# Intel iMac (early 2008 model) issues thread

## Voltago

Well, it's this time of the year again.  New computer, Gentoo installation, lots of stuff doesn't work. This time it is a shiny new iMac, specs as follows:

Model identifier: MB324LL/A

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8335  @ 2.66GHz

Chipset: Some intel stuff, maybe P35 or something

Sound: Realtek ALC889A codec (driver: snd_hda_intel)

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO (a.k.a. r6xx series, x11 driver: fglrx or radeonhd)

Wireless: Airport Extreme (802.11a/b/g and draft-n), a.k.a. BCM 4328; PCI ID 14e4:4328, subsystem ID 106b:008c (driver: b43, eventually)

Network: Marvell Yukon2 (driver: sky2)

Camera: Built-in USB iSight, usb ID 05ac:8502 (driver: uvcvideo)

Bluetooth: Apple Bluetooth usb adapter, usb ID: 05ac:820f (driver: hci_usb)

After exploring the wonderful world of GPT partition tables, BootCamp and rEFIt, installation was easy enough, but quite a few issues remain.

Issues:

Bluetooth: Works with a little trick. By default, the bluetooth adapter is in HID mode to allow keyboard interaction right from the start. This blog entry explains how to cope with this. Either use the EFI setup to change the starting mode into HCI mode, or, after linux startup run

```
hciconfig hci0 reset
```

or, for a permanent fix, create a file 'bluetooth' in /etc/modules.d containing the line

```
options hci_usb reset=1
```

and run update-modules afterwards.

Graphics: 3D acceleration doesn't work. This is basically due to the fact that radeonhd does not support it for r6xx chips at this point and that fglrx won't compile with linux-2.6.26. Will be resolved one way or another.

Sound: No sound. ALSA 1.0.17 hopefully will resolve this, changelog lists fix for the ALC889A codec.

EDIT: As of linux-2.6.26-git2/alsa-10.17, this is fixed.

EDIT2: Doesn't work automatically any more with linux-2.6.27. You have to add

```
options snd-hda-intel model=mbp3
```

to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa and run modules-update, as discussed here.

EDIT3: Changed model=mbp3 to model=imac24, doesn't seem to change much, but feels more correct...

EDIT4: After only one and a half years, sound works on par with MacOSX via this module option on /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf:

```
options snd-hda-intel model=asus-a7m
```

Wireless: b43 doesn't support this chip (yet).

EDIT: There is a binary driver which works fine with kernel 2.6.28, get the ebuild here.

Camera: Drivers are in place, I understand, but the firmware cutter bails out on OSX 10.5.4. But I'm sure Mr Godot will turn up soon, very soon. 

EDIT: Turns out Mr Godot was already there waiting, only I was on the wrong platform. media-video/isight-firmware-tools-1.2 (not yet in portage, but renaming ebuild and removing patch works fine) successfully extracts the camera firmware, and /dev/video0 is created. If only I had a simple, v4l2-compatible, working framegrabber with graphical output to test the camera... if you can recommend me one, I'd be very happy indeed.

EDIT2: Works! The only program I could persuade to use the webcam was skype-2, but that works quite well.

I will update this thread as soon as I make progress with these problems.Last edited by Voltago on Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:09 pm; edited 8 times in total

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## Voltago

Progress! Sound and webcam work now.

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## Monkeh

 *Voltago wrote:*   

> Chipset: Some intel stuff, maybe P35 or something

 

They're PM965s in the 24" models and 945PMs in the 20" models, as far as I can tell. They may have upgraded the little ones to PM965s. Laptop chipsets.

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## twam

WLAN only works with ndiswrapper. See http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Apple_MacBook for more information on that.  :Smile: 

For the bluetooth, try setting HID2HCI_ENABLE=true in /etc/conf.d/bluetooth

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## keman

Sound works silently or just normal? I can't get normal level of sound, it still really quiet...

I think I'll sell this iMac  :Confused: .

Take care.

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## Voltago

 *keman wrote:*   

> Sound works silently or just normal? I can't get normal level of sound, it still really quiet...

 

Volume and qualitiy still are nowhere near that of MacOSX unfortunately...

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## Edweirdo

I had the same problem with the sound but I figured out how to fix it instead of selling it.

Check out this thread: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-620915-highlight-.html

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