install lion on mac mini 1.1 with C2D

[millar876]

i have a mac mini 1.1 it came with a 1.6 GHz CoreDuo, it's since been upgraded to a T7200 2.0GHz Core2Duo. it runs great, however i can't install Lion.

when I check "about this mac" it shows the core2duo, and system profiler shows

"model identifier" Macmini1,1
"Boot Rom Version" MM11.0055.B08
"MMC Version" 1.3f4

is there any way i can install lion on this mac. I'm happy to answer any questions that may help diagnose and resolve my problem.

 

[millar876]

pickies

 

[Intell]

There is no way to install Lion on upgraded C2D Macs at this time.

 

[C8XY]

I have exactly the same spec Mini as the OP, upgraded to C2D.
Can anyone come up with a solution for this?
Is the installer checking the model identifier? Can we spoof this?

Also, I omitted the optical and I’m running RAID on two internal drives, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue should it?

 

[C8XY]

Just had a look in CoreServices:

InstallableMachines.plist
PlatformSupport.plist

Would editing these get Lion installed??


EDIT:
I entered my board ID in both of these plists and it didn’t work. Thats about as far as can go

EDIT 2:
There is a modified version of the Lion GM that will install on unsupported machines. No doubt available from torrent sites.
source

 

[4JNA]

thread going on over at insanely mac about this, the correct info for the plist is Mac-F4208EC8, but with the GM, it is now failing even with the correct info added. seems to be hard coded somewhere which could get tricky.

working on the same thing here at the moment, had several attemps fail, but still have several ideas to try. i'll post if i come up with anything useful (working...).

 

[Intell]

thread going on over at insanely mac about this, the correct info for the plist is Mac-F4208EC8, but with the GM, it is now failing even with the correct info added. seems to be hard coded somewhere which could get tricky.

working on the same thing here at the moment, had several attemps fail, but still have several ideas to try. i'll post if i come up with anything useful (working...).

There are a few other places that lockout older systems. At least two of these are the kernel and the boot.efi files. There could be more.

 

[niewiesznic]

I am also waiting for solution to this problem. Also having upgraded to C2Duo Mac Mini 1,1.

 

[4JNA]

works.

well, that was easy! installed and working well on a mac mini 1,1 upgraded with a T7200, 2gb ram, etc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

what i did...

1. bought and downloaded the retail 10.7 from the app store (11A511)

2. saved the image to an 8gb usb drive

3. installed 10.7 on an known supported device (MBP 2,2) on an external drive.

4. modified the installed 10.7 on the external drive by removing /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist

5. took the external drive and booted the mini, used superduper to image the internal drive, and it works! apps all work, app store, software update, everything. even with the sucky 950 all the animations and eye candy work, no noticeable lag. best of luck.

 

[millar876]

4JSA, love the sig by the way. I'm trying something similar tonight. I'm using ccc (carbon copy cloner) to make a bootable clone of my mini, then ill take that cloned drive and boot into it with my iMac (Late 2009 3.06 c2d), upgrade to lion, then try and boot the mini from the 10.7 external. if that fails to work ill try deleting those files you suggest or just try your method

 

[C8XY]

well, that was easy! installed and working well on a mac mini 1,1 upgraded with a T7200, 2gb ram, etc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

what i did...

1. bought and downloaded the retail 10.7 from the app store (11A511)

2. saved the image to an 8gb usb drive

3. installed 10.7 on an known supported device (MBP 2,2) on an external drive.

4. modified the installed 10.7 on the external drive by removing /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist

5. took the external drive and booted the mini, used superduper to image the internal drive, and it works! apps all work, app store, software update, everything. even with the sucky 950 all the animations and eye candy work, no noticeable lag. best of luck.

Excellent, I will try this out over the weekend.
Could you explain what you did with superduper? I’ve never used it before.
Nice work!

