Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh major release of Mac OS X (now named macOS), Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.On August 28, 2009, it was released worldwide, and was made available for purchase from Apple's website and retail stores at the. Make Offer - Apple Mac OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard Install DVD (Retail) with box, apple stickers NEW Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Software Reinstall Drive - MacBook Air 11 A1384 $49.99. Oct 29, 2010 All Mac OSX versions since 10.6.0 (Snow Leopard) by default will only install on GUID partition table (GPT) as opposed to Windows XP, which only supports booting from MBR partition table. There are ways to make Snow Leopard install on MBR, but in all my attempts I could not get a stable system, so let’s stick with GPT. Mac Snow Leopard Xp Theme Software DVD Backup for Mac Snow Leopard v.2.0 DVD Backup for Mac Snow Leopard is professional DVD Backup software that provides the best way to backup DVD on Mac.
How to Install Mac OS X (Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard) on a PC: EDIT: This guide is very outdated and it doesn't exactly go into specifics all that well. By now there are much easier and less time-consuming ways to install Mac OS X on a PC. It will be kept up here for archiving purposes. Today I will sho.
Previously I was able to run my Asus Eee PC 1000HE as a “hackintosh” on Snow Leopard 10.6.0, 10.6.4, and 10.6.7. But I’ve always kept the hackintosh install on a bootable USB drive, as I didn’t want to mess with the original Windows XP install on the 160GB hard drive.
I recently purchased a 180GB solid state drive (SSD), and so I figured this would be the perfect chance to try my hand at an XP/Snow Leopard dual boot system. I was warned by a friend that this was more trouble than it’s worth, especially since I had a working hackintosh, even if it was by USB stick. But I had figured I’d have an easier time than he did, since there’s lots of guides specifically written for the 1000HE, while my friend had installed to different hardware. I had some troubles on the way, but I finally got it to work!
This guide presumes you’re reasonably computer savvy (though maybe not an expert), including knowing things like how to use F2 upon boot to get to the BIOS settings to select which device (HD/SSD, USB stick, CD/DVD). While you’re there in the BIOS settings, it’s probably also a good idea to turn off quick boot and quiet boot.
*** ITEMS NEEDED ***
- Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook (duh!)
- External optical drive (there’s ways to do this without, but having it makes life so much easier!)
- NetbookInstaller and Chameleon 2.0-RC3
- Bootable USB stick with Snow Leopard (lots of guides available online, here’s one)
- Retail Snow Leopard 10.6.0 DVD
- Retail Windows XP Installation CD. You’ll have to use this to make a modified version with the SATA drivers slipstreamed in, otherwise you’ll get a blue screen of death (BSOD) after the drivers load. The method using nLite referenced in Minh Danh’s blog resulted in BSOD when booting from the slipstreamed CD. I found an alternate method referenced in the Eee Forums, look at the links in post #82. (If the forum is down, here are the links: download 1 of 2, download 2 of 2, and instructions.)
- Asus XP drivers for the Eee PC 1000HE (though I later noticed that they are on the DVD that came with the 1000HE)
*** PARTITION AND INSTALL SNOW LEOPARD 10.6.0 ***
First we partition the HD/SSD and install 10.6.0:
- Boot to the USB stick with Snow Leopard
- To be on the safe side, I used Disk Utility to first erase all data on the HD/SSD, even zeroing out all the data
- Format the HD/SSD using Disk Utility. Select three partitions and (under options) select a GUID partition table. The partitions will be as follows:
- OSX – Format as Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+)
- DATA – Format as Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+) – can change to FAT32 later
- WIN – Format as MS-DOS FAT (FAT32) – can change to NTFS later
- Insert the DVD, use the Finder, select “Go” from the top menu, then “go to folder”, then type in /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages
- Open (double click) OSInstall.mpkg and install to OSX
- After the OS X install is complete, install NetbookInstaller 20100616 from Meklort’s Blog (yeah, that link is dead, though NetbookInstaller 0.8.4 RC1 will work here also), selecting only “install Chameleon” and “general extensions” (select “continue” if warned about an “unsupported device”).
- Reboot to the HD/SSD and go through the first time setup steps.
At this point 10.6.0 is bootable, but without functioning Ethernet, Bluetooth, and sound. There was no need to install the kexts to get those working, since I was immediately going to upgrade to 10.6.7 and would need to reinstall those kexts anyway.
