NVIDIA driver not working on imac Zorin core 16.2

[morganpengwlad]

Hi all! I've recently acquired an old imac and put zorin core 16.2 on it, but for some reason I cannot get the nvidia propriety driver to work!
I have followed some of the advice on other threads but as I have an imac not all of the advice is relevant.

Specs:
OS: Zorin OS 16.2 64-bit
iMac, late 2012, serial number C17JT03ZDNCR
memory: 7.7 GiB
Processor: Intel Core i5-3335S CPU @ 2.70GHz x 4
Graphics: NVE7 (was llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0, 256 bits at one point too)
disk capacity: 1 TB
windowing system: X11
Kernel info - 5.15.0-71 - generic #78~20.04.01-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 19 11:26:48 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Currently on X.Org X Server -- Noveau display driver from xserver-xorg-video-noveau. The whole screen freezes sometimes when a tad bit more cpu is used e.g watching a video. Playing aqueducts is very slow and tuxxkart not loading!

The additional drivers tab says I have a GKM107M (GeForce GT 640M Mac edition)
Tried to use NVIDIA binary driver - version 340.108 from nivdia-340 (proprietary, tested) but came up with an error message:
"pk-client-error-quark: error while installing package: installed nvidia-340 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 10 (313)"

I have tried to follow the general advice on nvidia drivers (Activate NVIDIA Graphics Card - Zorin Help) but none of the solutions work. I seem to have no BIOS menu available (only options are run zorin and advanced menu). In any case this mac has no secure boot.

I tried to install using the "install with modern nvidia" just to see if it would work, but had to do a partial upgrade, and resulted in the graphics card being a "manually installed one" called LLVMPIPE.

I then tried installing dkms, but this crashed the system with the "oh no! something has gone wrong" white screen. I then uninstalled the DKMS, which seemed to work but then crashed again when I tried to run it again on the nvidia driver, so I reinstalled the whole OS.

Any ideas on how to get it to work? Ideally I would like to 1 - get the nvidia drivers to work, and 2 - perhaps download a more newer driver if it works.

I'm starting to wonder though if the mac is too old now to have the most recent nvidia driver installed. I could try and follow the manual installation tutorial but don't I also need dkms to not lose progress on next upgrade? Or perhaps dkms should be installed only after you have a working nvidia driver?

I have some IT knowledge, but I am a rookie when it comes to using terminal!
I also have a zorin 16.2 on a hp pavilion laptop, works like a dream! Pity macs seem so problematic...

[Aravisian]

This may seem offbeat, but I would highly recommend using Zorin OS Lite on your iMac machine, instead of Core.
I realize that may be not quite what you are looking for, but it would make configuring and troubleshooting your graphics drivers a lot easier.
Gnome Shell will simply crash or give a "OH No, something has gone wrong" message rather than allowing the user access to try to resolve graphics issues. Gnome uses GDM which is prone to the same, whereas Lite uses LightDM which is less sensitive and more robust.

[morganpengwlad]

Thank you for the suggestion. I will give it a go and report back

[Unrealkaz9999]

Thanks @Aravisian I agree with you. This is similar to that other thread where the user had similar issues which we assuming is pointing to 'too old hardware' fact here. @morganpengwlad let us know if you come right. Lite should work like a charm on older machines. Ask me. I am even running Zorin Core on a 4th Gen I7 (my main machine and a 1050 Ti) switched back from Win 7, 10 and 11 to Zorin over and over - staying this time. Stuff just works - or at least credit that it's Linux - that's why. Designed by the People for The People.