Opencore no longer installing driver for AMD RX 580 card. How to fix?

[serr]

I must have upgraded Opencore versions and not caught it...
I have a previous Monterey 12.6.7 install with the driver installed via Opencore that I can clone. Throw the drive in and boot and there's the 580 with its driver installed hardware accelerating. I can't for the life of me do a new clean install with the tools in front of me today! Kext not installed. Card says 7MB on the about screen and no metal acceleration. (Obvious driver not installed. Same card fires right up booting from the working install. Says 8GB and metal hardware accelerates and everything.)

Can someone bail me out and point me to the last version of Opencore that can successfully detect the card and load the driver? Or perhaps walk me through manually resolving it?

It used to be easy out of the box and worked like a switch. Plug in the new card. Share screen on a remote machine (if needed) and run Opencore post install patch. Boom, there's the card! Back and forth with the old one like a switch. Today it's like it never worked!

Thanks!

 

[bogdanw]

WhateverGreen is the kext (driver) needed https://github.com/acidanthera/WhateverGreen/releases

OpenCore Install Guide - Kexts https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/ktext.html

 

[serr]

Thanks bogdanw!

I'll try to wade through all that... wow...
If anyone can share a "short version for dummies" though that would be great!

I just have a Mac Pro 5,1 and a new (used) RX 580. No Hackintosh or hack anything. Used to work but I stupidly upgraded Opencore without keeping good track of the old version that just worked. Anyone know the last known working version of Opencore for installing the driver for this card?

Or if there's a known max version of Monterey right now. I might have stupidly updated my installer for that too! Just a lot of really stupid moves that I should very much know better!

 

[bogdanw]

I don’t use OC/OCLP, but from what I know probably an easy way to manually fix this is to get OpenCore Configurator, mount the EFI partition, open /EFI/OC/config.plist with OpenCore Configurator and from the Kernel section select Download/Update Kexts and install WhateverGreen.
OpenCore Configurator https://mackie100projects.altervista.org/download-opencore-configurator/
A way to mount the EFI partition https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...showing-prohibited-sign.2380450/post-31965034

 

[hwojtek]

Additionally I would recommend the following strategy:

get OpenCore Configurator, mount the EFI partition

(in OpenCore Configurator: Tools, Mount EFI)
Next, copy the /EFI/OC/config.plist to desktop and only then open it from Desktop

with OpenCore Configurator and from the Kernel section select Download/Update Kexts and install WhateverGreen.

Rename the original /EFI/OC/config.plist to backup_config.plist and once done with the modifications, save and copy the modified config.plist from Desktop to the /EFI/OC folder.
I don't know if it happened to someone else (do recall it happening, though) but sometimes editing directly on the EFI partition didn't save the changes for me. And it is also wise to have a backup.
BTW - adding RadeonBoost.kext at the very same time may help with DRM content in Safari and Chrome.

 

[bogdanw]

Next, copy the /EFI/OC/config.plist to desktop and only then open it from Desktop

Will that install WhateverGreen.kext in /EFI/OC/Kexts/ or will it have to be copied there?

BTW - adding RadeonBoost.kext at the very same time may help with DRM content in Safari and Chrome.

Is there another/newer version of that kext?
The first post in the thread now says:

OUTDATED. PLEASE DON'T USE THIS KEXT ON ANYTHING LATER THAN CATALINA.
THIS KEXT IS NOT BEING MAINTAINED ANYMORE BECAUSE I SWITCHED TO APPLE SILICON MACS​

 

[hwojtek]

Will that install WhateverGreen.kext in /EFI/OC/Kexts/ or will it have to be copied there?

Good point, I never install from OpenCore Configurator but manually, however yes, it may involve some more copying.

Is there another/newer version of that kext?
The first post in the thread now says:

AFAIK it is still included in "Martin Lo's Package" and while it may be deprecated, without this kext my browsers refuse to play DRM content and happily play when it is enabled. Vanilla Open Core 0.9.4, Monterey 12.6.8.

