Install Mac OS X Lion on iMac 2017

[qwent1]

Hello,,

I just bought a new iMac 20,5" 2017 model. I portioned my disk so I could install Mac OS X Lion on the other one.
I made a bootable flash disk (Using disk utility, carbon copy cloner,...) using different tutorial so I guess the flash disk is fine. When I try to boot up from the flash drive I get the grey crossed circle preventing me to launch Mac OS X Lion installation.

Would that method be impossible to do on these iMac models now ? I used to use this method in the past, so...

If anyone can help, thanks !

 

[Bart Kela]

Nah, the oldest version of an operating system that you can install on a Mac is the original version the product released with. Older versions of the operating system don't have the device drivers necessary to support later generation machines.

On top of that, there is no 20.5" iMac 2017 [sic]. They only made 21.5" and 27" models. They both released in June of this year meaning the oldest version of macOS would be a variant of macOS Sierra.

One cannot install El Capitan or an earlier version of macOS/OS X on these machines.

If you want to run OS X Lion 10.7 -- released in July 20, 2011 -- you will need to acquire a system that was released prior to that date or one that was released before Mountain Lion 10.8 (July 25, 2012).

My mid-2010 Mac mini would be able to run OS X Lion. My 2013 MacBook Air would not.

 

[qwent1]

Nah, the oldest version of an operating system that you can install on a Mac is the original version the product released with. Older versions of the operating system don't have the device drivers necessary to support later generation machines.

On top of that, there is no 20.5" iMac 2017 [sic]. They only made 21.5" and 27" models. They both released in June of this year meaning the oldest version of macOS would be a variant of macOS Sierra.

One cannot install El Capitan or an earlier version of macOS/OS X on these machines.

If you want to run OS X Lion 10.7 -- released in July 2011 -- you will need to acquire a system that was released prior to that date.

My mid-2010 Mac mini would be able to run OS X Lion. My 2013 MacBook Air would not.

Hello, thanks for replying, indeed it is a 21,5". I am sorry I have to fully disagree, I have done it many times since MacOS 8 and 9 and so on. Thanks for your time.
Anyone else ?

 

[chrfr]

Hello, thanks for replying, indeed it is a 21,5". I am sorry I have to fully disagree, I have done it many times since MacOS 8 and 9 and so on. Thanks for your time.
Anyone else ?

The 2017 iMac cannot run Lion. The post you dismissed as wrong is 100% correct.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
Replies 2 and 4 are ABSOLUTELY correct.

You CANNOT boot a 2017 iMac from Lion (or older versions of the OS).
Cannot be done.
Period.
End of story.

Some older versions of the OS -can be run- IF you do so within a "virtual machine" using Parallels or VMWare Fusion (I think there is also a free open-source solution, can't remember the name).
Not sure if Lion will run this way.

WHY do you need to boot into Lion?

 

[qwent1]

Hello all,

Thank you for your replies. I am still confused and you might have an explanation to this :
I managed to install Sierra and Lion (on 2 partitions) on my previous MacBook which is a MacBookPro10,1. Is that logical to you ? Thanks for your help. I need Lion to run a version of the audio software Protools I need to use.

 

[chrfr]

Hello all,

Thank you for your replies. I am still confused and you might have an explanation to this :
I managed to install Sierra and Lion (on 2 partitions) on my previous MacBook which is a MacBookPro10,1. Is that logical to you ? Thanks for your help. I need Lion to run a version of the audio software Protools I need to use.

Yes, the MacBook Pro 10,1 first shipped with Lion on it, and is still supported by High Sierra today, so you can install any of those operating systems on it. The 2017 iMac originally shipped with Sierra 10.12.4 on it, so it cannot run anything older than that.
You're not going to be able to run your old version of Protools on this 2017 iMac.

 

[Bart Kela]

Yes, it is logical.

The MacBookPro10,1 is the MacBook Pro (Retina 2012) released on June 11, 2012, nearly eleven months after the release of 10.7 Lion. The original operating system on that MacBook at the time of release was OS X 10.7.4 Lion.

macOS Sierra 10.12 was released on September 20, 2016.

