TL,DR:
I have 2 questions:
Anyone out there sorted out how to disable screen-not-detected CPU throttling when running Linux on 2015 iMac hardware, or have the time to help translate instructions from .kext stuff to something Linux specific? I've been searching off and on for days, and everything I'm finding is MacOS specific.
And....I'm also assuming connecting an external monitor (or using a dummy plug) won't override this, since it involves hardware sensors and timing checks...right? I don't have one laying around at the moment to test with.
The full explanation:
I have a 27" Retina late 2015 iMac. In a perfect world, I'd like to yank the guts from it and put them in a project box to run a small Linux server, and convert the case and screen to turn it into a monitor. Yes, cooling, not simple, etc. I'm bored and it's too cold to work in the garage. I'm trying to save the hardware from the recycler while I can still use it. I will re-install MacOS if I have to, and virtualize or run Docker from there, I just don't want the extra overhead of MacOS.
I found instructions for disconnecting the screen without throttling if you're going to continue running MacOS (like here: https://khronokernel.com/macos/2022/03/01/5K-MONITOR.html#5k-imac-experience). The trouble is, that involves unique BSD/MacOS ways of interfacing with the MSR and various CPU registers via .kext files.
I know enough to know that I could probably run msr-tools in Debian and achieve the same results (I think???). But I'm not dumb enough to just experiment with injecting random hex values in the MSR without being 99% sure I'm sending the right values to the right place. And the way all these programs are written, it's hard to look at the code to tell where there's MacOS specific stuff being written, vs stuff being written via the MSR/hardware (I'm NOT a coder, but I can read enough to tell what's going on, mostly).
Thanks for any help!
I have 2 questions:
Anyone out there sorted out how to disable screen-not-detected CPU throttling when running Linux on 2015 iMac hardware, or have the time to help translate instructions from .kext stuff to something Linux specific? I've been searching off and on for days, and everything I'm finding is MacOS specific.
And....I'm also assuming connecting an external monitor (or using a dummy plug) won't override this, since it involves hardware sensors and timing checks...right? I don't have one laying around at the moment to test with.
The full explanation:
I have a 27" Retina late 2015 iMac. In a perfect world, I'd like to yank the guts from it and put them in a project box to run a small Linux server, and convert the case and screen to turn it into a monitor. Yes, cooling, not simple, etc. I'm bored and it's too cold to work in the garage. I'm trying to save the hardware from the recycler while I can still use it. I will re-install MacOS if I have to, and virtualize or run Docker from there, I just don't want the extra overhead of MacOS.
I found instructions for disconnecting the screen without throttling if you're going to continue running MacOS (like here: https://khronokernel.com/macos/2022/03/01/5K-MONITOR.html#5k-imac-experience). The trouble is, that involves unique BSD/MacOS ways of interfacing with the MSR and various CPU registers via .kext files.
I know enough to know that I could probably run msr-tools in Debian and achieve the same results (I think???). But I'm not dumb enough to just experiment with injecting random hex values in the MSR without being 99% sure I'm sending the right values to the right place. And the way all these programs are written, it's hard to look at the code to tell where there's MacOS specific stuff being written, vs stuff being written via the MSR/hardware (I'm NOT a coder, but I can read enough to tell what's going on, mostly).
Thanks for any help!