I wish other people could help but none of this stuff is trivial. I don't mean to sound rude butt talk to me when you have two OS X machines (one as debugging host and the other as "target" where you try and disable dithering on it), a firm grasp of C/C++, X64 Assembly and IDA Pro. Then we can work on this
OSX dithering - Help wanted
JTL two OSX machines (check), firm grasp of C/C++ (kinda check), and then you lost me. Guess I can teach myself assembly and the disassembler but would think that it would not get the highest priority in my life currently. Great that we have someone like you who is into stuff like this... wished it was just setting parameters in the IO registry to turn dithering off
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Just as an FYI, I recently tried upgrading my ALL GOOD MacBook Pro (early 2013) running Mojave, to Catalina.
And... eye strain. It was that nasty low level type that really sneaks up on you.
Anyway, I downgraded - thank heavens I made several backups before the upgrade, and everything is back to normal. Phew.
Still, that means there's simply no new Apple gear or software that I know to be safe... and I'm now stuck on old versions of MacOS.
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I don't think it's so easy. I mean for me the macbook air 2017 with Mojave was bad as the new macbook pro 16 with Catalina.
So I think it's a combination of display, OS and GPU drivers. Really hard to understand!
At least I understood that is not just a display problem like I thought. For exempla, my desktop PC is unusable for me with the latest version of W10 1909 !
Is there any progress in developing software or contacting amulet hotkey partners?
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As far as I know, there is no progress in developing the software. Even telling which lines of code are responsible for dithering is problematic (I might be mistaken about the progress, but there is no solution yet).
Others contacted Amulet, but did not receive the kext. I do not know the details.
I have managed to obtain the Amulet Hotkey kext injector for disabling temporal dithering on Macs. The version I have is for ATI/AMD GPUs on OX 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14.
I don't have a Macbook to hand at the moment, could someone please test this out?
Kext file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HCektw3GjTpQDMY811tikxo0dkWM1Haw
Installation instructions: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pvsFnkR9gV4jT_XJEc4ilNF35nPmq94r
Waiting with baited breath - I've been hunting for this for 8 years..
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diop Where did you find this?
diop I believe I read that it checks for Amulet hardware first before loading the kext.
It doesn't mention anything like that in the documentation so I'm ever hopeful. I might actually buy a Macbook Pro tonight to test it out as Amazon are currently offering returns until the end of June on any product.
This is a great finding! I'm on Catalina, so I do not know if I can install it.
si_edgey It doesn't mention anything like that in the documentation so I'm ever hopeful. I might actually buy a Macbook Pro tonight to test it out as Amazon are currently offering returns until the end of June on any product.
It's the Windows Nvidia tool (nvdithctrl) that supposedly performs a check.
The program will search for attached Amulet Hotkey/PCoIP hardware and will terminate if none is
installed. The program will also terminate if it cannot find an installed NVIDIA driver.
annv This is a great finding! I'm on Catalina, so I do not know if I can install it.
It's hard to know whether it is for 10.12 and later or if it's just for those specific operating systems. My inclination would be to give it a bash but I'm quite gung-ho like that.
diop It's the Windows Nvidia tool (nvdithctrl) that supposedly performs a check.
Yes I had noticed that. The OSX the best bet for now.
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si_edgey I'll try to figure out how to do it when I have a bit more time (this weekend). For now, I have an error on step 3:
cp: –r: No such file or directory
cp: /Volumes/AHKinject_SCN371/ahkinject.kext is a directory (not copied).
It looks like Catalina has its own way of doing things.
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I've managed to install it on Catalina with Hackintool: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/release-hackintool-v3-x-x.254559/
It loads the system volume as read/write as needed, allowing to inject the kext.
I believe the kext is loaded. At least Kextviewr shows it:
The same is true for kextstat in terminal.
I cannot tell the difference now, but right after kext install I had some pain in the right eye (not my main eye) and some pressure in the forehead. I hope I'll know if it helps by the end of the week — I have a lot of work with the text at hand.
annv I believe the kext is loaded.
Wow - great work @annv!
annv I cannot tell the difference now, but right after kext install I had some pain in the right eye (not my main eye) and some pressure in the forehead. I hope I'll know if it helps by the end of the week — I have a lot of work with the text at hand.
As always it'll take a while to settle down so you can properly evaluate, fingers crossed you get a positive result from using it. My finger is hovering over the buy button on the 16-inch Macbook Pro now that we know it can be injected in Catalina..
annv I hope more people try it and tell what they feel.
Could you please give a quick step by step of how you used Hackintool in this instance in case others want to try installing with Catalina, and at what point you referred to the official instructions for installation? Thanks, and good luck!
I mounted the disk image (step 1 on page 6)
And then I followed the instructions listed on the page: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-installing-3rd-party-kexts-el-capitan-sierra-high-sierra-mojave-catalina.268964/
Starting from the words:
"The Hackintool Method"
and till the words:
"Thats it .. job done ... don't worry that the output is red .. thats completely normal, you should now reboot your system to load the newly installed kexts."
However, instead of that red output I had a message I listed above about system policy. But, as stated in AHK manual, I unblocked the kext in Security and Privacy.
As far as I remember, the kext was listed among loaded kexts even without restarting the computer.
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annv At first, I had this message in Hackertool:
But probably that's because the kext was initially blocked by security in the Security and Privacy section of the Preferences.
I think this may be to do with SIP on modern versions of MacOS. Also I think the kext needs to be signed for Catalina..
For some time now, Apple has required those developing kernel extensions to obtain special security certificates for their KEXTs. In April this year, for Mojave and Catalina, kernel extensions have also had to be notarized, which ensures that Apple has checked each of them for malware as well.
Main security checks therefore have to be performed when you first install a kernel extension. If it was signed from April 2019 onwards but hasn’t been notarized, Mojave and Catalina will refuse to accept it, and although in some circumstances you might be able to work around that (in Mojave at least), in most cases that is and should be a show-stopper. It means the kernel extension hasn’t been checked for malware by Apple, and you simply shouldn’t trust it: contact its developer and remind them of Apple’s security rules.
Even when it has been notarized and passes Catalina’s security checks, you still have to add it using the General tab of the Security & Privacy pane – what Apple terms User-Approved Kernel Extension Loading. Although Catalina tends to bombard you with alerts and prompts when installing and first running some software, this is one of the more important, and needs particular care.
Catalina was to have introduced a further change to the installation of kernel extensions, which required the Mac to restart after the user had approved an extension, before it could be loaded. This was present in most betas, but was removed shortly before 10.15 was released, and it’s unclear whether this applies to the release version, will be re-instated in a future update to Catalina, or has been abandoned altogether. Hopefully Apple will clarify this soon.
Once a kernel extension has been built into the prelinked kernel, the latter needs System Integrity Protection (SIP), to ensure that nothing else can tamper with its contents. In Catalina, that not only means setting permissions and applying SIP, but storing it on the read-only System volume.
Good luck and let us know how it goes .