Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

Right, I think because your initial post was a little confusing you inadvertently led Steve astray. No big deal...I'm right. 😉

Your iMac restore CD simply needs to boot your iMac, it has NOTHING to do w/ your Mini. Your Mini HDD is going to boot via your iMac (so you will be viewing your new Mini's OS X install through the iMac) as soon as OS X is installed. Because of that we know the hardware drivers will be present to run the iMac, which will allow you to view the Desktop and run Software Update to obtain 10.6.8.

10.6.8 has all of the drivers you're looking for (Thunderbolt, Intel HD 3000, etc) so once the update is complete on the Mini and it restarts just shut it down, connect it to its own monitor and away you go!

Fortunately we are in agreement on everything 🙂 apart from cross booting similar hardware with an older OS that predates the new system. I admit defeat there.

I admire your perseverance and congratulate you on pushing through the hole and getting a successful installation.

I guess it hinges on existing core hardware support in Snow Leopard for various systems, Lion being a software revision of Snow Leopard and the mini being the last one to get the core upgrade with I guess the same hardware parts?

I'm still kind of amazed at the method - which is not without hiccups and a custom install DVD would be handy - and that Lion is actually not required.

This might be unique in history ... and an interesting precedent 😉

Well I'm glad we can maintain our friendship throughout this ordeal! 🙂

In previous releases (probably starting at Leopard) I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly that you cannot run new hardware on the previous full-release software. However it seems like with Snow Leopard Apple has gone to a more iterative approach where they aren't doing a complete tear-down re-write of the next generation OS. As a result there seems to be some edge cases like this one where we are able to get the previous OS onto new hardware.

Or that could all be non-sense and the reason the new Mini can go backwards to SL is because Apple recognized that many people still need Rosetta and they felt extra compassionate that day. 😉 I think dropping Rosetta is a pretty big deal and Apple knows that. As a result they made sure that the 10.6.8 update included the necessary drivers to keep the new 10.7 machines running for the short term.

To be honest my perseverance is partly due to finding some references to Thunderbolt in the System Profiler. It occured to me that the new iMacs with Thunderbolt were released BEFORE 10.7 went live. And as a result their hardware needed to be supported by SL (I think that was probably 10.6.7 but I'm guessing). This was just the glimmer of hope I needed! 🙂

As an aside for those who are interested. My Mac Mini has the upgraded video card in it (AMD Radeon HD 6630M) and video appears to be working as expected. I have not plugged it into my HDTV to try out movies yet (still importing my media collection into iTunes, it takes awhile) but I'm confident that will go smoothly. For those of you with the Intel HD 3000 you should be fine since that video card has been in several different Macs recently so it's fully supported by SL.

Thanks for your work on this John, looks like I'll be able to order new minis after all--I was thinking I'd have to order last year's model.

Since you could boot the mini from a MBP 10.6.8 in target drive mode, could you put both the mini and the MBP in target drive mode, and use a third machine to clone the MBP's drive to the mini? Seems to me the cloning should have the same result as a drive swap, but maybe I'm missing something.

Not quite...the install on your MBP is specific to the MBP hardware which the Mini doesn't share. The Mini's hardware (think WiFi card, Bluetooth, etc) is going to be different than the MBP's hardware. :\ This is why I had to use the Retail disk to install OS X on the Mini.

However if I hadn't tried as many things to get his working as I did I wouldn't have found a solution. It's certainly worth a try! 🙂 My suggestion would be to use Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) installed on the 3rd machine. Worst case you've wasted a half hour! All said and done I've got probably 25-30hrs into all of the various methods I tried to get this working. To be fair...most of that is waiting for processes like OS X installing lol but a LOT of it was filled with swearing and pulling at my hair! 😉

Well, it is all too easy to get hung up on a right/wrong thing.

This is a most interesting case ... and am still surprised it actually worked. Especially point 3-4-5. I don't fiddle with Mac hardware & software enough; but have done more than a fair share over the past decade. To some extent I am not surprised as SL already supported various latest generation components in the other systems ... that still leaves the motherboard and the machine identifier check.

The OS has been pretty much always been software development, I think (apart from PPC/Intel). Now and then there are point releases in the OS to support new Mac hardware, iTunes releases to support new iOS devices, etc.

