Linux mint on imac

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[SOLVED] Linux Mint on an old Apple iMac

Post by GA11 » Mon Oct 08, 2018 3:47 pm

Hello — this my first post in these forums!

I’m just an amateur computer user who last week was presented with a small Dell computer by my daughter — «dad, can you fix this»? It was running Windows 10 but only has 32GB RAM. There was less than 3GB of disk space free — the new Update from Microsoft said it needed 8GB to install it. Long story short, the laptop now has Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon installed and it’s running like a dream. That was my learning curve!

My principal computer is now a new 27in Apple iMac. My ‘old’ 24in 2008 (model) iMac died and because it is now ‘vintage’ neither Apple nor appointed Apple authorised agents would touch it. A local computer shop diagnosed that the hard drive had failed but wanted much money to repair it. I decided to do the job myself! I’ve installed a brand new 1TB drive obtained from Western Digital through Amazon UK. However, I’m having great difficulty installing another operating system so checked my RAM with MemTest. Crucial are going to replace the RAM free of charge under their lifetime guarantee and I’m currently awaiting delivery of same.

In the meantime, I’ve had a ‘play’ with trying to put Mint on the machine (using the RAM which came with the iMac back in 2009). This I have done and have been able to ‘surf’ on the Internet!

However, after a few minutes, the image freezes and shortly thereafter the screen goes grey. The same thing happened when I tried to ‘install’ the software — I never achieved that. In both scenarios, the machine felt somewhat hotter than under normal operations previously.

Is there any practical reason why Linux will not install satisfactorily on Apple hardware?
Does anyone have any other idea of what else may be the problem?

Any help and/or advice will be much appreciated.

Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.

Re: Installing Linux Mint an an old Apple iMac

Post by HaveaMint » Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:00 am

CW started a link on light weight linux distributions for older machines which could be useful for you. I am sure one of the more knowledgeable volunteers will jump in and give you help soon.
Here is that link.. viewtopic.php?f=61&t=278526

Pierre Level 21
Posts: 12958 Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 am Location: Perth, AU.

Re: Installing Linux Mint an an old Apple iMac

Post by Pierre » Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:04 am

you did well to get rid of win-10 on that small Dell computer ..
— there is a strong trend towards using the new style eMMC HardCard for the diskdrive,
and the newest eMMC drives are now around 128 — 256Gb in size.

but, the real issue is that these type of PCs are custom designed for the Windows System,
and as such, are often tricky to install any Linux System onto them.

thus that new 27in Apple iMac is in the same category, as well,
as these machines, too are a custom designed system.

in both cases, to get to diagnose, exactly what hardware is installed into your machine,
in order to get any Linux System working correctly:
inxi -Fxz
can be typed into Terminal — in order to determine, just what hardware is involved.
— on a working Linux System — that is, even if that is just a Newly Booted Live Environment.

Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] — when your problem is solved!
and DO LOOK at those Unanswered Topics — — you may be able to answer some!.

Re: Installing Linux Mint an an old Apple iMac

Post by HaveaMint » Tue Oct 09, 2018 6:16 am

Re: Installing Linux Mint an an old Apple iMac

Post by GA11 » Tue Oct 09, 2018 8:32 am

Having a practice on my daughter’s little Dell laptop!

lizzie@lizzie-Inspiron-11-3168:~$ inxi Fxz
CPU~Dual core Intel Celeron N3060 (-MCP-) speed/max~513/2480 MHz Kernel~4.15.0-20-generic x86_64 Up~1 day Mem~831.7/1891.9MB HDD~NA(-) Procs~208 Client~Shell inxi~2.3.56

Moem Level 22
Posts: 15627 Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:14 am Location: The Netherlands Contact:

Re: Installing Linux Mint an an old Apple iMac

Post by Moem » Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:19 am

If your issue is solved, kindly indicate that by editing the first post in the topic, and adding [SOLVED] to the title. Thanks!

Re: Installing Linux Mint an an old Apple iMac

Post by GA11 » Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:48 am

Here’s what you were after I believe:-

lizzie@lizzie-Inspiron-11-3168:~$ inxi -Fxz System: Host: lizzie-Inspiron-11-3168 Kernel: 4.15.0-20-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.9 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1) Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara Machine: Device: portable System: Dell product: Inspiron 11-3168 v: 1.0.7 serial: N/A Mobo: Dell model: 0RV7G6 v: A00 serial: N/A UEFI: Dell v: 1.0.7 date: 08/18/2016 Battery BAT0: charge: 32.0 Wh 111.4% condition: 28.7/32.0 Wh (90%) model: SMP-SDI4.2 DELL 8NWF35C status: Full CPU: Dual core Intel Celeron N3060 (-MCP-) arch: Airmont rev.4 cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 6400 clock speeds: max: 2480 MHz 1: 945 MHz 2: 496 MHz Graphics: Card: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.05hz OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell) version: 4.5 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes Audio: Card Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series High Def. Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-20-generic Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k bus-ID: 01:00.0 IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: Card-2: Atheros usb-ID: 001-017 IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A Drives: HDD Total Size: NA (-) ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: N/A size: 31.3GB Partition: ID-1: / size: 26G used: 17G (67%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1 ID-2: /boot size: 705M used: 152M (24%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/mmcblk0p2 ID-3: swap-1 size: 2.04GB used: 0.03GB (2%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-3 RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 26.0C mobo: N/A Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A Info: Processes: 266 Uptime: 1 day Memory: 925.6/1891.9MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0 Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56

I’ll do my best to carry out the same exercise on my old iMac before it locks up. If successful, I’ll post the data here!

Last edited by Moem on Tue Oct 09, 2018 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Adding [code] tags. They retain some formatting that makes your output easier to read.

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