Can a Macbook 5,1 (Unibody, 13") boot the 64-bit kernel?

[j-a-x]

I've got a MacBook 5,1 13" unibody. It's supposed to be capable of booting into the 64-bit Kernel in Snow Leopard but holding down 6 and 4 on startup does not seem to do anything. It has 64-bit EFI, a 64-bit processor, no 3rd party 32-bit extensions installed, but it still will not boot into 64-bit.

Does anybody know how to boot this machine using the 64 bit kernel?

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Apple made it so the MacBooks cannot boot the 64bit kernel...even the pre-Pro aluminum MacBooks cannot.

There's no end-user benefit to having the kernel is 64-bit mode, so no worries, all programs can still run in the 64-bit space.

 

[InsightsIE]

Apple made it so the MacBooks cannot boot the 64bit kernel...even the pre-Pro aluminum MacBooks cannot.

There's no end-user benefit to having the kernel is 64-bit mode, so no worries, all programs can still run in the 64-bit space.

I was sure the newest white macbooks can boot 64bit SL. It can boot 64bit 7 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846

 

[Peace]

Hold down the 6+4 keys while booting and find out.

 

[KnightWRX]

Hold down the 6+4 keys while booting and find out.

If you don't know, why did you bother replying ?

OP, it doesn't work on the aluminium non-pro Macbooks.

 

[Peace]

If you don't know, why did you bother replying ?

OP, it doesn't work on the aluminium non-pro Macbooks.

I did it so the OP could start to find these simple things out for him/her self.

 

[UngratefulNinja]

He said he already did that. In the very first post.

 

[Peace]

He said he already did that. In the very first post.

Then he already knows.

 

[jedivulcan]

There's really no advantage. In fact, the only thing you might notice is the fact kernel_task sucks up more memory.

 

[Techhie]

There's really no advantage. In fact, the only thing you might notice is the fact kernel_task sucks up more memory.

There are some slight performances increasing linearly with the addition of RAM to the system above 4 GB, through the performance increases are only really noticeable when working with large quantities of RA in the Mac Pro or Xserve. It's not really worthwhile to enable the implementation of a kernel that only improves memory management on a laptop that will likely not go above ~6 GB (IIRC), and beyond that Apple has a habit of purposely taking measures like this to jive users into upgrading before they otherwise would have.

 

[j-a-x]

I read that Aperture 3 runs better with the 64-bit kernel extensions. Maybe that's not true, but I kind of wanted to try it for myself.

Holding 6 and 4 on startup doesn't do it. So there's absolutely no way? Not even a fun hacky way? I know the hardware and EFI is capable of running 64-bit. So is there something in the software blocking it?

 

[Techhie]

I read that Aperture 3 runs better with the 64-bit kernel extensions. Maybe that's not true, but I kind of wanted to try it for myself.

Holding 6 and 4 on startup doesn't do it. So there's absolutely no way? Not even a fun hacky way? I know the hardware and EFI is capable of running 64-bit. So is there something in the software blocking it?

IIRC there is embedded code in the kernel preventing it from running on those machines, and the only fix would be a partial re-compile. I don't know that it would be worth the supposed benefits running a non-vanilla kernel on Apple hardware, as it could cause negative consequences far outweighing the original intentions.