Level 1

32 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:

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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

Top-ranking reply

zirkenz

Level 1

0 points

Posted on Sep 9, 2011 6:28 PM

okay i got to step:

b7) copy this .dmg file to external, bootable, Snow Leopard 10.6.8 system disk (install in /Users/Shared/).

Don't understand what this means. Right now i copied to my imac desktop and renamed the system.dmg file (from the netinstall mount, system/installation/packages) as you said to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 System.dmg. This file is ow sitting on my imac desktop. What do i do next? I dont understand part b7. Where is the external bootable snow leopard system disk and where is install in /Users/Shared/ ?

by the way the renamed system.dmg file to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 System.dmg is 4.82gb (actually they both are) is this right?

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364 replies

akjim2

Level 1

35 points

Dec 18, 2011 12:31 AM in response to Jeffrey Ellis

Jeffrey,

You can use either a USB stick or a USB drive ... doesn't matter other than the ease of use. I find the stick easier. Using the instructional receipe at the Automator link you can build the Snow Leopard NetRestore disk image from a machine booted into either 10.6 or 10.7, per the addendum to my post. Does that clear this up OK?

Dec 18, 2011 11:26 AM in response to Frederico Agrícola

You have to use Lion Disk Utility to repartition the Lion drive. You probably must update Lion first, since there are bugs in early versions of Lion Disk Utility. Once you have done that you can try the install.

Basically, if you can boot from the SL 10.6.8 disk, it will probably work. If you get the three error beeps on boot, it won't. If you look up the causes of the error beeps, Apple documents will say it is bad RAM (no banks), which is not true, just no drivers.

Dec 18, 2011 11:38 AM in response to Frederico Agrícola

Ian Cheong pointed it correctly. If a direct install does not work (too new hardware), the simplest solution is to have 2 macs, one older (which natively supports SL), one newer (the one with Lion pre-installed). If both have a firewire port, the simplest solution is target mode; you need a fw cable, of course.

If your mac does not have a fw port, than the only solution is to install unto an older mac, and then clone, or directly, if this works. If your mac belongs to the transition generation, you may succeed.

Feb 23, 2012 8:22 AM in response to Ian Cheong

It is , imho , safer to assume you DO have to reinstall everything. Unfortunatley some apps create a lot of clutter these days, notably if they orignate from the adobe empire.

Little helpers like Default folder also require reinstalling, so do many Photoshop plugins.

BTW CCCloner may say that your HD is not partioned properly for rebooting etc.... Well it works fine, just make a complete backup.

So best be prepared and make a printour of all tour serial numbers and similar stuff, Aplle IDs and you name it.

Better prepare to much than not enough.

I have done the procedure on two other computers since, including our new server on an Imac and it worked 🙂

Again, a month and two machines later I am so glad I did it, I have even recommended Roy miller's recipe with thanks to others, got one eually plesed feedback.

Apple, why don't you give us the option whilst ordering the machine?

As to 'genius bars' I think there are very few of us who will ever get cloe to one, let alone be sure that will work

Roy Miller Author

Level 1

32 points

Apr 5, 2012 8:49 AM in response to Roy Miller

Hi all,

just wanted to share a somewhat tangential bit of info.

here at our lab, one of my colleagues from another group used my Snow Leopard 10.6.8 "Restore" disc, which was created via "The Procedure", to perform a Disk Utility Restore to a brand new, current model Mac Mini.

It worked, the machine boots and runs, and is now capable of running an old version of IDL that requires Rosetta (the driving rationalle for even attempting this). I/we don't really know what hardware has changed in the Mini since the last one was delivered with Snow Leopard installed, other than this is a version with no optical drive, and an internal SSD alongside a 750 GB hard drive.

so, even though I went through this somewhat painful procedure for the express purpose of retrograding one MacBook Pro purchased in July of 2011, the resulting product (my Snow Leopard Restore disk) has just doubled the payoff! I think I'll keep that disk around for quite a while!

I wonder how long we will be able to install 10.6.8 on machines designed and built for Lion, Mountain Lion, and future systems!

For me, as we approach the anniversary of the Lion release, I will begin using a Lion desktop, along with my Lion laptop, as I learn to integrate these systems into our enterprise computing environment. For those of you who don't work in an "enterprise environment", there are many requirements and restrictions about how we integrate computers into the network, and implement security requirements, etc.

for my small workgroup, I imagine that we may leapfrog over Lion, and I'll have my users switch from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion towards the end of the calendar year.

my thanks to all of you who contributed in the early days of this thread, and those who continue to contribute as time goes on. I'm very pleased that for the most part this thread has stayed true to its purpose, and has not degraded into a discussion of the pros & cons of Lion, etc.

cheers! 🙂

Nov 6, 2015 3:12 PM in response to fab_am

Hi Fab_am,

I love Snow Leopard as well (last great Apple OS X).

The simplest way to do this is to create a universal 10.6.8 disk image (take any old Mac which will install Snow Leopard: you can buy a Mac Mini which can do this for $100 these days or borrow one) on a compatible computer.

Then use SuperDuper to clone that minimal image (it's about 6 GB) to the hard drive of the install computer (better yet, use a USB adapter like those which come with Samsung SSD's to do the clone from the original computer) and then install that ready drive in the target computer.

