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Last edited by SMG on Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Moved from Other Topics to Chat about Linux Mint because this is not a request for help with an issue. Added code tags to inxi output to preserve its formatting making it easier to read.
Welcome to the forum. As you well know a Mac like that runs the latest Mint just fine. It is a good and fully functional system. Apple fully embraces the reality distortion field to put this on their website!
"Apple and the environment
Apple products are designed to be long-lasting. They are made of durable materials that are heavily-tested in our Reliability Testing Lab. The longer you use your product, the better it is for the planet. "
They should follow that statement with something like if you care about the planet you should install Linux Mint on this hardware we decided is obsolete or vintage so that you can continue to use your product.
Of course, they won't say that any more than they give serious consideration to the planet in their decisions.
I'm just glad that you can keep a Mac running on I know a lot of people worry about what happens when their Mac or Windows PC runs out of support, but few know there are options.
I recently bought a 2011 iMac 21.5 that had OS X Lion installed, an i5-2400S 65W CPU, 4gb mem, 1 TB HDD and it was slow....my plan was to install 16gb of ram that I had laying around, a new SSD and then use it atop my garage workbench. I also planned on installing a later, unsupported version of IOS using the Open Core Legacy Patcher if it would run smoothly. I would also be testing the system using Linux Mint.
I created a Sonoma USB boot installer and after replacing the memory & SSD gave it a shot. It did install but the OS would not connect to the Bluetooth "magic keyboard" that came with the iMac. So I created another USB installer for Ventura (one version back) and then the Bluetooth worked for the keyboard but nothing else.
Doing research I found that this iMac & older used a Bluetooth 2.0 card & will not work correctly with the new OS & other devices. There is a $110 replacement card solution available but I really don't need the BT functions like Airdrop ( the only main BT program feature not working) as everything else works just great other than Maps due to the non metal ATI GPU. I then decided to replace the i5 CPU with the special order only (in 2011) i7-2600S 65W cpu for $25 shipped from an ebay seller. Installation was relatively easy (following an iFixit guide online) after removing the motherboard, PSU card & other components.
In the end it runs great on IOS Ventura. The only other mod I had to do was concerning the HDD temp sensor issue caused by replacing the HDD with an SSD. The system won't sense the missing HDD temp reading so it will run the HDD fan fast and create more noise than usual. A $35 sensor card & cable is available or you can use the Macs Fan Control app and set the fan for a minimum fan speed. I did that & it solved the issue.
So after that was all done I created a Linux Mint live USB and booted to it. It booted up fine and worked very well although the Bluetooth issues were still present due to the hardware. Because I wanted to use the Facetime feature I decided to stay with the IOS Venura installation. It's a neat computer.
If I was going to use an Intel based iMac with Linux I would consider a 2012 or newer model making sure that it has Bluetooth 4.0 or later and a Nvidia GPU.
Last edited by brlfq on Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
LM 21.3 Cinnamon on...
HP EliteDesk 800 G5 - i5-9500T,
Dell 3040 Micro - i5-6500T
LG Gram i7 Laptop
A couple days ago I installed Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon on an iMac 21in 2013. Works well but slow at boot time (due to the old HD I think). Also slow to start firefox. I had no problem running it wireless. The most difficult part was the setup bluetooth to use the magic mouse and the mac keyboard. I had to use the cli as it didn't work using the GUI.
I know a lot of people worry about what happens when their Mac or Windows PC runs out of support, but few know there are options.
