Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

dimoe, thanks for such a fast response!

Why did you personally have to do all of this: "(I had to remove 16 .kext-files afterwards: BJUS...kext, 14x HP...kext, Lexmark...kext)" ?

I have the Mini i7 Quad 5.3 model. Are you saying taht I will have to do all of that too? Or did you have to do that on your specific machine for various reasons? Please clarify.

And just for clarification, are you saying that the NFG .dmg installer package performs ALL of the Amis V2 instructions meaning that there would be no need to perform any of the other steps in the Amis V2 instructions?

Lastly. Premise:

Say that my Mini i7 quad 5.3 model machine has all of the NFG .dmg package installer installed and/or Amis V2 directions applied and 10.6.8 is installed and is up and running.

Question:

Theoretically, should I be able to have a clone/backup of my Mini on an external drive that would be able to be cloned to any other same exact machine or my same machine again in the future WITHOUT having to do another TDM install of 10.6.X causing me to perform all of the steps in the Amis V2/NFG .dmg package in the future again.

dimoe, I have been reading this thread for MONTHS and have seen your name and posts from the beginning and its nice to hear from you directly!

Thanks,

mesa3077boogie

Just getting a little disoriented in this topic?

What is the NFG package. Is it from NewFoundGlory? Where to get it, what does it do?

I have a 5,2 mini and I copied the plist and 2 kext files from Lion to Snow. Does it contain those 5 files or is it anything else?

yes,

Newfoundglory build an installer with these files and some more System-extensions, so we don't have to work with the terminal.

I just posted the Link to his installer (from march 2011) in my posting above

Ok thanks dimoe.

Those are some pretty good speed boosts with the new Mountain Lion, thanks for posting that information!

Next,

Im not fully comprehending what you are saying about the popups and extensions. I seen the list of extensions that you made in this post:

" I compared the new extensions with my old ones in my TimeMachine and marked newer and missing (red lines).

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/943870/Mini-Install-Package.png

Then I copied the newer back (as root user), repaired disk permissions and now I have

a geekbench of 6950

and AJA Test of 88 (first ifs fast, then it slows down)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/943870/AJA-Mini.png

If someone knows wich kexts are needed, here they are

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/943870/kext.zip "

Are you only getting popups because you are using the i7 dual core Mini and the NFG package was i7 quad core specific? Or are you saying that there is a list of extensions that I will manually need to remove or update that all who perform the NFG installer on any 2011 Mini will need to do?

If I'm understanding you correctly, You said (in the above text between the quotes from an earlier post) that you used your time machine to copy over different versions of extensions. Whats not clear is that was your time machine backing up Lion or the newly installed SL?

IF this is something I will need to do on my machine, can you please explain the process to me? I am headed to a friends tomorrow night for the second time with my Mini to attempt all of this.

By "repair permissions", do you mean boot from the Mini running 10.6.8 and open disc utility, select the drive or partition that SL 10.6.8 is installed on and simply click "repair permissions". Or is there something more involved than that?

Lastly can you address this question from my last entry?

"Question:

Theoretically, should I be able to have a clone/backup of my Mini on an external drive that would be able to be cloned to any other same exact machine or my same machine again in the future WITHOUT having to do another TDM install of 10.6.X causing me to perform all of the steps in the Amis V2/NFG .dmg package in the futureagain."

Thanks again!

Mesa3077boogie

Thanks for your reply dimoe. I did see the info about the printers in the past but in the back of my head I figured I would deal with it when it came there and had that page book marked...

So basically I need to delete the printer kexts IF I get error messages, correct?

In the above steps you listed for installing SL on an SSD you wrote:

"

- start the Mini in FireWire-Target Modus

- install SL from an other Mac on the empty SSD

- migrate the user and applications

- install ComboUpdate 10.6.8 from an other Mac

- reboot the Mini and install NFG-package

- remove the wrong system-extensions

- reinstall the ComboUpdate

- repair permissions

"

In the 6th line down "- remove the wrong system-extensions" are you referring to the AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext ? If so, arent those taken care of if I use the NFG installer? If not which system-extensions are you referring to?