 

[qwent1]

Alright...
Well thank you all for that !
Take care
[doublepost=1511819221][/doublepost]Still trying to find a solution :

If, for example, I could install OS X Lion on a external hard drive, and make a clone of this system on my iMac partition, would it still not work ?

I still have to find a way to install OS X Lion on an external hard drive...

 

[Bart Kela]

You still don't get it. OS X Lion 10.7 is not going to run on a 2017 iMac.

Period.

END OF DISCUSSION.

If you want to run that version of the operating system, you need to find hardware that was released before July 25, 2012 (the release date of Mountain Lion).

I have a external Snow Leopard HDD. It boots up fine on my Mac mini 2010. It will not boot up on my 2013 MacBook Air nor my 2017 MacBook.

I am bowing out of this thread since I am tired of talking to a brick wall and clearly wasting my time.

Best of luck.

 

[Princess Cake]

I found out about this suckiness myself first-hand recently. I tried to install Snow Leopard on my 2012 iMac that shipped with Mavericks and I got a Kernel Panic.

I had no clue Macs operated this way as I've never tried to downgrade before honestly. So while it IS nice I could downgrade to Mavericks and escape this GOD UGLY POS UI we have now.... it wouldn't be as good as getting to the holy grail of OS X brilliance that is Snow Leopard.
[doublepost=1511838984][/doublepost]As a follow up, best I can tell you is to Buy Parallels for macOS. It will let you install any Mac or Windows operating system inside of an emulator inside of High Sierra. Basically it will be a window with an entire operating system in it. You could install Lion on there to run the tools you need.

I use it myself for playing video games like Fallout and Elder Scrolls or old outdated stuff Macs no longer support such as The Sims 1. Works a treat!

 

[chrfr]

As a follow up, best I can tell you is to Buy Parallels for macOS. It will let you install any Mac or Windows operating system inside of an emulator inside of High Sierra. Basically it will be a window with an entire operating system in it. You could install Lion on there to run the tools you need.

The OP is trying to run an old version of ProTools, which can't run in a virtual machine.
[doublepost=1511874455][/doublepost]

Still trying to find a solution :

If, for example, I could install OS X Lion on a external hard drive, and make a clone of this system on my iMac partition, would it still not work ?

I still have to find a way to install OS X Lion on an external hard drive...

As we've said before, and as post #10 made extremely explicit: there is no way to install and run Lion on your iMac. None whatsoever.
Post #12 refers to virtualizing operating systems. Lion can be installed into a virtual machine that runs on your iMac but it cannot be used for Protools so it will not address your problem.
The only way you can continue to use your old version of Protools is to keep using it on your old computer, or to buy a different old computer that can still run Lion.

 

[qwent1]

The OP is trying to run an old version of ProTools, which can't run in a virtual machine.
[doublepost=1511874455][/doublepost]
As we've said before, and as post #10 made extremely explicit: there is no way to install and run Lion on your iMac. None whatsoever.
Post #12 refers to virtualizing operating systems. Lion can be installed into a virtual machine that runs on your iMac but it cannot be used for Protools so it will not address your problem.
The only way you can continue to use your old version of Protools is to keep using it on your old computer, or to buy a different old computer that can still run Lion.

Hello chfr,
Yes it was explicit enough thank you. Too explicit actually. No need to get rude.
Apart from that, I am sincerely thankful for all your help and advices.

 

[Princess Cake]

The OP is trying to run an old version of ProTools, which can't run in a virtual machine.

Why wouldn't it? I'm not exactly familiar with ProTools but isn't it just an Audio Editor? If you install Lion on Parallels you've essentially created the environment to install the program you want >.> unless this comes down to being an issue with drivers or performance in some way...

 

[qwent1]

Why wouldn't it? I'm not exactly familiar with ProTools but isn't it just an Audio Editor? If you install Lion on Parallels you've essentially created the environment to install the program you want >.> unless this comes down to being an issue with drivers or performance in some way...

