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2807

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 9, 2011
81
124
Im so bummed! I want the newest MBAir 13" with everything, but I need SL for a critical school test-tsking software.

Any way to get SL to work? What a bummer!
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
Snow Leopard does not work on the 2011 Air's. It refuses to install and if its forced onto the disc, it kernel panics upon boot.
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,020
7,863
I just picked up a copy of Snow Leopard Server from an online auction and will see if I can install it on my new Air using Parallels Desktop. Parallels offers a VM for Snow Leopard Server, though not for the basic client version of Snow Leopard itself, so I'm optimistic. I have the free space on my SSD, so this might be a decent way of keeping some PowerPC software around.
 

alecgold

macrumors 65816
Oct 11, 2007
1,335
827
NLD
I just picked up a copy of Snow Leopard Server from an online auction and will see if I can install it on my new Air using Parallels Desktop. Parallels offers a VM for Snow Leopard Server, though not for the basic client version of Snow Leopard itself, so I'm optimistic. I have the free space on my SSD, so this might be a decent way of keeping some PowerPC software around.

That is an idea indeed!
 

R.OG

Suspended
Aug 19, 2010
172
0
Has anyone got this working correctly? After some kext manipulation i have snow leopard running but without graphics accelleration.
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
Am i the only one who finds it ironic Windows 7 runs like a champ on the new MBA buy SL doesn't? :confused:

It isn't much different than trying to get Windows XP running on a 2010 or 2011 Dell box. Somethings just aren't meant' to be.
 

ZBoater

macrumors G3
Jul 2, 2007
8,497
1,322
Sunny Florida
It isn't much different than trying to get Windows XP running on a 2010 or 2011 Dell box. Somethings just aren't meant' to be.

Lion just came out. Its not like SL is 7 years old. Seems odd, but that is the downside of only having one source for the hardware and the OS...
 

Veinticinco

macrumors 65816
Feb 25, 2009
1,469
1,428
Europe
Lion just came out. Its not like SL is 7 years old. Seems odd, but that is the downside of only having one source for the hardware and the OS...
Couldn't agree more!

Mothballing Snow Leopard is one thing but actually disabling it from being retrofit into the new 'Lion'-preinstalled MBA should the user so choose, is a short-sighted and stupid decision.

As is not supplying a physical restore copy of the OS (without paying $69), but that's another argument.

----------

Has anyone got this working correctly? After some kext manipulation i have snow leopard running but without graphics accelleration.
Even with kext shenanigans, I don't think there's a way to get audio?
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,308
Couldn't agree more!

Mothballing Snow Leopard is one thing but actually disabling it from being retrofit into the new 'Lion'-preinstalled MBA should the user so choose, is a short-sighted and stupid decision.
As long as I can remember apple has always prevented macs from running older OSs then what was delivered. So in this case SL won't run.

I can see why, Lion is the future, SL is now obsolete and it lacks the drivers/kexts needed for the new MBA (Which they'll not provide)
 

RobQuads

macrumors regular
Jul 11, 2010
234
48
It isn't much different than trying to get Windows XP running on a 2010 or 2011 Dell box. Somethings just aren't meant' to be.

But I best Vista would install on it. Your talking about a 1/2 year old product with SL not a 11 year old product like XP
 

vitzr

macrumors 68030
Jul 28, 2011
2,765
3
California
It isn't much different than trying to get Windows XP running on a 2010 or 2011 Dell box. Somethings just aren't meant' to be.

I've got Windows XP PRO running fast & fully optimized on a 2011 X220 ThinkPad.

Boots to the desktop in 12 seconds.

It was easy & didn't require anything out of the ordinary.
 

FSMBP

macrumors 68030
Jan 22, 2009
2,711
2,600
I can confirm that Snow Leopard Server installs in a Parallels Desktop virtual machine on my 2011 MacBook Air.

Good news!! How does it run?

Also, to the OP, if you go to the Mac Mini forums - they successfully got the 2011 Minis (that shipped with Lion) to run Snow Leopard. This worked because the Mini shares the same hardware as the early 2011 MacBook Pros (those work with 10.6.8); therefore, 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) has the drivers. But, since the 2011 Airs have a special Thunderbolt port, 10.6.8 would not have the driver for it.
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,020
7,863
Good news!! How does it run?

