Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

I've re-installed OSX 10.6.8 on a mid-2011 mini for the 3rd time in 18 months. I have not yet installed NFG's package, this time.

When I "Quick Look" (highlight in Finder & press the Space Bar) a file I get these results:

Print files (photos, pdfs, etc.) display fine.

Audio & video file either display an icon (usually the video files) and nothing else, or look like they are playing (icon shows & progress bar moves) but no audio.

If I open these audio or video files in a player (ie, iTunes or VLC player) they play as expected.

I've been chasing this problem ever since I installed Snow Leopard on this 2011 mini 18 months ago.

This time I've not installed any add-ons (menu bar enhancements, etc.) to see if it might be one of these causing the trouble. But the problem seems to be Snow Leopard and the 2011 mini.

On another partition on this mini I installed Mountain Lion (10.8). The Quick Look issue I've been having does not happen in 10.8.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with this combination?

Thanks,

iX

It appears the answer is no. I tried all the various ideas that I read in the discussions and on the net. It appears that Apple made changes to the basic system setup that prevents anything older than Lion from working. It is a very Microsoft thing to have done, especially for those of us who use Snow Leopard Server. We are being forced to move to Mountain Lion Server when the newer OS doesn't offer any real advantages over Snow Leopard. I am sure there will be administrators who will disagree with me but if you look at the number of systems administrators who are upset with the change it becomes clear that there are a large group of unhappy users.

I was referring to Snow Leopard Server in my reply above. I don't know whether or not regular Snow Leopard can be installed but I suggest you look back at some of the postings for instructions on how to build a universal installer disk for Snow Leopard.

Thanks for the input. This information was not available back in October and November when I was trying to put a temporary Snow Leopard Server in for a client. I rented a new mini only to discover that I could not install Snow Leopard Server on it. The end result of a week of searching Apple support and the web was that I was forced to write off $1500 of my time plus the rental cost of the server. The client had to wait until Apple fixed the server at which time I was able to restore their system. Had the client followed my recommendation 2 years ago and purchased a second server as a back-up device it would have made their lives easier. Had Apple not screwed up the ability to load Snow Leopard Server on the new mini's I could have restored their service in a matter of hours instead of weeks. I am hugely disappointed in Apple for doing a Microsoft type of thing with the server OS. Thanks for your response anyway.

Hey guys!

newfoundglory and friends, any chance to run SL on late 2012 mac mini (2nd partition, 1st Lion) with those kernel and plist files replacements from 2011 models tutorial? With a universal installer?
Thanks a lot!!!

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Michael I got your Mail and answered from a real adress, but there is an error:

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mailin-01.mx.aol.com[XXX.193] refused to talk to me: XXX 4.7.1 :

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Should I retry?

Dirk

Hi

Sorry for bringing up this old chestnut again. For those who have sucesfully installed 10.6 on Mini Server 2011, do you have to keep one drive with the lion install or can this be deleted and just used as storage?

Many thanks

Hi dimeo,

Amazing that this thread is still alive ! Hope Apple some how is concerned 😟 .

Ok , first thanks again to all for making possible to run snow leopard on the minis . Just wanted u to know that Snow Leopard 10.6 DVD is on sale and still available at online apple store Spain . I personally got one few weeks ago . I checked a few minutes ago and still available for 18 € . Not really visible thought . Enter store . programs and type snow leopard , there.

Cheers..

I have the MacMini 5,2 2.7GHz i7 with 750Gb HD and 16Gb Memory - I wanted to install Snow Leopard for the use of Rosetta with legacy software and achieved on my internal disk following the comments of Newfoundglory 04-Dec-2011 using the tar copy syntax of Cathy Fasano 06-Dec-2011 (Big thank you to you both).

The only hiccups I experienced were:

1) finding a suitable machine to parent the installation - borrowed a friends Macbook Pro5,3 Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz 15" (2009) model - I was concerned that this might be too early - but it has worked fine as far as I can tell - by putting the MacMini into firewire target mode and running the Retail 10.6.3 installer and a downloaded and burnt to disk copy of the Combo Updater 10.6.8 v1.1 on the Macbook Pro.

