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#1 2011-04-07 07:28:56

egenix
Member
Registered: 2010-09-21
Posts: 7

successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

I just completed an install of arch64 onto a mid 2010 27 inch aluminium imac, dvd burning, proprietary ati graphics drivers ( 2273.600 fps )
working ati sound  flash and isight. I was unable to install it the way everyone else on the net was doing it for the old 24 inch imacs.
The setup is refit with 600G for OSX, 50G for ubuntu and 350G for arch linux. It boots both ubuntu 32bit  and arch64 from installing
grub2 into /dev/sda (yes the efi partition ) the machine uses a GPT and EFI. I was wondering if anyone would like me to start a
write up for what I did to get this working and maybe add to it?
The machine has 4 i3 3.2 Ghz cpus all working with 4gb of ram. I have been using arch for several years and I am very very pleased
to be running it on this machine as my primary operating system.

Last edited by egenix (2011-04-07 08:01:31)


Desktop imac: Quadcore i3 3.2Ghz cpus, 4Gb ram 27' display ATI Radeon HD 5750 1G Ram, 1TB Hard drive - OS Arch Linux
Desktop : Dual Core 3Ghz, Nvidia Fx5200 Dual monitor 256Mb ram, 1GB Ram, 600GB Hard drives - OS Arch Linux
Phone: HTC Desire HD 1Ghz snap dragon, 738 MB Ram OS's Android, Debian Linux

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#2 2011-04-08 16:40:25

tlvb
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2008-10-06
Posts: 297
Website

Re: successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

There seems to be a wiki article on the/an aluminium imac,
if you want you could add your own experiences and fixes to
that one. Or if it is very different from how you did it maybe
split it into two sections e.g. alternative 1/2.
Congratulations to your succesful install smile


I need a sorted list of all random numbers, so that I can retrieve a suitable one later with a binary search instead of having to iterate through the generation process every time.

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#3 2011-05-05 00:36:13

joefromct
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 11

Re: successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

I would find this _very_ helpful and am working on doing exactly this, and i would be able to contribute as well.

Currently i have x up and running, but have quite a bit additional work to do.  My next task is sound... 

Also, i opted for the open source ATI driver but am not getting nearly that frame rate with glxgears, i'm thinking im' going to switch at some point but wanted to try to get other things at least operational.

Any tips appreciated, and additonal notes below.

Off to mess with alsa... soon to be back 100% on Arch feels good....

-Joe


Here is my current task list and what i am working on next:  (I love taskwarrior)

ID Project Pri Description                                                  
10 arch    H   do backup somehow                                            
               5/4/2011 can i delete my time machine disk? Is osx solid now?
14 arch    H   gstreamer                                                    
13 arch    H   skype for cheese                                             
 1 arch    H   sound                                                        
18 arch    M   get swap file setup                                                 
 3 arch        bluetooth
12 arch        copy and paste efficiency                                    
 8 arch        e17 middle mouse button for resize
 6 arch        e17 themes                                                   
15 arch        firefox tehmes and fonts
16 arch        gtk themes and fonts                                         
 7 arch        how does urxvt-url-paste thing work?
 4 arch        isight                                                       
 5 arch        mouse/keyboard... do i want this?
 9 arch        music player, copy over music                                
               5/4/2011 and convert what i can in itunes, normalize         
20 arch        research options for iphone4
 2 arch        sd card reader                                               
17 arch        some sort of nas for special docs and tasks
11 arch        urxvt with no borders, see .XdefaultsNOBORDER                

20 tasks


Because i was somewhat unsure of how to do this i opted for only a single linux partition; I'm planning on setting up a swap file rather then a seperate swap partition (or maybe i could resize now that my system is up and running...)

I bought the 27 inch imac with a 1tb drive, and now have this; I think i'm ok with a swap file... i'd rather not have to go through messing with partitions once again and having to worry about goofing up refIT, grub, or anything requiring me to install two operating systems and restore from a time machine backup to my osx partition.

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1      409639      204819+  ee  GPT
/dev/sda2          409640  1170331559   584960960   af  HFS / HFS+
/dev/sda3   *  1170593792  1953523711   391464960   83  Linux

Any tips appreciated,

-Joe

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#4 2011-05-05 00:38:09

joefromct
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 11

Re: successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

Also, now that you got your system just the way you like it... do you know of anyway to do a bit-for-bit backup so you could restore to the current state? 