Also, to the OP, if you go to the Mac Mini forums - they successfully got the 2011 Minis (that shipped with Lion) to run Snow Leopard. This worked because the Mini shares the same hardware as the early 2011 MacBook Pros (those work with 10.6.8); therefore, 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) has the drivers. But, since the 2011 Airs have a special Thunderbolt port, 10.6.8 would not have the driver for it.

It seems to run fine. I gave it 1.75GB of RAM, 128MB of video RAM, and 2 CPUs (the same as my Windows 7 VM). It installed in less than half an hour and takes up about 11GB in its base configuration. I haven't installed any other applications on it but have some old scanner software that is PowerPC that I'll try this week when I get the chance.
 

trims

macrumors regular
May 11, 2011
232
79
Nottingham, UK
Lion is the only thing keeping from purchasing a second MBA at the moment.

MBA should arrive tomorrow. Plan a gradual induction: play with MBA + Lion -> wait for Lion bug fix -> wait for MS Office for Mac 11 upgrade -> migrate stuff from XP. I'm a patient kinda guy.
 

Macintox

macrumors member
Feb 14, 2009
93
2
may be a way to do it

Hackintosh says that installing multibeast 2.0 it can be done... if any one of you tries it , please let us know...we are many thousands who would love to go back to SL on these machines.
 

scenemissing

macrumors member
Jun 18, 2010
83
0
Good news!! How does it run?

Also, to the OP, if you go to the Mac Mini forums - they successfully got the 2011 Minis (that shipped with Lion) to run Snow Leopard. This worked because the Mini shares the same hardware as the early 2011 MacBook Pros (those work with 10.6.8); therefore, 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) has the drivers. But, since the 2011 Airs have a special Thunderbolt port, 10.6.8 would not have the driver for it.

I got a 2011 13" Air to boot off of an external USB drive with 10.6.8 - however the following were not working:

Internal Video after the initial Apple logo (had to use an external monitor)
Keyboard backlight was at 100% and couldn't be adjusted
Closing the lid to sleep did not work.


But it did boot, after clearing out all of the caches on the external 10.6.8 clone. That leads me to believe it is doable if we can get some extra kexts.
 

Macintox

macrumors member
Feb 14, 2009
93
2
I got a 2011 13" Air to boot off of an external USB drive with 10.6.8 - however the following were not working:

Internal Video after the initial Apple logo (had to use an external monitor)
Keyboard backlight was at 100% and couldn't be adjusted
Closing the lid to sleep did not work.


But it did boot, after clearing out all of the caches on the external 10.6.8 clone. That leads me to believe it is doable if we can get some extra kexts.

GREAT ! may be you could try this multibeast 2.0 ..
 

jdechko

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2004
4,230
325
To the OP, a virtualized snow leopard probably won't do you a whole lot of good for test taking software. I'm assuming it's law school that requires specific test-taking software?

Anyway, there's a high probability that the software will refuse to run in a VM as I've read that it basically locks the system out to prevent cheating, and since it could lock the guest OS but not the host OS, the software would just refuse to run. If it did run, however, there is always the possibility of being accused of academic misconduct.

If it's at all possible, you could install Windows via bootcamp, which is an acceptable alternative for some schools. I only know this because my sister-in-law just started law school, and her school allows native Windows on a Mac system.
 

tyronehowe

macrumors newbie
Aug 8, 2011
12
0
As is not supplying a physical restore copy of the OS (without paying $69), but that's another argument.


Hi

Do you know if you can install Lion from the Apple Lion USB flash drive?

I tried but it wouldn’t let me. The ONLY way I could re-install Lion on my 2011 MBA was via the Internet, which is very unsatisfying.

I think the Apple Lion USB drive can only be used to upgrade Leopard/Snow Leopard machines.

… but please tell if I’m wrong!:D
 

jdechko

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2004
4,230
325
Hi

Do you know if you can install Lion from the Apple Lion USB flash drive?

I tried but it wouldn’t let me. The ONLY way I could re-install Lion on my 2011 MBA was via the Internet, which is very unsatisfying.

I think the Apple Lion USB drive can only be used to upgrade Leopard/Snow Leopard machines.

… but please tell if I’m wrong!:D

No. The 10.7 build for the Air is a custom build (mainly for driver compatibility). This happens every time that Apple releases a new machine. Most people expected that 10.7.1 would work, but it hasn't yet. Maybe 10.7.2 will be the unifying release of Lion, one that is able to be installed on any computer.
 
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