Any Problems Dual-Booting Mojave and Big Sur on 2018 Mac mini?

[smoothbit]

I have a 2018 Mac mini and it's still running macOS 10.14 because I still need to be able to use some 32-bit apps.

With past machines I would partion the internal drive and dual-boot between different versions of macOS. However, I remember reading a couple of years ago that doing this didn't play nicely with the T2 chip in the 2018 Mac mini, and so I've avoided it until now.

However, there is now some software I need to use that requires macOS 11, so I'm planning to partition the drive and install Monterey next week.

I intend to use FileVault on both partitions, so they shouldn't be able to mess each other up.

Is anyone else doing this, with either Big Sur or the Monterey betas? Does it work smoothly or do you run into any issues, with the T2 chip or otherwise?

 

[joevt]

I don't have issues with Big Sur and Catalina. I have a small internal drive so I put them on USB. I've never tried FileVault.

When switching to Big Sur, the Mac mini will chime twice.

 

[Boyd01]

Depending on the 32-bit apps, have you considered running them in a virtual machine? I have a 2018 Mini running Catalina with Mountain Lion and Sierra virtual machines in Parallels for my legacy apps. Works perfectly for me, but these are older apps that won't run under Mojave. Anyway, for my needs I prefer not to partition the disk or reboot just to use the old apps.

 

[opeter]

Does Parallels support GPU acceleration in the older versions of MacOS, or how does this work for you?

 

[Boyd01]

No idea. But yes, it works perfectly with my legacy software which includes graphics programs like VectorWorks 2008 and Strata3d cx. I'm retired now and am not going to spend over $3000 to update that software which I don't need very often, when I was working it was just a cost of doing business. I still use FileMaker Pro 11 quite often in Parallels (a $600 program) and it works fine too. All of these old programs run much faster in a VM than they ever did on my old Macs "back in the day".

Maybe not a good solution for everyone, but it's perfect for me. I gather that some software just won't run under Parallels however, like legacy Final Cut Pro. If I need that, I can boot my 2012 quad Mini into Mountain Lion however.

 

[opeter]

Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated. ??

 

[Fishrrman]

I, too, have a 2018 Mini that still uses 10.14 Mojave and will for the foreseeable future.

When I need to boot into a "newer" OS, I do so using an external SSD.

I currently boot to the Monterey beta using a 2.5" SATA drive in a USB3 enclosure.
Works fine. But I use it only occasionally.

I wouldn't mix 2 OS's on the Mini's internal SSD.
It can be done, but it's easier to boot from "something external".
Fewer chances of problems that way.

If I was going to boot/run regularly from an external drive, I'd get an "nvme" blade SSD and a USB3.1 gen2 enclosure, put it together, install the OS onto it and run that way...