Could someone with dithering problems who is using a Mac do these steps for me? Go to Terminal/iTerm, run `kextstat` and save the output to a file? Also please list what model of Mac you have, OS X version, and what GPU and if it has switchable graphics. This is useful: http://www.everymac.com/mac-identification/how-to-find-apple-model-family-numbers-for-mac-identification.html An example (in my case): 2015 15" Macbook Pro, Switchable Intel Iris Pro and AMD R9 370X graphics. You can use code tags to paste it without it obscuring the rest of the post \`\`\` like this \`\`\` ``` like this ``` Or if it's too big email me, jtl at teamclassified dot ca I tested this morning and might have a way to modify the code of the kexts, which might allow to me to disable the dithering. Let's face it. Amulet Hotkey and the others are useless. Seems like I'm the best shot for the time being. Thanks

@"JTL"#p3010 Oops. And I accidently caused my laptop to stop booting because I accidently corrupted one of the .kexts while editing it. Goes to show you should always make backups.

Note: Modifying the existing kexts and just injecting code to turn off dithering would be safer and survive OS upgrades. Being able to edit the kext code is a good first step though. The only information about Amulet Hotkey's kext is this screenshot https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gf7GValbbu4/UIqMb-KqKKI/AAAAAAAAAas/3e5uUtw3ItU/s1600/photo%2B%252810%2529.JPG Notice after ahkinject the ``. That corresponds with the other "required" kexts I think, kext number 3 is IOKit which is a method for drivers to interface with haradware. Don't know much about it.

I'd love it if you got somewhere with this. I'll pull a couple different Macbooks' data for you later today.

@"Gurm"#p3013 Thanks. The hard part after this is figuring out what functions actually control the dithering. Like I mentioned above I accidently NOP'd (no operation) the wrong function causing my laptop to stop booting. I just copied the kext back into place and it was fixed though. Still annoying.

Very excited by this prospect JTL - it could make a big difference to a lot of people's lives if you could work it out. I no longer use Macbooks I'm afraid, had to chop them out my life!

@"si_edgey"#p3015 Unfortunate. Not making any promises but now that my vision is stabilizing and I have more time, why not do it?

I think the best goal would be for me to develop a new NVinject of sorts that does IORegistry injection, but works with newer OS X versions and 64-bit, etc. If you disable SIP it let's the kext be fully used without signing (which costs $100 a year) so this is good for testing. If we have a full version that works and we know it I can just pony up the $100 to make an easy-to-use signed version. Also I was looking through the AMD kexts and saw something interesting. ``` jtl-macbookpro:Apple kexts jtl$ strings AMDSupport |grep AAPL AAPL,slot-name AAPL%02X, AAPL,gray-value AAPL00,T1 AAPL00,T2 AAPL00,T3 AAPL00,T4 AAPL00,T5 AAPL00,T6 AAPL00,T7 AAPL00,LinkFormat AAPL00,PixelFormat AAPL00,Dither [sic] ``` Now if we check the NVinject's Info.plist ``` entriesToAdd AAPL01,Dither AAAAAQ== ``` So there is a difference.

@"vinkenvvt"#13 I remember you did something with Clover EFI and it didn't work, which one was that?

This is interesting https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/DeviceDrivers/Conceptual/AccessingHardware/AH_Finding_Devices/AH_Finding_Devices.html I made a simple kext that logs to the console app. It works. ` 151 0 0xffffff7f83e63000 0x2000 0x2000 ca.teamclassified.testkext (1) 194C7603-9A67-39C4-A95B-C1D7780658B8 ` `2017-09-13 17:23:36.000 kernel[0]: TestKext has loaded`

Good work JTL, sounds like progress of some kind. Any joy with the AAPL00 / AAPL01 thing?

OSX dithering - Help wanted

si_edgey

That's interesting that you're noticing some difference at the boot-up screen, comforting to know that it is doing something. After I spoke to the original developer he confirmed that it does do exactly what we want it to, but it checks for hardware belonging to the company that it was developed for - perhaps it does this after you log in. I'm guessing your MacOS desktop doesn't look any different?

We just need to find a way to bypass this check!

erwin

si_edgey

I managed to unload the ahkinject.kext files, and nothing has changed. It turned out that both the glitch halfway through the loading process and that washed-off effect in the initial page where I select the account, well they were not related to the Amulet Hotkey kext but they are instead just some Apple bugs introduced in this latest release. Not surprising, since the quality of software updates by Apple has been appaling for some time now.

yesanton

si_edgey is there any progress on this?

