10.6.8 on May 2012 MBP?

I just got off the phone with an Apple tech agent who told me that the latest (23 FEB 2012) EFI update with which my new 15" MPB ships will prevent me from performing a clean install of Snow Leopard (which I would prefer thanks to no Rosetta support for Lion).

Is this true, or is it just a mandatory rap the techs give to prevent people from abandoning Lion?

None of the software I currently use in my research will run without Rosetta support, and I don't particularly fancy having to run SL under a VM because it will be the environment I need 99% of the time, so I don't see the point of wasting resources on the native OS - but I will if I have no other option.

Here are the relevant specs for my new machine:

2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB (installing 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x8GB upon arrival)
256GB Solid State Drive
8x Double-Layer SuperDrive
MBP 15" HR Antiglare WS Dspl

I would appreciate advice from anyone who knows more about the subtleties of the latest firmware updates and how they translate between OS's.

Thanks!

simsaladimbamba said:

I guess you have the late 2011 MacBook Pro and bought it in May 2012?
[SUCCESS!]Late 2011 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard

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Thanks, simsaladimbamba.

That's what I'm not sure about. The post you linked to was what got me wondering in the first place, since it was resolved in Dec 2011 and the EFI update in question came after that.

So yes, it's the late 2011 MBP, but with updated firmware from the machines in DayOfChaos's thread. I'm concerned that what worked for DayOfChaos 6 months ago, might cause trouble for me now.

simsaladimbamba said:

I don't know about the firmware issue, but I upgraded a late 2011 MBP via starting it in Target Disk Mode and connecting it to a 2009 MBP and using the 29 USD Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD to install the OS on the 2011 MBP (now just mounted as HDD) and then updating it to 10.6.8 and so on.
It worked, and I haven't had a problem since.

Click to expand...

I have all the means to do just that, and I'm happy you haven't had any problems with your retro-upgrade. Thank you for the guidance.

Both solutions (yours and DayOfChaos's) worked installing to HDD's, however, and I can't find any information as to whether it will work installing to my SSD. The Apple tech told me that the updated EFI tables relating to Lion recovery will prevent any "downgrade" to SL on the SSD. I need to know whether this is true, or just a scare tactic to keep me from moving away from Lion.

Apparently VM will have to do

I did some more digging, and it looks like, even if I manage to get SL installed, it won't have drivers for much of the hardware since this MBP was built after Aug 2011. So Parallels 7, with a minor workaround (thanks to MichaelLAX), will do the trick - as long as the latest update of that hasn't broken it...

Thanks for trying to help!

hakuin said:

Just for the record, I have a 2.4 GHz i7 15" MacBook Pro that, according to the serial number, was built in December 2011. I bought it in January 2012, immediately installed 16 GB of memory and a 256 GB SSD (Crucial M4) and cloned my Snow Leopard install onto the SSD using an old MacBook. I have experienced no issues so far, and have run all software updates for SL. I would recommend at least trying to use Snow Leopard, if that's what you need.

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Glad to know you're not having any hardware issues, that is encouraging. Thanks for letting me know!