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What have you done with an early Intel recently?

Finished setting up my kiddos MX25.1 iMac (2.5, 6.5, 8.75 y/o respectively). Settled on updating DNS on the machine globally for all accounts along with SPIN & Ublacklist add ons for firefox safe search results function and locked down kids google accounts specific to each account. I will likely move to a router solution down the line as they get older and acquire idevices but for now, this combo has not allowed me to intentionally access any adult content thus far either directly via web address or indirectly via google search so I think we're in a good little kiddo safe spot for now. I also have reasonable controls of curated subscription/content with YT front end FreeTube.

I know my middle kiddos biggest concern was when I was going to get retroarch installed and working so he could play some Super Mario World & Sonic the Hedgehog LOL. 🙂

It really is pretty crazy how well this 18 year old c2duo imac runs/handles DD tasks in 2026 on MX25.1+XFCE. I am thinking about experimenting geting Roblox running on this too which I know they enjoyed when they tried it on their cousins ipad. I don't like the open, uncontrolled/unsupervised potentially predatory environment but it might be something where I keep it on my Admin account so completely out of their reach - they only play it by asking me so Im aware and at best, we get some Roblox gaming time together which I admit is alot of fun. There's enough reported stories & lawsuits of nutball adult whackos+Roblox+little kids, that I feel completely comfortable directly gate keeping that one for quite a while & managing/supervising their experience directly.

Anyways, the heavy lifting is done for now.
 
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Certificate of Excellence said:
Finished setting up my kiddos MX25.1 iMac (2.5, 6.5, 8.75 y/o respectively).
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Is MX's desktop polish any better than it used to be? (I've been waiting what seems like an eternity for any Linux distro to feature GUI creature-comforts like the dock-magnification Mac users have enjoyed since 1999, or for file-list detail views to actually try packing as much info as possible into a small space, or auto-mount external volumes, etc.)
 
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Minghold said:
Is MX's desktop polish any better than it used to be? (I've been waiting what seems like an eternity for any Linux distro to feature GUI creature-comforts like the dock-magnification Mac users have enjoyed since 1999, or for file-list detail views to actually try packing as much info as possible into a small space, or auto-mount external volumes, etc.)
Click to expand...
Hmm, well, I started using MX at 21 with XFCE desktop. I dont think there is much difference graphically speaking between 21 and 25.1 ... at least nothing I immediately noticed. MX doesnt come with a dock so I use plank specifically for its very basic dock. Ive been using plank since Lubuntu 16.4 remix on PPC 🙂 For a more polished version of MX, I'd look at MX+KDE Plasma and full featured cairo-dock. That combo would have more and all the bells and whistles (& consumes up to 1.3gb) where as I use XFCE specifically for its lower resource consumption (around 400-500mb) on my older early intel macs (2006-2009 era macs) with more modest core duo and core2duo hardware.

I've grown to really like it anyhow. Currently, I'm running MX25 on an 08 mb, 09 mbp, 06 cMP 1,1, my awesome yet somehow obsolete i7 haswell w10 gaming box and now this early 09 imac. I've found (for me) a real sweet spot of support/functionality/ease-of-use for my aging intel pcs & macs with MX.
 
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Minghold said:
DosDude1-sourced Mojave/HFS+ running on an Early 2008 2.4ghz C2D "silverkeys" 15" Macbook Pro . --Case unopened, with OS installed* on the 200gb spinner drive as-is. While by no means fast, it's also not slow: Photoshop CS6 Extended launches in five seconds from cache, and it easily handles 1080p YouTube content in Waterfox w/updated uBlock Origin and FB Purity. This machine was obtained for ten bucks at the recycler, and is a stylish coffee-table computer with the keyboard lit up while in Dark Mode. The original 2008 battery only has 28 cycles on it, and Coconut lists it at 98.5% health. DriveDx reported the drive at 100% health, with barely a year of total run time.

People tend to forget that Apple was once pretty good about memory-management and drive-access instead of overtly trying to murder its own out-of-warranty hardware.