 

[serr]

Thanks again for the replies!

This is not working unfortunately.
I'm not completely sure I've done it correctly. I've never used the Opencore configurator app before. Just the Opencore patcher. Swapping in this graphics card the first couple times was as easy running the post install root patch and rebooting. The patcher would see the card and select the driver to install.

Today, Opencore patcher says all patches are up to date and does not install the driver for this card.

I tried the configurator. I edited a copy on the desktop as advised. I discovered by trial and error the first time that you need to open that plist file with configurator to be working with it. Did that. The download seems to be pointed to the kext folder in the EFI partition? Hmmm, OK? I saved the plist file on exiting configurator. Copied back to the EFI location and overwrote the original.

Run the patcher and it still says it's up to date. Run it anyway and it doesn't install the driver for the card.

Just to recap, the install I patched with I don't freakin know what version of Opencore patcher a while ago still boots with the driver installed and the card fires right up. I can plug that SSD into the machine and boot it right up. Can't get this current version of Opencore to install the driver to save my life.
Points being:
100% verified working RX 580
100% verified working RX 580 in this very Mac Pro 5,1
100% verified that a driver exists and used to be installed by Opencore. The SSD in question boots and displays.

It's looks for all the world that the issue is the driver not getting installed. The system report notes no kext loaded. The RX 580 shows up on the about this mac window but the ram is noted as 7mb instead of 8gb. You see the 8GB when booted into the system that works and metal capable and all that info is displayed in the system report.

Is there some manual way to put a driver file in some spot? Maybe a terminal command or 2 to enable something or whatever and have this work? Or really complete instructions for the configurator app understanding I've never done any of this manually before?

Thanks again!

 

[hwojtek]

Is there some manual way to put a driver file in some spot? Maybe a terminal command or 2 to enable something or whatever and have this work?

Well, this is what the patcher actually should do - it involves unsealing the read-only system volume, remounting it as read/write, patching (or adding) the system files, rebuilding the kext cache...
I am not quite sure mixing OCLP and manual (vanilla OC) approach is well supported by OCLP patcher. I would backpedal from the ideas of "correcting" OCLP manually and stick to one way or the other.
One last thing that comes to mind is to downgrade the OCLP - you will be well catered with some earlier version, two or three major releases prior to current. What would I do is:
- start with a thorough clean of the NVRAM - cmd-option-P-R and at least three chimes, maybe 5. (BTW I was recently reviving my daughters' Mac Mini, it took over 20 times NVRAM cleaning and SMC reset to make it boot)
- put the 580 into slot 1 and 5770 into any other slot, attach power source to the GPUs and the display to 5770, power up with both cards in the system,
- double-check your Mac actually recognizes both of them in System Profiler (by "recognizes" I mean it can read the DeviceIDs in the PCI section and they are not b/s)
- mount the EFI and remove the whole OC folder from EFI. Copy it over somewhere for backup, but generally it's a start from scratch
- unmount EFI
- proceed with OCLP as usual and let it generate a new OC folder
- shut down, remove the 5770, cross fingers
- power up the computer and hope for the best
- install post-boot patches

The last three bullets may include reinstalling the 5770 to root patch if it fails to boot.
Out of more ideas for now, sadly.

 

[mrkapqa]

you can find opencore installation here with the latest whatever.kext ,
with version 0.9.5 the efi detection got more easy, and it helped me also with an unflashed rx vega 56

i would run it from a second mac os installation like highsierra or mojave in case something goes wrong during installation of OC.

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

I created a new "easy to install package" as per many requested (based on the official OpenCore). [The attached package updated to 1.0.0] For those who only need HWAccel, post #594 has everything you need. This new package mainly offer HWAccel + boot screen. Also, this package should work in...

forums.macrumors.com

if your installation stalls during installation of MOnterey (complaining of FW update or similar) you might need to temporarily adapt your Opencore config.plist , as shown in this video.