 

[4JNA]

Excellent, I will try this out over the weekend.
Could you explain what you did with superduper? I’ve never used it before.
Nice work!

sure.

should start by saying that both the usb key and external drive were blank/empty. formatted them both in disk utility for OSX Extended (Journaled), and used 'options' to select GUID boot partition.

installed the 10.7 image on the usb key, used the key to install on the MBP using the blank external usb drive as the target, and then rebooted the MBP into 10.7 by holding down option at start up. once up and updated, i downloaded the current version (2.6.4) of SuperDuper and mounted the image and dropped the app in the application folder. shut down 10.7, rebooted the MBP into 10.6 and then mounted the external drive and removed .plist file.

used the external to boot the mini by holding down option at boot and picking the 10.7 partition, once the mini was up and running, went into applications, started 'SuperDuper' and told it to copy/clone the external to the internal drive... pause for effect...

MAKE SURE YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING ON THE MINI INTERNAL DRIVE! IT GETS WIPED/ERASED! BACK UP FIRST.

whole thing after starting SuperDuper took probably about 20 minutes, the basic 10.7 and 2 updates are showing as 5.94gb on the mini as of now with nothing else installed.

hope that helps. best of luck.

 

[millar876]

success

success.

i cloned the mac mini onto an external hdd, started up my iMac from the cloned drive, installed Lion, restarted to the iMacs own internal, removed the .plist file, ejected, started up the mini from the external.

everything seems to work, as 4JNA said. all thats left is for me to clone it back and hope the 10.7.1 update won't bu99er it all up.

and it keeps all your settings and keychains doing it this way as well.

side note, like the look of new system profiler

 

[4JNA]

success.

...side note, like the look of new system profiler

sweet, great job!

i second the new profiler thing. lots of info in one easy spot. go apple!

now, we just need to talk to them about the crazy reverse scroll and reopen apps at restart as a 'default' thing...

 

[C8XY]

This is great news! Thanks for the help guys, should keep me busy tomorrow

 

[Roadcat]

Help!

Please Help - I am an average user with some upbringing. I managed to put in the C2D so I can be trained. I am still paying off my MacBook Pro so I can't afford the new MacMini. I bought an 8Gb stick and a USB drive.

I have found 4JNA's advise to be brilliant and millar876's twist to be insightful. Here is where I am stuck.

I think I made the mistake of upgrading my MacBook Pro to Lion first. Because now the app store will not let me buy it. It says it is already installed which it is. What is the 11A511 number?

Also, what does MBP mean?

 

[spyderx]

This method worked for me

This worked on my Mac Mini 1,1 C2D upgraded machine.

1. D/L Lion on my C2D iMac
2. Extracted the InstallESD.DMG file from the download and created a bootable DVD installer
3. Used a FW external drive and backed up the MacMini running 10.6.8 with Super Duper. The External FW drive now has a bootable MacMini image.
4. Plugged External FW drive into my MBP. Booted from the External FW drive
5. Inserted DVD installer
6. Performed upgrade install (I just did a 10.6.8 full reinstall bare bones 3 weeks ago... ) on the External FW drive from the MBP.
7. Rebooted from the MBP internal drive and removed the plist mentioned in the thread (just renamed it) from the External FW drive
8. Took the External FW drive to the Mac Mini, booted from the External FW drive that now contains the Mac Mini Lion install
9. Started superduper and did an image of the External FW drive to the internal Mac Mini drive
10. Restarted from the internal mac Mini drive. Lion is working. pimp.

I had to do a few tweaks:
SwitchResX needed an upgraded version. It works fine.
The Trim Enabler needed to be run again (running an SSD in the MM).

We'll see if any service packs hose this but it's working fine now.

 

[Tense]

So, let me ask. Instead of doing all this...

Couldn't you just burn/install the "Install ESD" image to a DVD/USB. Then boot your macmini into Target mode. Hook it up to your supported Mac like an external drive... boot off DVD/USB install to Mac Mini like external. Remove plist stated... and away you go?