(*Procedure: 1. Boot from a Recovery Partition hosted on an external drive and launch Terminal; enter "csrutil disable". 2. Launch Disk Utility, wipe internal drive and create a new 170gb MacOS extended-journaled main partition and a 30gb tail-end APFS partition. 3. Reboot to launch DosDude1's installer; install Mojave to the APFS partition. 4. When finished, restart into the new OS, go through user-setup, then scan for update and apply Security Update 2021-005 (this part is the only reason we didn't install directly into an HFS+ partition). 6. Restart again, launch Carbon Copy Cloner 5 and clone the APFS partition to the HFS+ main partition. 7. Restart into the new main partition, and check the Memory usage section of Activity Monitor; if it's using over 3gb of 4 instead of under 2 at rest, then reboot back into the APFS partition, run a second clone pass with Get Backup Pro 3 and a third with CCC5 again. 8. When everything is shipshape, use Migration Assistant to import a favored boatload of goodies. 9. Apply Terminal hacks to disable Notifications, MRT, MDS_stores, Spotlight Indexing, ReportCrash. 10. Clone the drive to a fresh external partition, reboot from it to ensure it took, then store it offsite.)

View attachment 2445154
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I've tried this on my MBP 13" early 2011 i5 2.3 ram 16GB and SSD 500GB, in APFS partition the memory used is +/- 2.8GB, but in HFS+ the lowest I can get is +/- 6.8GB

Already repeat the clone process with Get Backup Pro 3 and again with CCC 5 as you instructed, but no improvement

At least the memory usage in HFS+ can be as low in APFS partition, how to achieve that? Please advice, thanks!
 
kostka said:
I've tried this on my MBP 13" early 2011 i5 2.3 ram 16GB and SSD 500GB, in APFS partition the memory used is +/- 2.8GB, but in HFS+ the lowest I can get is +/- 6.8GB

Already repeat the clone process with Get Backup Pro 3 and again with CCC 5 as you instructed, but no improvement

At least the memory usage in HFS+ can be as low in APFS partition, how to achieve that? Please advice, thanks!
Click to expand...
Is the HFS+ partition on the same drive or a different one? Are you running the cloning processes from inside the active partition?
 
My Mac activities lately have been mainly learning to run Windows 10 LTSC, using Bootcamp, on those Macs I have that will run it.
Successes so far are the Mac Pro 6,1, Mac Mini late 2012 (typing on this), 2015 11" MBA.
Failures: 2013 MBA 13". Will retry this one from a ground-up clean reinstall of macOS, because I see no reason it should fail. Also had a try at a 2011 13" MBP, but no joy. Might retry that one from a patched Catalina install.
 
DCBassman said:
My Mac activities lately have been mainly learning to run Windows 10 LTSC, using Bootcamp....
Click to expand...
See if you can find an ISO for Windows 10 2004 (version#, not year); in conjunction with a bit of script to set next download/update to the year 3000, you get a fairly modern OS that runs in 700mb ram. Disable/remove Cortuna, install updated Edge and then install uBlockOrigin. Install Office Pro 2021 w/Publisher & massgrave the whole thing. --Instead of blocking off a far chunk of drive space for partitions, create a couple Parallels VMs for W10/2004 and MX25linux.
 
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Minghold said:
Is the HFS+ partition on the same drive or a different one? Are you running the cloning processes from inside the active partition?
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HFS+ partition is on the same drive, I only partition APFS at the tail end of the drive (64GB).

Yes, cloning process I did from inside the active partition.
 
kostka said:
HFS+ partition is on the same drive, I only partition APFS at the tail end of the drive (64GB).
Click to expand...
Try creating a third hfs+ partition, or one on another drive, and cloning to it to see if the memory problem goes away. (I have had rare situations where I had to nuke the internal with El Capitan's Disk Utility before it would behave.)
kostka said:
Yes, cloning process I did from inside the active partition.
Click to expand...
Is SIP disabled? (That crap finds a way of turning itself back on with unseemly regularity.)

Otherwise, you could try creating a new clean install, cloning that to hfs+, and only then using Migration to import your stuff. ...Although your description sounds like you might be doing that already.

Also take a look at this: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....2121473/page-799?post=34394213#post-34394213
 
Minghold said:
Try creating a third hfs+ partition, or one on another drive, and cloning to it to see if the memory problem goes away. (I have had rare situations where I had to nuke the internal with El Capitan's Disk Utility before it would behave.)

Is SIP disabled? (That crap finds a way of turning itself back on with unseemly regularity.)

Otherwise, you could try creating a new clean install, cloning that to hfs+, and only then using Migration to import your stuff. ...Although your description sounds like you might be doing that already.

