Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

Mesa,

Thanks for your reply & generous offers.

I have plenty of volums I can install SL and clone. I just need confirmation of my steps so that I can proceed with that method.

I plan on doing the clone method and use Kathy Fasano's "tar" method to coy all the MacMinix_x.plist files directly from a ML volume and then apply NFG's kext installer.

Do I have these steps approximately correct?

And when that fails I'll contact you re. your offer. (c;

Thanks again.

Ixod, sorry I'm not familiar with the Kathy frassno method myself, I would have to do some digging through this thread.

In regards to The clone I offered. I was offering you a fully functional clone of SL V10.6.8 that will run on your mini! All the hard work has been done. I was not merely offering a clone of the snow leopard disc..

Are we on the same page?

OK, It looks like it worked. Mostly.

I get Geekbench score of 7366 after all the .plist and .kext transfers.

But I still cannot get QE/CI functions to work: no screen zooming by Ctrl key and mouse scrolling, and the maximum resolution under SL is 1600x900. I followed NewFoundGlory's instructions and applied his .kext file installer.

NFG said to be sure at least version 1.6.42 is used of these 2 files:

AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext

AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

They are of that version.

Any suggestions how to get the display resolution working?

Thanks,

OK, some data & a few questions:

I have a 2011 mini dual i7 2.7 GHz. This has the AMD Radeon graphics chip, not the Intel HD chip.

The quad i7 mini has the Intel graphics chip so most of the work here (NFG and others) is focusing on kext and other work to get that combination working.

Looking in the ML 10.8.4 extensions directory I see these AMD-related files:

AMDRadeonAccelerator.kext

AMDRadeonVADriver.bundle

AMDRadeonX3000GLDriver.bundle

AMDRadeonX4000GLDriver.bundle

The SL 10.6.8 volume I have built (with instructions from this thread) has these same files also. Can't know the version of the files -- not sure how to get that information...

Any idea which should be copied to the SL partition to get this graphics system (specifically QE/CI) fully working?

So, mesa 3077: re. you offer to send me a clone, if your wife's mini is the i5 2.3 GHz model this won't help me bacause it uses the Intel HD graphics chip. But if it is the i5 2.5 GHz model, it uses the AMD Radeon and would probably work for me.

Please confirm the model of your wife's mini.

Thanks.

Crap man, it's the 2.3.

Would it be worth pulling the kexts out of my sl clone and sending them to you to experiment with? It's been a while but as far as I remember the folders that I worked with had kext files that supported multiple processors and video cards. I remember wondering why some of the Mac book pro video kexts were in the folders.

Also I do remember screwing something up way back when and getTing similar video results as you with the 1600x900 deal. I moved something around and fixed it. However to this day my Sl boot is getting 1920x1080 actual resolution but their might not be a"1920x1080" option in system preferences. I will have to check.

hi,

i've spent the last 2 days reading 42 pages. very exciting. i may have missed it but can this be done only on the server model or can this go on any 2011 model? are the 2011's that much better than just getting a 2010 which still runs snoleo? i now have a 2009 mini.

thanks for all the detective work.

m

hi guys

I've got mac mini server 2011 i7 2.0ghz with two 750 hdd and I'd love to downgrade to SL as I run mountain lion now and can't run pro tools 9 on it:(

any one can help me how to do it please or maybe someone has tailored version of 10.6.8 SL to share or to sell

let me know please

I can do one of two things for you.

I have 10.7.5 as an uninstalled backup cloned to a backup drive that I made and I have the same machine (and drivers) as you.

if you send me a jump drive or SD card by mail, I can clone this image onto that drive for you. And once you get the return package you can clone it onto your internal drive and merely boot from it. this is the only way to ever revert to a previous operating system on a Mac.

once you boot from it it will be as if your computer was born with Lion 10.7.5.

I can also send you my clone of Snow Leopard as well, but unlike like most people in this thread I cloned it without Rosetta.

this will solve all of your problems so that you don't have to upgrade to Pro Tools 10 for $300, just let me know what you want to do.

hi lads

thanks for such a quick response! hey mesa3077boogie Im not sure what you talking about or maybe you don't get me:) Im not a computer geek Im not interested in 10.7.5 at all as pro tools 9 wont install or run on top of it:( Im looking for SL 10.6.8 for my mac mini server 2011! and markfromsherman I think you've got what Im looking for!:) what way I can get that modified disc? get back to me please

hi mesa3077boogie

I just read your response again and googled few things to understand what do you mean;) and yes you've got what I need I think:) I wont need Rosetta in SL and I can run pro tools on top of Lion 10.7 as well so I'd love to test both systems if there's a chance;) thanks a million! please get back to me with your mail details

thanks in advance

hey

I asume you're located in USA and I live in Ireland(Dublin) so my friend who's network engineer(microsoft/windows minded unfortunately;) said he can get you his server FTP account to transfer those files if you know how it works!? otherwise I've got friends in Chicago and they can manage to mail you jump drive or sd card and some funds to mail it back to me if that's Ok!?

thanks again for your help! I really appreciate it!

I'm not sure how Pro Tools or Mac savvy you are based off of your last post so I will start with some of the basics and help you make some clarity out of all of it.

FYI pro tools 9.0.6 is fully qualified to run on Lion up to version 10. 7. 4. Here is the proof:

____________________________________________________________________

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/en428011

Pro Tools 9.0.6 Update

November 29, 2011

For Pro Tools 9.0 and Pro Tools HD 9.0 on Mac OS X and Windows

The updates available for download on this page require previous installation of Pro Tools 9 software and your Pro Tools 9 iLok license. See below for more information.