*** UPDATE TO SNOW LEOPARD 10.6.7 ***
The next step was to update to 10.6.7. Although will1384’s guide was written based on updating to 10.6.4, the same procedure worked to get directly to 10.6.7. Unless otherwise mentioned below, the kexts and other additional files to be downloaded can be found in Will’s guide.
If you’re lucky like me, you have the Atheros 9280 wireless card which works without any modifications. If you have the AW-NE766, then Will’s guide discusses how to download the Ralink drivers to get it to work.
The steps I took are as follows:
- Install the 10.6.7 combo update
- Let the system restart (sometimes the shutdown takes a while), press “TAB” a few times at boot until you see a command line, and type “recovery=y”. (This avoids hanging on reboot after the update installation.)
- Once at the desktop, reinstall NetbookInstaller 20100616, selecting only “install Chameleon” and “general extensions”
- Go to your /Extra folder (I did so by using the Finder, selecting “Go” from the top menu, the “go to folder”, then typing in /Extra), remove the “1201N.DSDT.ami” file, and copy the correct DSDT file from Will (depends on whether you have 1GB or 2GB memory installed)
- Copy the following files into /Extra/General Extensions (there’s ways to do it using the terminal, I just dragged from one window to another and entered my password every time):
- Video: AppleIntelGMA950.kext
- Video: AppleIntelIntegratedFramebutter.kext
- Ethernet: AttansicL1eEthernet.kext
- Bluetooth: IOBluetoothfamily.kext
- OSX Restart Replacement: OpenHaltRestart.kext
- Sound: VoodooHDA.kext
- Remove “OSXRestart.kext” from /Extra/General Extensions
- Run the “UpdateExtra” shoe program (it has a “shoe” icon) in /Extra
- This is probably optional, but running the “About This Mac” program from Will makes the “About This Mac” menu dropdown show the processor as “Atom” rather than “Unknown”
- With “VoodooHDA.kext” you should also install “VoodooHDA.prefPane” – just double click “VoodooHDA.prefPane” to install. (In order to avoid getting an error, I rebooted before doing this step.)
- Check out Ricky’s post under “sound buzzing fix” if you’re having problems with, well, sound buzzing.
*** UPDATE TO SNOW LEOPARD 10.6.8 ***
I found this information on updating to 10.6.8. Since there is no newer NetbookInstaller to patch this updated kernel, the patching has to be done manually. I went a little bit down this path before deciding it was too much trouble for me, so I stayed at 10.6.7.
*** WINDOWS XP INSTALL ***
Now we install Windows XP:
- Boot with the XP Recovery Console USB stick and format the last partition (should be C:, use the DISKPART command to check) to NTFS.
- Press EXIT from the recovery console, and the system will restart. Boot to the XP Install CD with slipstreamed drivers and install XP to the NTFS partition.
- Let it automatically reboot to the HD/SSD and do the first time Windows XP setup steps.
*** SET DEFAULT PARTITION BACK TO OSX ***
Right now we’ll always go into Windows XP upon booting. Now we need to set the OSX partition active, as that’s where the Chameleon bootloader resides.
- Boot to the USB stick with Snow Leopard
- Now, according to this page, all you have to do open Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type in the following:
- diskutil list (confirm that the OSX installation is on partition number 2)
- sudo -s
- fdisk – e /dev/disko (ignore any errors here)
- f 2
- w (press “y” if you need to confirm)
- q
- If you’re unlucky like me, you got an “operating system not supported” error when rebooting, so I manually reinstall Chameleon per this guide. I used Chameleon 2.0-RC3 since that was the version used in Netbookinstaller. Key steps from the Terminal are as follows:
- diskutil list (confirm that the OSX installation is on disk0s2)
- cd /Users/***/desktop/Chameleon-2.0-RC3/i386 (replace with your path to i386)
- sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0
- sudo dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s2
- sudo cp boot /
- Now try rebooting again!
*** FINAL STEPS ***
Just a bit of cleaning up:
- Boot to the OSX installation
- Go to the /Extra folder
- Copy the “com.apple.Boot.plist” file to your desktop
- Double click to edit and add the following key:
- <key>Instant Menu</key>
- <string>yes</string>
- Now you can reboot to the HD/SSD and select either install using Chameleon
- Or, if like me, you wish to boot to the XP partition by default:
- <key>Default Partition</key>
- <string>hd(0,4)</string>
- Copy the “com.apple.Boot.plist file back to the /Extra folder
- Don’t forget to use Disk Utility to reformat the DATA partition to FAT32 so it can be seen by both the Mac and Windows installations.
