Can't run Manjaro live without nomodeset on Mac mini

Support
#1

Hi. manjaro-gnome-20.2.1-minimal-210103-linux59.iso can’t run properly after grub menu on my Mac mini. It stops at:

[drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
fb0: switching to radeondrmfb from EFI VGA

With both free and nonfree drivers option of menu.

Also I’m unable boot Arch Linux to gdm start while Fedora 33 and Ubuntu 20.4 can be booted and installed successfully. My current Ubuntu installation shows me:

$ lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
	Kernel driver in use: radeon

What should I do to run Manjaro or Arch? Thank you.

#2

Do we need to add something like “initrd /arch/boot/amd-ucode.img”?

#3

I’m not advanced enought to realize how exactly it does, but EndeavourOS Live boots into graphic desktop on my Mac succesfully. But being installed still doesn’t.

#4

Hello,

What Apple device do you know running AMD CPU ?
Most likely once you install linux on a Mac Mini you will have to install rEFIt as described on Mac - ArchWiki

1 Like
#5

I saw letters ‘amd’ and I’m desperate))
But why rEFIt? I’ve got a single-boot Linux (Ubuntu this moment) system with no OS X anymore.

#6

On apple hardware, removing the MacOS or MacOSX will lead to the impossibility to do firmware updates.

You can use that or rEFInd. None of them deletes nor modifies the original apple boot loader. Both are boot managers.
Just by using GRUB on apple machines is a convoluted procedure, some will not work at all, hence the use of a boot manager that can deal properly with the way apple deals with the boot process.

So, you probably did this

hence you have a booting Ubuntu install …

#7

But how Ubuntu loads drivers? See original post:

$ lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E “(VGA|3D)”
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
Subsystem: Apple Inc. Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
Kernel driver in use: radeon

So doing Fedora 33 right now:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device 00e8
Kernel driver in use: radeon

It’s not my first Linux on this Mac after total disc formatting (and not my first disc formatting on this Mac). It was Elementary OS (based on Ubuntu 18.04), Fedora 33, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Fedora 33 again… All of them was completely successful on single boot with nice graphic mode.
But still no luck with Arch based distros.

So, you probably did this

I didn’t :frowning: That distros work out of box being booted from standard USB stick with standard ISO image :frowning:

#8