Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

Did the Snow leopard install as prescriped (thanks a lot!!) in mini I7 quard, geek bench before= 2785; geekbench after=8816. Looking good. Monitor connected to HDMI (DVI adaptor). No monitor on the mini display port. The mini still believes there is a monitor on the display port...

Solved the mouse pointer issue by turning on display mirroring.

Hope this helps others with the mouse pointer issue.

Happy new year!

Kasper

It is definitely faster in Snow Leopard - it finishes the geekbench tests about 2 seconds faster compared to Lion. For 32-bit, I have managed to squeeze out a whopping geekbench score of 8930 in Snow Leopard! The most I can manage in Lion is 8873.

Hi John,

I have the same problem but only an iBook G4 (X10.4) and a Snow Leopard 10.6.0 disc. I ordered a SL 10.6.6 disc at Apple Store.

I have the quad core (i7) Mac mini with Lion Server bought this weekand. But I need Rosetta to run iMovie HD (V 6.0) and fcp 6.0. That should mean Snow Leopard or lower. Can't install SL client on VMWare, Parallels or Boxit(?). So what's a poor businessman to do? Return the Mac mini (<14 days), give up the idea of using the mac server (yes having Windows on the same machine is a bonus) and try to keep my creaking G4 goingfor my video clients (ask users of iMovie 6.0 why the next version doesnot tick boxes).

Any suggestions before I return the machine?

Guess I was a bit quick to claim success 🙂

Displayport (thunderbolt) to DVI or VGA does not work. If I connect screens go blank and reboot via VNC is the only way out. Sleep or power save has the same effect - black screen.

Im thinking the driver is missing - comparing System/Library/extensions between lion and my snow leopard I see the Intel HD 3000 is missing on SL. Actually there is a lot of missing stuff - why not copy all lion extensions to SL?

Cya

Kasper

You aren't comparing like for like - not all the kexts are the same in Lion as Snow Leopard, so you can't use this to compare what might be "missing". There isn't a kext called AppleIntelHD3000Graphics in Snow Leopard! If you have used 10.6.3 retail DVD - this may be what is causing your thunderbolt problems. As I explained in earlier post, retail DVDs are not the best approach if you want absolutely everything working.

You can't just use Lion kexts in Snow Leopard - it won't work - and even if you managed to update a Snow Leopard prelinked kernel with Lion kexts (it is possible!), the behviour will be unpredictable due to the fact the Lion kexts were compiled against different headers and linked with different versions of libraries.

After using Lion on a brand new Mac Mini i7 "upgrade" with ATI graphics for three weeks, I'm looking for an alternative OS.

Lion simply is not for seasoned OS computer users. My Leopard MBP and Mac Mini will stay leopard based for awhile until Apple fixes the Lion operating system.

Using a Linux SAMBA server simply stinks under Lion. Under Leopard works great. Many programs have been eliminated from Lion that I enjoy under Leopard.

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple is using the gimmicks under Lion to entice users to the OS switch or Lion based products, don't do it.

Apple please listen to your customers, people don't want gimmick programs, we want value, functionality and stability.

Apple please work on migrating Snow Leopard and Leopard on two your new Mac Minis until you have fixed Lion or you will be losing customers fast.

Microsoft is tuned into your users complaints!

I like others find the current OS Lion a big disappointment compared to previous Mac Leopard and Snow Leopard Operating systems.

I'm having the same problem as Kasper.

I have 2 Mac minis: 2,5 gHz i5 and 2,0 gHz server.

I used a MacBook Pro 2011 install DVD, and kopied the files mentioned by newfoundglory. The 2,5 gHz i5 works on my TV which is connected by a Displayport-to-DVI connector. My 2,0 gHz server however goes to black screen when loading the same install DVD.

Any ideas on how to get working image on the Thunderbolt port of the Mac mini server ?

Actually the Dual Core i5 does not have the HD3000 card but the ATI 6630M card. I have that same model, and the TB port works fine on that one as well, even on the 30 inch ACD.

The server version however does not recognize the 30 inch ACD. I did use a OS X installation from a 2011 MacBook Pro for both mini's.

Actually You Can. Use any late Macintosh that will run Snow Leopard and either boot from a 10.6.3 universal installer that been intalled on a hard drive (quickest) or boot from the UNIVERSAL OS X 10.6.3 DVD. The new Mac Mini should be connected via FireWire in TARGET MODE to the host Macintosh.

Use disk Uitility to format the Mac Mini Hard Drive and install 10.6.3 on it. When it boots (still in target mode) it will be the boot drive for the host macintosh.

Then install 10.6.8 update and iLife 11 and Applejack (this will fix the install in the end).

Then run software update and carry out all updates that it indicates.

After that shut down and take the Mini off Target Mode and disconnect the firewire cable.

Restart the Mini and run software update again. Note - the cursor may take any number of shapes at this stage but continue on. Certainly you wil be asked to run software update OS X 10.6.8 supplemental which should fix the cursor problem.