- Finally, don’t forget to install the Asus XP drivers for the Eee PC 1000HE. (In general, select the “ASUSsetup” file when available. Also, the only Utility I installed was the “Super Hybrid Engine”.)
- One more thing: for me, Windows XP didn’t activate using the product key from the retail CD. So then I used the Windows Product Key Update Tool to activate Windows XP using the code on the sticker on the bottom of the 1000HE.
- And another thing, here’s how to fix clock issues after booting into XP after previously booting into Snow Leopard.
Thanks again to all of you who’ve written blogs on this, even though I may not have been able to successfully follow all of your steps exactly, but seeing what you’ve taken the time to have written up has been helpful!
9 4 likes 106,119 views Last modified Sep 24, 2018 4:59 PM
Tips on 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard(last compatible operating system for G4 867 and above, and G5s), 10.6 Snow Leopard (end of the line for PowerPC applications), 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks,
10.10 Yosemite, and 10.11 El Capitan to 10.14 Mojave.
Mac OS X Sierra was released on September 20, 2016. A few Macs which came with 10.6 can install Sierra.
Note this tip, and the series of tips from 10.2 (10.2, and 10.3 not mentioned in above links as people must have 10.4.4 or later on an Intel Mac to get to 10.6) to 10.11 I've written here all refer to Mac OS X Client. Server versions of Mac OS X may have different limitations, and the people visiting the appropriate Server forum may be able to answer your questions better about Mac OS X Server.
When determining your Mac model, see this tip to find its age:
I would not downgrade to Leopard without erasing your data first.
Be sure to backup your data first at least twice before installing any operating system. Shut down, and disconnect any peripherals before continuing with the installation. Read the info below to ensure you are compatible. Finally, you may need to use the Startup Manager to boot the operating system when the 'C' key doesn't work in order to get the installer to work or repair the disk before installation if the initial attempt to install fails. To determine if that repair is necessary, post to the forum, and someone will be able to help you to find out which repairs might be necessary.
Java is outdated in terms of security in Mac OS X 10.6. Backup your data and at least update to 10.6.8 if your Mac says it is Intel in Apple menu -> About this Mac. Read about updating to 10.7, and this tip about how to optimize your Java in 10.6 if you are stuck with 10.6.
10.6 retail is available from the Apple Store on http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard (the /us/ in the link may be changed for the standard two letter country code matching the store link). Note: Macs newer than April 1, 2010 but older than July 20, 2011 must use the original 10.6 installer disc that shipped with them to boot 10.6 from CD. AppleCare may have those discs if you lost or misplaced it. To determine the age of a Mac, plug it in the support status search engine, and use the serial number lookup. Using the model name, find the release date of that model on Wikipedia or Everymac.com, and the followup date.
Leopard (10.5) is not to be confused with Snow Leopard (10.6) which are different paid operating systems.
If you are interested in upgrading to Lion you can read this tip, and Mountain Lion or Mavericks, this tip. Note: Mavericks you can update to
for free, whereas both Lion and Mountain Lionyou can not. Lion requires a minimum of 10.6.6 already be installed, unless you have the USB Flash drive for it, and Mountain Lion and Mavericks requires a minimum of 10.6.8. Lion and Mountain Lion have different hardware requirements, but the Apple hardware requirements for Mavericks are the same Mountain Lion.
If you got a machine that came with Lion or Mountain Lion and wonder if you can install Snow Leopard on it, read the bottom of this tip first.
Snow leopard is available free for a limited time from this link if you have Mobileme and need an upgrade path to Lion that doesn't require erasing your hard drive.
Flashback malware has a patch on 10.6.8. Users of 10.6.7 and earlier are recommended to disable Java. For more info read this tip.
Macs that were released new as of July 20, 2011 (the MacBook Pro for instance had no new release until October 24, 2011, and that model's earlier sold models all work with Snow Leopard) or later, will generally not run Snow Leopard unless you follow this tip for Snow Leopard Server virtualization. Other than that, the following statements are true:
All Mac Pros will work with Snow Leopard (10.6.x), and they look like:
The PowerMac G5 towers which look like:
will not work with Snow Leopard. Neither will the ones that are beige, blue, or graphite colored with plastic cases.
All Apple notebooks labelled MacBook with at least 1 GB of RAM, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air below the screen or will work with Snow Leopard.
