Comment 103 for bug 542660

18 months after the original bug report, I'd like to know if there is any progress on this. I have a newish imac (11,2, 2011 model with ATI Radeon HD 6750M), and all attempts to install linux on an external USB disk have failed so far. I can install and boot a base system without X server. I have tried:

1. installing the open-source radeon packages from xorg-edgers - I get a black screen after the X server starts.

2. Installing the fglrx packages via jockey - results in the same black screen

3. Installing the catalyst packages from ATI - black screen.

For me, the infuriating thing is that I had it working once with oneiric RC, for a very short time. I had installed via jockey, and oneiric booted up in all its glory. There was the ATI warning on the screen about unsupported hardware, but apart from that, the system worked wonderfully. However, after running apt-get upgrade, it rebooted to the usual black screen. My inference from this is that it must be a "simple" bug in the drivers, not some impossible-to-solve thingie with EFI not loading the necessary BIOS elements, because if that was the case, it could never have functioned. So I'm just curious to know if there is any work done on this or if linux on this imac is a lost cause for the time being.