Installing OS X Snow Leopard on Macbook Air mid 2011

[Erdbeertorte]

No Problemo on my Mid-2011 Air, just much slower from a Thunderbolt-SSD than on my Late 2011 Pro.

[doublepost=1463686820][/doublepost]That on your photos is the installation, what is not possible with 10.6.0-10.6.3 and the newest version is 10.6.6 what only came and works with the Mid-2011 iMacs on grey disks. It has to be already installed from a white 10.6.0 or 3 retail DVD and updated to 10.6.8 before or maybe at least 10.6.6.

 

[Mason Dulemba]

No Problemo on my Mid-2011 Air, just much slower from a Thunderbolt-SSD than on my Late 2011 Pro.

View attachment 632069
[doublepost=1463686820][/doublepost]That on your photos is the installation, what is not possible with 10.6.0-10.6.3 and the newest version is 10.6.6 what only came and works with the Mid-2011 iMacs on grey disks. It has to be already installed from a white 10.6.0 or 3 retail DVD and updated to 10.6.8 before or maybe at least 10.6.6.

hmmm so you are saying that i should try to install the latest version of SL ??
[doublepost=1463687311][/doublepost]Just out of curosity What size MBA 2011 do you have ?? i have a 11' and they only made mid/late 2011 11' MBAs which came with lion

 

[redheeler]

No Problemo on my Mid-2011 Air, just much slower from a Thunderbolt-SSD than on my Late 2011 Pro.

View attachment 632069
[doublepost=1463686820][/doublepost]That on your photos is the installation, what is not possible with 10.6.0-10.6.3 and the newest version is 10.6.6 what only came and works with the Mid-2011 iMacs on grey disks. It has to be already installed from a white 10.6.0 or 3 retail DVD and updated to 10.6.8 before or maybe at least 10.6.6.

How did you get that to work? I had assumed the mid 2011 Air is like the mid 2011 mini, both shipped with a minimum of Lion 10.7. The late 2011 MBP is nearly identical to the early 2011 model, so because of that it's able to run Snow Leopard 10.6.8 natively.

 

[Erdbeertorte]

@Mason Dulemba

There is no installer newer than 10.6.3, only on grey disks there is 10.6.4 an 10.6.6 that might not work because those discs are only for the same Macs they came with.

You need to install it on an older Mac first with all updates and then clone the disk on your Air or use it externally.

Mine is a 13" with a damaged display, but that should not be the problem. It's nearly the same as the 11". I might even have one of those too.

How did you get that to work? I had assumed the mid 2011 Air is like the mid 2011 mini, both shipped with a minimum of Lion 10.7. The late 2011 MBP is nearly identical to the early 2011 model, so because of that it's able to run Snow Leopard 10.6.8 natively.

The Air and mini were shipped with 10.7(.0) my MBP Late 2011 with 10.7.2. But all have the same chipset and graphics as the Mid-2011 iMac what came with some build of 10.6.6.

I installed 10.6.3 on a Mid-2010 white MacBook, then updated everything and it runs normally on both, the Late 2011 Pro and the Mid-2011 Air when I hang the SSD with all updates via Thunderbolt or USB on one of them.


That website is good to compare different models:

http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-comparison-chart/


Or use the free app MacTracker:

http://mactracker.ca/

 

[Mason Dulemba]

How did you get that to work? I had assumed the mid 2011 Air is like the mid 2011 mini, both shipped with a minimum of Lion 10.7. The late 2011 MBP is nearly identical to the early 2011 model, so because of that it's able to run Snow Leopard 10.6.8 natively.

im wondering if it works but they didnt announce it worked , because 10.6.8 was released in july and the MBA 2011 is mid 2011

 

[Erdbeertorte]

im wondering if it works but they didnt announce it worked , because 10.6.8 was released in july and the MBA 2011 is mid 2011

If it works on mine, released the same day and even on my Pro that came in late October 2011, why shouldn't it work on yours too?