Apple notebooks labeled iBook, and Powerbook beneath the screen will not work with Snow Leopard. Note, many of the newer MacBook Airs and MacBook Pro no longer have the label on the bottom of the screen frame, and you have to shut down the Mac, and look under the Mac for its label. Those may only be able to use the aforementioned virtualized Snow Leopard Server.
Mac minis with at least 1 GB of RAM and 4 and 5 USB ports on the rear as shown in the image below:
will work with Snow Leopard.
Those with less than four USB ports will not work with Snow Leopard.
Those with less than four USB ports will not work with Snow Leopard.
All iMacs that look like:
Will work with Snow Leopard.
From the iMacs which look like:
If they are iMac Intelthey can upgraded to Snow Leopard. To tell if they are Intel, they will have an EMC# on the base which is enumerated 2104, 2105, 2110, 2114, 2118, 2111, 2133, or 2134. All others were iMac G5 and can only be upgraded to 10.5.8. Another distinction is that iMac G5's had mini-VGA ports that looked like:
Whereas White iMac Intels had mini-DVI which looked like:
Mac Snow Leopard Gecko
You can also tell if it is an iMac Intel by selecting Apple menu -> About This Mac. Core Duo and Core2Duo are Intel, whereas the G5 are not.
Notes: G5 refers to the CPU made by IBM for Apple before the migration to Intel CPU in 2006. It was found on iMacs, and PowerMacs. Powerbooks and iBooks maxed out using the Motorola G4 CPU, only to be replaced by MacBook Pros and MacBooks in 2006.. Intel made the CPU found in 2006 and newer Macs, and these are referred to as CoreSolo, CoreDuo, Core2Duo, i3, i5, i7, and Xeon. Don't confuse a G5 for an Intel CPU Mac. They are not the same except in exterior design when it comes to the iMac, and the means to tell them apart is stated above. In 2006, the Mac Mini changed from G4 to Intel CoreSolo CPU. In 2006 the iMac changed from G5 to Intel CoreDuo CPU.
All Intel Macs with sufficient RAM older than March 29, 2010 can take the retail 10.6.3 installer disc. All Intel Macs with sufficient RAM older than August 28, 2009 can take the 10.6.0 retail installer disc. This disc must look like and can't say Upgrade, Dropin, or OEM on it.
It is recommended those upgrading from PowerPC follow this tip:
It is recommended you backup your data at least twice before upgrading any software.
![For For](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134073297/630883799.jpg)
It is recommended you check these listings for compatible 10.6 software from:
C!Net, Snow Leopard Wiki,Macintouch, and Apple's listing of compatible printers and scanners
C!Net, Snow Leopard Wiki,Macintouch, and Apple's listing of compatible printers and scanners
and Apple supplied updates for printers and scanners:
HP, Ricoh,Canon, Epson, Brother,Lexmark, Samsung, and Fuji/Xerox
Additionally, some Ricoh printers that do not have official drivers have been found to have the resolution documented by this thread:
And Apple's phone support with iSync:
For digital cameras, these RAW formats are supported on 10.6. Note the most recent Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook Pros
have SD card slots for reading camera media. For all other camera media, Express/34 on 17' MacBook Pro and pre-June 8 2009 MacBook Pros, PCI for Mac Pro, USB, and Firewire card readers exist for all Intel Mac models. Additionally, many multifunction printers have card readers that will work on the Mac. JPEG, TIFF, PNG
are all common formats supported by cameras outside of RAW, though RAW enables you to post process many more features of digital images than the other formats.
To be compatible with the Mac App Store, the Lion updater from the USB Flash drive or App Store, and the Facetime video software in Standard Definition minimum, you'll need the 10.6.6 combo, 10.6.7 combo, 10.6.7 combo with the font update, or the 10.6.8 combo followed by the Thunderbolt update if applicable.
10.6.8 has the following security updates: 10.6.8 2013 Security Update 004, 2013-005 Java update (note Java is not current until Mac OS X 10.7.3 from Java.com)
Sometimes when 10.6 is installed, Rosetta, the application that allows PowerPC programs to run will not automatically install. In those situations, you can manually install Rosetta from the 10.6 installer disc. The following quote explains how to install it manually:
Insert the Mac OS 10.6 installation DVD When the DVD is mounted, select “Optional Installs” then “Optional Installs.mpkg”
Follow the onscreen instructions for agreeing to the software license and selecting the hard drive for installation.
In the “Installation Type” step, select the box next to Rosetta from the list of applications presented. Continue the installation process.
After successful installation, a confirmation message will appear.
