Latest MacBook Pro able to run Rosetta?

Mid-2009 and earlier will run the retail version of Snow Leopard

Early-2011 is the last to run Snow Leopard.

Between the above two all models require a version of Snow Leopard that came on installer discs when the computer was new. They cannot be booted by the retail version of Snow Leopard.

The retail version of Snow Leopard 10.6.3 can be updated to be an 10.6.7 installer and work on these models, too (althought I have never attempted this mod):

http://hints.macworld.com/comment.php?mode=view&cid=131007

Instead, I installed Snow Leopard Server into Parallels (or VMWare Fusion or possible VirtualBox) and Rosetta concurrently with Lion or Mt. Lion:

[click on image to enlarge]

This screenshot shows Adobe's CS2 Photoshop running in Snow Leopard Server. CS2 is now downloadable from Adobe for free:

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

Apple now has re-started selling Snow Leopard Server for a 95% discount, $19.99 + sales tax & shipping, from its Apple Store: 1.800.MYAPPLE (1.800.692.7753) - Apple Part Number: MC588Z/A (telephone orders only).

Parallels 8 is now included in the latest 10 App MacUpdate Bundle for $49.99:

https://deals.macupdate.com/?ref=4707

Why do you need to use Rosetta; for which PowerPC apps?

Kappy is fundamentally correct. You can run Snow leopard on a late 2011 MBP, BUT you have to clone it from a 10.6.8 version. It will not install with a retail disk.

I have done this on my late 2011 MBP.

Ciao.

And, here's how it's done:

How To Run Snow Leopard On A New Mac

This does not apply to new Mac Minis or MacBook Airs. When newer models are introduced that also require Lion for hardware support, the techniques described below will no longer work with the possible exception of using Parallels 7.

What has to be done:

1. Create a new partition on the hard drive.

2. Get a clone of a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system. Put the cloned Snow Leopard

system onto the new partition.

Step One: Create a new partition on the hard drive

To resize the drive and create a new partition do the following:

1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the

COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart

the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until

the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the

downward pointing arrow button.

After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.

3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)

4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.

You should now have a new volume on the drive.

It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.

Step Two: Obtain a clone of a Snow Leopard system:

You will need access to a Mac already running Snow Leopard. You will need a 16 GB USB flash drive or an external hard drive to which you can clone the Snow Leopard system from the Mac that has Snow Leopard installed. Alternatives are:

Option One:

Install a new Snow Leopard system onto a USB flash drive. Boot the Mac used for installing with the USB flash drive. Update the flash drive system to 10.6.8 using the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard. Verify that you can boot the Mac with the USB flash drive.

Take the USB flash drive to your new Mac and try booting from it. If it works then clone the system from the flash drive to the newly made partition:

Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.

2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.

5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination

entry field.

6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.

7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the USB

flash drive.

Option Two:

If you have a large enough external drive you can erase and use, then it would be easier to just clone the entire Snow Leopard system from the source Mac computer to the external drive.

Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.

2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.

5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination

entry field.

6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.

7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the external drive. Source means the Snow Leopard Mac's

internal drive.

After cloning verify that it will boot the source Mac. If so then take the external drive to your new Mac boot with it. If all is well then restore the clone to the new partition on your new Mac:

Restore the clone using Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.

2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.

5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination

entry field.

6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.

7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the external drive.

You will need a retail copy of Snow Leopard. If you need to purchase Snow Leopard contact Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service. The price is $29.00 plus tax. You will receive physical media - DVD - by mail.

Eudora running in Snow Leopard Server installed into Parallels, concurrently with Lion or Mt. Lion:

[click on image to enlarge]

More information about installing Eudora into Snow Leopard Server in Parallels:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16384485#post16384485

and

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16496788#post16496788

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16675335#post16675335

Yes. See the following:

How To Run Snow Leopard On A New Mac

This does not apply to new Mac Minis or MacBook Airs. When newer models are introduced that also require Lion for hardware support, the techniques described below will no longer work with the possible exception of using Parallels 7.

What has to be done:

1. Create a new partition on the hard drive.

2. Get a clone of a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system. Put the cloned Snow Leopard

system onto the new partition.

Step One: Create a new partition on the hard drive

To resize the drive and create a new partition do the following:

1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the

COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart

the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until

the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the

downward pointing arrow button.

After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.

3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)

4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.

You should now have a new volume on the drive.

It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.

Step Two: Obtain a clone of a Snow Leopard system:

You will need access to a Mac already running Snow Leopard. You will need a 16 GB USB flash drive or an external hard drive to which you can clone the Snow Leopard system from the Mac that has Snow Leopard installed. Alternatives are:

Option One:

Install a new Snow Leopard system onto a USB flash drive. Boot the Mac used for installing with the USB flash drive. Update the flash drive system to 10.6.8 using the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard. Verify that you can boot the Mac with the USB flash drive.

