Install Snow Leopard on new MacBook Air?

My question as well. Not sure I'm ready to jump into the Lion's den, but I could use the backlit keyboard.

I dont think you should have a problem as long as you have another Super Drive/ Disk Drive available to insert the Snow Leopard install DVD you should be good to go.

Please let us know how it works!

It is very doubtful that the Airs that were recently released with Lion preinstalled will support Snow Leopard. Apple products typically do not support versions (or even builds of the same version) which are earlier than the version / build they shipped with. As the new Airs also have new hardware, they may be locked to Lion.

I sure hope so too, but I likewise doubt it can. I will be sticking with SL for a year before even considering moving to Lion. Yet i ordered my new MBAir today. We will see.

i don't understand why they do this - it's a .0 release and many applications will have issues working with Lion!

if you're a professional, you need to go with tried and tested at least for the first 6months of life of an OS once developers catch up.

perhaps it will work, but if it doesn't

DA*MN APPLE - it's just so arrogant of them to do stuff like this

so guys, please let us know how it works out

WAG: It most likely depends upon if the video drivers on the SL disk will support the display on the new Air. If so the system should install. How satisfactory it will be remains to be seen. It is possible the display drivers for the new MBA will not install under SL and you will be limited in display performance.

I moved to Lion on July 1 and haven't looked back. I'm fortunate that 99% of my apps run just fine. I've had two minor problems...

The version of Kindle for Mac on amazon.com can't access the Amazon servers so it is essentially useless. Most of my technical books are in Kindle format so this was a major pain until I found that moving back in version to the release that is on the Mac Store works fine.

The second glitch is some of my onOne plugins for Photohop CS5 no longer work. onOne knows about it and is already working on an update.

All other apps I use have either been updated for Lion or just work.

No, the new MBair comes with a special build of Lion 10A2063. Snow Leopard will not work.

Regards,

Captfred

i don't really care about the special build of lion, and it really may not be that special - i reckon it's quite similar to the one available in app store.

anyways, there's a few ways to possible do it

one is to install Snow Leopard on an external USB drive, boot up from that drive and test how it works.

if that doesn't work you'd need to probably mount the lion install image on the MBA, use disk utility to restore from that to the external drive (erasing contents). then boot from that external drive, use disk utility to wipe the internal drive completely - this would remove the restore partition too and remove some intelligence!

then try and install from a snow leopard external drive (as in snow leopard image restored to external drive)

perhaps the firmware won't allow it! in that case it's easiest then to install Snow Leopard from scratch onto any Mac and mac a disk image of it

then use disk utility to restore from that to the MBA drive.

and boot up!

then run the latest snow leopard combo updater - that will ensure that you have everything!

i don't see why it shouldn't work. the intel 3000 is supported under snow leopard

if it doesn't work, apple has done something uncool in the firmware and alienated me as a user in the process

The special build of Lion adds the drivers for the new MBair. I'm sure even the GM Lion 11A511 won't run on the new MBair. The air requires 11A2063 for the 13" i7.

Also, I tried booting 10.6.8 from an external drive. It doesn't work.

Captfred

The trick is to have the Air plugged into an external display.

I managed to install SL on a 15" MacBook Pro, use the Combo 10.6.8 updater, and then imaged the system onto the new air using a server with netboot.

It works but it does not detect the built in display at all.

You can probably do a direct network boot using the USB install disc that the previous generation Airs came with, provided that the new Air is plugged into an external display so you can see what you are doing.

Next question, how do you get the SL Intel video driver to properly detect the new Air's built in display?

thats great information, thanks for that :-)

i would've thought that would've worked but display is a big issue :-(

Please advise. Here is what I'd like to do:

1. Buy and use the new macbook air with lion

2. Use patient software that will not work with lion but does work with leopard

Comment: As I understand, I can not and should not try to run leopard on the new air which does not give me an option for my software.

Question: Can I run snowleopard and therefore my software off of an external hd that I connect via usb to the Air?

Thanks.

Apet,

Your best bet would be to install Snow Leopard using a VM, like Fusion.

another option:

if someone can make a 10.6.8 combo updated image (witch x1 and without the hole printer driver stuff) from one of the current sandybridge i.x macbook pros, there'll be very good chances that snow leo will run.

that was the way i get tiger running on the mac pros which comes with leo, some years ago. all i need was such an image from an imac with the same graphic card driver!

if anybody can figure it out and let us know??????

There is no licensing available to run SL in a VM, although you can run SLServer that way