Protools needs a lot of CPU to run, and indeed the drivers would be a very annoying subject to deal with. I won't go this way, I just have to forget about using this previous Protools version. Best regards.

 

[Princess Cake]

Protools needs a lot of CPU to run, and indeed the drivers would be a very annoying subject to deal with. I won't go this way, I just have to forget about using this previous Protools version. Best regards.

Yes but you can tweak Parallels to use as much of your CPU/Memory/Video Card as you want. Heres the setup I use for gaming on Windows 8 but I could jack it up more. Of course my Mac would turn into a snail but the Parallels system would be getting close to native speed.

As for the drivers issue, Parallels installs a LOT of compatibility drivers on its own- mostly for when you're using Windows. I don't think running OS X 1:1 would really be that far of a stretch...

But if you're set-fast against trying the idea I guess thats your decision, just sounded like you needed this app to run for your work or something.

 

[chrfr]

Yes but you can tweak Parallels to use as much of your CPU/Memory/Video Card as you want. Heres the setup I use for gaming on Windows 8 but I could jack it up more. Of course my Mac would turn into a snail but the Parallels system would be getting close to native speed.

As for the drivers issue, Parallels installs a LOT of compatibility drivers on its own- mostly for when you're using Windows. I don't think running OS X 1:1 would really be that far of a stretch...

But if you're set-fast against trying the idea I guess thats your decision, just sounded like you needed this app to run for your work or something.

Protools is extremely picky about the computing environment and timing of things is critical to making audio output work properly. A virtualized environment just isn't suitable.

 

[PaulRanger2]

Nah, the oldest version of an operating system that you can install on a Mac is the original version the product released with. Older versions of the operating system don't have the device drivers necessary to support later generation machines.

On top of that, there is no 20.5" iMac 2017 [sic]. They only made 21.5" and 27" models. They both released in June of this year meaning the oldest version of macOS would be a variant of macOS Sierra.

One cannot install El Capitan or an earlier version of macOS/OS X on these machines.

If you want to run OS X Lion 10.7 -- released in July 20, 2011 -- you will need to acquire a system that was released prior to that date or one that was released before Mountain Lion 10.8 (July 25, 2012).

My mid-2010 Mac mini would be able to run OS X Lion. My 2013 MacBook Air would not.

Nah, the oldest version of an operating system that you can install on a Mac is the original version the product released with. Older versions of the operating system don't have the device drivers necessary to support later generation machines.

On top of that, there is no 20.5" iMac 2017 [sic]. They only made 21.5" and 27" models. They both released in June of this year meaning the oldest version of macOS would be a variant of macOS Sierra.

One cannot install El Capitan or an earlier version of macOS/OS X on these machines.

If you want to run OS X Lion 10.7 -- released in July 20, 2011 -- you will need to acquire a system that was released prior to that date or one that was released before Mountain Lion 10.8 (July 25, 2012).

My mid-2010 Mac mini would be able to run OS X Lion. My 2013 MacBook Air would not.

I have similar issues to 'qwent1'. This year I purchased a late 2017 21.5" iMac with 1TB HD. I partitioned the HD into 'Mac HD' - 450GB and 'NEW' - 550GB. My incorrect idea was that I would install Yosemite onto the 'NEW' partition so that I could run various non Apple software on my new and expensive iMac. I have the Yosemite installers 'OS X Yosemite [MAS].dmg’ and 'osxupd10.10.5.dmg’ to upgrade to 10.10.5. 'chrfr’ kindly put me straight concerning the impossibility of my original idea. Thank you again.

I have Yosemite installed on my late 2009 21.5" iMac and also on an external 500GB HD. From the Systems Preference/ Startup Disk, I can select either HD and restart to the selected disk successfully.

My question is
After I have used Migration Assistant to transfer data from late 2009 to late 2017 iMac, can I then connect my external 500GB HD (with Yosemite installed) to the new iMac and, using High Sierra's System Preferences, select that external HD as Startup Disk and reboot successfully? Much of my non Apple software will NOT run on even El Capitan, to which I stupidly updated when prompted by App Store. It was the 'devil's own hell' to re install Yosemite on a newly erased early 2009 HD. To say nothing of all the other non Apple software that had to be reinstalled.