2) Second Hiccup after the install process completed and Macmini5,2.plist applied (raising the GeekBench score satisfactorily for Snow Leopard from 2027 to 7433) but I then found found that the install hadn't installed Rosetta - going back to the Custom Installation on the 10.6.3 and choosing a Rosetta install took the system back to 10.6.3 again and erased the Macmini5_2.plist settings reducing the speed again! So updated and tar copied again. To keep the speed up for Mountain Lion I now have that installed on a Western Digital Caviar Green 2Tb bare drive sitting on a Seagate Thunderbolt GoFlex Desk Adaptor - which has consistently given me Geekbench scores that have beaten the internal drive (a Hitachi HTS727575A9E362) to achieve my MacMini’s best at 7630. Thanks to everyone for their comments on this topic. Certain machines are great for bridging the boundaries of legacy technologies if help is there to overcome the wrinkles.

One last hiccup I experienced at the beginning in this process (above) - running the retail 10.6.3 on the Macbook Pro and having partitioned and re-formatted the Macmini’s internal hard drive - I found that the installer wouldn't allow me to install into the first new partition to begin with - only the smaller second partition - I had to rerun the partition process a couple of times before it then allowed my original choice to proceed - not sure why this happened but I don't intend to revisit the scene any time soon - hopefully.

My install has been working -- generally -- for several months.

The one significant issue is the graphics driver -- doesn't seem to be the correct one. I apparently have no Quartz Extreme / Core Image acceleration: when I hold down CTRL key and roll the mouse scroll wheel I do not get screen zooming.

Also cannot choose greater than 1600x900 resolution on my main display screen.

These are 2 apparent symptoms of no QE/CI function.

The graphics chip in this mini is the AMD Radeon HD 6630M. Which kext is appropriate for this chip? Where to get and install?

Thanks,

iX

Now for some general questions (please correct me where I'm wrong):

The process for installing 10.6 on thd 2011 mini consists of:

1. First install 10.6 on a "host" Mac (not the 2011 mini) using a Mac for which the install of 10.6 is native ("legal"), and upgrade that to 10.6.8. Use any retail Install Disc or Restore Disc (the disc that comes with each Mac) to install 10.6 on the host Mac.

2. Then prepare the 2011 mini hard drive (partition if desired).

3. Then "clone" the 10.6.8 install (step 1) from the host Mac onto the 2011 mini using Carbon Cloner or SuperDuper application.

4. Then replace certain extensions (.kext files) in the 10.6.8 on the mini with those from a 10.7 Lion installation.

Are these the basic steps?

I know that NewFoundGlory has created a zip file with the appropriate .kext files. The link provided earlier in this thread is no longer valid. Where can NFG's file be downloaded?

Also there are some other .kext files (graphics, etc.) that are recommended to install. Which are these?

The .kext files to be obtained from Lion -- may these files instead be obtained from Mountaion Lion?

Thanks.

It is actually the .plist files appropriate to your specific Mac Mini Model that are the required files - if you copy Macmini5_*.plist from and to the appropriate location see above they’ve worked fine taken from a Mountain Lion installed system for me. - PS my Snow Leopard system has been stable and fully functional since my previous post 08 June 2013 no perceived problems GeekBench of 7654 http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/2042738

Best wishes to all hackers ...

Thanks for the pointer to the importance of the plist files.

Are the general steps correct?

Also, mesa3077boogie (see his reply, above) pointed me toward NFG's packagw which contains almost 250 .kext files. Where & when is this applied? Any idea? (I originally thought that this file contained the "Macmini5_1.plist", etc. files. It does not contain these.)

Thanks,

The nfg package is an installer that eliminates a lot of the leg work required too get snow leopard working on a 2011 mini. It should contain every kext needed to get your machine running SL.

A few things.

1 I May the exact install procedure copied on my machine that may simplify things for you, let me check..

2 if needed I can copy the requested just files of of my wifes i5 mini and up load them for you.

3 I believe there are install procedures a few pages back that will allow you to install Snow Leopard without using a second machine in target disk mode

but still requires the use of the New Found Glory package

4 if all else fails you can send me an SD card with a paid postage return envelope

and I will clone a fresh copy of Snow Leopard to it for you to clone back on your machine