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I'm trying to install Linux Mint on my 2010 21.5" iMac. I managed to install it after booting from the usb drive with the nomodeset option, but I haven't been able to boot from the actual install so far. The typical recommendation I found from googling is: on the boot selector screen (I'm using rEFInd) hold Shift and select grub options, then press e to edit the boot options and add nomodeset after where it says quiet splash. However, this does not work for me - I still get a black screen when it tries to boot up.

karel
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nightfire
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  • When you get the black screen exactly? Can you see the refind menu? If yes, can you see the grub menu after that? If yes, can you see at least some kernel boot messages? – peterh Sep 08 '15 at 21:12
  • @peterh I select grub from the refind screen, then press e in the grub menu to edit the boot options. Then I press f10 to boot and the screen goes black. – nightfire Sep 09 '15 at 19:09
  • How did you fix it? @peterh why did you ask when it goes black? I have the same problem and it goes black after selecting linux on grub – thigi Aug 01 '18 at 09:19
  • @thigi refind and grub are boot loaders, and the question clearly states that blanking happens after selecting the option in the grub -> while the OP is using refind/grub, the screen is yet not blank. – peterh Aug 01 '18 at 09:33
  • @peterh At the risk of being pedantic, rEFInd isn't technically a bootloader except for in a few uncommon configurations. The developer has stated, and others I've discussed EFI nuances with agree, that its taxonomy is under the heading of "Boot Managers" (same as Clover, et al.) since it's most common for rEFInd to use the EFI `chain` directive to hand-off to a proper bootloader to handle system init. – Peter J. Mello Apr 27 '21 at 15:38
  • @PeterJ.Mello The macbook (2,1) on which I needed reFind to boot Linux, is already a dead box in a cabinet. But as I can remember, it could find Linux kernels and it could boot them directly. – peterh Apr 27 '21 at 16:43

2 Answers2

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With the limited information you've shared thus far, I can think of two likely means to improve the situation, ideally being implemented in tandem. That particular iMac vintage was fairly memorable for its...creative...UEFI implementation, one which I've nicknamed the "Sierra Madre" as an homage to an engineering team that obviously declared "Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!" when deciding how much of the nascent UEFI specification they would adhere to. Basically the goal is to forego the horsepower of the graphics card early in the boot process and opt instead for the software-rendered framebuffer until such time as the graphics drivers have loaded successfully.

  1. From the rEFInd bootloader selection screen, highlight your preferred kernel and press F2 to show the advanced options, then select "Boot into recovery mode" or if it isn't offered, press F2 again and remove all the parameters after ROOT=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX, replacing them with rw nomodeset loglevel=6 recovery. At the recovery menu, first select the network option to enable your network interfaces, then root to be provided a root shell. From the command prompt, install the X11 framebuffer driver with apt install xserver-xorg-video-fbdev and once complete, invoke systemctl reboot to restart your computer and see if the framebuffer drivers solve the issue.

  2. Add modprobe.blacklist=radeon to your kernel boot parameters (and optionally gfxpayload=keep and/or vt.handoff=7 if you try them and find further improvement), nomodeset is not the answer here.

    • For rEFInd: sudoedit /boot/refind-linux.conf and add those parameters to the end of all the option lines. Then run find /boot/efi -type f -name "refind-linux.conf" in case there are other copies of the file for use with kernel stubs, et al. and if any results are shown, use sudo cp -i /boot/refind-linux.conf <path_to_result> for each one and agree to overwrite them with the one you just edited.
    • For GRUB2: sudoedit /etc/default/gruband add the parameters to the end of the value for GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX and either uncomment the entry for GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX and change the value to keep or add a line to the end of the file that reads GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX="keep". sudo update-grub and you're good to go on all fronts.
Peter J. Mello
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  • How can the OP do step 1 if they can't boot the system? Are you suggesting they boot from the USB again, mount the installed system, chroot into it and install there? If so, some instructions on how to do that would probably be needed. – terdon Apr 25 '21 at 15:22
  • @terdon They are unable to boot the operating system, but the information in the question clearly shows that their system successfully loads the boot manager (in this case, rEFInd) which gives them access to the kernel command line parameters which I suggest modifying as well as the recovery mode from which packages can be installed. If the modifications were successful their operating system would once again boot successfully, in which they could make the modifications permanent with the methods I described. – Peter J. Mello Apr 27 '21 at 03:57
  • Ah, thank you, yes. With your latest edit that is much clearer. – terdon Apr 27 '21 at 07:12
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I had the same problem. Because Linux Mint was the only OS, I did not get the grub menu. My IMac has a ATI Radeon graphics card.

I fixed it by booting a live USB and then used Boot repair. Under Advanced options select option nomodeset radeon=0. Follow the instructions of Boot repair for terminal commands. Ignore error messages. I rebooted and it worked.

AdminBee
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Frans
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