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Roy Miller Author

Level 1

31 points

HowTo revert new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac to Snow Leopard

Hi all,

the following instructions were provided to me by our Apple Enterprise tech, and I've successfully performed these steps on a newly purchased MacBook Pro.

Please note the following - as of 15 Aug 2011:

- this technique will work on new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac computers UNTIL Apple modifies the hardware in these computers

- this technique will NEVER work on currently shipping MacBook Air or Mac Mini computers

- this configuration of Snow Leopard installed on a computer that shipped with Lion is not supported by Apple Support. It is entirely possible that after a trip for an AppleCare support incident, or the Apple Genius Bar, that the computer will return with Lion installed.

with these caveats, here are the step-by-step instructions:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

HowTo - NetRestore - Install Mac OS X 10.6.8 on new Mac delivered with Mac OS X 10.7.0

note: this only applies to Macbook Pro, Mac Pro, and iMac computers that originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.x.

Current Macbook Air and Mac Mini computers cannot be downgraded.

Required resources:

- another computer, running Mac OS X 10.6.8

- spare external disk

- Snow Leopard installation disc (Mac OS X 10.6.0 or 10.6.3 Box Set)

- Snow Leopard 10.6.8 Combo image file (download from Apple Support Downloads page)

- System Image Utility 10.6.8 (download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.dmg from Apple Support Downloads page)

Procedure:

A. Create the NetImage:

1) mount the base source image (Mac OS X 10.6.3.dmg - created from Box Set Installer)

2) launch System Image Utility (from Server Admin Tools)

3) when source (from mounted image) appears in SIU screen, click Custom button

4) drag "Customize Package Selection" from Automator Library window to location

between existing "Define Image Source" and "Create Image"

5) drag "Add Packages and Post-Install Scripts" from Automator Library to location

between "Customize Package Selection" and "Create Image"

6) in the "Customize Package Selection" section:

a) expand the "Mac OS X" triangle

b) select options desired

c) collapse the "Mac OS X" triangle

7) mount the appropriate update image (Mac OS X 10.6.8 v1.1 Combo.dmg)

8) copy the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.pkg package to a new local directory (Desktop/parts/)

9) drag the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.pkg icon from local directory to the

"Add Packages and Post-Install Scripts" section of the SIU window

10) in the "Create Image" section:

a) select the type "NetRestore"

b) set the "Installed Volume:" field to "Macintosh HD" (no quotes, can be any name)

c) select the "Save To:" location

(will be faster to a second local internal disk)

(not faster to another partition on the same disk)

d) set the "Image Name:" field to "Snow Leopard 10.6.8 NetRestore"

e) the fields "Network Disk:", "Description:", and "Image Index:" don't

matter unless one is going to use results on a NetBoot Server

11) click the Run button

12) when the dialogs appear, ignore the text and click OK for proper completion

Dialog text: "Image creation in progress.

Cancel the image creation to proceed"

B. Post-process to create Restore Image:

1) find the directory created in the above process, named as in A.10d above

(Snow Leopard 10.6.8 NetRestore.nbi)

2) in this directory are three files:

- i386

- NBImageInfo.plist

- NetInstall.dmg

3) mount the NetInstall image (double-click the NetInstall.dmg file)

4) navigate into the Contents of the package, to: System/Installation/Packages/

5) copy the System.dmg file out to desktop or other work location

6) rename System.dmg to meaningful name, such as "Snow Leopard 10.6.8 System.dmg"

7) copy this .dmg file to external, bootable, Snow Leopard 10.6.8 system disk (install in /Users/Shared/)

C. Install Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on new MacBook Pro or Mac Pro

via command line:

1) boot MacBook Pro or Mac Pro from external source prepared in B.7

2) open Terminal

3) find the restore target device specification

a) run the command "diskutil list"

b) look for a 650 MB partition, labelled "Recovery HD" (likely disk0s3)

c) the target partition should be immediately prior to the "Recovery HD" partition

d) for a new computer with a 500 GB drive, this partition should be

labelled "Macintosh HD", with a size of 499.2 GB

e) make note of it's Device Identifier, likely disk0s2

4) issue the following asr (Apple Software Restore) command

sudo asr restore --source "/path/to/restore.dmg" --target /dev/disk0s2 --erase

(replace "/path/to/restore.dmg" with the path to the location and name used in step b.7)

