Kernel Extensions
Ok, so the sore spot for OSX on generic X86 machines is the lack of quality device drivers / kernel extensions.
I've decided the best way to remedy this is to start writing some.
Is anyone willing to pay to have drivers written for their hardware? Let me know what you think.
Intel GMA 3100 Motherboard, such as DG33BUC (2008-08-18 12:55)
Purpose: Get GMA video working
Notes: OK, I scraped together enough $$$ to pick up a DG33BUC board and make a minimal test system. First problem is video.
You need to go into the BIOS and set the video to "Fixed" instead of "DVMT" for the system to even boot. This will get you booting.
To take it a step further, you can use this patch for AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer (1.5.28.21) to enable the native framebuffer support.
This is useful so that you can utilize the built-in screen sharing and set the resolution etc. There is a still a problem with the local mouse pointer, though.
Thinkpad EIST (Intel SpeedStep) (2008-08-08 10:28)
Purpose: Better battery life, less heat!
Notes: I haven't had a chance to work on the EIST kext recently, so I gave my code to mercurysquad to incorporate into his work.
He doesn't quite have under-volting working just yet, but it's getting there. It does work for dual core processors.
Right now it will only use ACPI table data, but most dual-core Thinkpads (including the T61) will work OK.
Check it out here. More good stuff to come.
Further development and the Intel 82566 driver (2008-07-23 14:51)
Notes: OK, here's the deal. I need to use my Thinkpad for work, which means there's almost no time to play around with
getting drivers to work and such (which can have a tendency to crash the entire machine).
The Intel 82566 is not done yet. It has one (or more?) bugs that panic the machine with any significant traffic.
I was hoping to eventually collect enough donations to purchase a "development" T61, but fell substantially short
(about $195 total, to date - thanks to everybody who has donated!!)
Plan B is to buy an Intel DG33FB (+proc +memory) which has the same chip, but I'm not quite there yet.
In the meantime, I'm trying to get a fix for the audio-stopped-loading issue that I thought had been solved.
Also, the backlight fix works, but only with 10.5.2 - the framebuffer has been changed under 10.5.3+
WorkingAD1984 Thinkpad Audio (2008-06-27 00:16)
Purpose: Working audio driver for Thinkpad AD1984
Notes: I've completed testing on the Azalia modifications for the Thinkpad implementation of AD1984 audio.
Only output from the built-in speakers is currently known to work. Input does not work at all.
I would not expect this to work for non-thinkpad systems, but Taruga's original Azalia modification might.
The driver has only been tested on a couple of systems, so if you bricks your computer it's not my fault.
Get it here
If you don't know what to do with this file, you should probably wait until it's developed more.
Thanks to Taruga for answering all my pesky questions :)
Intel Gigabit Ethernet (2008-06-11 21:59)
Notes: So I've written a kext for the Intel E1000, specifically the Intel 82566 for ICH9.
I get about 85MB/s on reads and 55MB/s on writes. There is some room for performance improvement, but at least it works!
Backlight (2008-06-11 21:35)
Purpose: Enable backlight controls for X3100 and possibly other video cards
Notes: I wrote a little driver nub to enable backlight controls for my X3100 thinkpad. I didn't realize it was a wide-spread issue
until somebody mentioned today that theirs doesn't work.
Modified 2008-08-27 09:25:45
Contact turbo here