Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

??? I bought a laptop for a friend and they wanted XP for some reason and it was possible. I have a machine with XP on to run some specialist software and it works.

I have a similar situation with my Mac. I want to buy a new Mini but I need it to run Snow Leopard. My only choice seems to be buy an iMac but I didn't really need a monitor.

I was able to install Snow Leopard 10.6 on a new mini using TDM from an old 10.5 mini I had and am experiencing a few weird problems that I'm wondering if anyone has found solutions for.

1. I am unable to put the dock on the right side of the screen. Doing so makes it disappear, but the left and bottom work fine.

2. My mouse cursor fails to return to the default arrow after it changes to something else. I am still able to click on things, but the cursor itself is not an arrow.

3. I have noticed strange graphical anomalies such as screen tearing and the dock icons merging with each other.

I had updated to 10.6.8 via the combo update and attempted to download any remaining updates after that with identical behavior.

Thanks

I thought installing SL on a 2011 mini was well documented already. I thought Steve had said that we were waiting for volunteers to get back to us regarding how to install SL such that it runs *full speed*. The standard SL install, so far, is running at GeekBench numbers around 30-40 percent of the numbers for a Lion install on the same machine.

So, is anyone spending gray cells figuring out how to get SL on a 2011 mini to run full speed (ie, hints from Steve's friends at Apple)? Or are we stuck with a crippled SL/mini combo?

iX

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footnote:

I have successfully installed SL on a 2011 mini (2.7 GHz i7 processor option). I have been using it for several weeks now and have had no problems at all other than the slow-down mentioned by others in this discussion thread. The mini otherwise functions like SL on my old 2006 mini (CoreDuo 1.83 GHz) only a bit faster and lots more RAM.

You spend a Grand on a New Mac you shouldn't have to play games to install an OS on it albeit a previous version OS. If Lion didn't have so many flaws and inhibitors we wouldn't even be discussing this. I have Macs that can run 5 different Mac OSes, from OS 9 to Leopard so don't give me that new hardware can't run older softerware bull. Besides Snow Leopard isn't that old.

As you say Snow Leopard isn't that old, but Lion is so new it only came out more or less at the same time as the Mini. You need 6 months or so for a new operating system to stabilise so we should have had a choice. Yes Lion eventually but a lot of software hasn't been upgraded for Lion.

With previous new operating systems, they all had a fall back to run older software. Rosetta, the transition from OS 9 to X etc. Windows 7 has XP mode!

You are correct. I AM expecting a solution -- either through virtualization (probably not for free, but inexpensive) or some code workarounds that will allow Snow Leopard to run at close to full speed, and with full functionality, on the "Lion machines." I still expect that, and I have plenty of reason to be optimistic. I'm getting plenty of detailed and encouraging progress reports through email, etc., and I'm getting ready to pass it along... Keep hope alive!!!

Over 14,300 views as of early Saturday. That tends to build momentum for SOMETHING, we just don't know what, yet!

Yes we can can! 😁 FREE THE SNOW LEOPARD 14,000 ! etc etc etc

l love "new" stuff. I have my share of old stuff. But I prefer the feeling of opening a new box with new software. I suppose it's a "cheap"- well not cheap at all--thrill. I am a dedicated MacAddict. I have been using apple computers and technology since the Apple II GS. Yes I'm old, 52 to be exact.

I use microsoft products on pc platforms and nothing comes close to researching new apple products, making a decision, going to an authorized retail store, and throwing down a big chunk of change on a new Macintosh computer with a new operating system. I actually jones about what I'm going to buy. Similar to a drug addict.

My 3 favorite males on this planet are Steve Jobs, The Woz, and Bill Gates. I'm a little concerned about where Apple is heading now that

Mr. Jobs has retired. Yes I work in both the White and the Black Side and I love it. However, my preference is for Apple products.

I never complain or feel angry when Apple spring surprises in the way of restrictions of freedom to compute. Apple has always done this. I never expect complete compatibility of anything with a new system. That why I have an office with many machines from many eras around. I also file and sort all of my software in appropriate storage boxes so I can pull out that OS 9 version of something and run with it.

I believe that this situation is not Apples fault but yours for not doing you homework. I don't feel sorry for you in the least bit.😢

FYI, in my (oh, so humble) opinion, the most important thing anyone's said here in the past few posts (okay, except Cathy, but you're always GOOOD!) was what iXod said...

iXod wrote:

I have successfully installed SL on a 2011 mini (2.7 GHz i7 processor option). I have been using it for several weeks now and have had no problems at all other than the slow-down mentioned by others in this discussion thread. The mini otherwise functions like SL on my old 2006 mini (CoreDuo 1.83 GHz) only a bit faster and lots more RAM.

Nailed it, iXod! I'm having pretty much the same result -- SnoLep runs well for me, at about 40% slooowwww -- but at a speed that I would have thought was just fine on a Mac not long ago. We will get past this, and it's just Apple doing what they've ALWAYS done, which is to launch new machines that don't support previous OS versions, usually because of specific code and support chip changes in the hardware that are needed to run the new OS version at its best speed. We -- all of us, here -- are just working around that, and we'll succeed, and this is NOT an example of Apple being (someone said, here, 'way over-the-top not long ago, "Steve Jobs is the Gaddhafi of the computer world...") unforgiveably evil, thoughtless, and most likely active agents of the Devil, or certainly Adobe!! 😁 We ARE having fun, now...

and our Macs will be joining us, shortly.