5) this process proceeds and completes quickly, about 3-5 minutes. This is due to

the "--erase" parameter; it indicates a block-copy operation

If the process seems slow, likely the "--erase" option was omitted and

the copy is being done as a file-copy operation. Quit (ctl-c) and

examine the command used...

via DiskUtility GUI:

1) boot MacBook Pro or Mac Pro from external source prepared in B.7

2) launch /Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility.app

3) select the computer hard drive (typically "Macintosh HD")

4) click on the "Restore" tab

5) click on the "Image..." button to specify the "Source"

6) navigate to /Users/Shared/ and select the "Snow Leopard 10.6.8 System.dmg" file

7) drag the computer hard drive volume (Macintosh HD) to the "Destination" field

(note: grab the volume, not the disk!!)

8) enable the "Erase destination" checkbox

9) click the "Restore" button

10) in the ensuing "Are you sure?" dialog, click the "Erase" button

11) authenticate with the local admin credentials

Apple Tech recommends leaving the Restore partition alone, and installing in the "Macintosh HD" partition only

commands to know:

- asr

- diskutil (diskutil -list to see partitions)

- hdiutil

Posted on Aug 15, 2011 9:00 AM

364 replies

rpg2288

Level 1

4 points

Oct 7, 2011 1:45 PM in response to Roy Miller

heh, yeah

rpg2288

Level 1

4 points

Oct 8, 2011 2:20 PM in response to Roy Miller

works! followed "The Procedure"....didn't have a firewire cable so used disk utility in the lion recovery HD to restore the image. after updates...no issues at all :)

Oct 9, 2011 3:29 PM in response to rpg2288

Wow, just returning here after a hiatus. Great idea @rpg2288 on using the Lion Recovery HD's "Disk Utility" to restore instead of a Firewire cable! I also like @Silly rabbit's "Boot Camp" idea for dual booting Sleo and Lion.

I should add some pages for these methods and other install workarounds to "The Procedure" ... I'm a little disorganized right now and don't have a good set up to actually test the steps involved yet so I may just have to put references to them in the interim.

I wonder if @jr_n ever ran the firmware updates for their 17" MBP....

rpg2288

Level 1

4 points

Oct 9, 2011 5:41 PM in response to Tech Harmony

Couple interesting things (15" 2.0Ghz i7 MBP)....

-The battery life is much better in Snow Leopard compared w/ Lion. Maybe this is related to the idea that the Feb. 2011 MBPs were optimized for Snow Leopard when originally shipped....and apple hasn't found a workaround (yet) in Lion? Yesterday, right after unplugging (@100%), the indicator suggested 6hr51m. In lion, this was ~3hr41m...and it drained much faster (90% 86% 83% 78% etc.....maybe in 1 hour)

-Did the MBP EFI update (2.2??) via software update...and everything seems ok...

-----

btw:

using the Lion Recovery Disk Utility (to get SL working), I browsed for the img - created by System Image Utility - on an external drive that already had a time machine backup on it. Restored that img file to "Macintosh HD"...the disk is now labeled "Snow Leopard".

Oct 14, 2011 3:48 PM in response to Roy Miller

I upgraded from Lion to Snow Leaopard and couldn't be happier.

The other thing to remember is that there are still some retailers selling new Macs with Snow Leopard installed out of the box.

Oct 17, 2011 11:22 PM in response to Roy Miller

Hey Roy,

I used your process to restore my new Macbook Pro to Snow Leopard. It worked great! One step I was confused with was just knowing which computer to use to create the Snow Leopard installer. I was trying it on Lion and it wouldn't work, finally I tried it on the other Mac running 10.6.8 and it worked like a charm.

Anyways, I do have a question:

Is there any way to use this process or another to create a bootable DVD or mount that I can boot from, partition and install 10.6.8? When I used your process I was able to install Snow Leopard but I couldn't partition the internal drive. I want to be able to create two partitions, one for Snow Leopard and one I can Boot Camp Windows on.

Any help would be great!

Thanks

Blair

Roy Miller Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 18, 2011 7:02 AM in response to bizzlenation

Glad it worked for you Blair!

Is there any way to use this process or another to create a bootable DVD or mount that I can boot from, partition and install 10.6.8? When I used your process I was able to install Snow Leopard but I couldn't partition the internal drive. I want to be able to create two partitions, one for Snow Leopard and one I can Boot Camp Windows on.

