Install Snow Leopard On Unsupported Macs Fresh
Older, unsupported Macs can be made to run Apple's OS X Mountain Lion after all! Of course, in order to run OS X Mountain Lion and benefit from its. But hey, in the search for speed your clean install could be to an SSD,.
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I have had the chance to see it myself, including some testing. The Mac Mini was the 2,3 GHz i5.
To cut it short: The system was slow, flickering monitor, the cursor (and the entire system) was freezing occasionally, and only HDMI was working.The Mini was booted from an external USB drive. The system was installed on a MBP 2011/Thunderbolt, from the original installer. The same problems occured as SL was installed on a MBP 2007 - from a retail DVD to the USB drive, and updated to 10.6.8. System profiler has recognized all hardware in both cases.I have also checked some Hackintosh sites for tips.
But it seems that it is easier getting a Hackintosh to work with Snow Leopard, than a 2011 Mac Mini! The general online consensus is that installing Snow Leopard an a 2011 Mini is NOT possible. The problem is apparently the 2011 Mini's new chip expectations of a fully 64-bit compliant system environment, the loss of necessary drivers that are part of Lion (for example, for the 2011 Mini's graphics processing and/or the Radeon GPU) that don't exist in Snow Leopard or in previous Minis, and other little sabotages that are improvements.However, one Apple support rep said that he 'heard' that it is possible — with perhaps some loss of functionality, but possible. Gotta wait a few days for this one to sort itself out (and I, too, am waiting on proven Snow Leopard compatibility to buy the new Mini!). The reason why I am asking at ifixit is because maybe someone here knows how the Mini essentially differs in hardware from the 'iMac early 2011' or the 'MacBook Pro early 2011' (both running SL originally).These Macs and the Mini have at least this in common: Intel Core i5 processor, Thunderbolt, Intel HD Graphics 3000, 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM. The high end models have different Radeon graphics or different RAM, though.
And here's a link to a German website where someone has successfully booted his Mini from a MBP in target mode:by. Checking my references I find I cannot confirm 10.6 will run in that computer. I think it will but at this point I can only suggest you may want to consider the 2010 version since you want/need 10.6 and Rosetta. If you should decide later you could upgrade to 10.7. If you need/want the new bells and whistles you probably will have to buy the unit and try to load 10.6 on it. Perhaps someone has tried this and can enlighten both of us. If you do go with the 2011 please let us know how it turns out.
Good luck.Apple requires 10.6 to install 10.7 so I would think 10.6 would run on this unit but cannot guarantee it.by. Thank you for posting this. I indeed have some questions. Can you please keep us posted if you see any behaviour that's not normal? (Another report came from 'saugust', who has experienced graphical glitches after a while - he has apparently used a different system build than yours.) Do you plan to upgrade your RAM or your harddrive? Bamboo cth-461 driver mac.
I know Thunderbolt hardware is rare, but if you have any chance to try it, a report would be very welcome. Can you do some benchmark tests? I'd be curious how the Mini's score in geekbench is. A free version can be downloaded here:Here's a comparison chart of different Macs:The also free Xbench doesn't offer this nice comparison, but also tests the graphics and internal harddrive:You can also use it for testing your firewire drive speed.by. Hi Wolfgang,Sadly I do have to report that there is a glitch with the graphics:When the Mac Mini goes into sleep and returns (wake up) then my LCD (attached over the supplied HDMI2DVI adapter does not show a signal (stays dark and says 'no signal'). If I power cycle the LCD then the picture comes back.
Well for me not such a problem but no way to explain this to a coworker (me IT). And a no go to configure it as 'never go to sleep' as this is not green at all.Then i decided to test this with an Apple 24' screen (2009) attached to the TB port directly as it sports a mini display port connector. Guess what: the screen stays dark. Great!!!Well I attached back the HDMI2DVI and another LCD and I discovered that it sees two monitors next to each other (both the same make as it is the single one attached).
