[nando4]

Setup 1.x

US$25 >>DIYeGPU-Setup-110b5 << (4.35MB, 3-9-2012, history.txt) See the DIY eGPU Setup 1.x Help for menuitem and usage overview. This appears in Setup 1.x when hit F1. Pls do not request support on previous unsupported Setup 1.0x versions. They sit on a licensed MS-DOS platform and have critical bugs. Every effort has been made to remove those circulating versions.

Above: sample screenshots from DIY eGPU Setup 1.10b3. Hitting F1 over a menuitem now providing context-sensitive help

Above: video of how to configure a GTX560Ti eGPU for use on a Lenovo Y460 using Setup 1.10b5. Shown is how to disable the dGPU, perform PCI allocation of iGPU+eGPU, then chainload to Win7. This process can be automated as explained here to add ~1second to your bootup process time.

Setup 1.10 is available with quite a few nice new features over the previous 1.0x versions. These include using the faster FreeDOS 1.1 platform with no licensing issues, chainloading to UEFI/GPT partitions, larger disk image with 9.5MB free space, a html-text based help system, being able to run from Linux' grub2 bootloader, Series-6 2.5/5.0 GT/s switching support, link retraining, simpler grub4dos setup; additional Reassign buses, ALL port and root port anti-whitelisting method, significantly faster F5 and status refresh, consistent iGPU/dGPU/eGPU naming, mouse support, cache option to speedup startup.bat runtime, F4 the last command into your startup.bat, browse your NTFS/EXT2/EXT3 partitions, do screen capture using the ALT+DEL key, play a retrogame with ALT+G hotkey and numerous bug fixes. Looks quite a bit better too

Why would I need DIY eGPU Setup 1.x? >>>

Setup 1.x is a FreeDOS environment used to configure your DIY eGPU before chainloading to your OS. Required if you:

• encounter WinXP/7 error 12:cannot allocate resources requiring automated PCI Reallocation or IGP relocation. Note: Win7 users may want to try a simpler 36-bit root bridge DSDT override instead of using Setup 1.x.
  
• want to use x1E/x2E/x2/x4 higher performance pci-e links (x1E/x2E on Series-4 or older, x2/x4 on Series-5 or older chipsets)
  
• want to set pci-e 1.0 (2.5GT/s) or pci-e 2.0 (5GT/s) link speed (Series-6 or newer chipset).
  
• require mPCIe anti-whitelisting (HP/Lenovo) to allow a wifi slot to work with a PM3N
  
• want to disable a dGPU in a hybrid graphics system to free up resources to host the eGPU
  
• want to use a NVidia eGPU with Optimus instead of a NVidia dGPU (Series-6 chipsets)
  
• want to initialize a NVidia video card prior to Windows boot to prevent hang/BSOD on startup or error43 in device Manager. Eliminates the need for a standby, attach, resume to overcome this problem.

FAQ&Troubleshooting>>> (click)

How do I install this software? >>>

Spoiler :

To do a disk image installation that provides a DIY eGPU Setup 1.x option at your XP/Vista/Win7 bootloader, extract to c:\eGPU then run as an ADMIN user the following. Ensure User Access Control us turned off (control panel, search for "UAC", click "Change User Account Control settings", to "Never notify", reboot. Running c:\eGPU\setup-disk-image will result in this structure. Can setup the files manually as shown in that link if there is a problem with setup-disk-image.

:: defrag the disk image, a pre-requisite for being able to be used as a disk 
:: image, add  XP/Vista/Win7 bootloader to contain a DIY eGPU Setup 1.x 
:: menuitem.  The disk image will be read and *written* to exactly as if it was 
:: a floppy/USB drive. Advantage  being faster speed and more convenience 
:: than a USB bootdisk.  
c:\eGPU\setup-disk-image.bat

:: Mount disk image as V:
c:\eGPU\eGPU-Setup-mount.bat

:: Create devcon.txt file.  The ACPI PNP resource list (devcon.txt) provides 
:: additional allocation boundaries so your system doesn't freeze due to PCI 
:: allocation over prohibited ranges
v:\devcon\mkdevcon.bat

Create a USB stick. This must be done if you have GPT partitions (UEFI-boot) but is optional for BIOS-MBR boot instead of the disk image install.

1. Download and install RMPrepUSB [~6MB]

2. Ensure you've run c:\eGPU\eGPU-Setup-mount.bat so have a V:[DIYEGPUIMG] drive

3. Run RMPrepUSB, set options as shown in red here to copy the disk image onto a
bootable USB stick.

If want to remove the DIY eGPU Setup 1.x XP/Vista/Win7 bootloader menuitem then run c:\eGPU\uninstall-disk-image and delete the \eGPU folder.

[Optional] Place shortcut to C:\eGPU\eGPU-Setup-Mount.bat into your Windows Startup Folder to mount the DIY eGPU Setup disk image as v: drive on bootup. It is handy to have access to make changes using notepad to v:\config\startup.bat, v:\config\pci.bat, v:\config\devcon.txt and access v:\diag diagnostic output files.

How do I create a Linux grub2 bootitem for Setup 1.x? >>>

Boot Win7/Vista/XP, run DIYeGPU-Setup-1xxx.exe and extract to c:\eGPU then run setup-disk-image-linux. This will install DIY eGPU Setup 1.x on c:\eGPU (ntfs/fat32) and defrag the image. ntfs/fat32 is recommended as it needs be on a filesystem that supports contiguous files. Then add to/boot/grub/grub.cfg:

Spoiler :

menuentry 'DIY eGPU Setup 1.x'{
# Load grub.exe from (hd0,2), passing params in --config-file to use /menu.lst 
# config file on NTFS partition. grub2/grub4dos have different (hd0,1)..(hd0,n)
# and (hd0,0)..(hd0,n-1) partition labels explaining why the configfile entry
# has (hd0,1) instead of (hd0,2). grub.exe directly maps the image so can r-w
# it exactly like a disk. NOTE: the two double quotes after --config-file= are 
# reqd on grub2 1.99 or newer. Prior versions accept just a single double quote.

linux16 (hd0,2)/eGPU/grub.exe --config-file=""configfile (hd0,1)/eGPU/menu.lst"" 

# Can mount the DIYeGPU-Setup-1xx.img file for perusal in Linux with
#
#     mkdir /media/eGPU
#     losetup /dev/loop0 [full path to DIYeGPU-Setup-1.xx.img]
#     mount /dev/loop0 /media/eGPU
#     ls -l /media/eGPU
#
}

Comments/suggestions/enhancements are encouraged.