how to restore mac mini firmware SMC Version (system): 1.35f1 ? cant find download. mini will not boot to recovery or external disks or cds/dvds, "C" and "alt" keys no reaction. will only boot to ubuntu or other linux cds...guess needs firmware restore.

thanks for providing the links. i tried all of those already ( except update 1.1) before posting my message and each time when trying to install either got the message "...not supported by your hadware" or " your hardware doe s not need this update" ( wording may have been slighty different on actual messages ) and the installation process would close themselves. means no way to even try installing update 1.2 which i guess would have been the right one. there are also firmware recovery cds for downlad @ apple.com but crucial information which recovery cd would be the right one to use on my mini mac with original

cant be found in the context. simply trying to load recovery cd 1.3 would then be a gamble with uncertain outcome.my hope is that someone of apple support or who has solved similar issues picks up the matter.

thanks for any input. very much appreciated.

i appreciate your input. the matter is more complex which is why i assume a firmware bootram corruption.

the machine will boot from any linux cd and after shut down of the linux OS it will boot normally into osx, which means the internal disk is ok. once OSX is shut down however it will not boot from anything except the linux cds. it will not even start asking for the set firmware password (as it does when booting normaly into OSX) strangely enough, at this stage it shows a black screen and message stating that no boot device is found and suggest to insert a boot device and push any key. this i have never seen on a mac before . it appears a typical message from a bios machine not a mac. at that stage, the mini it will not recognize any other cds , recovery partitions, attched disks etc. so i need to boot from a linux cd, then shut down the linux and reboot. then it it will boot normaly. i had loaded refit on it but removed it since completely, but possibly that changed something in the boot sector. beyond my logic or experience, unfortunatly.

i appear to have solved the problem ( less by knowing than by trying...): i booted into ubuntu and when fully booted shut down ubuntu. after that i could boot into OSX. in OSX i went to preference "startdisk" and "reconfirmed" my main OSX boot disk again. after doing this it now appears, the boot ram is back to routine again as booting via "alt" shows all available boot devices. ( i remembered something in the context of refit about "reconfirming" boot devices in startdisk even so it appears redundant to do so) so re-confirming the main OSX boot device in startdisk may become necessary once a linux or other OS has been booted via cd and may have left some imprint on the bootprocess. hope fully functional status of the little machine stays as it is now.

further comments: no linux installed on the machine, no extra bootloaders, etc.

observation along the problem regarding recovery partition`s diskutility not working on SSDs which also hold the main OSX system:

after booting into ubuntu had worked and rebooting into the main OSX disk was possible again i booted into recovery partition and attempted to run disk-utilities on the main OSXs partition. disk-utility got stuck and could not finish, also did not produce any error messages. makes me wonder if recovery partitions on the same SSD as main system do not work. possible internal conflict in the SSD ?

i had to run disk-utility via an external disk to make it run completely ( it did not find any errors on the main system). then i ran disk warrior on the main system as well. it noted to have repaired some volume information on the system disk. still it appears that "re-confirming" the main OSX boot device in "startdisk" preference was the step to normalization.

this was my first post on this forum and a great experience, seeing others trying to help. my sincere thanks to all who tried to help and contributed !

message to apple support staff:

no recovery instructions or downloads regarding firmware SMC Version 1.35f1 could be located on apple.com !

recovery and downloads for all other firmware editions appear to be on the site but not the above version. this leaves owners of the respective mac mini in danger of not being able to re-activate their machines if the bootware and firmware get corrupted.