Pro Tools 9.0.6 is an officially qualified and recommended update for all Pro Tools 9 and Pro Tools HD 9 users on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) through 10.7.4 (Lion), and Windows 7.

______________________________________________________________________

Frst off let me start by saying that I purchased the 2011 Mac Mini to be a dedicated Pro Tools machine.Seeing that every major label studio runs Pro Tools off of a Mac and avid even seeming to prefer Mac OSX , made purchasing the 2011 Mac Mini a no brainer.

I would highly recommend you focus on running Pro Tools 9 on lion vs running Pro Tools 9 on Snow Leopard.

As you might know getting a solid running Pro Tools system on a Mac is half of the trouble in itself. Most novice users will spend more time setting up and tweaking their system than they will ever writing or recording actual music. Seasoned pro tools users realize this and have come to the conclusion that once you get your system to run solid you just stay put! You don't make any updates with Pro Tools or Mac for a long time as the consequences of doing so may cost you lots of time and frustration.

With that being said let me tell you that I spent at least 6 months trying to make a solid running pro tools 9 system on this 2011 Mac MinI. I succeeded in installing Snow Leopard on my 2011 Mac Mini several different ways. and let me say it very clearly that none of them ran well.

Moving on. if you read through the previous posts you will find that there is a series of steps that you need to take in order to get snow leopard to run on your 2011 Mac Mini. Keep reading, and you will find that the New Found Glory package installer has summed up all of those rigorous steps into one simple installer file making it easier for the rest of us trying to accomplish installing Snow Leopard on the mini.

One cannot merely "install a .dmg file" of an earlier version of OSX on your machine to revert to a previous OSX version. This is something that apple has been doing for as long as i have been using macs and its bogus. They claim that their updates, update the hardware as well as the operating system and not just the OS and thats supposedly why you cant just revert. That just BS, and their are working work arounds. The actual reason is that apple wants to keep things constantly moving forward and updating OSX so you have to constantly purchase new hardware if you ever want to stay on top of the game. Another reason to stay put once you get pro tools up and running.

Familiarize your self with the disk utility in OSX. With disk utility you can clone your OSX versions and use them as future backups.

Heres an example: My 2011 mini was born with 10.7.4. I used disk utility to make a 10GB partition on the second internal drive of the mac mini. (You can actually use any drive for this) The, I re-booted , held option and booted from the "recovery" partition. (The recovery partition took the place of OSX install DVD's) Then I selected the "install lion" option and chose the 10GB partition that I created. Now I have a version of 10.7.4 on a partition that I could either clone onto my main drive in the future (using disk utility) or boot from it , and use for experimentation purposes. This way if you dont like 10.7.5 or 10.8.X or its not sitting well with ProTools you can simply start fresh and re clone 10.7.4. I now make a new partition for every OSX update now.

You doing this would have really helped in your situation.

I am offering to clone 10.7.4 onto an external drive and send it to you so you can clone it onto to your machine, does that make sense?

I also cloned 10.6.8 onto a partition as well. But with 10.6.8, I already set up a user name with it so when you boot from it, you will log right in. Whereas with the 10.7.4 partition it would be like booting from a brand new machine that would need to be set up,,

You are still welcome to nstall SL as per this thread.

Yes I am in the US. I can purchase a jump drive or SD card , probably aroung 20GB and you can just paypal the amount and I will mail to you. The smallest partition for SL or Lion is like 7GB btw.

Theres no file sharing options that I know of that can transfer a file of this size but there may be other options ofther than just the mail.. Im not sure if the image of SL or Lion is able to made into a torrent file that can then be made back into a disk image after transferred that can be booted from on your end. But i can do some research. If that was possible I would just post the image of 10.6.8 publically for other users and then they could just clone it onto their 2011 mini to avoid all of the hassle of fooling with the kexts..

Sending you an image is only possible because we share the same machine, so all the kexts and drivers are the same..

Let me know if you have questions.

mesa3077boogie

thank you very much for clarify few things! I really apreciate your help and professionalism!

Im a beginner sound engineer and pro tools operator as well and mac user for last 3 years:) I can transfer some money to your paypal no problem at all! Im new to this apple-discussions and can't see if there's a chance to send a private message!? so, here is my email jesion@interia.eu to exchange paypal details

thanks a lot! you're life saver!:)

Friends, has anyone come up with a way of installing Snow Leopard on a 2012 MacMini already? Server or normal version?....Currently I own the 2012 MacMini with Mountain Lion, a 2010 MacMini and a 2010 white macbook, both running Snow Leoapard and I have all DVDs..

If not possible, I might try to get a refurbed 2011 mini, but I would like to have this in the 2012 model.

I've been running SL on my 2011 for 2 years. Today is the first time I've had to reinstall SL and restore from Time Machine backup (located on an external USB drive).

Because the 2011 mini can't boot the SL Install DVD (the 2011 can't boot anything earlier than 6.3 if I recall), I put the 2011 into Targer Disk Mode and connected it to a 2006 mini via Firewire. I then booted the Install DVD and did a clean install.

When it comes time to restore from Time Machine backup, I get the message "This backup can't be used because it is from another computer." Remember, I'm running the 2006 mini and trying to restore the 2011 image to the 2011's boot drive via TDM.

Normally I'd boot the install DVD on the 2011 but this can't be done (see above).

How does one resotre a TM backup to the 2011 mini under SL?

Thanks,

iX