Finally got backlight, all resolutions and external monitor output/detection working on my QXGA T60p (v5200) with 10.6.7

Updated May 12 2011: Dual link DVI output is fully functional too, see bellow.

Backlight

By default ATI1600Controller uses 0x5208 as backlight-PWM-freq, which after some convoluted processing in the driver becomes a 0 in LVTMA_BL_MOD_REF_DIV, apparently that doesn't work well for T60p, which usually has values like 0x80 in that field. The result is uneven left-to-right backlight on all but the brightest levels.

Setting backlight-PWM-freq to 0x100 brings the LVTMA_BL_MOD_REF_DIV to 0xF0, which seems to work nicely on my laptop. Please be careful experimenting with it, I don't know if setting this too high or too low might damage your inverter. The following works for my T60p just fine (note that it's little-endian in the plist - 0x00010000) :



See http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/RRG-216M56-03oOEM.pdf for the ATI X1600 registers description.

Resolutions

My QXGA panel is programmed with the following EDID (found here on forums):


It doesn't have maximum HorizSync, VertRefresh and Dot Clock specified. So ATI driver can't figure out proper timing for all derived resolutions.

Replacing this EDID with a fixed stock one, which has all the information, completely solves the problem.





So, to make all derived resolutions work, put the missing information into your EDID and add it as shown bellow to your ATI parameters.



External monitor detection (VGA only for now)

This one requires ATIFramebuffer.kext patching.

Here is a quote from bcc9

See his post for more info:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... ed&start=0

Apparently ATI,Wormy personality in ATIFramebufer has the following ConnectorInfo


Which makes the ATI drivers think that VGA port is connected to DAC B, when in fact it is connected to DAC A. So when the monitor is attached/detached OSX turns on and off the wrong DAC. If monitor was there at the power-on the correct DAC is initialized by the BIOS and is never touched by the ATI driver after that.

Changing 0x10 to 0x00 solves the problem. Now the external monitor detection and output works even if the monitor wasn't there at power-on.



The DVI output will probably require a little bit more hacking, perhaps someone else could have a look at it, as I just don't have means to test it at this point.

Update May 12, 2011:

Got the DVI output working. Sometimes there is no output signal on DVI connector after reboot, though a monitor is properly detected. Reconnecting the monitor or turning Mirroring on and off usually fixes the issue.

The ATY,Wormy personality has only 2 ConnectorInfo's. The DVI output is on 3rd. So we need to pick another personality if we want DVI.
I used ATY,Flicker. To do it I set @0,name, @1,name and @2,name to ATY,Flicker and removed all x@,compatible settings. In the ATIFramebufer
I copied two Wormy ConnectorInfo's over Flipper's ones, and created a third one for DVI:


Also I replaced references to Wormy with references to Flicker in the ATIFramebuferr's Info.plist. Though this step is optional.

You can download the patched ATIFramebuffer.kext with my com.apple.Boot.plist and ATI.plist from
https://rapidshare.com/files/856477928/ ... 10.6.7.zip

Note that you need to remove my EDID from ati plist and change the Graphics mode in the boot plist if you don't have a QXGA panel.


Enjoy,
Bgm.

Hi Bgm,

how can I find out the right PWM adress for my Lenovo X61 - Tablet with X3100? Maybe with Reggie SE?

Yours, Alex

Alex,

That backlight-PWM-freq parameter is only applicable to ATI1600Contorller. I don't think any other kext uses it.
As for the X3100, you should be able to control the backlight on it using pci-utils, see

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=101966

Thanks,
Bgm.

NICE WORK!!!

I'm hoping if you can share the process that you get eq/ci with ATIFramebuffer instead of ATINDRV.

Great job! Haven't yet tested it, but I was looking for this for months back in the days when I was messing with my T60p. Will try soon and report back.

Brightness trick works like a charm! Thanks for that.

With resolutions it's a bit unclear. I've snatched by EDID from Windows a while ago, and I used as per your example, but some resolutions are still produce blank screen. How do you get a stock EDID for a particular screen? I have SXGA+ (1400x1050).

Didn't apply ATIFramebuffer.kext patch, I'm keeping /S/L/E untouched, but I suppose this will work just fine.

For me it's only a com.apple.Boot.plist with a proper 'device-properties' string.

You can try the following com.apple.Boot.plist if you have 1400x1050 screen: http://www.mediafire.com/file/f8wb5x9xp ... .plist.zip Just make sure you disable ATINDRV and ATIRadeonX1000 patches/loading.

bgm, Thank you for backlight fix. It works

but i put it in dsdt:

Hi Bgm,

I'm really impressed by your results!
It's inspired me to try ATI1600Controller on my laptop Asus F3Se (video ATI1700 - 71DE) and Lion 10.7.3.

And an experiment is successful!

But I came across with only 2 problems (I haven't tried external outputs yet):
1. I had to use @0,override-no-connect, without it i get black screen.
2. Laptop is always restarts after wake because of kernel panic (there's no problem with ATINDRV).


Probably you could advise something, the way of injecting video for example...
Thank you in advance,

and best regards,
Sergey!

The file is not available anymore. Please, give me another chance to download it. Thanks.

Hi! Probably only you can help us with DVI and VGA outputs.

There's no chance to get help from bgm:
bgm: Last visited: Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:42 am

Have you managed to get that outputs working?

Unfortunately I never actually needed external outputs, so I never spent any time making them work. It's possible that I'll look into it when I try to install Mountain Lion.

It would be very good!

Thank you in advance!

Tried in 10.7.2@T60p.

Backlight tweak worked (needed this for YEARS)

Dual display tweak worked too with some fix on ATI1600Controller versus ATIFrameBuffer.
Althou I need to "Detect Display" every time when I plug/unplug the cable, I am very satisfied.

Thank you!!!

Do you mean working VGA and DVI outputs?
Could you give us some details about fixes on ATI1600Controller/ATIFrameBuffer?

Thank you!

My T60p only has one VGA output.

1. Search "02 00 00 00 40" in ATI1600Controller.
2. Find all 4 entries.
3. Change the "10 02 01" to "00 02 01"
4. Restart and enjoy

Thank you!
I have VGA and DVI outputs, and I don't understand how to get them both working using Wormy...