I successfully got Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite running on my Mac Mini 2007, and the only one that was half-decent was Mountain Lion. The rest required something called 'Graphical Acceleration' which is unsupported in the shitty CPU of the 2007 Mini. Please also note that OS X Lion is not capable of running Mac OS X apps originally written for the PowerPC processor as it does not support the 'Rosetta' environment. You might be able to run Mountain Lion, although unsupported. Now, drag the System File thats on the drive into the Trash and copy the downloaded System folder onto the root of the drive. Now, by using disk utility 'restore' feature, clone 'InstallESDHacked.DMG' into a flash drive, and use it to install mountain lion on the unsupported Mac.
- How To Install Mountain Lion On An Unsupported Mac With Mlpostfactor
- Install Os X Mountain Lion On Old Unsupported Macs
- High Sierra On Unsupported Mac
OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8) is the ninth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.' S desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Mountain Lion was released on July 25, 2012 for purchase and download through Apple's Mac App Store, as part of a switch to releasing OS X versions online and every year, rather than every two years or so. Feb 18, 2012 A crafty MacRumors Forums member has managed to get OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview working on an officially unsupported mid-2007 white MacBook, a model with the unsupported Intel GMA 950 GPU, 2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, and just 1GB of RAM.
As always, Make sure you have a backup of the original install! This worked for me, but always be prepared for the worst.I made, and used, a Lion Mac OS X Install ESD on a thumb drive. Instructions to make one can be found all over the Mac centric web sites. Then follow this procedure:
- Put the unsupported Mac in Target Disk mode and plug it into a Lion supported Mac.
- Run the Lion installer and make sure to choose your unsupported Mac's hard drive. Let the install finish.
- Boot back into the supported Mac's OS, and put the unsupported Mac back to target disk mode.
- Delete the PlatformSupport.plist at /System/Library/CoreServices on the unsupported Mac's hard drive.
- Reboot the Unsupported Mac and it should boot into Lion normally.
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How To Install Mountain Lion On An Unsupported Mac With Mlpostfactor
crarko adds: I don't have the equipment to try this, but it seems plausible. As recommended in the hint, have a complete system backup handy in case something goes awry.] I know this is not a common scenario, but for the few people that upgraded a Mac originally equipped with a Core Duo processor to a Core 2 Duo processor, here is the procedure. I have an iMac version 4,1 that I upgraded years ago, and it worked. The person who found the solution had an upgraded Mac Mini. You will need a second computer that is Lion capable for this tip to work.Install Os X Mountain Lion On Old Unsupported Macs
As always, Make sure you have a backup of the original install! This worked for me, but always be prepared for the worst.High Sierra On Unsupported Mac
I made, and used, a Lion Mac OS X Install ESD on a thumb drive. Instructions to make one can be found all over the Mac centric web sites. Then follow this procedure:- Put the unsupported Mac in Target Disk mode and plug it into a Lion supported Mac.
- Run the Lion installer and make sure to choose your unsupported Mac's hard drive. Let the install finish.
- Boot back into the supported Mac's OS, and put the unsupported Mac back to target disk mode.
- Delete the PlatformSupport.plist at /System/Library/CoreServices on the unsupported Mac's hard drive.
- Reboot the Unsupported Mac and it should boot into Lion normally.
[crarko adds: I don't have the equipment to try this, but it seems plausible. As recommended in the hint, have a complete system backup handy in case something goes awry.]