I would say that in Part C, when the new MBP is booted in target mode, and Disk Utility is being run on the "other" Mac, you could easily then partition the hard drive of the new MBP in whatever fashion you like, as long as you leave enough space on the "Mac" partition to hold the system and desired files, etc.

so, after step C.3, and before step C.4, go to the "Partition" tab in Disk Utility, select the new MBP hard drive, change the pull-down menu from "Current" to "2 Partitions". Adjust the size as needed. Select one partition that you will use as the "Restore" target, click the "Options" button. Select the "GUID Partion Map" option. For the Boot Camp partition, I believe you will want the "Master Boot Record" option. Once these are set, and the partition sizes selected, Apply the settings.

When done, continue with step C.5, selecting the partition you've designed for Mac OS X as the target destinaton. This should all proceed quickly.

If you've saved the "restore" source file created from Parts A & B, you don't need to do that all again, just the Part C, modified as described.

In regards to a bootable DVD, etc., this procedure does not produce an "installer". However, after completing the install of the system, you could use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the freshly installed system to another disk, such as an external Firewire disk. As I' ve learned through discussions of this procedure, that disk will boot any Mac capable of booting from Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

You might be able to burn this to a DVD, double layer I suspect, using Toast or some such. Probably have to do so on the "other" Mac, while the new MBP is booted in Target Disk mode.

cheers!

Oct 19, 2011 10:26 AM in response to Roy Miller

Roy, thank you so much for this post. I was able to install a snow leopard partition on my pre installed lion. It had been working perfectly up until right now...

Now when I start up my mbp holding the option key down my machine freezes up on a dark grey screen. It has no problem booting up and going right to the lion sign in, it's when I hold in option to boot into the snow leopard partition that I run into trouble.

I'm kind of a newb here so I really appreciate any help you can offer on this issue. Thanks!

rpg2288

Level 1

4 points

Oct 19, 2011 11:27 AM in response to Roy Miller

Hey, I figured out (at least what I thought was) a cool way to restore the Lion Recovery HD.

After installing a new (physical) hdd and copying a disk image of SL (10.6.8)...I realized the recovery HD was gone. If a recovery HD partition is available, it's noticeably unmounted/hidden/locked within OSX. I created a recovery usb drive using the "Recovery Disk Assistant", which works well (and is cool)...but I thought, "what if this flash drive falls out of my laptop bag/forget it at home/won't mount//etc."

In the lion recovery HD disk utility (loaded via USB), I split "Snow Leopard" into 2 partitions (Snow leopard/Recovery HD) (allocating ~2 gb to the "Recovery HD" partition). Rebooting into OSX with the "Lion Recovery HD" drive plugged in...it was noticably invisible (in finder/application windows/etc.). Disk utiity showed something like "Cruzer 4gb usb device" - the partition wouldn't mount. Also, I tried running the recovery disk assistant in SL and an error said "you cannot create a recovery disk because the recovery disk assistant is not compatible with this version of OSX (OSX 10.7 required). So...how could I get the recovery partition working? Stuck.

On a cnet page, they said "a lion recovery hd partition is invisible by default. You have to enable the debug menu for disk utility, check 'show all drives/partitions', and then mount the 'invisible' partition.

To see the debug menu you have to open terminal and write:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Then you can select 'show all drives or partitions' within the debug menu of disk utility. After mounting the recovery hd partition of the flash drive, I selected the Recovery HD partition of the primary hdd ("Snow Leopard"), clicked "Restore", dragged the lion recovery disk partition (of the USB drive) to the "source" and the "Recovery HD" partition of the internal drive to the "destination". The recovery partition was imaged ok.

Rebooting, I held the option key and chose "Recovery HD". Works! :)

Roy Miller Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 20, 2011 10:27 AM in response to Gravelle54

Hi Gravelle54,

I really don't know - currently I have little experience working with and running Lion, and I never have configured a dual-boot machine.

The only suggestion I have is to look at the "Startup Disk" System Preference Pane. This should show the available instances of bootable systems.

This is more part of gathering data for what may be happening in your situation, than a "fix". If all your installed systems do not show up here (both the installed Lion system and the installed Snow Leopard system), then this is an indicator that something is wrong with the installation of the "missing" system.

Another way to see information that might be useful is to set up your computer for "verbose boot". I routinely do this on all the systems I manage. It displays all the steps of the boot process, as they are executed. This appears as scrolling white text on a black background, replacing the generic grey screen with the circle of sticks normally displayed during the boot cycle. It also displays the shutdown processes being executed during the shutdown part of shutting down or rebooting.

