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Hi,
I have a problem where I get a completely black screen when trying to launch the Arch installer.
I can successfully boot the USB without issues (to the GRUB menu I think it's called), however as soon as I press on the installer option, my screen instantly goes black and stays that way.
I've had other devices where it would print some text before going black, but this iMac doesn't do that (in these cases simply adding the `nomodeset` kernel parameter fixed the issue and allowed the screen to stay active after the initial text).
So far I've tried adding the various kernel parameters I've seen discussed in various places:
nomodeset, radeon.modeset=0, i915.modeset=0, nvidia_drm.modeset=1, modprobe.blacklist=radeon, modprobe.blacklist=i915, acpi=force, acpi=off, and noapic
I've also tried to flash the USB using `dd`, as well as using both the EFI-only and BIOS+EFI options in Rufus.
My last effort was using a 2nd USB with rEFInd to "chain" into my Arch USB (but that mainly seems to fix issues where the Mac bootloader fail to detect/boot the USB at all, which isn't the case here).
I also found this reply in a thread with a similar issue, but I don't exactly have the stuff to just use a 2nd monitor.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for things I could try?
Last edited by Hydranoid (2025-08-22 22:16:37)
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I managed to fix it.
The issue was the ISO being too new, as discussed here, which I conveniently missed when researching.
I downloaded the January 1st, 2023 ISO, and it booted to a black screen with a static white dash.
After waiting long enough, it eventually booted just fine. I didn't time it, but I think it took around ~15 seconds, which is the standard timeout (however pressing Enter didn't do anything on this screen).
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