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The boot command line would not accept the option xrdvr=radeon, which is the actual driver name as far as I can determine.
It would appear that the last time Radeon VR770 worked without mods was for kernel 3.13 (2014-era) - See https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98046 .
I'm running the cli-installer now, but given the apparent incompatibility with current kernels, I don't really expect it to work.
It seems that I could run the machine as a server, with no GUI. But that would be rather wasteful on an iMac with a very nice 27" display
So, unless anyone knows any differently, I think I'll give up on this project for now.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully, it might save someone else from spending their time chasing the MX rabbit down this particular hole.
You could try installing the Debian 4.9 kernel on your live USB (on another computer) following the instructions here and see if it will boot normally on your iMac. It's worth a shot. (Maybe.)
If that doesn't work, try the newest 5.x kernel from the stable repo.
Last edited by JayM on Tue Sep 17, 2019 4:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
tyrotex wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 1:42 am
The boot command line would not accept the option xrdvr=radeon, which is the actual driver name as far as I can determine.
Have you tried boot option xorg=safe , which shall give you a vesa video driver, so you could at least install.
tyrotex wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:04 am
Thanks for the suggestions @truongtfg.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, by using the Failsafe boot option (which includes nomodeset), I get further in the boot process.
My bad, somehow I missed that line you wrote . BTW, you can wait for several days (or 1-2 weeks) for the Kernel 5.3 to be available in the repo (especially the liquorix kernel). I have heard that this version improves compatibility with some macbooks.
In the mean time, did you successfully install MX Linux, or are you still stuck at the live usb boot?
Thanks for the suggestion and link @JayM. I'll try that when I have more time. From what I read, I believe that the problem is actually in the Debian kernel itself, so I'm not sure it will help.
Yes, @asqwerth, all the radeon-related stuff is included in the kernel & packages. Up until 14 months ago, it seems that the kernel code just doesn't work with this particular GPU (since kernel v3.13).
@truongtfg - No, I didn't manage to get a bootable install yet - I was installing to a large USB drive, rather than an HDD. I'll try the cli-installer again to an HDD partition soon.
I followed these instructions: https://www.lifewire.com/dual-boot-linu ... os-4125733
I have now MX 18 installed on my iMac (2008) alongside El Capitan and everything works (except the bluetooth Apple wireless keyboard). I kept my Mac partition in case needed, just shrinked it and now I have 250GB for MX and 250 for Mac. My iMac automatically boots on MX but if needed I can boot on Mac by holding the OPTION key while starting. Works perfectly for me.
Well, I've had a frustrating couple of days trying to get some distro running on this GPU (Radeon HD 4850/RV770).
Because I thought the problem was in the Debian kernel, I tried various non-Debian Linux distros, like Arch, Knoppix & Fedora.
I even tried to get FreeBSD & OpenBSD to run - Boy! are they a pain to install compared with Linux.
I just couldn't get a GUI to work. It seemed that I was to be stuck on increasingly out-of-date macOS versions.
But, when I saw the post by @taseefa, I checked the link he included on Ubuntu. The main graphics-related point was the use of nomodeset, which I had already tried with my installs.
Given my experiences with those other distros, I had not bothered with Ubuntu, given its Debian heritage.
But then, with nothing to lose, I tried a Xubuntu 19.04 live image. Blow me down with a feather! It worked! (with nomodeset).
So, after installing on my HDD and working out how to pass 'nomodeset' through the rEFInd interface, it's all good. I now have at least one Linux that works on this aging system.
I would have preferred to use MX Linux, but the Xorg.0.log shows that the framebuffer driver was "(EE) Unable to find a valid framebuffer device", so no GUI.
OTOH, under Xubuntu, fbdevhw finds "(**) FBDEV(2): claimed PCI slot 1@0:0:0" and it all works.
It's weird, because xserver-xorg-video-fbdev is v1:0.5.0-1 on MX Linux and v1:.0.5.0-1ubunt on Xubuntu. I have no idea what the difference between them might be, unless ubuntu just does a better job than MX Linux at enumerating the hardware to pass to fbdev.
I'd still like to get MX running, if anybody has any ideas on how to do it.
But, for now, I'll just stick with a working Xubuntu.
. BTW, you can wait for several days (or 1-2 weeks) for the Kernel 5.3 to be available in the repo (especially the liquorix kernel). I have heard that this version improves compatibility with some macbooks.