Boot into macOS 10.8 with Mac mini 2014 to use old printer?

[ab225]

I've got an old laser printer I still want to be able to use (a Philips Laser MFD 6020). My main machine is a 2017 MacBook Pro. The drivers don't work with anything past Mountain Lion and so far I've got around it by making a bootable 10.8 USB drive and booting it from an old Mac mini 2010.

I'm about to swap my 2010 Mac mini for a 2014 model but it doesn't seem to boot into older systems. I've got Windows 10 on an external disk and tried installing old Windows drivers but they don't seem to work. The dpi of the printer is great and I can't afford a replacement right now.

Anyone know of a way around this situation?

 

[Boyd01]

The 2014 Mini can only go back as far as Yosemite. If you really need Mountain Lion, that will work on the 2012 Mini. Alternately, you should be able to run Mountain Lion in a virtual machine on your 2017 MacBook Pro, I run it on my 2018 Mini using a 4gb VM with Parallels in order to use some very expensive old CAD and 3d software, works great. You would need to have enough RAM for the virtual machine, but if you are only printing then a 2gb VM might be enough.

I have never tried printing from my VM but assume it would work for this. You might also be able to use a Mountain Lion VM on your 2014 Mini, but I assume your 2017 MacBook pro is faster and would be better suited. BTW, which 2014 Mini are you planning to get? If it is the 1.4ghz/4gb model then beware. I have one of these which I used as a server and it was fine for that, but it was almost useless for everything else. The performance problems on that model 2014 Mini are well-known.

 

[ab225]

The 2014 Mini can only go back as far as Yosemite. If you really need Mountain Lion, that will work on the 2012 Mini. Alternately, you should be able to run Mountain Lion in a virtual machine on your 2017 MacBook Pro, I run it on my 2018 Mini using a 4gb VM with Parallels in order to use some very expensive old CAD and 3d software, works great. You would need to have enough RAM for the virtual machine, but if you are only printing then a 2gb VM might be enough.

I have never tried printing from my VM but assume it would work for this. You might also be able to use a Mountain Lion VM on your 2014 Mini, but I assume your 2017 MacBook pro is faster and would be better suited. BTW, which 2014 Mini are you planning to get? If it is the 1.4ghz/4gb model then beware. I have one of these which I used as a server and it was fine for that, but it was almost useless for everything else. The performance problems on that model 2014 Mini are well-known.

Hey thanks, VM is a great idea and saves me having to think about keeping an old Mac around just for when I need to print.

I currently use the 2010 Mac mini just to watch stuff on a big screen and as a spare computer. I found a cheap 2012 Quad i7 Mac mini, and I thought I'd resell them both, buy a 2014 Mac mini that can run Big Sur (without patches) and make a profit. I wouldn't mind a 1.4Ghz model but the ram limitation is unappealing. I'm holding out for a cheap 8GB model, otherwise I'll just the 4GB and put an SSD in it.

 

[Boyd01]

I have a 2012 quad and it's still a very nice machine, it is about 50% faster than the top of the line 2014 Mini. I had mine setup to dual boot into Mountain Lion to run my old software for a number of years. But having the virtual machine on my 2018 Mini is really a much better solution and is noticeably faster than the real computer. Just using my 2012 quad as a file server now.

 

[ab225]

I have a 2012 quad and it's still a very nice machine, it is about 50% faster than the top of the line 2014 Mini. I had mine setup to dual boot into Mountain Lion to run my old software for a number of years. But having the virtual machine on my 2018 Mini is really a much better solution and is noticeably faster than the real computer. Just using my 2012 quad as a file server now.

I was pumped when I got the 2012 Quad (the eBay seller didn't check the specs properly and underpriced it). I went back and forth about keeping it, but in the end, being able to run the latest system for another year or two and make a profit was too appealing. Also, I'm not going to be putting it through its paces, just running 1080p movies and YouTube and occasionally opening Word docs or testing websites.

 

[RRmalvado]

You should be able to use a generic driver.

 

[ab225]

You should be able to use a generic driver.

Nothing has worked for me so far. I'm forced to select a particular printer driver and those that I've tried don't work. I've not been able to find a generic printer driver for download anywhere and none are installed by default. It's a pretty obscure printer. But if you have any ideas let me know!

 

[MIKX]

Assuming that you have a driver that you can actually install . . . this might work . . it still works in Mojave 10.14.6 in both my 4,1>5,1 Mac Pro and my late 2012 Core i5 Mac Mini with my 2002 Canon A3 Laser.

17 year old Canon A3 laser printer working in Mojave 10.14.5

Just printed the doc on top of this 2002Canon A3 laser printer from within Mojave 10.14.5 I posted a similar report re: this ( Japan only ) Canon A3 LBP-1610 laser printer ( 64 mb RAM ) working in the Sierra forum. Anyway, tonight I got it working in Mojave 10.14.5 ! :D I bought it here in...

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