First Mac-Mini

[eyoungren]

Nice upgrade! Just wondering... why not at least run El Capitan? It's fully supported, and is an evolution on Yosemite. IMO the best OS for these 09 mini is High Sierra, but that requires a patcher. But it's very easy to do.

It's 100% stable on mine, and performs better than any OS I have ever run on it. It will love that 8GB RAM. It also gets updates until late 2020. Yosemite hasn't had an update since 2017.

BTW... I doubt you broke the antenna. Those pop off the connector very easily. They're a pain to reconnect also, but not impossible or anything. The connector is also very tiny.

OK, not so much the antenna maybe, but possibly the chip inside. IDK. The wire came off the antenna. It required me stripping it and then re-soldering - twice.

Molten metal on which some sort of chip is attached. All I can say is that BT is jumpy. I remember it being smoother when I first brought it out there. I will have to wait and see what happens when I actually start using the keyboard and mouse out there versus just connecting to the Mac's shared drive.

As for El Capitan. I don't know what it is about it, but I don't like it. Pretty much the only reason. There aren't any apps that I'm going to be using this Mac for that Yosemite won't run though and I avoid SIP.

 

[defjam]

8GB ram now.

Messed up the case a bit on the bottom trying to wedge the metal away from the plastic. Ripped the wire off one of the BT antennas (twice) necessitating re-soldering, which I am no good at. May have to pick up another Belkin BT adapter as I think I may have killed that particular antenna.

Ah well. 8GB ram.

One of the tricks I've learned is to use a store customer loyalty card of to separate plastics pieces. It keeps them from marring and there easy to find in a pinch.

 

[eyoungren]

One of the tricks I've learned is to use a store customer loyalty card of to separate plastics pieces. It keeps them from marring and there easy to find in a pinch.

Yeah I tried that too. The plastic was too weak to force the separation.

I used iFixit's guide, so I'm probably going to order one of their separator tools - unless I can find it cheaper elsewhere. I need to get another spudger anyway.

 

[weckart]

I found the two smaller antennas separated with almost no pressure at all. The larger board needed to have the underside clips depressed. I almost missed that and nearly broke it trying to just yank it off.

There are clones of the iFixit tool all over eBay with varying success in verisimilitude and quality. I find that unless dealing with very soft plastics that guitar picks are better than spudgers for unlocking Apple's hidden clips and separating parts. YMMV as ever.

 

[eyoungren]

So, these showed up today…https://www.ebay.com/itm/Zyxel-Powe...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

MODS, NOT MY AUCTION! I BOUGHT THIS.

Gigabit Powerline. My home is wired for internet, but damned if I can figure out where things are supposed to go. My wife is not going to like an ethernet cable routed through the garage door and I'm not into making the effort to route a cable through walls or move networking equipment.

So, in went this. I have it set up on top of the garage door opener (I put a board up there). The PL adapter is plugged into a short extension cord that's plugged in to the same ceiling outlet as the garage door opener. From there I have the adapter plugged into a 10/100 switch. I intend to replace that for a Gigabit switch but it'll do for now. I'm not moving very large files around and as a test a 6GB file only took 10 mins to copy over.

Right now I have a 100' CAT 5 cable coming down from the switch connected directly to the Mini. As I clean the garage up that'll be changed as I route wires into permanent positions. For right now it works.

As you can see, 10/100 right now.

 

[eyoungren]

Ahhh, another use for my Mac Mini.

AirMessage

Server running on Mac Mini, forwards to app on Android (my Pixel 3a XL).

Had to make a port forward in my router, but it works.

 

[timidpimpin]

I was bored last night, so I decided to install Catalina on my 09 mini. Runs pretty well, but I still prefer High Sierra.

 

[weckart]

I was bored last night, so I decided to install Catalina on my 09 mini. Runs pretty well, but I still prefer High Sierra.

Running 10.15 myself but could not get 10.15.2 to boot. It just kept bombing out with a no-entry sign. Verbose showed it stalled at "IOUSB matching". I tried booting from USB, FW and updating from the same hard drive using dosdude's patcher but same problem every time.