Take the USB flash drive to your new Mac and try booting from it. If it works then clone the system from the flash drive to the newly made partition:

Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.

2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.

5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination

entry field.

6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.

7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the USB

flash drive.

Option Two:

If you have a large enough external drive you can erase and use, then it would be easier to just clone the entire Snow Leopard system from the source Mac computer to the external drive.

Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.

2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.

5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination

entry field.

6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.

7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the external drive. Source means the Snow Leopard Mac's

internal drive.

After cloning verify that it will boot the source Mac. If so then take the external drive to your new Mac boot with it. If all is well then restore the clone to the new partition on your new Mac:

Restore the clone using Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.

2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.

5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination

entry field.

6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.

7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the external drive.

You will need a retail copy of Snow Leopard. If you need to purchase Snow Leopard contact Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service. The price is $29.00 plus tax. You will receive physical media - DVD - by mail.

Do you have a backup of the G4's drive? Or do you have an enclosure you can use with the G4's drive?

Otherwise, you can connect the two via Firewire and use Migration Assistant:

A Basic Guide for Migration on Intel or PowerPC Macs

If you are migrating a PowerPC (PowerMac) system (G3, G4, or G5) to an Intel-Mac be careful what you migrate. Keep in mind that some items that may get transferred will not work on Intel machines and may end up causing your computer's operating system to malfunction.

Note: if you are upgrading to a Mac with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later, or with the intent of upgrading to 10.7 or later anytime in the future, be aware that any applications that are not labelled Universal, or haven't been upgraded to Intel CPU compatibility will not run on Lion or later. Documents may migrate if an Intel native application exists that will open them, but applications that are PowerPC only will not. This user tip explains what else is needed for upgrading to Lion: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2465.

This also means for any Mac model whose hardware or firmware that has been refreshed on or after July 20, 2011, you won't be able to install 10.6.8 or get Rosetta from it unless you follow a link at the end of this tip. It may be better to get a used or refurbished Mac that predates July 20, 2011. See the Snow Leopard tip on the bottom for which Macs support Rosetta, which in turn supports older PowerPC applications.

Both Leopard (10.5) , and Tiger (10.4.4 through 10.4.11, excluding 10.4.0, 10.4.1, 10.4.2, and 10.4.3) have PowerPC and Intel Mac support, and upgrading to either, this tip here, as well as links to my tip on Tiger and Leopard will help with your upgrade.

The Knowledgebase article Intel-based Mac: Some migrated applications may need to be updated refers to methods of dealing with migrating from PowerPC chips to Intel with the Migration Assistant safely. The authors of this tip have not had a chance to verify this works in all instances, or that it avoids the 10.6.1 and earlier Guest Account bug that caused account information to get deleted upon use of the Migration/Setup Assistant. However, a well backed up source that includes at least two backups of all the data that are not connected to your machine will help you avoid potential issues, should they arise. In event it does not work, follow the steps below.

Rosetta supports "software that runs on the PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor that are built for Mac OS X". This excludes the items that are not universal binaries or simply will not work in Rosetta:

Classic Environment, and subsequently any Mac OS 9 or earlier applications

Screensavers written for the PowerPC

System Preference add-ons

All Unsanity Haxies

Browser and other plug-ins

Contextual Menu Items

Applications which specifically require the PowerPC G5

Kernel extensions

Java applications with JNI (PowerPC) libraries

See also What Can Be Translated by Rosetta.

In addition to the above you could also have problems with migrated cache files and/or cache files containing code that is incompatible.

If you migrate a user folder that contains any of these items, you may find that your Intel-Mac is malfunctioning. It would be wise to take care when migrating your systems from a PowerPC platform to an Intel-Mac platform to assure that you do not migrate these incompatible items.

If you have problems with applications not working, then completely uninstall said application and reinstall it from scratch. Take great care with Java applications and Java-based Peer-to-Peer applications. Many Java apps will not work on Intel-Macs as they are currently compiled. As of this time Limewire, Cabos, and Acquisition are available as universal binaries. Do not install browser plug-ins such as Flash or Shockwave from downloaded installers unless they are universal binaries. The version of OS X installed on your Intel-Mac comes with special compatible versions of Flash and Shockwave plug-ins for use with your browser.

The same problem will exist for any hardware drivers such as mouse software unless the drivers have been compiled as universal binaries. For third-party mice the current choices are USB Overdrive or SteerMouse. Contact the developer or manufacturer of your third-party mouse software to find out when a universal binary version will be available.

Also be careful with some backup utilities and third-party disk repair utilities. Disk Warrior 4.1, TechTool Pro 4.6.1, SuperDuper 2.5, and Drive Genius 2.0.2 work properly on Intel-Macs with Leopard. The same caution may apply to the many "maintenance" utilities that have not yet been converted to universal binaries. Leopard Cache Cleaner, Onyx, TinkerTool System, and Cocktail are now compatible with Leopard.