After re reading your last post I did get what you were saying about installing SL on you SSD and being able to clone later. So therefore Im banking on cloning my newly installed 10.6.8 tomorrow night after the install it to have a backup fresh copy incase I screw something up.

Sorry you have to spoon feed me, Im just trying to wrap my head around it 🙂

Thanks so much!

mesa3077boogie

I succeeded in installing 10.6.8 on my 2011 Mini Server

My 64 bit geekbench benchmark score before the NewFoundGlory package was 2388

My 64 bit geekbench benchmark score after the NewFoundGlory package is 9706

I have not remmoved the unwanted printer drivers yet. I am having the same issues iXod was having with display prefferences only allowing up to 1600x900 resolution.?? My screen seems a bit 'foggy' compared to my Lion partition, this may have something to do with the resolution being set to 1600x900.

My install process:

I used an early 2011 iMac that was born with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 as my host machine. The host machine was updated to 10.6.8 with all current updates prior. I used the iMac's 10.6.6 restore DVD to install 10.6.6 on my Mini using target disc mode. After successfully installing 10.6.6 onto the mini and still booted from the iMac, I installed the 10.6.8 combo update onto my Mini. I then turned everything off, unplugged the FW cable and booted from my Mini. I then Installed the NFG .dmg installer package. I ran the geekbench benchmarks and saw that the NFG package brought my geekbenchmark score up to 9706 and then turned everything off as it was getting late.

Question 1: Doesnt the NFG package install the latest HD3000 graphic driver and kexts? If I have the lastest HD3000 drivers or kexts, shouldnt system preferences have a 1920x1080 selection? Has anyone been able to fix the issue with display prefs only allowing up to 1600x900? When I booted from the host iMac machine onto the mini running 10.6.8 with all the updates and applied NFG package, system prefs showed the option of running 1920x1080. But as I said, when I booted FROM THE MINI, my largest resolution available was 1600x900.

Question 2: I will be using SL for earlier versions ProTools. Therefore do I still need rosetta installed if this is the only reason I will be using SL 10.6.8? I installed one partition with rosetta and Qt7 and one partition without rosetta and Qt7.

Thanks!

mesa3077boogie

This is in regards to my 2012 Mini Server With Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with applied NFG package.

My Lion 10.7.4 Partition on the Mini server has several HDGraphics3000.kext files and other HD3000 files found in my system/extensions folder that my SL partition does NOT have. With dragging those over to the 10.6.8 partition yielded me an average of 300 more benchmark points..

My question is should the HD3000 kext files be on the 10.6.8 machine or should I just leave it the way it was with the NFG package installer?

As I stated in my last post, my SL 10.6.8 partitions only has up to a 1600x900 resolution available. This being with the NFG package installed. Strange. However , it LOOKS as if I am getting 1920x1080 resolution even with 1600x900 resolution selected.. ?

Now regarding another test I did. I installed Snow Leopard 10.6.6 onto my Mini from an iMac onto a separate partitioned drive in my Mini Server. The I applied the 10.6.8 Combo Update, however I did NOT boot the Mini from the iMac in TDM and I did NOT install the NFG package or perform the Terminal Fixes that are included in the package installer. When I got home , I tried to boot the Mini to that specific 10.6.8 partition and it would NOT boot correctly. When turned on, you could hear the SL welcome music as if it was playing but the screen would turn on as it was not getting any graphics. So I then dragged the appropriate files over (Amis V2 instructions, etc) and then , boom, it booted. I performed the Terminal commands (per Amis V2) and my average geekbench score is now 9520 running the 64 bit test. NOW when I look at the screen resolutions in sys pref's I ONLY get a 1920x1080 selection, and no other resolution setting are listed..? Interesting.

Hi Everybody !

Just followed David Amis' instructionas and installed SL in my Mini Server 5,3. EXCELLENT results !!!

