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 if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } 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 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 <4 3> . 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 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 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] if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } Now if we check the NVinject's Info.plist <key>entriesToAdd</key> <dict> <key>AAPL01,Dither</key> <data> AAAAAQ== </data> </dict> if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } So there is a difference.

@vinkenvvt 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 <4> 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

devilgrove

NewDwarf oh wow, when I entered the command, it actually says my dithering is still enabled. Wonder what I did wrong

devilgrove

Since my solution seems to be a unique one (and could possibly be incorrect) I'll post it here.

In Terminal, write:

sudo nvram boot-args="dither=1"

Reboot.

Also, you can check if it's there by entering nvram boot-args afterwards. It should write out boot-args dither-1

Edit: this is actually incorrect, it should be sudo nvram boot-args="dither=0", thanks to NewDwarf for the fix.

NewDwarf

devilgrove Yay! You found it!

…But, you cannot enter this command in normal mode! You must enter the recovery mode first and then run that command.

To disable dithering you have to enter

nvram boot-args="dither=0"

Not sure why you put dither=1. 1 is incorrect parameter here.

CRoebuck

devilgrove I'd be super keen to hear if you still find an improvement given the correct argument being used. I have found a 2020 to try it on but would appreciate hearing about your experience. Having seen your other threads our issue appears very very similar.

karut

devilgrove

I tried this (with dither=0) on my Early 2015 13“ MacBook Pro with an Intel GPU and felt no difference in eye strain unfortunately.

log show --predicate "processID == 0" | grep Dither

Does not return anything

nvram -p | grep dither

returns boot-args dither=0

devilgrove

NewDwarf well, the reason I thought it was dither=1 is because I read that the default was 0, so my assumption was 0=true and 1=false. And the output did change for me, so maybe I got lucky.

Also, I actually inputted your command into Terminal during recovery, but when I input log show --predicate "processID == 0" | grep Dither, it still loops "Dither is enabled in pipe misc" every time. See picture below:

https://imgur.com/a/qbXM4da

If you have any advice on that I'd appreciate it as well, I'm a bit confused now since my eyestrain has undoubtedly relieved.

devilgrove

CRoebuck Let us know how it goes! I'll keep you posted if I find anything else.

NewDwarf

devilgrove What exactly laptop you use?

NewDwarf

devilgrove You must reboot your laptop in the normal mode. Check the logs in the normal mode!

devilgrove

NewDwarf it's a MacBookPro16,2

devilgrove

NewDwarf the logs were actually in normal mode!

https://imgur.com/a/9FSlUI0

NewDwarf

devilgrove Reboot to the normal mode. You have to add the nvram parameter only once. This parameter is passed to the kernel on booting.

NewDwarf

devilgrove Hmm. Interesting…

Could you share the output of below command, please?

nvram -p | grep dither

devilgrove

NewDwarf it outputted boot-args dither=0

NewDwarf

devilgrove One more advice. Wait when the command

log show --predicate "processID == 0" | grep Dither

is finished. More likely, you see the old logs. The last string have to report you about disabled dithering.

devilgrove

NewDwarf Wow, you're right! It does say disabled at the end. I didn't even realize that I was looking at log history, I thought the command was constantly checking for some reason. Thank you!

Looks like OSX dithering has finally been solved 🙂

NewDwarf

devilgrove Happy to hear that.

ryans

devilgrove Looks like OSX dithering has finally been solved

Wow, this is a dream. Nice job! Very nice solution, setting the NVRAM param 🙂. Have folks tried it and saw eye strain improvement!

Would be interesting to see if a similar solution exists for Apple silicon.

devilgrove

NewDwarf honestly I wouldn't have been able to find that solution without you assuring that there was a simple solution like that, so thank you. You're also clearly much more knowledgable than I am about OSX disassembly, so I appreciate the troubleshooting as well!

insta42014

NewDwarf Doesn't work on my MacBook Pro 13 2018 (Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655), banding stays the same before and after the command line, and banding is worse on safe mode

When entering the command log show --predicate "processID == 0" | grep Dither, it shows :

0 kernel: (AppleIntelCFLGraphicsFramebuffer) [IGFB][LOG ][DISPLAY ] [Modeset] Dither is disabled with bpc 1

CRoebuck

ryans

I've gained access to an M1 Air later this evening and have a 2020 Intel i5 MBP arriving Monday. Both were unusable previously so will be interesting to try this out.

Will report back

NewDwarf

insta42014 Could you please give more details about banding. I afraid I have no idea what you are talking about.

Using this command, eye strain completely gone for me.

devilgrove

insta42014 The banding might be the same, but is the eyestrain the same?

I mentioned this in another thread, but switching from Safe Mode to normal mode didn't change the banding for me, and the same goes for disabling dithering vs leaving it enabled. The only difference was the eyestrain.

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