Zazu

erwin Hey Erwin, how do we fix this? Do I need to get someone to change the code? If so, what kind of coder?

ryans

si_edgey

Hi @"si_edgey" -- are you able to share any more details on this? Note that the kext only works with AMD/ATI GPUs, I don't think it will work on Intel GPUs.

si_edgey

ryans

I'm afraid I have long since abandoned Macbook laptops - they just won't work for me, and I also believe that Apple is intending to deprecate the KEXT system in favour of System Extensions, which would mean a rewrite of the code.

The main issue is that the KEXT checks for the Amulet hardware being attached by USB - so you could reverse engineer the code to bypass this check but I'm not entirely sure who to approach to do that. The key info the developer gave me was:

Crucially, they were only able to develop the kext because of a tight relationship between the company he was working for and ATI/AMD, who guided them on how to tweak the right parameters to disable the dithering. They didn't speak to Apple at all, this was done entirely with ATI/AMD as temporal dithering exists at the GPU driver level in MacOS - it's an abstraction the kernel has no interest in handling directly, it just tells the GPU/driver what colour it was where in the framebuffer
There is a hardware check as a 'dongle' for the kext. This could be bypassed by patching the kext to USB vendor ID that the kext looks for to verify hardware. I think this is where we should focus our attention as once bypassed it will at the very least allow us to rule out temporal dithering as the root cause of our issue in MacOS.

Hope that helps somehow!

MAS-76

@JTL we're you ever able to program a solution? I'd love to message you for more info. I've tried to inject the AHK kext, but it was no help - I assume because of the hardware/software check. Desperate to find a solution on disabling dithering on a 2019 MBP

NewDwarf

MAS-76 Does the MacBook Pro 16'' 2019 have dithering with both (integrated and discrete graphics cards)? Or you use 13'' laptop which has integrated graphics card only?

MAS-76

NewDwarf yes both the Intel and AMD have dithering. But from what I’ve read you should be able to disable on both.

NewDwarf

MAS-76 Thanks. I found the way to disable dithering on any integrated Intel GPU regardless of the macOS version. I will definitely share it soon but currently I keep it private.

I am looking for the driver list used by the AMD Radeon GPU. Maybe you can share this list?

MAS-76

NewDwarf I'd definitely be interested. I went down the road with a programmer. He was able to disable dithering on the Intel graphics but not the AMD. Almost bricked the whole machine.

Were you able to make both work?

ryans

NewDwarf I will definitely share it soon but currently I keep it private.

Will greatly appreciate anything you could share when you are comfortable doing so.

Note that ditherig is open-source but unfortunately only runs on Windows. It seems Apple new devices is using Apple ARM silicon but working Intel is still very useful.

Glad you got positive results, that's great!

NewDwarf By reversing the Intel driver.

That's awesome -- with IDA or something similar?

NewDwarf

MAS-76 I was able to disable dithering only for the Intel graphics card.

I don't have 16'' MacBook thus I didn't work on disabling dithering on the AMD based cards.

axel

MAS-76 'bricked' the machine? if you just mean rendering the operating-system inoperable having a backup of the kext directory thats restored in single-user mode and clearing the kext-cache should get you going again.

sadly the steps for this can vary on the operating-system version. the internet is your friend.

devilgrove

MAS-76 do you have any information regarding the modifications that he made to disable the Intel dithering?

anon123

NewDwarf how did you do that?

NewDwarf

anon123 By reversing the Intel driver.

ryans

NewDwarf How? With ditherig?

NewDwarf

ryans Not exactly. But it would be interesting to hear your idea.

NewDwarf

axel No. You can't imagine how easy is the solution 🙂

It is not display settings and direct kext level manipulations.

Sorry, but I cannot reveal this information right now for some reasons.

Probably, I will do it in three months.

martin

NewDwarf Could you please advise me - I have 2018 15in macbook pro with Intel and AMD. Will this solution work, and even better, would it only work when I have Intel graphics on, but when AMD is switched to, it would look normal?

I nees this computer for work and am worried to turn the dithering off and see that its slow and unusable for intensive work then. Could you please also give me a guide on both switching it on and off via the terminal?

Thank you!

anon123

NewDwarf

Why keep it a secret?

Can you at least tell us whether it gave you positive results?

NewDwarf

anon123 Yes, it definitely has positive results.

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