 

[timidpimpin]

Running 10.15 myself but could not get 10.15.2 to boot. It just kept bombing out with a no-entry sign. Verbose showed it stalled at "IOUSB matching". I tried booting from USB, FW and updating from the same hard drive using dosdude's patcher but same problem every time.

Catalina is really just Mojave with iTunes split into multiple apps. And I never liked Mojave much. High Sierra is the best Mac OS since Snow Leopard IMO. That's what I will stick with on the mini.

BTW.. have you tried following the step by step guide from dosdude?

 

[1042686]

OK, not so much the antenna maybe, but possibly the chip inside. IDK. The wire came off the antenna. It required me stripping it and then re-soldering - twice.

Molten metal on which some sort of chip is attached. All I can say is that BT is jumpy. I remember it being smoother

If BT doesn’t work out, I wonder if it’s something you can remove altogether and purchase a quality usb BT dongle to use in its place?

I have a BT dongle in my QS through a usb2.0 pci card that works pretty well & shows up natively through the os.

 

[eyoungren]

If BT doesntwonder if it’s something you can remove altogether and purchase a quality usb BT dongle to use in its place?

I have a BT dongle in my QS through a usb2.0 pci card that works pretty well & shows up natively through the os.

I have a Belkin FT8012 in my Quad. Originally, I bought it for my QS in order to get BT on the Quicksilver. My Quad does have the Airport/BT combo but it's been jumpy since I got it and it does not connect to more than one device. So, I use the Belkin from the QS in it.

The thing about the Belkin adapters is that no drivers are needed. The system sees it as native BT.

I have a FT8001 on the way for the Mini, if the eBay seller will get around to actually shipping it. $10.

 

[weckart]

Catalina is really just Mojave with iTunes split into multiple apps. And I never liked Mojave much. High Sierra is the best Mac OS since Snow Leopard IMO. That's what I will stick with on the mini.

BTW.. have you tried following the step by step guide from dosdude?

There isn't one for Catalina save for the video tutorial but there really isn't any change from Mojave. It is pretty much point and shoot except for some reason this damn box doesn't like 10.15.2. I have redownloaded the installer on another newer Mac and created the patched installer there but I still get a no entry on booting.

Might have to wait for the next point release and see how that goes.

 

[timidpimpin]

I have a Belkin FT8012 in my Quad. Originally, I bought it for my QS in order to get BT on the Quicksilver. My Quad does have the Airport/BT combo but it's been jumpy since I got it and it does not connect to more than one device. So, I use the Belkin from the QS in it.

The thing about the Belkin adapters is that no drivers are needed. The system sees it as native BT.

I have a FT8001 on the way for the Mini, if the eBay seller will get around to actually shipping it. $10.

I have 3 of these, and they work great on Mac and Windows. It won't work in Snow Leopard, but it works perfectly in El Capitan, High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina. I imagine it will work in Yosemite also. It's only a $2 gamble. It will give you much more modern and capable Bluetooth. 4.0 and up is also pretty secure.

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[1042686]

I have 3 of these, and they work great on Mac and Windows. It won't work in Snow Leopard, but it works perfectly in El Capitan, High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina. I imagine it will work in Yosemite also. It's only a $2 gamble. It will give you much more modern and capable Bluetooth. 4.0 and up is also pretty secure.

Pardon Our Interruption...

Do they work in leopard or Tiger?

 

[eyoungren]

Do they work in leopard or Tiger?

The Belkin F8T series do.

 

[timidpimpin]

Do they work in leopard or Tiger?

Never tried those, but since I doesn't work in Snow Leopard, I doubt it. There could potentially be some third-party drivers, but I'm not sure. I don't have any Leopard systems, but I will try it on Tiger later. But I doubt it will ever work on any PowerPC OS, as they predate BT 4.0.

 

[timidpimpin]

I used to use one exactly like this on Leopard. Worked well, but it's only Bluetooth 2. Good for keyboards and mice, but I find you need 4.0 and up for audio to work well, if at all.

