this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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My laptop has been having problems not charging and the top row of the keyboard stopped working. In my pursuit of a replacement I realized how ridiculously cheap Intel iMacs have become.

And then I realized that you can gut them and convert them into an insanely good computer monitor after the internals die.

I was looking for a dead one but somehow managed to get my hands on a working 5k 2017 iMac for $150. God the display is glorious.

For the time being Im just going to use the existing internals since they're still functioning.

I installed Fedora on an external drive and everything seems to be functional. I managed to get fractional scaling functioning. However the output only goes up to 4k. And while thats still really nice, the extra resolution does make an obvious difference when sitting ~1 foot away.

Has anyone been able to get 5k working?

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[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Those 5k panels were goofy: they're two DisplayPort links merged via software magic into 5k.

Might be that's a proprietary thing that requires OS X?

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It doesnt appear as 2 displays, just a single 4k one.

[–] SeikoAlpinist@slrpnk.net 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I never got it to work at anything over 4k several years ago.

I went down the rabbit hole and ended up just selling. Apple only ever released the driver for macOS and for Windows 10 with Bootcamp.

Apparently it will work in X11 with a few setup changes per this thread: https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=6477626#post6477626

[–] desentizised@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Does that mean you weren't able to implement those changes or didn't want to regress back from Wayland?

[–] SeikoAlpinist@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago

That thread is just the result of a search today to see if the situation has changed.

When I tried it, we were still trying to figure out how the two displays worked. It looks like that link has a solution. It would have been great to try back then, but I wouldn't go out and buy a 5k iMac or LG monitor just to try it out now.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 points 1 month ago

Thats unfortunate but even at 4k I can't possibly beat the value at $150 so I will just hold onto it and run it at 4k if necessary.

[–] mosthated@feddit.nl 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i have a 2017 lg 5k monitor (same goofy software trick) that works with ubuntu x11

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What software trick is that?

[–] mosthated@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i just mean the one schizo mentioned

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago

Oh, I see. Thanks.

[–] the_wise_wolf@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It depends on the displayport version. DP 1.2 only supports 4k. DP 1.4 supports more. So if it's an older display that only supports DP 1.2, you have to use the two screens hack. I never tried that, though.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There's no DisplayPort, I'm using the native internal connections for now.

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In laptops the internal screen is usually attached over embedded Displayport (eDP) could be the same here. "native" doesn't really say much.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 points 1 month ago

Oh yeah I did see eDP-1 when I was digging around.

[–] the_wise_wolf@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not sure what these internal connections are, but Displayport is both a plug and a protocol. You can use the protocol over thunderbolt and maybe other connections as well.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not sure what these internal connections are

Literally every connection is internal, outside of the power cable.

[–] Markaos@lemmy.one 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, but these internal connections can be done in a variety of ways - for example the most common way to connect laptop displays (which I would definitely classify as internal) is using embedded DisplayPort.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 points 1 month ago

Well it's Apple so I assume something proprietary.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What does the display setting look like? Can you just set the resolution manually

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking but I did look in the gnome settings and 5k is not available.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In that case I think it might be at a lower level.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

1000004859

Computers are built on abstraction. You start at the most abstracted layer and work your way down. I would next check what resolutions are exposed in the kernel. If 5k isn't exposed I would check the kernel itself. At the very bottom is hardware but I think this is a software issue. It may just be flat out not supported by Linux.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago

Ah that's too bad. Thanks