 

[millar876]

Maybe? But it was far easier for me to clone, boot from clone, upgrade clone to lion, reboot to iMac internal, remove file, boot mini from clone to test. Clone back to mini internal hdd. Mainly because I'm using my mini with plex as a media center with all the cables loomed in behind my tv, and would have either required dismantling my living room to get to the power cable or dismantling the office to get to the imac

 

[4JNA]

...I think I made the mistake of upgrading my MacBook Pro to Lion first. Because now the app store will not let me buy it. It says it is already installed which it is. What is the 11A511 number?

Also, what does MBP mean?

the 11A511 is the build number of the retail version. posted it because i didn't want people to think i was using a developer release. MBP = MacBook Pro. glad the 'back up first' thing at least worked for one person! didn't want to post directions and then have everyone say i made them lose all there important files/pics/music/etc...

if you already did the 10.7 upgrade, then yes, the installer will delete itself when done. you will need to get a fresh download from the app store (search the boards for instructions) or find someone who still has the retail download on their system. copy the .DMG to the desktop and then use disk utility to to put it on usb/DVD/external/etc. best of luck.

So, let me ask. Instead of doing all this...

Couldn't you just burn/install the "Install ESD" image to a DVD/USB. Then boot your macmini into Target mode....

didn't try target mode, but can't think of a reason that this would not work if the two were close enough to pull off the connection. the mini will not boot with the .plist file in place no matter where the image is, but target mode would turn the mini into the external so should 'in theory' work fine. great idea. hope you try it and let us know if it works!

EDIT: as an afterthought, this would probably only work for a clean install, as i doubt the installer would pick up the previous info on the internal mini drive in target mode. the clone/boot/upgrade/remove route would be required to keep keychain/apps/etc intact. just a guess based on lots of years of trying things like this.

i went the external route as i wanted a working install of lion to clone to several systems instead of doing the install over and over and over. just my 2 cents and reason for approach.

PS. like the 'clone the mini and upgrade' and then go to work idea. i had nothing on the mini to keep, so was looking/working for a clean install idea. very cool, great work to both above.

 

[spyderx]

This could work... MacMini is in a mess of hifi and video equipment though... easier to swap the external drive out. Plus if the upgrade to the external fails you have a fall back (you'd still need to backup the mini).

They key step here really is to make sure you install lion on a compatible machine, remove the plist, then restore to the mini. There are probably a 100 ways to swizzle that process.

So, let me ask. Instead of doing all this...

Couldn't you just burn/install the "Install ESD" image to a DVD/USB. Then boot your macmini into Target mode. Hook it up to your supported Mac like an external drive... boot off DVD/USB install to Mac Mini like external. Remove plist stated... and away you go?

 

[rmwebs]

I used 4JNA's method however slightly differently:

- Copied Lion from my new MBA11" to a USB drive using SuperDuper
- Removed the hardware plist file
- Booted the USB copy onto a very old MacMini (1st gen Intel with upgrade to 2Ghz Core2Duo)
- Used SuperDuper to copy USB installation to main HDD.

Nice and easy

Edit: Scrap that. Mini turns off after a few minutes. Opened it up to a smell of burning...it overheated big time.

 

[habi00]

Edit: Scrap that. Mini turns off after a few minutes. Opened it up to a smell of burning...it overheated big time.

Did your heatsink come loose inside the machine? I put my upgrade cpu on with small plastic screws/bolts instead of those original clips. They are almost impossible to put back on so that they dont come lose.

I started to wonder why the fan was going so much after the upgrade that i opened it up again to see the heatsinks original clips had losened on one side and there was no heatsink on the cpu.

 

[hwojtek]

How about the updates? Are the .1, .2 updates to Lion OK with the installation modded to suit the Mini 1,1? I have one hooked up to the TV and was wondering if I could streamline my OSes on all machines I am using and keep with Lion only.

 

[millar876]

.1 updated fine for me but .2 put back in the approved devices file so i had to boot to my back up and remove it again. so long as you can keep a clone handy you should be able to boot into an earlier version and remove the file again.