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[weckart]

From memory, the D-Link DBT-120 adapter was the one most compatible with Tiger/Leopard PPC. You could use it with a BT keyboard and sleep/wake the Mac with it as if it were inbuilt. Still only BT 2.1. You needed Intel for anything newer.

 

[MagicBoy]

Yeah I tried that too. The plastic was too weak to force the separation.

I used iFixit's guide, so I'm probably going to order one of their separator tools - unless I can find it cheaper elsewhere. I need to get another spudger anyway.

The official Apple opening tool was a thin but flexible metal paint scraper. So I bought myself one of those from the local DIY store about 2 weeks after buying my 2009 mini new so I could install the RAM upgrade. Best £7 I ever spent, and it has a lovely teak handle on it too!
[automerge]1578227459[/automerge]

 

[CooperBox]

Yeah I tried that too. The plastic was too weak to force the separation.

I used iFixit's guide, so I'm probably going to order one of their separator tools - unless I can find it cheaper elsewhere. I need to get another spudger anyway.

If you look around I'm sure you can find cheaper and better than the iFixit tool itself.
Below is what I found in a French 'Dollar-Saver' type store. They are thinner steel so better than most paint-stripper tools I've ever seen. They slide perfectly between the gaps in the Mac Mini casing. Not sure what their principal use was, possibly for spreading adhesive on tiling etc. They came in a pack of 4, with width of 120mm/100mm/80mm and 50mm as shown below:





Cost was 3,50euros (a little less than $US4). The 120mm is the perfect width to depress all of the clips inwards on one side, then the 100mm on the adjacent side which then should fully release the first side & strip. Or the 100mm and 50mm used in combination on one side works a treat too.

 

[weckart]

If you look around I'm sure you can find cheaper and better than the iFixit tool itself.
Below is what I found in a French 'Dollar-Saver' type store. They are thinner steel so better than most paint-stripper tools I've ever seen. They slide perfectly between the gaps in the Mac Mini casing. Not sure what their principal use was, possibly for spreading adhesive on tiling etc.

Those are what I used for mine. Got mine from a pound shop and they are filler spreaders I bought recently when I was patching and decorating around the place. You can get plastic ones, which are like wide spudgers but I would not recommend them for this job. While flexible and fairly easy to insert, they are actually a tad too thin and flexible to hold the clips back while you try to ease the base out. It was actually more effort than using a wallpaper stripper and I did feel as if the blades were going to snap at any time. However, with a bit of care they will do the job and are cheap although pound shops in the UK all have wallpaper strippers somewhere.

 

[a2jack]

I run three of the early 09s, on one now. Great machines for every day internet and TV stream boxes @ 1080p.

All are upgraded to 8g ram and run on El Captain. Last one cost $60 from MOAT.

 

[MagicBoy]

My B&Q (DIY store) acquired Mac mini opening tool, c. 2009. Thin, flexible and about 2.5" wide.

Since used in it's intended role as a paint scraper!

 

[eyoungren]

So, I ordered a Belkin BT USB stick and that arrived yesterday. Still a little jumpy for some reason but it works. It's BT 2.1, which apparently is still what the Mini itself had.

Had to find a terminal command to force the Mini to switch to using it instead of the internal BT.

Today, the Gigabit switch arrived. I didn't get a pic, but physically it's the same Netgear box as the 10/100, just Gigabit.

As you can see…the Mini is now pulling Gigabit down the Powerline module.

 

[defjam]

So, I ordered a Belkin BT USB stick and that arrived yesterday. Still a little jumpy for some reason but it works. It's BT 2.1, which apparently is still what the Mini itself had.

Had to find a terminal command to force the Mini to switch to using it instead of the internal BT.

Today, the Gigabit switch arrived. I didn't get a pic, but physically it's the same Netgear box as the 10/100, just Gigabit.

As you can see…the Mini is now pulling Gigabit down the Powerline module.

View attachment 887416

Are you certain? I see that it's linked at 1Gbps but the download shows 8.47MB/sec which could be achieved with a 100Mbps connection. It's possible there is something else restricting the transfer speed but I do not see it transferring at anything exceeding 100Mbps. Or am I missing something?