The Mini got over 9300 score in Geekbench (64 bit). Everything works fine, except the bluetooth mouse, that keeps on freezing.

BTW, the link to the Kexts is not working anymore. I got the chance to download them before the link died, so should I post another link just in case anybody needs them ?

Also, I've seen that NGF has kindly created an installer, which is poster later in this thread. Will that fix the Bluetooth issue ?

Thanks a lot ! You guys Rock !!

Javi.

ya go ahead and post kexts again for more people to come who may want to go that route. The NFG installer package is the same as performing the AMIS V2 instructions only with all of the 'work' already done for you.

As far as the Bluetooth and and mouse problems, what you get is what you get. I get similar issues. I have all my installs done several different ways for testing purposes. I have yet to see how actually stable the SL system is for real life work such as work use with ProTools (the whole reason I did the SL on Lion Machine switch). The hype on this thread has seriously died down, so I doubt anyone who knows code is actively pursuing a fix for the known issues.

Do you have a 1920x1080 resolution option in your screen preferences? As stated above , mine only goes to 1600x900 but 'appears' to be actually giving 1920x1080. A few other posters have the same issues but I have not seen where anyone has *fixed* the issue.

Do you have an SSD or upgraded RAM? Those benchmarks are pretty good!

My average score for SL on My Lion server is 9520. I have an OCZ vertex3 120GB and an OCZ Agility3 60GB drive, and 2 8GB sticks of 1333MHZ RAM. On a clean install of Lion 10.7.4 on the same machine my average is 9700 but I have achieved 9818 which is spectacular (not sure why benchmark scores bounce around so much?) As it stands right now my SL average benchmark score is 9520 and that is satisfactory IMO.

Hello mesa3077boogie, and thanks for your reply.

Here's the link to the Kexts, just in case anybody needs them...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iiqc91syrwl8w9m/MacMini2011%20Snow%20Leopard%20kexts.z ip

I think that I've figured out how to make the Bluetooh work: I just plugged in a USB Bluetooth adapter (for which SL doesn't need any specific driver). It's been working very nice for two days now (Magic mouse and wireless keyboard, running Pro Tools 10).

I do have a 1920 resolution option. I'm using the HDMI port. It works perfect in the 3 monitors I've tried it on.

I also have upgraded Ram (8gigs), all the memory is seen -and used- by the system. No SSD here 😟

I get almost the same results in Geekbench (a little lower: aroound 9400). But I just left the original 2x750 gigs HD. I didn't even try Lion, since the experience I had using it on another iMac we have around in the studio was pretty disappointing.

Best !

Javi, what are you mainly using your mini for?

I dont want to get too far off topic, but I noticed you said studio, (music? desigh?)

Hey Im just throwing this out there Javi. Would you by any chance be able to clone your system to an SD card so that I can see what drivers and or kext files that you have that I dont that are leaving me with only 1600x900 resolution?

I can send you an SD card as well as a prepaid return envelope. Maybe you can do a generic install of a Snow Leopard system where you dont actually name or password your system upon install. ? Just throwing it out there, Im not offended if you say no 🙂

So basicall you are using a USB dongle for bluetooth rather than using the faulty built in bluetooth? And no problems there?

I'm using it for music production.

I don't think cloning the whole system is a good idea because I've already installed TONS of stuff on the system HD -Yes, maybe not a very clever decision... The thing is that I'm already using over 300 Gigs of that drive so cloning it onto an SD card is out of the question.

But I could try to reinstall SL into an external drive (if the Mini allows me). In that case, I could clone it to the SD and send it to you or even upload it somewhere. Just give me a couple of days to find a way to do so.

And yes, I'm using a generic USB dongle for BT that seems to have solved the issue. 🙂

Talk to you soon.

Sounds good thanks for the info, I will check into a BT dongle.

