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?

  • schizoEnglish
    200·
    19 days ago

    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?

    • desentizised
      30·
      19 days ago

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

      • SeikoAlpinist
        40·
        19 days 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.

    • helenslunchOP
      10·
      18 days 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.

  • TurboTurbo
    71·
    19 days ago

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

  • the_wise_wolf
    30·
    19 days ago

    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.

    • helenslunchOP
      30·
      19 days ago

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

      • Kazumara
        50·
        18 days ago

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

        • helenslunchOP
          10·
          18 days ago

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

      • the_wise_wolf
        30·
        19 days ago

        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.

        • helenslunchOP
          20·
          19 days ago

          Not sure what these internal connections are

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

          • Markaos
            30·
            18 days ago

            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.

            • helenslunchOP
              10·
              18 days ago

              Well it’s Apple so I assume something proprietary.

  • Possibly linuxEnglish
    10·
    19 days ago

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