I get circle with slash installing S.Leopard

[aurora72]

I want to do a S. Leopard clean install with a USB Harddisk (an IDE HDD)
on Mac mini 2006 (Intel Core Solo 1.5Ghz, 2GB RAM, 60GB HDD)

I've downloaded Snowleopard_10.6_Build_10A432_[321_2041] and it has:

IC25N020ATCS04-0 Media.dmg
iousbfamily378.4.3.dmg
kernel_debug_kit_snow_leopard_10a432.dmg
snowleopard_10a432_userdvd.dmg (6.59GB)

I mount the last one and it appears as Mac OS X Install DVD on desktop.

I restore that into my 20GB USB Harddisk using the DU:


I boot Mac mini with the USB harddisk connected and Option key pressed. I chose the USB HDD icon and the Snow Leopard installation starts... but after about 1 minute of USB harddisk activity, it stops reading from it and the Apple logo turns like this:



I get this circle with slash. I cannot boot into verbose mode during installation so I don't know what the error is. How to install S.Leopard on this Mac mini? Thanks.

[acme.mail.order]

Quote: Originally Posted by aurora72 I've downloaded Snowleopard_10.6_Build_10A432_[321_2041]

Snow Leopard was never distributed via download, you either have a prerelease copy (kernel_debug?) or one intended for non-brand hardware (iousbfamily?). Either way it's unlikely to work. You will need a black Retail Install DVD of Snow Leopard to get it working, but on the plus side it will work fairly well (SL runs better than Leopard in most cases).

[aurora72]

yes it might be a prerelease copy.

The one I had problem installing S.L. (Mac mini 2006) has originally Tiger with it. I want to install S.L. so that I can run some latest software such as PLEX on it.


I also have S.L. 10.6.3 as original DVD which came with the Mac mini 2010 and I tried making clean install using that DVD but it said sthg like "you cannot install S.L. on this Mac mini".

[acme.mail.order]

It's a grey disc? They are model specific. However, the OS is cloneable......

[aurora72]

Yes, grey disc. And yes it must be like you've said: Model specific. But according to this reliable source, S.Leopard must be installed on this model of Mac mini. I might try using the grey original S. Leopard disc by cloning and modifying it.

[anthlover]

You can also use the Generic Retail version of Snow which is 10.6.3 and will work on most machines made up to 2010. It was not to until Thunderbolt versions of machines and later that specific version of snow were needed.

[aurora72]

I think I found the cause of the problem (but not the solution yet) : I started the installation in verbose mode by pressing Cmd+V immediately after I select the USB harddisk icon and here is where it gets stuck:

AppleYukon2: Marvell Yukan Gigabit Adapter 88E8053 Singleport Copper SA...
....

I made a Google search on AppleYukon2 and 88E8053 words and found many pages related to this problem. After S.Leopard 10.6.6, the kext driver for this particular Ethernet has problems.

I'm trying to solve that problem now.

[aurora72]

I 've just discovered another and interesting problem during the installation. It's benign, though: Apple Aluminum Compact USB Keyboard (Model No:A1242) does not make "Option key pressed" work with this Mac mini. Yes, it simply doesn't work! When I plug in my other USB Keyboard (A1048) it works!