Resolved Does this look like a dying GPU or just Fedora being weird?

[lepidotós]

It started when I turned on GPU acceleration, so I'd assume my GPU is dying normally but it was fine in Snow Leopard yesterday, no artifacts at all. And Mac kexts are more chip specific than Linux drivers...​

In /etc/defaults/grub:

i915.enable_rc6=7 i915.enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.semaphores=1 i915.mitigations=off​

Turning off compositing reduces a lot of the glitchiness. No difference between Kernel 5.17 and 5.18. Deleting all of those grub options makes things even worse so I re-enabled them. Windows are even glitchier with compositing off. GLXGears seems to work okay though, except I could see another set of gears at first.
If it is a messed up GPU... is there anything I can even do about it besides disable hardware acceleration?​

 

[lepidotós]

Okay, so it may be dying RAM. I cleaned out my breathtakingly dusty RAM after seeing this video suggesting it might be some sort of issue with my RAM, and this stick no longer POSTs.

I already bought 2x2GB on a whim on the advice of OWC, who suggest even if it only brings me up to 3.2GB, it should still give the best performance I can get. I was regretting the purchase until right this moment, because my other stick, while still not great, is still far less so.
I still don't want to outright throw it away, DDR2 isn't made and I'd hate to waste it if there's any way to repair it. There's some crazy component level repair jobs I've seen... if anyone here wants it let me know.​

 

[B S Magnet]

Okay, so it may be dying RAM. I cleaned out my breathtakingly dusty RAM after seeing this video suggesting it might be some sort of issue with my RAM, and this stick no longer POSTs.
View attachment 2040729
I already bought 2x2GB on a whim on the advice of OWC, who suggest even if it only brings me up to 3.2GB, it should still give the best performance I can get. I was regretting the purchase until right this moment, because my other stick, while still not great, is still far less so.
I still don't want to outright throw it away, DDR2 isn't made and I'd hate to waste it if there's any way to repair it. There's some crazy component level repair jobs I've seen... if anyone here wants it let me know.​

If the RAM is still functional, but dirty/grimy, dunking it in a soaking bath of 99 per cent isopropyl alcohol, followed by gently using a soft brush, like a soft tooth brush, to clean it while it’s still wet, should help with the grime. And a pencil eraser is what I’ve used to gently rub the contact points in the event those look accumulated with grime or, less likely, what looks like oxidation (the contacts are made of, I believe, gold, which is not exactly known for oxidizing).

If, after the effort, the RAM is still faltering, then it might be time for the hazardous waste/electronic recycling bin.

 

[rampancy]

I agree that it's most likely a RAM issue - on any of the white pre-unibody MacBooks, the GPU was/is pretty reliable, and given that the graphics used integrated memory, issues with graphics that might lead one to believe GPU failure may just be indicative of bad memory (or worse, the memory slot itself failing).

 

[originaldotexe]

kde compositing really struggles on older gpu's, as it uses very modern opengl features that arent well supported, if at all. you might have better luck by setting it to use xrender compositing, or an older opengl version.

 

[lepidotós]

@originaldotexe It kept having issues even when the compositor was turned off entirely, but that is a good idea.

 

[lepidotós]

After 15 years of service, Kennedy's either comatose or dead. Overnight, without being turned on, suddenly now the charging light won't turn on and even with the full battery it won't give the suggestion of booting. Don't think it's my RAM, it was faulty but at least it used to light up the power cable even when there weren't any sticks in it.
So... yeah. If this is a commonly held issue that's easily fixable let me know otherwise it's off to the great beyond on eBay for this one. So I guess this has been resolved in the worst possible way.

Update: I don't know. The seemingly good 512MB module alone seems to want to boot, but a second later gives up. I'll still try the 2GB modules when they arrive but it seems a little like the end of the line is approaching. I'll try to get it back up and running but I can only go so far, so if anyone here is far handier than I am, let me know.
Update 2: I bought DDR4. 4GB of DDR4. Why do they even make 2GB SODIMMs for DDR4?​