Also take a look at this: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....2121473/page-799?post=34394213#post-34394213
Click to expand...
SIP is already disabled from the start

Yes, this is already my 3rd attempt on the same device, really weird, because on another devices, the memory result is as expected, although all of them are much newer year MBA 2014 11", MBA 2014 13", MBA 2015 11" (all 8GB ram)

will try as you suggested and get back to you: creating third hfs+ partition, clone to another drive and also erase it with El Cap's Disk Utility to see if I can get the right result

thank you for the Mojo instructions, will read it carefully and try other things that I haven't tried before 🙏
 
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Minghold said:
See if you can find an ISO for Windows 10 2004 (version#, not year); in conjunction with a bit of script to set next download/update to the year 3000, you get a fairly modern OS that runs in 700mb ram. Disable/remove Cortuna, install updated Edge and then install uBlockOrigin. Install Office Pro 2021 w/Publisher & massgrave the whole thing. --Instead of blocking off a far chunk of drive space for partitions, create a couple Parallels VMs for W10/2004 and MX25linux.
Click to expand...
All good stuff, but all I want is for the hardware to be running W10. Which it does, rather well.
 
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Because I'm a sucker for a challenge, my next spot of tinkering is to try and build one functioning Late 2011 13" MBP out of two parts mules I picked up over the last year to repair a couple of identical models (including the one a few pages back I fixed up with Linux Mint for my mother). Trying to clear some space in my flat, and I could just hoy them both in the recycling, but if I can get a single working laptop then I can always sell that on eBay for a few pennies.

Have done a damage report on them today, and here's where we are:
MBP No.1: Half the keyboard doesn't work - assuming liquid damage maybe, guessing that a logic board issue would mean the whole thing was shot? Display works but looks 'dim', even on max brightness (I actually pulled this off the MBP that went to my mother and replaced it with the original display of MBP No.1 for that reason) - assuming a failing display, still usable though.
MBP No.2: One of the antenna cables/connectors to the Airport card has snapped off the display (The work of a clumsy-fingered amateur repairer, no doubt 🥺) - fixing this looks to be way above my pay grade, so I'm writing this display off. Battery doesn't charge when plugged in - not sure if it's just an issue with the little DC-in board or a bigger fault on the logic board itself. This one has been cannibalised for more parts than the other - no hard drive, no optical drive, no left speaker, a whole bunch of missing screws.

So I guess the plan will be to tear both of them down completely (😒) and try swapping the working keyboard of MBP No.2 with the faulty one of MBP No.1, and going with the dim-but-working display of MBP No.1. Any bits and pieces left behind can then go in the recycling, and the completed model can go on eBay. Guess it will have to literally be sold for pennies in the end with that display caveat, but hey ho. 😊
 
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More Bootcamp shenanigans.
I'd previously failed with the 2013 13" MBA. Tried the 2013 11". Exact same failure mode. Did the Big Sur-capable models all fail in this way? I wonder if they'd do the job right if reverted to Catalina or Mojave? Who knows, because I'm done trying, but it would be nice to know why those two failed in that way...
 
Maybe try Windows Install app .

Used it to install win 10 iot ltsc on a 2011 macbook air, worked like a charm.

Put Windows Install app and windows iso on a high sierra or higher external drive. Boot from the external drive and install to internal drive partition formatted to exfat. Use the legacy boot setting.
Took about 12 minutes to install over usb 2.

sourceforge.net

Windows Install

Download Windows Install for free. Installing Windows from macOS. Suitable for Hackintosh and Macintosh. The Windows Install.app program allows you to install Windows directly from the Mac OS system. There is no need to create an installation flash drive.
sourceforge.net sourceforge.net
 
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Snowlover said:
Maybe try Windows Install app .

Used it to install win 10 iot ltsc on a 2011 macbook air, worked like a charm.

Put Windows Install app and windows iso on a high sierra or higher external drive. Boot from the external drive and install to internal drive partition formatted to exfat. Use the legacy boot setting.
Took about 12 minutes to install over usb 2.

sourceforge.net

Windows Install

Download Windows Install for free. Installing Windows from macOS. Suitable for Hackintosh and Macintosh. The Windows Install.app program allows you to install Windows directly from the Mac OS system. There is no need to create an installation flash drive.
sourceforge.net sourceforge.net
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So, using this from an external drive, you're basically installing 'bare metal'? If so, I will certainly try it!
 