I agree that dropping Rosetta is a very big deal. I have advised several people explicitly not to update nor upgrade to a new system; because they need Rosetta for their software. A hardware failure for these people would be problematic because they depend on running their apps until they are updated, if ever, or a compatible application would come out that allows importing & conversion. People buy expensive software packages and have a far greater investment in them as far as time & data; then the hardware it runs on.

PS: Just read something about the new MacBook Air runing on a newer / custom Lion build and the common Lion installer doesn't even work; which would boil down to 10.7.1 or .2 being required. I guess they won't be installing Snow Leopard.

I noticed that the discussion seems to focus on getting Snow Leopard onto an internal drive of the new Mac Minis. I currently boot my 2009 Mac Mini from a FW800 external drive with 10.6.8. If I just plug my external drive into a new 2011 Mac Mini, will it boot into Snow Leopard if I set it as the startup disk?

I'd say your chances are better than 80%. The only thing that could hold you up would be if your 2009 Mini's install didn't include all drivers that are possible for Mac Minis to need. So your external drive only has the 2009 drivers and not any other drivers. In that case you might be in for some issues surrounding Bluetooth, WiFI, Video, etc.

Best part is you can try it w/o hurting/installing/changing anything 🙂

Now that doesn't surprise me at all. Apple's been treating the Air like a treasured pet ever since its announcement several years ago. Between the soldered in RAM and proprietary everything that machine is a PITA to work on...

Quick question John (or all). I completely understand what do do up to the point were we need to apply the 10.6.8 update.

After my iMac (in your case, your MBP) reboots and you swap the retail SL disk out for the machine specific recovery disk it will continue to install the core OS.

When that is done we will want to apply the 10.6.8 update. How is that done exactly. If done via "software update" wouldnt I be applying it to my iMac since that is what is actually running (the mac mini is just a firewire connected HD at this point right?). How do I point the update to install on the the Mac mini HD? Should I download it manually?

Or, when the core OS is done installing do I reboot once again and select the Mac Mini as the boot drive and then do the update (is that possible? Does the Mac mini stay connected as a firewire drive during reboots or do I hold down "T" at each reboot?)

Having never used Target Disk Mode I am unsure what to expect.

Quite simple actually sir.

Once OS X has completed installing (Mini) the 'Welcome to OS X' activity begins. This includes all the fancy welcome screens, etc. It asks you to create an account on the machine, register with Apple, etc. Once this activity is complete the machine immediately loads into OS X. You see the desktop, icons, Finder bar, etc. This is your Mini's hard drive and OS X install. Simply click the Apple in the upper left corner and run Software Update. It'll find OS X, iTunes, various security updates, possibly a Java update, etc.

Once you've downloaded all of the updates it will tell you that you need to restart. Click restart and the machine will install all of the updates and do a reboot. The Host machine will restart and actually continue to boot from the Mini's hard drive automatically. After the reboot shut it down and connect the Mini to an external display and you're all set.

Thanks for all your help John. I havent installed a Mac OS in a while (complete oppsite to my Windows quarterly routine!) but I thought I remember that immediately after the core OS finished installing a reboot occured and THEN you get the welcome video and registration screens etc. I was worried that I wouldnt be able to tell what I was actually booting into, my iMac or the newly installed mini at that point

Bravo, John Fair!! (And mikethebook, you should mark John's "success" post with the "answered" plus give "helpful" to his other posts -- he certainly deserves the points!)

A question... I would new need to transfer a user on to a new mini. Is there a screen that comes up asking for Setup Assistant somewhere along the way? (asking if I want to "Transfer from another mac") What if the Source machine for Setup Assistant was the same iMac running 10.6.8 that I was using to install SL onto the mini?

Hi Cathy,

Thanks for the kudos :)

You can definitely recover from a TM backup or another Mac once OSX is installed. You get the same OS X setup screen as you do with a stereotypical install. So it will ask if you want to transfer files from any one of the three standard locations. The Host machine's hard drive should be available to choose "From Another Mac Computer", however I have not personally confirmed this. It should work in theory though.

Let us know if you get that to work :)