Don't be alarmed if you don't understand much/most/any of the scrolling text. If you watch this often, it starts to become familiar. ;-)

The point to doing this is to see where the boot process stops when you are holding down the option key, and where getting "stuck" at the dark grey screen. If you write down the step that did complete prior to becoming "stuck", you'll have some more information about what may be happening.

For example, it could be that your computer is attempting to find NetBoot system instances to boot from, or checking for something that takes a long time to poll. We've recently had a situation where we have been binding our Macs to an Active Directory server for authentication. When these Macs are not connected to the network, and have an active Airport wireless connection open, the time between entering our passwords at the login dialog and actually getting logged into our accounts is about 2-5 minutes. This is because the configureation of the system says that it will search for AD servers on the network, taking between 90 adn 240 seconds for each server it attempts to access. This appears to many users as being "stuck" - but really only patience is needed in this case! btw - I've figured out a fix for this, so my users should be much happier soon.

anyway, to configure for verbose boot:

- open a Terminal window

(Terminal is an application in /Applications/Utilities/)

• check the current settings

- at the command prompt, type:

nvram -p

- press the "Enter" key (to execute the command)

- this will list your nvram settings.

Look for one called: boot-args

- it will likely not be there (this is okay)

• set for verbose boot

- now enter the command (quotes necessary as shown):

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

- press the "Enter" key (to execute the command)

- enter your login password at the "Password:" prompt

& press the "Enter" key

• check the new settings

- at the command prompt, type:

nvram -p

- press the "Enter" key (to execute the command)

- this will list your nvram settings.

Look for one called: boot-args

- in the list, should now be: boot-args -v

now, your computer will boot and shutdown verbosely.

To undo this setting and return to "normal" booting, enter the following command in Terminal:

sudo nvram boot-args=""

Good luck!

Oct 20, 2011 10:32 PM in response to Roy Miller

Roy,

When I go into startup disk I have no problem selecting either partition and restarting in snow leopard or lion. So both drives seem to be running fine still. Out of sheer curiousity I'm going to configure a verbose boot anyway and see where it gets stuck when I hold the option key while powering up. I'm currently pretty busy but I'll let you know when I get a chance to set that up. Thanks for all your advice!

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Oct 22, 2011 3:13 AM in response to Karina_T

I am not familiar with your key map issue, but perhaps the keyremap4mac can help:

http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/document.html

Oct 23, 2011 6:37 AM in response to Roy Miller

Roy and others, there is some great information in this post. I haven't read all the posts/replies yet (12 pages worth!), but I do have a quick question. I apologize if this question was already asked.

I just bought a new 13" MacBook Pro that came preloaded with Lion. It's a early 2011 model (MacBookPro8,1). My wife has an identical model bought earlier this year, only with a slower processor (I verified that hers also reports itself as a MacBookPro8,1). Hers came preloaded with Snow Leopard (from http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1159 it would appear it came preloaded with either 10.6.6 or 10.6.7; a quick review of her install disks shows 10.6.6) and is still running Snow Leopard (updated to 10.6.8). Because mine and hers are identical models, and because this particular model was sold with 10.6.6 in the past (based on the install discs in her box and the Apple KB article mentioned previously), it sounds to me like I should be able to use her install disks to "roll back" my new laptop to Snow Leopard.

Have I missed any important details, or does that look accurate? I appreciate any advice/experience/knowledge.

Thanks!

Scott

iapg

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2011 6:00 AM in response to Roy Miller

Roy,

Today, Apple have just slightly upgraded MacBook Pro line with more speed processors. I also noticed that graphics card changed from AMD Radeon HD 6750M to 6770M in top line machines.

My question is:

Will this new MacBook Pro run/startup last Snow Leopard 10.6.8 preinstalled in an external firewire HD?

I was planning to upgrade my Macbook Pro 17 with a new one, and finally simple swap drives, the one that comes with the new machine for one with a 10.6.8 (from my previous MacBook Pro).

Knowing that is almost the same hardware but with VERY slight mods, I would like to know if are still able to run 10.6.8.

Thanks!!!

Ivan

Roy Miller Author

Level 1

31 points

Oct 24, 2011 7:16 AM in response to Gravelle54

@Gravelle54 - as I think of it, the verbose boot may not help you at all, in that the text shown in verbose boot mode doesn't show up until after a boot volume has been chosen.....

but the verbose boot is good to know about in any case! ;-)

cheers!

HowTo revert new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac to Snow Leopard