gcarmel

Q: How do I run an earlier version of OS X (Leopard) on my Mac that runs on Yosemite?

     I recently came across a circumstance where I needed to run OS X 10.5 Leopard or 10.6 Snow Leopard on my Mac, but I want to keep OS 10.10 Yosemite as my default. The closest I came to solving this problem was partitioning a new drive on disk utility and installing the operating system on the new drive. The only problem is that you can't install any old software on Yosemite and It stops you from even opening the OS X installer.

     How do I "dual-boot" an older version of OS X alongside with Yosemite? Please help!

Posted on Sep 26, 2015 11:07 PM

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Q: How do I run an earlier version of OS X (Leopard) on my Mac that runs on Yosemite?

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Sep 26, 2015 11:26 PM in response to gcarmel
    Level 10 (271,184 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 26, 2015 11:26 PM in response to gcarmel

    Unless your computer can be booted from Snow Leopard then you cannot install it. And, Leopard cannot boot it either.

  • by benwiggy,

    benwiggy benwiggy Sep 27, 2015 1:34 AM in response to gcarmel
    Level 4 (1,430 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2015 1:34 AM in response to gcarmel

    How old is your Mac? Snow Leopard was last updated in early 2010, and it doesn't know about computers from the future, so can't boot them. The same for Leopard from early 2009.

     

    Is there some software you need to run that requires Snow Leopard? What is it? Are you sure that no alternative is available?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Sep 27, 2015 10:51 AM in response to benwiggy
    Level 9 (71,593 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 27, 2015 10:51 AM in response to benwiggy
  • by gcarmel,

    gcarmel gcarmel Sep 27, 2015 11:39 AM in response to benwiggy
    Level 1 (51 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 27, 2015 11:39 AM in response to benwiggy

    2015 model laptop. I am trying to run it on a Virtual Machine using VMWare Fusion. If there is a will there is a way. Not definite if it will work yet.

  • by Barney-15E,Solvedanswer

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Sep 27, 2015 12:08 PM in response to gcarmel
    Level 9 (50,198 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2015 12:08 PM in response to gcarmel

    That is not "dual boot." And, that Mac cannot boot from anything earlier than Yosemite.

     

    The only way to virtualize Snow Leopard would be to use Snow Leopard Server (US$20 on the retail web store). That is the only version that is licensed to be virtualized. All of the legitimate VM software honors that license agreement and won't virtualize the non-server version.

  • by Király,

    Király Király Sep 28, 2015 12:16 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 6 (9,824 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2015 12:16 PM in response to Barney-15E

    The VM companies don's support non-Server Snow Leopard VMs, that's true. But what isn't true is that they don't support it because of the end user license agreement. There's no restriction in the non-Server Snow Leopard against installing it in a virtual machine. There is some other reason they don't support it. It's obvious to me that Apple made that a condition when licensing them the boot ROM code. Apple didn't want non-Server virtual machines, but since they didn't include such a prohibition in the end user license agreement, getting the middleman to block it was a way to achieve the same effect.


    The VM companies aren't in the business of enforcing end user license agreements. Those are between Apple and the end users, not them. If the VM companies were in that business, they would block 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 installations on host Macs running 10.10. Those are all license violations but the VM companies don't block those, because like I said, that's not the business they are in.


    Anyway, it's all a moot point now since the fully supported SL Server only costs $20. It was a much bigger point of interest when it was $500 and cost-prohibitive enough to make non-Server SL virtual machines worth pursuing.