Some non Apple software (e.g. Adobe Photoshop Elements 8) would not run and I would then have had to have purchased a later version of PSE, just to suit Apple's dictates on OS X version compatibility?! Other non Apple software is open source in origin and is no longer supported by its developers, e.g. 'Streamclip', a truly unique and versatile video clip manipulation program. With'Streamclip', there IS NO commercially available alternative software. This I would also have had to have purchased - additional, post Apple expense, all because of Apple. This scenario is one only users of the MS Windows platform could reasonably expect to be subjected to (by Microsoft).

Apple should start to repay the loyalty of its wearying fan base and let the end purchaser make some of these decisions. E.g. In High Sierra, I can ONLY install Apple software OR from the Apple APP STORE. Apple should be loyal to its long suffering fans by allowing Mac users to decide if they want or need to install non Apple or non App Store software. The users would then be responsible for all consequences of their decision. But at least they would have the chance to make one.

Apple is morphing into Microsft.

 

[chrfr]

Hello Bart Kela,

I have similar issues to 'qwent1'. This year I purchased a late 2017 21.5" iMac with 1TB HD. I partitioned the HD into 'Mac HD' - 450GB and 'NEW' - 550GB. My incorrect idea was that I would install Yosemite onto the 'NEW' partition so that I could run various non Apple software on my new and expensive iMac. I have the Yosemite installers 'OS X Yosemite [MAS].dmg’ and 'osxupd10.10.5.dmg’ to upgrade to 10.10.5.

I have Yosemite installed on my late 2009 21.5" iMac and also on an external 500GB HD. From the Systems Preference/ Startup Disk, I can select either HD and restart to the selected disk successfully.

My question is
After I have used Migration Assistant to transfer data from late 2009 to late 2017 iMac, can I then connect my external 500GB HD (with Yosemite installed) to the new iMac and, using High Sierra's System Preferences, select that external HD as Startup Disk and reboot successfully? Much of my non Apple software will NOT run on even El Capitan, to which I stupidly updated when prompted by App Store. It was the 'devil's own hell' to re install Yosemite on a newly erased early 2009 HD. To say nothing of all the other non Apple software that had to be reinstalled.

Some non Apple software (e.g. Adobe Photoshop Elements 8) would not run and I would then have had to have purchased a later version of PSE, just to suit Apple's dictates on OS X version compatibility?! Other non Apple software is open source in origin and is no longer supported by its developers, e.g. 'Streamclip', a truly unique and versatile video clip manipulation program. With'Streamclip', there IS NO commercially available alternative software. This I would also have had to have purchased - additional, post Apple expense, all because of Apple. This scenario is one only users of the MS Windows platform could reasonably expect to be subjected to (by Microsoft).

Apple should start to repay the loyalty of its wearying fan base and let the end purchaser make some of these decisions. E.g. In High Sierra, I can ONLY install Apple software OR from the Apple APP STORE. Apple should be loyal to its long suffering fans by allowing Mac users to decide if they want or need to install non Apple or non App Store software. The users would then be responsible for all consequences of their decision. But at least they would have the chance to make one.

Apple is morphing into Microsft.

The answer is no different than before. You cannot use Yosemite on your 2017 iMac. It’s also not true that you can only install Apple software or software from the App Store in High Sierra.

 

[StellarVixen]

What is it with all this necromancy lately?

 

[Jeffrey Sanfilippo]

Hello,,

I just bought a new iMac 20,5" 2017 model. I portioned my disk so I could install Mac OS X Lion on the other one.
I made a bootable flash disk (Using disk utility, carbon copy cloner,...) using different tutorial so I guess the flash disk is fine. When I try to boot up from the flash drive I get the grey crossed circle preventing me to launch Mac OS X Lion installation.

Would that method be impossible to do on these iMac models now ? I used to use this method in the past, so...

If anyone can help, thanks !

yes it can be done
However! Your gonna need to treat it like a Hackintosh and get all your Hardware working with Unibeast from tonymacx86