Fedora, iMac late 2009

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Hi, I'm trying to get the latest Fedora installed on my iMac from late 2009 with a radeon HD 4850 graphics card. After grub, the screen turns off and Fedora thinks that the displayport is the primary display, due to this bug:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27314
which The helpful people at http://www.forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=309979 advised me i may be able to work around by using the 32 bit version of fedora and booting it in BIOS mode. However, both USB sticks i tried burning the 32 bit ISO too did not even show up in the boot menu. Basically, how do I do this? Thank you.
 

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That's because there is no "BIOS" mode for a Mac. A Mac boots from EFI not a BIOS, therefore the Fedora ISOs are not going to appear bootable and will not work. Your late 2009 iMac is a 64 bit machine so you really should be installing a 64 bit version of Linux. Try installing Ubuntu instead. (much nice than Fedora)
 
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That's because there is no "BIOS" mode for a Mac. A Mac boots from EFI not a BIOS, therefore the Fedora ISOs are not going to appear bootable and will not work. Your late 2009 iMac is a 64 bit machine so you really should be installing a 64 bit version of Linux. Try installing Ubuntu instead. (much nice than Fedora)

I'm sorry, but it was my understanding that with boot camp at least, Windows 7 did not support EFI booting back when this particular mac came out, which would seem to indicate that BIOS emulation is indeed possible at the very least. Also, in terms of ubuntu, I've already tried it, and the bug i linked earlier is in the Linux radeon driver itself and not Fedora specifically, so it displays the same behavior. Also, I know I'm in the minority here, but I heavily prefer Gnome to Unity.
 

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Boot Camp emulates the BIOS function which allows Windows to boot for XP SP2, Vista, and 7. Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 can be booted through EFI. But you're not dealing with Windows, you're trying to install Linux. If the Radeon driver bug is present in Linux distros, then perhaps you can use virtual software to install Fedora. I know that VirtualBox from Oracle (free) works well installing Ubuntu but I can't speak for any other distro.
 
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Boot Camp emulates the BIOS function which allows Windows to boot for XP SP2, Vista, and 7. Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 can be booted through EFI. But you're not dealing with Windows, you're trying to install Linux. If the Radeon driver bug is present in Linux distros, then perhaps you can use virtual software to install Fedora. I know that VirtualBox from Oracle (free) works well installing Ubuntu but I can't speak for any other distro.

The bug page on the radeon driver seems to indicate that the bug was for whatever reason only present when Fedora was booted from EFI, and that I might be able to get it working if i managed to boot the fedora disk through the BIOS emulation meant for windows 7 and lower. I take it from your recommendation of virtualbox that this cannot be accomplished? In any case, thank you.
 

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I take it from your recommendation of virtualbox that this cannot be accomplished?

It can't be accomplished using BIOS emulation but since VirtualBox will use its own supplied drivers it should be doable. I would give it a try since VirtualBox is free and all you'll lose is some time if it doesn't work. You might also give the Fedora forum a look to see if there are any specific instructions on using virtual software to run it.
 
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It can't be accomplished using BIOS emulation but since VirtualBox will use its own supplied drivers it should be doable. I would give it a try since VirtualBox is free and all you'll lose is some time if it doesn't work. You might also give the Fedora forum a look to see if there are any specific instructions on using virtual software to run it.

No, I already have a fedora vm, and it works just fine. My primary goal was to make it a dual boot machine with OSX, but from what you're telling me that isn't going to happen?
 

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No, I already have a fedora vm, and it works just fine. My primary goal was to make it a dual boot machine with OSX, but from what you're telling me that isn't going to happen?

Probably not unless you can somehow work around that Radeon bug. I've run several versions of Windows on my iMacs using both VM software and Boot Camp and I honestly prefer the VM since it doesn't require a reboot or using something like rEFIt. But I can understand why you would want to dual boot. Just more elegant that way. ;) Sorry I can't be of more help. If you can somehow get it working, let us know here in this same thread.
 
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Probably not unless you can somehow work around that Radeon bug. I've run several versions of Windows on my iMacs using both VM software and Boot Camp and I honestly prefer the VM since it doesn't require a reboot or using something like rEFIt. But I can understand why you would want to dual boot. Just more elegant that way. ;) Sorry I can't be of more help. If you can somehow get it working, let us know here in this same thread.

Thank you for the help. The other forum is moving me to the actual hardware forum now, and if anything comes of it, I will absolutely let you know here. Or if they definitively tell me no.
 

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