Before migrating or installing software on your Intel-Mac check MacFixit's Rosetta Compatibility Index.

Additional links that will be helpful to new Intel-Mac users:

Intel In Macs

Apple Guide to Universal Applications

MacInTouch List of Compatible Universal Binaries

MacInTouch List of Rosetta Compatible Applications

MacUpdate List of Intel-Compatible Software

Transferring data with Setup Assistant - Migration Assistant FAQ

Because Migration Assistant isn't the ideal way to migrate from PowerPC to Intel Macs, using Target Disk Mode, copying the critical contents to CD and DVD, an external hard drive, or networking will work better when moving from PowerPC to Intel Macs. The initial section below discusses Target Disk Mode. It is then followed by a section which discusses networking with Macs that lack Firewire. You can also determine if you have Firewire by looking at this image of the ports typically found on a PowerMac G4 Firewire 800, which has two 6 pin Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394a) ports below the USB ports, and below that, a Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b).

The 4 pin Firewire found on many camcorders is just a Firewire 400 port that is not powered by the computer. Cables exist that can convert between all three.

If both computers support the use of Firewire then you can use the following instructions:

1. Repair the hard drive and permissions using Disk Utility.

2. Backup your data. This is vitally important in case you make a mistake or there's some other problem.

3. Connect a Firewire cable between your old Mac and your new Intel Mac.

4. Startup your old Mac in Target Disk Mode.

5. Startup your new Mac for the first time, go through the setup and registration screens, but do NOT

migrate data over. Get to your desktop on the new Mac without migrating any new data over.

If you are not able to use a Firewire connection (for example you have a Late 2008 MacBook that only supports USB:)

1. Set up a local home network: Creating a small Ethernet Network.

2. If you have a MacBook Air or Late 2008 MacBook see the following:

MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) and MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)- Migration Tips and Tricks;

MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) and MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)- What to do if migration is

unsuccessful;

MacBook Air- Migration Tips and Tricks;

MacBook Air- Remote Disc, Migration, or Remote Install Mac OS X and wireless 802.11n networks.

Copy the following items from your old Mac to the new Mac:

In your /Home/ folder: Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites folders.

In your /Home/Library/ folder:

/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)

/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)

Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)

/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)

/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)

/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)

/Home/Library/Calendars (copy the whole folder)

/Home/Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)

/Home/Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)

/Home/Library/Fonts

/Home/Library/Widgets

/Home/Library/Syndication (Tiger) or /Home/Library/PubSub (Leopard) <<< RSS

/Home/Library/Internet Plug-In

Credit goes to iBod for this information.

If you want cookies:

/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist

/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist

For Entourage users:

Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data

Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft

Credit goes to Macjack for this information.

If you need to transfer data for other applications please ask the vendor or ask in the Discussions where specific applications store their data.

5. Once you have transferred what you need restart the new Mac and test to make sure the contents are there for each of the applications.

Special instructions for those who have purchased Mac models that do not support Rosetta:

The newest (post 2010) Mac models run only Lion or Mountain Lion. They are not able to run Snow Leopard at all. However, you can still run PPC applications using Snow Leopard and Rosetta by intalling Snow Leopard as a virtual machine using Parallels. This is not an exercise for the truly inexperienced user, but it is completely doable provided you are willing to spend some money and some time. For complete instructions on what to do see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3913218?answerId=18280105022#18280105022. Although the instructions are keyed to Parallels 7, you should instead use the latest version, Parallels 8. (This information was contributed by user MlchaelLAX.)

Written by Kappy with additional contributions from a brody.

eagledavid1 wrote:

Would this work?: install a retail version (I already have one) of Snow Leopard onto an empty existing partition on my Intel iMac; upgrade it to 10.6.8; clone the partition to a new partition on an early 2011 MBP.

Be sure to check the Optional installation of Rosetta before you commence the installation (and Quicktime 7, too in my opinion). Since you have already purchased the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD (which is either 10.6 or 10.6.3), you might google Mac_OS_X_Snow_Leopard_10.6.7_ISO...

Ogelthorpe or Kappy: Can you help this OP clone 10.6.8 to his iMac? See his last post of the thread from today...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4889047?start=0&tstart=0

MichaelLax, greetings: You have essentially advised the OP (Dennis Kulpa) his options, ie. get original Snow Leopard install discs for his iMac. Since that iMac originally was sold with Snow Leopard as the OS, I would think that if the OP created on his Mac Mini a 10.6.8 OS, then it should be able to be cloned on to the iMac. I do not have that hardware to test this, but intuitively I would wager it should work. I would offer him that as a suggestion.

Ciao.

Thanks: he's got a question for you (please answer it there):

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4889047?answerId=21600799022#21600799022