Certificate of Excellence said:
I've grown to really like it anyhow. Currently, I'm running MX25 on an 08 mb, 09 mbp, 06 cMP 1,1, my awesome yet somehow obsolete i7 haswell w10 gaming box and now this early 09 imac. I've found (for me) a real sweet spot of support/functionality/ease-of-use for my aging intel pcs & macs with MX.
Click to expand...
Tip: grab any old junker Air with a 121gb drive, install MX on it, then create a RescueZilla archive of it (launching Zilla from an external Yumi/Ventoy drive). Now restore that to another iMac or mini you're refurbing with a 500gb or bigger spinner drive*. Reboot again to a Mac Recovery Partition to disable SIP and run Disk Utility to erase the rest of the drive to MacOS Extended-journaled (HFS+), then CCC5-clone over your favorite MacOS goody-drive.

(*Not a Fusion drive!! You'll want an HFS+ MacOS boot volume spanning the ssd/1st-hdd partition of such a drive.)

If the cloned MX runs quickly or won't boot the first time (this is actually likely), the MX25 installer has a neat "experimental" option that most distros do not offer: the ability to reinstall MX (note: automatically applying correct drivers to the new machine) to an existing MX partition while preserving the existing /home folder with all user settings and added applications!!! --While not the desired Holy Grail of a single boot system with *all* drivers for *every* machine, it at least makes Linux migration fairly painless (since MX install in 10m or less, and RescueZilla also takes about that long).

Use either OCLP EFI or rEFInd as an alternative bootloader, to taste.

Why 121gb? ...it's more than generous for dabbler Linux, but leaves most of the drive available for legacy Mac grooviness. And, if you clone back to a base-model Air, you don't have to mess around in Gparted resizing in any leftover drive space.
 
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DCBassman said:
Using the app: exact same issue. Will now try using Bootcamp from a fresh install of Catalina rather than Big Sur. If that fails, it's back to MX Linux with it!
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No, same issue. One more try. Some research tells me the problem is likely to be a combination of that year's hardware and Big Sur. So far, I'm leaning towards hardware. As Monterey Bootcamps have been painless using the same ISO, I've OCLP'd the machine to Monterey, and will try that today. After that: MX.
I'm house/cat sitting again. The owners have upped their broadband speed from 6Mb/s to 80, which makes Mac playtime so much easier.
 
JulianStaples said:
£25 Mac Pro sit rep.

How it started:
View attachment 2626410

How it's going:
View attachment 2626412

😀

Reclaimed 500GB SSD as the main boot drive now as well. Need to add the old 1TB HDD that was running Lion back into another tray and reformat as an extra storage drive. And after doing a lot of reading in the Mac Pro forum, I have an appropriate metal GPU on the way, at which point I can hopefully boost up to Mojave.

Still have half an eye out for a cheap dual CPU tray, but for the time being this is turning into enough of a beast. 😎
Click to expand...

Well, this has been a voyage of discovery. As previously mentioned, I’m a complete idiot who’s kinda figuring all of this old Mac/macOS stuff out for the first time. And the last 24 hours have been a self-taught adventure and a half. 😳

Wrestled with getting the latest firmware for a Mojave install, and apparently got that wrong because the install bugged out and I had to wipe the SSD and go back to a fresh High Sierra installation. Then I couldn’t get my Mojave USB installer to boot for some reason (even though I used it to install 10.14.6 onto a MacBook Air about 48 hours ago). Made a fresh installer on a new USB stick, and that did boot, but the display only worked via HDMI. Then the installer failed to detect my metal GPU (apparently a bug with the Mojave USB installer with GTX680s?). 🤔

Eventually managed to get the install running with a HDMI cable and dosdude1's Mojave installer. And here we are. 😀

IMG_0264.jpg


Until and unless something else breaks as I'm tinkering with Mojave over the next few hours, this will likely be the £25 Mac Pro's final form, at least until I feel like seeking out a well-priced dual CPU tray and pushing this sucker to 96GB RAM for no reason. 😎

Was planning to add some extra SSDs, but there's no point with prices the way they are. Might pick up a couple of HDDs for pennies to fill the two empty sleds inside and maximise my media storage options, but aside from that, this is job done. 🙂

And finally, confirmation that the £25 Mac Pro really was £25. And confirmation that the other thing I need to do is give the poor thing a good clean. 😅

IMG_0265.jpg
 
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