Issue 165: AMD Radeon HD6630M support & muxless gpu switching in laptops - Chameleon open source boot loader project.

Reported by Shantanu Paul, Aug 30, 2011

Video Adapter:	AMD Radeon HD 6630M
GPU Code Name: NI Whistler
VendorID : 1002
DeviceID: 6741
SubsysID: 104d:9080 (Sony corp.)
Memory Size:	1024 MB

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc NI 
Whistler [AMD Radeon HD 6600M Series] [1002:6741] (prog-if 00 [VGA 
controller])
	Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device [104d:9080]


My laptop Sony VAIO VPCCB15FG has dual GPU. Intel HD3000 & AMD 
HD6630M. The Intel one is working perfectly with Lion but the AMD 
one just sits there eating up battery. As a result, I get 5hrs+ on 
Windows while less than 2hrs on OSX.

In my laptop the AMD card is connected to the the Intel which in in 
turn connected to the display. This is the new "Muxless" 
config which you'll see in all future laptops with switchable GPUs 
be it AMD or NVIDIA.

I don't know if Apple Macbooks too have such "muxless" 
configuration but from what I've heard, all laptops with IntelHD 
& AMD HD6xxx card are "muxless". I can't confirm 
though. Is such config supported in Chameleon ?

I either need to get the card working or disable it under OSX. I 
couldn't find a way to do the latter, so I expect that you'll might 
help with the card.

I'm using Chimera 1.4.1 based on Chameleon r877. It gives "ATI 
card POSTed, reading VBIOS from legacy space" when booted with 
GraphicsEnabler=Yes.

Both ATI6000Controller.kext & ATIRadeonX3000.kext gets loaded by 
default with GraphicsEnabler=no but the card name isn't detected. 
IOreg shows that no framebuffer is being loaded for the card.

The same card HD6630M is used in MacMini 2011 models while a higher 
clocked version (same chip) HD6750M is used in MacbookPro 2011. So 
theoretically it should work under OSX.

Comment 1 by Cosmosis Jones, Aug 30, 2011

Dont' use chimera. Test using the latest trunk and report back on 
that.

Status: AwaitingInformation

Comment 2 by Shantanu Paul, Aug 30, 2011

I installed the lates version which is r1478, I believe.
Did not make any difference except that now "Intel HD Graphics 
3000" shows "Unknown" in system profiler. QE/CI works 
fine as earlier.

The HD6630M still shows as "display". Framebuffers are not 
loaded. 

Also I see a "Unsupported Card!" message at boot. 

But I no longer need GraphicsEnabler=no to boot. Now it boots even 
with GraphicsEnabler=yes. 

http://i.imgur.com/xViyq.png

Comment 3 by Shantanu Paul, Sep 1, 2011

I think I've provided the necessary info. Any update please.

Comment 4 by Azimutz, Sep 5, 2011

There's nothing to fix here! At most, we can add a subsys entry for 
your card on the code; 6741 already has a default one, just no 
framebuffer set because i got no conclusive user feedback.
You need to use AtiConfig key to specify a FB suitable for your 
hardware; that's why you get "Unsupported Card!".

Read... start on Kabyl's topic, about latest ATI code changes, he 
was the dev:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=231768
About "muxless", i don't know.. not enough info atm.

Will add your card subsys soon, hopefully before my vacations end ;) 
if no one does.
As far as i'm concerned, the issue can be closed.

Comment 5 by Cosmosis Jones, Sep 5, 2011

{ 0x6741,	0x9080104D, CHIP_FAMILY_TURKS,		"AMD Radeon HD 
6630M",				kNull		},

Status: Fixed

Comment 6 by Jehnavi Pat, Mar 9, 2012

Simple solution, let's all go back to the dark ages,you know, 
hunter-gather days, when life was simpler then. Everyone knows, that 
when a society gets too technical & sophisticated, that that 
society, is just one step away from annihilation!
http://www.techiecop.com/laptops