Restart and hold dowm <Command><S> until a black screen with white writing appears. Wait for it to scroll down to the end and at the prompt type applejack AUTO restart and then press <Enter>

Applejack will run 5 routines which may take some time and at the finish it will restart.

That should be it!

One codicil. If you read the stuff that Applejack brings up you will see that half the processors are not working. I'm not sure if this is as a result of being in Single User Mode or wheteher SL Doesn't recognise the other half of the processors. This is no big deal and does not seem to affect the operation at all.

The good news is that SL will run on a new Mac Mini which should satisfy a lot of users who have apps that are not yet Lion Compatible.

Happy to communicatewith anyone having problems.

<Email Edited by Host>

Dear Desmond, if you look through the whole thread you will see that Newfoundglory discovered a way to increase SL performance by using specific kext files from Lion.

Question: In your method (which is ostensibly what I did) what are the operations that AppleJack performs? And why are they needed?

WIthout the AppleJack step, I have a SL installation that runs fast (with the added Lion kexts), but lacks support for the DP output. HDMI works but is limited to 1920x1080. Also, in my installation (i7 quad core HD3000 graphics) expose works but is VERY choppy, suggesting to me that underlying video drivers are missing.

Thanks for the response. I'll look up Newfoundglory and add that to my KB. In regard to Applejack - in my work as a technician I have made it standard operating procedure to install Applejack on all my clients computers as it just goes through and corrects many errors saving me much time and clients, money. I suggest that you go to macupdate.com and follow through it to Applejack and read up the projects notes. Disappointingly, the Author has not updated Applejack for 17 months , so some functionality is lost in Lion, which is a great shame, but the same thing happened between Leopard and Snow Leopard so I suppose that eventually he will get A into G. My interset in this is that I have a Doctors Rooms who have a specific medical application that is not yet updated to Lion (another tardy developer) and needs Snow Leopard for a few months before thar developer gets A into G.

SUCCESS!

As noted in an earlier posts, I used the newfoundglory method on a quad mac mini based on osx 10.6.3 dvd (intel HD3000 graphics). I had the ghost display and mouse issue.

Tried applejack and it did not help.

Googled for "kexts for HD3000" and found AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext dated june 24 2011 which is different from the LS 10.6.8 dated march 27 2010.

Replaced AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext, rebooted and the ghost display is gone and now only showing one display. The HDMI output is working but not the minidisplayport. I can unplug and the screen comes back on.

So:

download AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

Copy AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext to /Sy*/Li*/Ex*/

Change ownership and permissions on the new kexts:
chown root:wheel *
chmod 644 *

This solved my last problems of snow leopard on the 2011 Mac Mini quad server (geekbench =8867).

A thought: Maybe the lion AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext will work too, they are dated september 28 2011. Let us know if you try it.

Hope this can help some of you guys.

best wishes,

Kasper

wow, all these infos in this thread here are wonderful to hear, especially since i get my mini server yesterday!

i'm still confused which snow leo version is working on which mac to get a working one on the mini with both monitor outs working?!

what i've got are a mac pro 3,1 (early08) with 10.6.8 already installed, a mini (end06) with 10.6.7, a macbook air (late11) with lion, a 10.6.0 retail dvd, a 10.6.3 retail image, enough hd enclosures and the untouched new mini server.

can someone plz guide me step by step to get the server running under snow leo?

plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

if i later want to go back to lion, do i need to make a recovery stick, or only needed when i want to download the offical lion version (which is linked to my mini) from the app store?

@Kasper:

Kasper E wrote:

Googled for "kexts for HD3000" and found AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext dated june 24 2011 which is different from the LS 10.6.8 dated march 27 2010.

where did you find the newer versions plz?

@all:

isn't it possible that the lucky user who had already a fully working snow leo on their minis, uploading an image to elsewhere? it'll be only three different images, two for the non server ones with intel and amd graphics and one the server with intel graphics ...

thanx a lot to all contributers!!!

the last time i've got all these trouble was to run tiger on the mac pro, but any time, it was working and we've seed these special image via old school postal services through the world ;-)

I did not try to prelink.

However - after playing around alot getting my stuff installed I have realized that this approach has a serious drawback: It appears that graphics performance really *****. I think hardware acceleration is disabled/not working or what not. Watching movies is not smooth and running OpenGL test in Cinebench returns an error. (Clean install and NFG with updatede kexts runs fine).

So, while the output is detected correctly, no ghosting and the mouse pointer is good graphics performance is bad.

Ive decided to start from scratch again and not pursue this further. Sorry for the noise.

/Kasper

You have to try these things - but its important to update the prelinked kernel on the root volume used for startup. Otherwise, you have no idea if there are going to be problems with kext's. Often if you delete extensions from /System/Library/Extensions folder, and add some new ones, Mac OS X will detect that new kexts have been added and update the system caches automatically by starting the kextcache process in the background.

But its not always clear whether this process works - sometimes you get a message on screen that the extensions have not been correctly installed.