my nvram gpu-power-prefs parameter to %01%00%00%00 and it still reboots to discrete. I've also tried various gpu-policy settings to no avail. I'm curious to know what efivar settings you're using though. I'm on a MacBookPro8,2 by the way.

baongoc124 commented 8 years ago

@emersonf Mine is also a Macbookpro8,2. I also set nvram gpu-power-prefs but it just didn't work. They're boot params for Ubuntu. You'll have to insert them into GRUB when boot from Ubuntu usb.

Kuchiru commented 8 years ago

Uhm, i have the reverse issue on this type macbook here, the integrated GPU causes constant kernel panics and is unusable. Booting ubuntu doesnt seem to work, nosplash nomodeset xforcevesa doesn't seem to do the trick either, i tried 'text' as well but to no avail.

Edit: managed to do it, added 'vga=711' and i booted it to the terminal using 'text' together with the other options. Running the script did not solve my issue (gpu-switch -d) it kernel paniced straight away when booted.. Any tips ?

running OSX 10.11

akhats commented 8 years ago

baongoc124: can you give more details how you managed to make it work on macbook 2011 15''. It will be very hellpful to newbie like me. By the way I also don't have Optical drive and I tried creating usb boot disk but it did not work on MBP 2011 15'' but that usb drive works in new MBP 13''. How you used "nosplash nomodeset xforcevesa" pramaters? Thanks

baongoc124 commented 8 years ago

@Kuchiru : sorry for late response but if your integrated gpu is broken then I don't think that this solution will work for you. @akhats : At first you need to make a bootable usb. Easiest way to me is using dd. You can use linux or mac to create it http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-mac-osx . Then when you boot the usb, you'll see a grub menu where you can put the parameters.

akhats commented 8 years ago

baongoc124: Thanks. Somehow Ubuntu did now work for me. But I tried Fedora 23 and it worked for me. In short what I tried is as follows: 1 Created Fedora Live USB using dd method as described for Ubuntu http://askubuntu.com/questions/86/how-do-i-create-an-ubuntu-live-usb-using-a-mac

  1. GUI boot fails so you need to change parameters in GRUB. (i) Boot Mac while holding alt/option key, (ii) select for troubleshooting and then press "e" to edit boot parameters in GRUB, (iii) Finally edit boot parameters: delete " quiet rhgb" and add "3 textinst". This will prevent GUI from starting up, (iv) When system boots login as root and edit parameters as baongoc124 described.

baongoc124: How to confirm that after changing parameters Mac is actually not using AMD GPU? Do I necessarily need to remove AMD, ATI kexts?

informer2016 commented 7 years ago

@0xbb @maltebargholz @l1k @dwhinham @fiedl @pierremoreau @baongoc124 @ah- @emersonf @Kuchiru @akhats Thank you very much for this repository and this discussion, friends! I used the results of your research to successfully fix my 2011 Macbook Pro 8,2 with failed discrete AMD GPU - by forcing it to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix), and wrote a great article describing the repair process in a great detail ! READ IT HERE: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/force-2011-macbook-pro-8-2-with-failed-amd-gpu-to-always-use-intel-integrated-gpu-efi-variable-fix.2037591/

ah- commented 7 years ago

Good to hear, and thanks a lot for the comprehensive write-up! I'm sure this will be very useful to lots of 2011 MBP owners.