I was usually using rsync, but i'm not sure if thats the best option if i wanted to have a resiliant "disaster recovery" (as in i goof my system...)

Thanks again, -Joe

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#5 2011-05-07 02:22:56

egenix
Member
Registered: 2010-09-21
Posts: 7

Re: successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

Hi joe,
Sorry for not replying earlier, I have been away on holiday and have recently just moved house. I also used rsync omitting directories such as /dev /tmp etc and tarring it all up, then just untar, there is also a way to do incremental backups using rsync which also works well. I must agree its awesome to use Arch soley on a 27' imac. I have everything working fine on this machine, isight dvd burning etc. I currently have lots of partitions on this machine as I have been using it in a very experimental fashion.
I found the best thing to do was run an ubuntu install disk, and install grub2 to /dev/sda I then mount the ubuntu partition in arch to alter the grub.cfg for correct resolutions this is also the first time I have used grub2 and it is a good learning experience. I dont use a swap partition at all, I have 4 gig of ram and can put in up to 16Gb of ram. I did use a encrypted swap file for a day or two but found I did not need it. Let me know how you are going, ill check this page twice daily now im back.
I have found it near impossible to hose the osx install, that said I have made a grub2 boot disk that boots right to a grub2 prompt. I have a refit boot cd as well on dvd.I have a small 50Gb install of ubuntu on /dev/sda3 and I have arch installed one /dev/sda4, I have multiple partitions /dev/sda4 5 6 for messing around with. As the screen takes up alot power i use  ~#echo mem > /sys/power/state   before bed and the machine goes right to sleep just like in osx, actually faster, then I just hit the power button to pull it out of sleep. Again let me know where your at and we can start working on the wiki.

Shaun


Desktop imac: Quadcore i3 3.2Ghz cpus, 4Gb ram 27' display ATI Radeon HD 5750 1G Ram, 1TB Hard drive - OS Arch Linux
Desktop : Dual Core 3Ghz, Nvidia Fx5200 Dual monitor 256Mb ram, 1GB Ram, 600GB Hard drives - OS Arch Linux
Phone: HTC Desire HD 1Ghz snap dragon, 738 MB Ram OS's Android, Debian Linux

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#6 2011-05-24 12:02:10

zenlord
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2006-05-24
Posts: 1,221
Website

Re: successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

Hi,
I'm an arch-user as anyone else on these forums, but for my office we're using debian stable because I can rely on an external (Debian-) sysadmin to take the blame if something goes awry smile

I installed Debian stable on an iMac 21" (june 2010 model) this morning and had to jump through some hoops to get it to work. Admittedly, the biggest hurdle is not a problem for Arch, because you need a kernel >= .38 to use the Apple Magic Mouse and the Apple Wireless Keyboard. But still, this link might be useful for someone around here: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? … 84#p372262

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#7 2011-05-24 13:01:02

joefromct
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 11

Re: successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

Hi,

I haven't really started this wiki for my 27inch imac bought in the UK in Feb 2011. 

Reason being, everything (within reason) just seemed to work....

Here's a few quirks i had along they way:

1.)  Audio; I had some strange "locking" with flash audio/skype/music players, and i realized that its because flash was attempting to use 32 bit stuff and going directly to alsa, and not through the plasma layer.  I installed some 32 bit packages and everything went as planned.

2.)  The isight has some bugs i think, for instance it replicates my picture, but i don't really care and haven't chased it down.

3.)  The SD card reader i haven't figured out how to mount yet.  Hasn't been a priority either.

so in summary, arch on a newer imac 27 inch with the 5400 (?) ATI card (catylst driver), intel sound is pretty much smooth sailing. 

-Joe

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#8 2011-05-24 18:06:26

joefromct
Member
Registered: 2011-05-05
Posts: 11

Re: successful install of arch64 on 2010 27' imac

Actually, I just paid a little more attention to the SD card reader and it looks like i might have issues.

I'm not seeing _anything_ pertaining to it in dmesg or fdisk -l

I wonder if apple did something dumb like not put  power to it unless (...?)

any tips appreciated.

-Joe

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