And the main screen is the one attached to HDMI. So if I would attach the Apple to the TB port. Wrong: it still stays dark.by. So i went back to the internal harddisk with Lion and voila: everthing works fine. The single Apple 24' is discovered on the TB port, the single HDMI2DVI LCD is discovered as a single screen and when both are attached the both work.So it is safe to say that one can get around somehow with SL 10.6.8 but no way if you own the Apple 24'.I wish someone of this distris had made a clone of a virgin Mac Mini SL harddisk. (must be another build or some special firmware)As for the tests:I will run the tests tomorrow and post them here (running on external HD over FW800 external case).
I would like to bring this article to your attention (this was written a few days and answers later):Summary, as I have understood it: The author has installed Snow Leopard on the 2011 Lion Mac Mini. He has done this while booting from another Mac and connecting the Mini in firewire target mode. Then he has used a regular (retail?) SL DVD that he has bought before to install the system on the Lion Mac. He mentioned that he wasn't sure if Thunderbolt is working.In the talkback someone suggested installing Snow Leopard via virtualization. Interesting.One thing I don't understand is, why has he updated the Mac OS to 10.6.5 and not to 10.6.8?Something else I couldn't find in the article was, which Mini model has he used? Yes, I miss the testing too.
If I would expend the effort, I'd use a system build that matches the Mini's hardware closer. Apple says: 'If you install an earlier (previous) version of the Mac OS X than what was included, your computer may exhibit unexpected behavior such as:The trackpad or mouse may not respond properly;The computer may stop responding;Sleep/wake issues may occur;The display image may appear to 'shrink' with black bars around it, may appear tinted, or have other issues;Loss of built-in audio;Loss of Bluetooth or AirPort functionality;May not start up past the Apple logo.' I'd suggest this should better be tested as long as there is the chance of returning the computer.
And by the way, the Mini in the article was the server model: 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7by. Hi Wolfgang, What I did was this:.
Clone an existing Mac Mini (Model A1347) with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 installed (and all the extras) using SuperDuper! On to a USB Drive (Check for instructions). Will make the Drive bootable. Plug the USB drive into the 2011 Mac Mini and hold down the option key.
Boot from the USB Drive. When the USB drive clone has launched open SuperDuper! From the USB drive and clone the USB drive to the drive on the 2011 Mac Mini. When the cloning is complete make sure to turn on screen sharing or some sort of VNC client so you can access the machine (you may find that you boot to a 'blank' screen with no dock or menu bar - this is because the graphics card is seeing two screens). Reboot!
- This worked for me on two machines but I gave up on it because the graphic card does not function correctly. Lion is much more stable.by.
I just successfully cloned via ASR a Mac Mini Server Core 2 Duo box with a working 10.6.8 installation to a brand new Mac Mini Server i7 machine without a hitch, while the i7 model was booted into target disk mode and connected to the older machine. The new Mac Mini Server boots right up into MOSXS 10.6.8, and runs like a champ. The one thing I did do before cloning was repartition the disk to remove the Lion recovery data, then I enabled a RAID mirror on it and set the AutoRebuild key to true. I'm currently scrunching the pre-installed Lion Server volume into a disk image to be saved for possible future use, after which, I'll repartition that disk and add it to the RAID volume on the 10.6.8 disk. I have a new MacMini 2.3 I5, 8GB RAM and 500GB HD and the Intel HD Graphics 3000.
I purchased it for a special project to run all night on a regular basis. I need SL to run on my MacMini because the Nikon graphics software (Nikon Scan 4.0.3) I run for my heavy duty scanning projects (slides and negatives) wont run on Lion. I erased the disc, clean of Lion. I used my (2011) Macbook Pro 2.3GHz Intel i7 with 8GB of RAM as the server and started my MacMini in TDM and connected it via firewire wire 800 to my MacBook pro and loaded an old retail version of SL. It works until the re-start phase of the SL install so i waited and waited and when it restarts I eject the retail SL disc and insert my MacBook Pro SL disc so my macbook pro wont stall. This worked and I installed the update and I am now running 10.6.8 on both machines.