Yes we can can! 😁 FREE THE SNOW LEOPARD 14,000 ! etc etc etc

We are now well past 15,000 views on this thread, and rising at a fast clip.

Everyone I've talked to at Apple or at various software companies, in calls and emails, agrees that running Snow Leopard on Lion machines will happen, and that "this is just the way it is" for now, and not part of some draconian Apple plot. Therefore, it's a solveable problem, and we WILL be running Snow Leopard at close-to-or-FULL speed, soon, on the various "Lion" machines.

I've just invited Roy Miller (who's perfected some Snow Leopard fall-back installation protocols) and Zirkenz (who has posted here, in the past) to visit us from another thread here on Support Community discussions to share some of what they're been developing. Stand by! It's good stuff!

And, again, a reminder:

The slowdown and other problems encountered in running Snow Leopard on any "Lion designed" Mac (like the new 2011 Mini) is not due to Apple building some evil poison-pill code into the Macs or into Snow Leopard installers; it's just that Snow Leopard lacks the resources that it's expecting to find when it tries to run on those new machines.

There are lots of little pre-Lion-supportive code snippets in the chips of older Macs, and different chips and motherboard connections are now running the new "Lion" Macs. All of those little hooks and helpers are missing, when Snow Leopard goes looking for them on those new Macs. So, Snow Leopard struggles because it's strangled -- not by intent but by the machine it's running on.

And, that's why it's taking a bit of time for "virtualization" companies to come up with a smooth solution that allows Snow Leopard to run as a "virtual machine" on a Lion-designed Mac, and for other folks to write and code some work-arounds and build code bridges to help Snow Leopard dash over all of those hardware gaps in a reliable way.

We'll get there! Really! And soon.

Yes we can can! 😁 FREE THE SNOW LEOPARD 15,000 ! etc etc

I did some searching on the Parallels forums regarding running Snow Leopard within Parallels:

It seems that Apple does not license their consumer OS' to run under virtualization and Parallels respects this limiitation. Apple only licenses the respective Server versions to run under virtualization.

Hence, Parallels would only run Snow Leopard Server under virtualization.

For some reason that is obscure to me, there are discussions there that Apple DOES allow Lion (in addition to Lion Server) to run under virtualization, and that the new version of Parallels 7 does advertise its ability to run Lion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbiBGISHN1M

Perhaps Apple can be convinced to allow Snow Leopard to run under Parallels 7, and then an update of Parallels 7 can take advantage of this ability:

Accurate. I'm told that Parallels is approaching Apple for permission to allow an exception for Snow-Leopard-under-Lion.

Also, if I understand it properly, Apple's usual "server-version-only" virtualization restriction that was the rule in the past is NOT applicable to Lion -- it wasn't part of the user agreement -- and so, as you noted, Parallels is providing (and heavily publicizing) its ability to run Lion with Lion.

> And, that's why it's taking a bit of time for "virtualization" companies to come up with a smooth solution that allows Snow Leopard to run as a "virtual machine" on a Lion-designed Mac, and for other folks to write and code some work-arounds and build code bridges to help Snow Leopard dash over all of those hardware gaps in a reliable way.

> Steve J.

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My personal situation:

I have no desire to run SL virtually in any way; that is just one more level of complexity. I will boot SL natively on my 2011 mini and if there is no solution to make it come close to the GeekBench numbers this mini achieves when booted under Lion, so be it. I can live with it until Lion (or the next Cat) is pallatable enough to me to use.

As it is, the SL mini is quite usable. I'm not rendering 3-D images or transposing video files, or such.

iX

NoPod, virtualization isn't necessarily "one more level of complexity" and it won't slow things down much if at all. It might be, to the contrary, an interim solution that lets you run Snow Leopard at full speed by filling in some missing-code gaps with a couple of crutches. Note that this is just IMHO.

Is anyone else getting this page reset in the middle of creating a reply? Then the dreaded message "An unexpected error has occurred" displays on the web page. Right under the Apple Support Communities banner. (Yes, it's a web site error, not my OS or browser...)

All text lost, must begin again. SEVERAL TIMES.

XUG?

I think I'll not reply any more.

iX

iX, does that happen when you're replying, or perhaps when you're editing your reply to improve it, after posting it?

The reason I ask that is that it's not unusual, here, for someone to lose a connection if they're tying up one of the channels on this board while they're repeatedly revising a message, etc.

Not, of course, that I'm speaking from experience. I'm always brief. LOL

However, I've speculated that the software that runs the posting process -- or perhaps one of the sysops -- steps in and bumps someone off who's been on too long, if and when there's a constraint of some kind on the forum network. Like, say, a surge in log-ins and views, here, or in the Apple website as a whole.

We gotta come behind the Apple Store in priority level! I don't know about you, but I haven't spent much money while in Community Support, lately. 😮