I installed SL several different ways for testing and cloned them all for backups on separate partitions. Example: an install os SL with rosetta & QT7, an install of SL without rosetta and QT&, a version without any of the NFG kexts installs performed, etc. The largest of all my "testing partitions" is 6.99GB. I have 2 backups on a single 15GB SD card.

Im finding different video drivers between the different versions. Its super weird as they were installed all from teh same host machine. I dragged over some of the HD3000 Kexts (not found in the NFG package) from my Lion 10.7.4 partition to one of my SL test partitions and although Im not sure if the SL partition is even using the HD3000 kext files, that SL partition yields an average benchmark score of 200-300 more points than the other SL test partitions without the HD3000 kexts.

No one here has any comments on that however, so I guess its just an FYI from me.

What was your host machine for the installs?

My host machine was a mid 2011 iMac born with 10.6.6. In TDM I booted the Mini from the iMac and saw the 1920x1080 in sys-prefs, but when i booted the Mini by itself, it doesnt have the 1920x1080 option at all.? Still no info on that..

However, like I said above a few posts ago, I did a flavor of the AMIS V2 instructions in combination with using some of the Lion 10.7.4 HD3000 kexts onto a SL partition and that SL partition only has a 1920x1080 resolution option with no other resolutions to choose from..

I'd like to add my successful experience as another data point, and ask a question.

To start, I really dislike the direction Apple has taken with 10.7, and now 10.8, for several reasons. I ran across this thread, and decided to buy a Mac mini and try it "downgrade" to Snow Leopard.

I followed the instructions from David Amis, from page 27.

My new Mac mini is the Mid 2011 Server model (i7, 10.7 Server installed). My Snow Leopard assistant machine is a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro. It came with 10.5 installed, so I was able to use the 10.6.3 retail disk as the source. I installed Snow Leopard to the second drive on my mini, and left the Lion "Server HD" drive alone.

Now that it is finished, I have Snow Leapard running with a 64-bit Geekbench score of 9122.

There were two problems along the way:

1. The first time I ran the installer, it failed midway through the install. The installer just quit, an my MBP shut down. (Yes, my MBP was plugged in!). The second time I ran the installer, it completed successfully.

2. When I tried to install the 10.6.8 v1.1 Combo Updater, the updater would not recognize the fresh 10.6.3 install as valid. I tried twice to run the Combo Updater from the MBP, and ran into this problem both times. I then tried to start the mini (with Snow Leopard as the start up disk). It hung on the Apple screen. I tried this twice with same result. I tried yet again to install the Combo Updater from my MBP, with the mini in Target Disk mode. This time it worked! I was able to boot my new Mac mini in Snow Leopard, and complete the rest of the steps.

I guess the moral of this story is that these steps DO work, even if not on the first or second try.

Now my question: has anyone heard of success installing Snow Leopard on a 2011 Macbook Air? The only information I've seen is here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1352079

I would love to buy one of these machines and install Snow Leopard, but would like more information first.

Thank all of you who collaborated in figuring this out and documenting it, with a particular nod to NewFoundGlory.

Success installation Snow Leopard on a Mini Mac 2011 without external computer.

For it you needed:

1. Snow Leopard 10.6.7 OSX for MacBookPro.

2. 10.6.0 or 10.6.3 OSX retail installation disk.

3. 10.6.8 combo update.

4. Package from NewFoundGlory (NFG).

5. External optical CD/DVD.

You must replace OSInstall.mpkg file from 10.6.0 or 10.6.3 retail disk to 10.6.7 for MacBookPro.

Also you can replace drivers for printers.

Path for these files is System/Installation/Packages/

Directories are hidden so you can use "cmd shift G" command to reach them.

For modified 10.6.7(for MBP) DMG you must converted it to Read/Write DMG with Disk Utility.

Install SL 10.6.7 from modified disk, install 10.6.8 combo update, reboot and install NewFoundGlory package.

It's all!

Thanks RC Brown for link and NewFoundGlory for beautiful package!

How make a universal 10.6.7 Snow Leopard installer:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120123175902871