 

[Mason Dulemba]

Maybe because the MBPs are more similar idk going to try it now fingers crossed

 

[Mason Dulemba]

Ok So just wanted to let everyone know that i was infact successful in installing Snow Leopard On My Mid 2011 MacBook Air, instructions and downloads are on the way but i need some help for what ever reason Snow Leopard doesnt recognize the tracpad on my Macbook air even though there were multi touch tracpads in MBPs at the time and even MBAs , now it does "recognize" it but it only allows you to move around and left click it will not let me right click even if i press control click ..... the only other thing is that it doesnt recognise my intel hd 3000 graphics card completely now i have loaded like 5 different kexts for it but there is still some screen tearing. Oh wait one last thing when i start up after i get past the apple logo there is a blue screen (Solid blue with a mouse cursor which you can still move your mouse around) for like 30 -60 seconds then its fine ?!?

Any help is appreciated


Screen shots of it working:
https://flic.kr/p/GV8BnG

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Very impressive OP! I'm very interested in your instructions!

Just a wild guess of an idea: you may need to edit the graphics card drivers/kext files to work on SL. Same goes with the trackpad

 

[Mason Dulemba]

Very impressive OP! I'm very interested in your instructions!

Just a wild guess of an idea: you may need to edit the graphics card drivers/kext files to work on SL. Same goes with the trackpad

How would you do that? , Do you mean like edit the info.plist or what ??

 

[Mcmeowmers]

How would you do that? , Do you mean like edit the info.plist or what ??

Yes, edit the info plist. Check this link http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Hardware_.kext_Patching_List

 

[Mason Dulemba]

Yes, edit the info plist. Check this link http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Hardware_.kext_Patching_List

But what part exactly i changed the iopc of multiple kexts that were for my gpu and it still comes up nokext loaded

 

[Mcmeowmers]

I'll list some ideas
Permissions, incorrect folder or name, IDs you've entered are not checking out,
Kext you've attempted to load is too different and is rejected

Could be something else with the OS. Maybe there is some other compatibility issues that are nonobvious.

I'd check permissions then do the house keeping step and reboot again

 

[Mason Dulemba]

I'll list some ideas
Permissions, incorrect folder or name, IDs you've entered are not checking out,
Kext you've attempted to load is too different and is rejected

Could be something else with the OS. Maybe there is some other compatibility issues that are nonobvious.

I'd check permissions then do the house keeping step and reboot again

House keeping ??
[doublepost=1464092992][/doublepost]Update today im deleting my mavericks partition and going to Triple boot XP, Dos (with W3.1) and Snow Leopard. Wish Me luck Everyone

 

[Mason Dulemba]

Yes, edit the info plist. Check this link http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Hardware_.kext_Patching_List

Thanks

 

[Mcmeowmers]

House keeping ??
[doublepost=1464092992][/doublepost]Update today im deleting my mavericks partition and going to Triple boot XP, Dos (with W3.1) and Snow Leopard. Wish Me luck Everyone

From the link I posted there is a step titled House keeping where you delete some files. I haven't tried it myself so I can't comment further on it

 

[MacbookAlex]

Know its been a while

Anyone think i could get mavericks on a mid 2015 MBP 15", it was a replacement for a 2013 MBP 15" which got a faulty logic board, and the new one came with yosemite, now running sierra, whereas my original 2013 one, now gone, had mavericks.

Thanks all

Alex

 

[redheeler]

Know its been a while

Anyone think i could get mavericks on a mid 2015 MBP 15", it was a replacement for a 2013 MBP 15" which got a faulty logic board, and the new one came with yosemite, now running sierra, whereas my original 2013 one, now gone, had mavericks.

Thanks all

Alex

No. The minimum for that Mac, outside of a virtual machine, is OS X Yosemite.

 

[MacbookAlex]

No. The minimum for that Mac, outside of a virtual machine, is OS X Yosemite.

Thanks for the reply.

Indeed it is, but having read that someone was installing snow leopard on a mid 2011 mba whose minimum is Lion, I thought that there was a bit of hope, especially as Mavericks is just one version below yosemite just as snow leopard is to lion.

Alex

 

[redheeler]

Thanks for the reply.

Indeed it is, but having read that someone was installing snow leopard on a mid 2011 mba whose minimum is Lion, I thought that there was a bit of hope, especially as Mavericks is just one version below yosemite just as snow leopard is to lion.