These instructions appeared on http://forums.printable.com/showthread.php?t=1110 .
As 10.6 is the last operating system that shipped on prebundled discs that come with Macs, it also is the last one that shipped with a prebundled set of iLife applications. To learn which version of iLife may have come on your computer, see this tip. 10.7 and later prebundled Macs did not ship with iDVD, but will have shipped with iPhoto, iTunes, Garageband, and iMovie. If you still desire iDVD, consult with AppleCare.
10.6 has these updates available depending on what you have on your Mac (Combo updates can be applied to any of the preceding versions, where Delta can only be applied to the immediately preceding version):
10.6.1 | 10.6.3 v1.1 Delta and 10.6.3 v1.1 Combo | 10.6.4 Combo, 10.6.4 Delta, 10.6.4 Mac Mini Mid 2010 | 10.6.6 Delta, 10.6.6 Combo | 10.6.7 for early 2011 MacBook Pro, 10.6.7 Combo, 10.6.7 Delta, 10.6.7 font update to all previous updates | 10.6.8 delta v1.1 (7/25/2011) and Combo v1.1 (7/25/2011), and the followup Thunderbolt update for 2011 iMacs and MacBook Pros for installation after 10.6.8 |
Which Macs can have Snow Leopard installed, and which can only have Lion installed based on Machine ID (also known as Model Identifier)?
You can find out which gray installer disc came with Macs that can install Snow Leopard newer than March 15, 2010 by reading: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1159. Machine ID is in Apple menu -> About This Mac -> More info (on 10.7 and later the About Window has System Information instead of More info to access the System Profiler) under the hardware section. The 'x' value below can be any number. Older Macs indicated below can use the 10.6.3 retail installer, if not the 10.6 retail installer, if they are older than August 28, 2009. Together with partitioning, the Core2Duo (not CoreDuo, not CoreSolo), Xeon, Core i3, i5, i7 Macs which are Snow Leopard compatible can run both Snow Leopard and Lion, provided they have at least 2 GB of RAM. Partitioning requires an erase of the hard drive. A second internal or external hard drive can boot into a separate operating system on the same Macs. The Macs below which can only run Lion and later, are also known as Lion prebundled Macs. Lion prebundled Macs thankfully can run Windows in virtualization, which would allow them to use the Windows version of software that may only run in Snow Leopard and earlier on Mac OS X. The Macs listed here that won't run Snow Leopard also are not able to use the retail Lion installer USB Flash drive, and must use the instructions onMacworld to create a specialty Flash drive or be cloned onto another hard drive before their prebundled hard drive dies, to be able to restore Lion. Macs below that can't install Snow Leopard directly may be able to do so via virtualization, as described by this tip.
Mac Mini 5,x and later only run Lion and later. Mac Mini 4,x and earlier can run Snow Leopard with at least 1 GB of RAM (that's greater than 768MB of RAM).
MacBook Pro 8,x with EMC#s 2355, 2563, 2564 can only run 10.7 or later, all other 8,x EMC#s can run 10.6.3 or later, and all 7,x can.
MacBook Pro 9,x and higher can only run 10.7 and later.
Mac Pro 5,1 that are not EMC 2629 and earlier can run Snow Leopard. EMC 2629, and Mac Pro 6,x and later can only 10.7 and later.
The 10.6.3 retail installer will only work on Mac Pro 4,x and earlier.
MacBook with no Air and no Pro on the screen as of 11/30/2011 can all run Snow Leopard with at least 1 GB of RAM.
MacBook Air 4,x and later can't run Snow Leopard, while 3,x and earlier with at least 1 GB of RAM can run Snow Leopard.
iMac 12,1 i3 (EMC 2496 on foot, MC978LL/A) can't run Snow Leopard, while the 12,x i5 and i7 can run Snow Leopard, and the iMac 1,1 through 11,x can run Snow Leopard with at least 1 GB of RAM. iMac 13,1 and later can't run Snow Leopard natively.
Lastly, here the Macs that are compatible with 10.6.3 retail avialable from the Apple Store based on Model Identifier:
iMac 11,1 and older
Mac Mini 3,x and older
MacBook 6,1 and older
MacBook Pro 5,x and older
MacPro 4,x and older
MacBook Air 2,x and older
Macs that fall between those criteria must use the 10.6 installer that shipped with them to install 10.6.
Mac Snow Leopard Price
* The release names Early and Late can be gotten by plugging the serial number of the machine in