Its not an easy fix and it is very time consuming.Problems: None with my Macbook Pro, restarted fine and works like a champ.MacMini - Many problems.here is the listDisplay - Pink in color can't adjust. Thunderbolt Port not recognized. Display, after sleep won't come back - 'No signal' is the message. These seems to be regular problems with this step backward to SL.Speed benchmarks not attempted yet.
If I can fix the display so its not pink I will try that. Start up is not fast, but not deadly slow either.My monitor type is recognized by the Mini in the status bar and in the system preferences so I do not fear its a monitor issue, but I am going to swap monitors to see if that helps.On another note, when i was loading SL onto the mini, performing system update and making sure it worked the display was my on my Macbook pro and it looked perfect. Not sure whats going on, but I wont stop till I fix this.Thanks for all the feedback and hints on how to do this in the first place. Without your upfront advice on how to accomplish I wouldn't be this far along yet. More updates to come.CheersRich. Hello 7design,a few questions: have you checked performance with xbench or geekbench?
I also made the downgrade to 10.6.8 and got it running (although starting the process from an 2010iMac) and it works, but the mac mini is way to slow (xbench gives a result of ca. 70 - like an 7 yrs old mac) and geekbench-32 gives 1900 (SL) vs ca 6000 (Lion) - so for me it works but makes no sense.On the other hand I got the info from an Apple Store Manager that the MacMinis all came with SL on it and have been upgraded to Lion just before selling.So I'm still curiuos If I have a chance to get it to workThanksajanky. Don't know about your philosophies.Mac mini 2011 core i5 (radeon 6630m) works fine with Snow Leopard.(Just cannot boot from 10.6-media (DVD or external HD) for install.)1. Image an existing SL 10.6.8 installation (mine a core2duo mac mini), prepare for restore (images/check image for restore).2. Boot the new mac mini in target mode (holding T when booting).3. For Safety, image (disk utility) the preinstalled, existing lion installation.4. Maybe format the hard disk (only if you want to get rid of the recovery partition).5.
Restore the image (choose delete = blockcopy).6. Boot the mac mini holding alt key to choose hd as boot partition.Works (quick overview, not indepth testing), including sleep, all system programs, cs4 - enjoy. I've installed Snow Leopard on several 2011 Mac Minis, this is the method I use:Connect the Mac Mini to an older Macbook with a Firewire cable (Because the Macbook only has Firewire 400 I had to use a special cable with Firewire 400 on one end and 800 on the other)Power on the Mac Mini and hold down T to enter Target Disk Mode.Power on the Macbook and boot from a Snow Leopard retail DVD.Use Disk Utility to format the Mac Mini HD (be careful not to format the Macbook!)Follow the normal Snow Leopard installation process, make sure to pick the Mac Mini hdd as the destination.
Let the installation complete and the Macbook will restart from the Mac Mini hdd.Now you have Snow Leopard installed on the Mac Mini, but it still wont boot. You need to install the 10.6.8 combo update. After installing this, restart once, then turn both Macs off, disconnect the Firewire cable and turn the Mini on again. It seems to take a while to boot the first time but after that it works OK. Well, I'm stumped. I have a new (Nov 2011) i5 mac mini, that is giving me #@.@ with its refusal to output 5.1 sound via HDMI, and so I tried to install SL to a spare firewire disk on the mini from a remote-mounted retail SL 10.6 DVD (part no mc2232Z/A). Examine 2d software free.
The SL installer won't run from the mini - says it needs a different version of the application.So I copied the SL install disk to a USB stick, and tried to boot from that. Got a kernel panic.
Might look deeper into that, but I don't know what to look for.Don't have a MB Pro to use for the target disk trick, but that seems to be the key.Mike. I really appreciate your well-meant contribution. Mayer has probably not recognized the grain of humor in your nickname;).
But seriously, it seems that the longer a thread gets, the less people read through it. The question was not how to get an installer on a USB stick (not yet, at least). However, I meant which system build of SL would ideally match the Mini 2011 (that came with Lion).
And that is probably depending on hardware similarities or differences. This Apple support doc may give some useful hints about system builds and compatibility:by.