Can I install Snow Leopard on the new Mac Mini

yes please,

i would like a copy of your new instructions. i just bought a 2011 server and am just waiting for a firewire cable to arrive. it has lion on one drive and a blank second. i have the 94 mb installer you made earlier. is this sufficient?

i have a 2009 mini running just how i want. it would be good to have a disk with everything on it. the 2009 is named z1 and the 2011 will be a1. how to copy z1 to a1 and change all users to a1 and keep both machines on the same apple account? or leave both machines with the same names?

thank you for all your effort.

sorry, apple maintenence trashed my edit.

i want to end up with 10.9 and 10.6.8 on two machines with all the same accounts, prefs and settings. i don't know or want to run a server - just the regular. i am the only user. i have the 10.6.3 retail installer.

Please detail I am interested also. Since the MacMini is still Ivy Bridge (AFAIK?) it seems logical that kexts haven't changed much. Wouldn't this also apply to 2013 Mini?

At the moment, the answer is no, sorry. Snow leopard only runs on sandy bridge, therefore macs from 2010 and 2011. This is what people say on the inetrnet, bit i dunnno if its true. The current macmini is ivy bridge, and its from 2012. There is no macmini 2013

Btw, apple pnline store is selling snow leopard for $20. Ot saysonly that you need a mac with core 2 duo or superior. I dunno it this version they are sellin will install pn a macmini 2012" you can try of you want. 5 days ago i sold my 2012 macmini and went back to a 2010 macmini. Incredible how a Snow Leopad machine is a mich better experience then the current macs

Who knows? Bac in 2011, everyone said you could not install Snow Leopard on a 2011 mini, and now itsossible. I wish i had bought one....

Ah, the good old bluetooth problems. The really interesting thing about the bluetooth on the Mac mini 2011 is that it is in fact Bluetooth 4 - low power - and I think it might even be a combined Wifi AND Bluetooth on the same chip.

The exact drivers to make this work are actually included in Snow Leopard (!!), but were introduced to SL in the 10.6.8 update (they were not in 10.6.7). I actually went into the drivers and checked this was the case. This was really really strange, as I think this particular wifi/bluetooth chip was originally ONLY in the 2011 Mac mini and 2011 MacBook Air at the time - both of those Macs NEVER even shipped with Snow Leopard! You might be asking yourself if this was deliberate on Apple's part... including drivers in the OS which are not going to be used... thats a bit weird right?

Unfortunately even though the correct drivers for the Wifi/Bluetooth are included they have not received any updates, obviously. I was hopeful that Apple might do a 10.6.9, like Microsoft did an XP SP3. But it didnt happen. There were even Apple support articles which referred to 10.6.9, so it must have existed in some form within Apple.

I've had all sorts of problems where the wifi seems to drown out the bluetooth signal using SL. I actually wonder if this is a hardware problem, which is now being masked by some clever software (there are more recent drivers in Lion, ML and Mavericks!). This is something you would have to live with I think under Snow Leopard.

I should just say I cant see how its possible to run SL on anything more recent than the 2011 model.

I will see if I can make a video recording of how to use System Image Utility.

Hello newfoundglory,

I installed the modded 10.6.7+updates 10.6.8+NFG dmg on mac mini 5,2 - everything seems to be working except the firewire port.

I'm trying to connect an old scanner (that requires rosetta). in "more info" I can see it is recognized, but the software just seems to no be able to comunicate with the scanner. there is a device lookup app for the scanner, and it just can't find it. when connected to a native 10.6 machine, it finds the hardware with no problem. where should I start troubleshooting this? is there a kext I need to copy?

NO..

Mac Mini late 2012 will not even install Lion.

(except as a Virtual guest OS on certain VM Hosts).

Mountain Lion or better only.. (for late 2012 at least).

I know. that's why I wrote 5,2 = Mini 2011 2.3

When installing the software for the scanner, I get

LeafFwXDriverMatcher.kext was installed improperly and cannot be used.

Any way to troubleshoot that?

So, if any one can help me identify the problem, edit the kext/firewire kext to make the scanner (it is already identified), reward will be given. contact me at yadaaa [et] gmail [dot] com

Hi, NFG,

I just recently installed your package on a 2011 server I just bought. I cloned my old drive in target mode and then i manually put in the hd 3000 kext and and the Mini definitions and was able to see the monitor. Then I ran the installer. Everything seems to be working.

I did, and still, keep getting messages about some kexts not being installed correctly. Most were about printers I don't have so I deleted them. There are a few others:

System extension cannot be used
The system extension "System/Library/Extensions] BJUSBLoad.kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update.

"System/Library/'Extensions/ iTunesPhoneDriver.kext"

"System!Library/Extensions! lOVideoFamiIy.kext/Contents,lPluglns/ lOVideoDeviceUserClient.kext".

What should one do about these?

Thanks so much for making it work.

Quote:

All you really need is System Image Utiltity, which is included as part of the free Server Admin Tools 10.6.8 from Apple. You must install this only on a mac running 10.6.8. SIU is cabable of creating an integrated Mac OS X image with all the component parts and updates you want already baked-in. It is commonly used by sys admins to create updated Mac OS X images for deployment in large enterprise environments.

At the end, you get a never-booted-before clean image and installer of Mac OS X with everything working for the 2011 mini. You can just install it on your 2011 Mini with no further modifications.

Could detail the exact steps if anyone is still doing this, as I guess you could get a bit lost in the process if you arent familar with SIU, disk utility and package maker.

______________________________________________

If the exact steps could be detailed, it would be very much appreciated,

Is there any reason why this procdure should make the mini run hot?

it seems to run at least 20 degrees cooler when i run 10.7.5. mostly at idle. anyone else ever have this?

Wondering if any of the heavy hitters in this thread know if it's possible to simply add a partition to a 2011 Mini and restore a Snow Leopard (10.6.8) CCC clone from my Late '09 iMac, and then move over that package of kexts (found here)?

Mike the reason for this is OS X 10.6.x is not designed for the hardware the newer computers have.