Linux on an iMac
 

I am. Having trouble installing Linux on my 2011 27" iMac. When I boot from the DVD I just get a black screen with a flashing cursor at the top left.
What am I doing wrong?

Can you try booting from a usb?

I have tried that and get the same result

What distribution are you using? Is it 64bit or 32bit?

the 64 bit version as the iMac is 64 bit

Are you trying to use Ubuntu, Fedora, Manjaro, etc? What distribution are you using?

Did you verify the download with and md5checksum? Can you test the DVD/flash drive on another computer to eliminate that as a possible problem?

I have tried Ubuntu. I didn't use md5checksum.

I have a 2 external DVD drives and tested all of them with the same results

How to do an md5 checksum is explained on the page at the link below. Doing this can save a lot of headaches if it's bad.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

The md5sum hashes for the various releases are at the page below:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes

What I suggested was you try the DVD or flash drive with Ubuntu on another computer. If it boots on another computer, that eliminates one problem. If it doesn't that's a different problem.

Checked the iso, it is verified, but the iso is AMD, is this correct for the iMac?

The AMD in the iso name means it is 64bit. Did you burn the iso as an image with whatever software you use to burn to the DVD? What software did you use to put the iso on the flash drive?

I used a windows laptop to burn it to the usb, can't remember the name of the software though.

for the DVD I used the iMac's disc utility to burn the ISO

I ordinarily run Linux on Mac equipment in a virtual machine. I've never tried to turn an old Mac into a Linux machine . . .

In that case, not much anyone can suggest to help.

But did you select "burn as an image". When you open the DVD in a file manager, do you see one file or multiple files. If the former, you did it wrong.

Thanks, yes I burnt the image correctly, there are files on the disc