For laptops, you can use target disk mode.

It's really quite easy.

Shootist007

Level 6

16,709 points

May 14, 2012 2:27 AM in response to iPotential

So your Mac had SL on it to begin with.

If you open terminal and type diskutil list I bet you see the Recovery HD partition. The Recovery HD should not show up in Finder as it is a Hidden partition.

Feb 7, 2013 9:11 AM in response to Roy Miller

I forgot to specify, this is obvious, yet: back up all your data, you will lose really everything after this operation. Put it back when done.

Roy Miller Author

Level 1

32 points

Aug 17, 2011 2:32 PM in response to mattalanweiner

yup, this process takes a long time. I ran it on my Mac Pro, which is a pretty beefy machine. I should have said that one can expect the process of creating the NetImage (Part A) to take a couple of hours at least. I've also had the "Image Creation..." dialog appear twice. I can't be sure if it did so every time I ran this process, but it could have.

I've now gone through this procedure from start to end 3 times, and want to improve my results by finding out how to add in our standard admin accounts, configurations to the System Preferences, and installation of 3rd party software. If I can roll configured installations of these items into the image, I would be able to configure a new machine or hard drive in about 5 minutes. This would be fantastic!

ctrl7

Level 1

0 points

Aug 17, 2011 5:49 PM in response to Roy Miller

Hi Roy. Thanks for sharing. Two questions, sorry if I sound like a n00b

a) is this the absolute easiest way to downgrade/install SL on a single new MBP? (got it today) or, is it a procedure dseigned for network administrators that take care of multuple computers, or that have to downgrade several units?

and b) reading your instructions, it seems that to use Server Admin Tools, one would need to have OS X Server in the first place.... correct?

Thanks for your help

Karina_T

Level 1

0 points

Aug 19, 2011 4:09 AM in response to Roy Miller

Hi folks,

Been faced with a similar dilemma and found this reply online at MacRumours:

"Or, alternatively if you have another Mac. Boot the MBP into target disc mode and install 10.6.3 onto it from the other machine. Then install the 10.6.8 combo update onto it immediately afterwards."

Does anyone know if this works for sure? I have all the bits to accomplish this but I'm not sure about the upgrade to 10.6.8 as I'm wondering if that would, in any case, have to be performed on the MBP itself...

In fact I want to go back to 10.6.7 for music and studio management related reasons of my own - i.e, to most closely mirror the setups of a studio of iMacs which I manage.

Hence I guess I'd do the routine but substitute 10.6.7 for 10.6.8 where appropriate?

Also, in your case Roy, is the option of going back up to Lion at a later date preservered by following your routine?

Apologies if my questions sound a bit dim.

Many thanks.

Message was edited by: Karina_T

Aug 19, 2011 6:04 PM in response to Karina_T

I tried the "target disk" mode and it did not work. Applecare replaced my old macbookpro 2008 with an early 2011 - which is awesome except that Pro Tools isn't qualified for it! It appears to install, but when I go to boot off of that partition, I never get past the apple startup screen, unforunately!

Shari

Karina_T

Level 1

0 points

Aug 22, 2011 3:20 AM in response to Karina_T

But...

I've done some more tinkering and the problem remains:

Only F3 and F12 are working the rest give me an error sound when pressed.

The backlit keyboard works but the trackpad won't do 2 finger scrolling which is a pain.

I've read many other threads with similar problems going back as far as 2009 but no actual solution.

I'm expecting a call from an apple genius this afternoon so if I get a fix I'm going to post it here so others can benefit.

It's very annoying when all I want to do is get on and install software....

Karina_T

Level 1

0 points

Aug 22, 2011 3:31 AM in response to Karina_T

OK, I found this...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4809

Where it says:

"Although these keyboards are designed for and work best using OS X Lion, they also work with Mac OS X v10.6.8 Snow Leopard and iOS—such as with iPad and iPhone. When used with Snow Leopard, the Launchpad key functions as a Dashboard key instead.

Using these keyboards with operating system software other than Snow Leopard, Lion, or iOS may result in some keys not working as expected; keyboard-based brightness controls, music and video navigation keys, and volume controls may not work as expected. In this situation, control brightness and volume with System Preferences panes. Music and video navigation can be controlled from applications such as iTunes or QuickTime Player."

... 10.6.7 may be a problem then?

Roy Miller Author

Level 1

32 points

Aug 22, 2011 1:20 PM in response to Karina_T

Hi Karina,

Karina_T wrote:

OK, I found this...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4809

Where it says:

"Although these keyboards are designed for and work best using OS X Lion, they also work with Mac OS X v10.6.8 Snow Leopard and iOS—such as with iPad and iPhone. When used with Snow Leopard, the Launchpad key functions as a Dashboard key instead.

... 10.6.7 may be a problem then?

notice that they specifically state "Mac OS X v10.6.8 Snow Leopard". This implies that earlier versions of the OS do not support the underlying hardware that these key functions are expected to implement.

This then would be an example of using an earlier version of the OS (10.6.7) which does not have the drivers for the current hardware incorporated within. And, whether it matters or not is a decision for each user...

I suspect if you install up to SL 10.6.8, all your function keys will begin to "function" (haha, couldn't resist!)

all the best,
Roy

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