Arch Linux

JimmyNeutron

Member

Registered: 2019-05-15

Posts: 3

Installing Arch Linux on a 2011 iMac

Hey everyone. I have a 2011 iMac with a faulty graphics card (AMD Radeon HD 6970M). The GPU will randomly fail and vertical bars appear on the screen, followed by a reboot loop. Therefore, I am attempting to install Arch on this machine and force the use of the integrated intel graphics.

I am able to install Arch, Xorg, GNOME and lxdm to get a desktop up and running. But when I try to blacklist the radeon module (used by the GPU) to force the use of i915, the computer fails to boot properly. It hangs on the text screen with this output:

Starting version 242.29-1-arch
/dev/sda2: clean 224256/121020416 files, 9391626/484058624 blocks

and a blinking cursor.

Am I incorrect in assuming that the iMac has integrated graphics? Before Arch I tried to install ubuntu with the same result. The install goes well, but once I blacklist radeon, the same symptom appears. I was able to boot ubuntu using nomodeset, but that appears to have only worked once. I haven't been able to replicate that with Arch.

I'd appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,423

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a 2011 iMac

Older Macs usually do not come with integrated graphics, no...

FWIW what's the output of

lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D'

JimmyNeutron

Member

Registered: 2019-05-15

Posts: 3

Re: Installing Arch Linux on a 2011 iMac

Older Macs usually do not come with integrated graphics, no...

FWIW what's the output of

lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D'

I don't have access to the machine right now, so I'll update this post with the actual output later. But this is what I recall.

There was one device listed, which was the AMD/ATI Radeon card. It was using the 'radeon' module. When I run

lspci -k

there is also an intel graphics controller listed as a "Display controller" but not a VGA compatible device like the AMD. The intel device is using the module 'i915'.