Alex

The 2011 MacBook Pro and iMac were released earlier that year, comparable specs (such as a new Sandy Bridge CPU, Thunderbolt), both shipped with Snow Leopard, meaning support for the Lion-equpped MacBook Air's hardware was for the most part already there. On top of that, it seems possible Apple was originally planning to release it with Snow Leopard (instead, it ended up getting released on the very same day as Mac OS X Lion), and stuck in compatibility; I suspect this was the case, as otherwise some modification would be needed in order to get it to boot.

In contrast, Mavericks was already outdated for eight months when the 2015 MacBook Pro was released, and no Mavericks-capable Macs ever shipped with a Radeon R9 M370X, Force Touch trackpad, etc. Since those models are still Haswell-based, it's possible that Mavericks could boot with some modification, but losing use of the dedicated GPU and Force Touch trackpad and would definitely be a problem.

Hope that clears things up.

 

[MacbookAlex]

The 2011 MacBook Pro and iMac were released earlier that year, comparable specs (such as a new Sandy Bridge CPU, Thunderbolt), both shipped with Snow Leopard, meaning support for the Lion-equpped MacBook Air's hardware was for the most part already there. On top of that, it seems possible Apple was originally planning to release it with Snow Leopard (instead, it ended up getting released on the very same day as Mac OS X Lion), and stuck in compatibility; I suspect this was the case, as otherwise some modification would be needed in order to get it to boot.

In contrast, Mavericks was already outdated for eight months when the 2015 MacBook Pro was released, and no Mavericks-capable Macs ever shipped with a Radeon R9 M370X, Force Touch trackpad, etc. Since those models are still Haswell-based, it's possible that Mavericks could boot with some modification, but losing use of the dedicated GPU and Force Touch trackpad and would definitely be a problem.

Hope that clears things up.

Definitely does, thanks for explaining, i have a rather long way to come lol

 

[Guza]

No Problemo on my Mid-2011 Air, just much slower from a Thunderbolt-SSD than on my Late 2011 Pro.

View attachment 632069
[doublepost=1463686820][/doublepost]That on your photos is the installation, what is not possible with 10.6.0-10.6.3 and the newest version is 10.6.6 what only came and works with the Mid-2011 iMacs on grey disks. It has to be already installed from a white 10.6.0 or 3 retail DVD and updated to 10.6.8 before or maybe at least 10.6.6.

Okay this is all good information. I'm going to buy a mid-2011 MacBook Air and try to install Snow leopard using all these discs that i have as you described, or just swap my SSD with it pre-installed from one computer to another sounds easier.
[doublepost=1540152430][/doublepost]

The 2011 MacBook Pro and iMac were released earlier that year, comparable specs (such as a new Sandy Bridge CPU, Thunderbolt), both shipped with Snow Leopard, meaning support for the Lion-equpped MacBook Air's hardware was for the most part already there. On top of that, it seems possible Apple was originally planning to release it with Snow Leopard (instead, it ended up getting released on the very same day as Mac OS X Lion), and stuck in compatibility; I suspect this was the case, as otherwise some modification would be needed in order to get it to boot.

Is this true, the MBA and Lion were released on that same day?

 

[jaydenridley4]

Probably a bit late to this, but success!
Instructions take a fair bit of time to actually do, and must all be done on an Intel Mac (doesn’t need to be the destination system)
Step 1: Download the DMG file called “snow leopard install.dmg” from archive.org (I don’t want to link in case of piracy etc)(torrent is alot quicker)
2: Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard in VirtualBox
3. Install all updates (every single one) from Software Update in apple menu
4. Shut down and add a new virtual HDD approx. 5GB larger than the SL virtual HD
4. Boot back to the install DVD
5. Make an image of the “Macintosh HD” or other name of the SL Virtual HD and save to the new HDD you just made
6. Boot back to SL Virtual HD
7. Copy that file (the disk image you made in step 5) to a USB drive, network drive etc… I used an Apple AirPort Time Capsule network drive
8. Close VirtualBox. You will not need it for now on.
9. Make a new partition on your MBA disk at least 5GB larger than the SL Virtual HD
10. Mount the DMG from Step 7
11. Select the new partition you made instep 9 and press “restore” then select the partition containing your SL (mounted in Step 10)
12. Copy the kexts files from attached ZIP folder to System/Library/Extensions of the SL drive
13. Done! Enjoy