# Leopard Server on new Mac Mini?



## zynizen (Oct 18, 2007)

I haven't done this yet, but, instead of buying a Mac Pro (really nice, but too much money for now) could I buy a new mac mini and put leopard server on it? is there a way to get that to run on there?

thanks


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## eric2006 (Oct 18, 2007)

> *System Requirements*
> Mac server or desktop comupter with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor; 1GB of physical RAM; 20GB of available disk space.


http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/specs.html

So, yes.


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## zynizen (Oct 18, 2007)

oh ok, well I remembered there were some posts that previous Mac Mini's needed a hack to run Tiger Server, I guess I assumed it was the same for 10.5


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## martinatkinson (Oct 24, 2007)

I have Leopard Server currently running on my Mac Mini (developer) and the only thing I needed to do was upgrade the RAM to 1Gb as the Mini only came with 512Mb.

The Mini runs Server very well for a small limited-client environment.  If you aren't using it in heavy-production I would definitely recommend just using the Mini over purchasing a Mac Pro.


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## zynizen (Oct 24, 2007)

Would a small office of about 15 to 20 users and 5 of them using it as a file server, with future time machine backup off it, and vpn support be considered heavy - production?


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## g/re/p (Oct 24, 2007)

That would definitely put the mini to task - a used 1.25 GHz G4 MDD tower model macintosh would work great for what you describe - especially one with a dual processor. You can get a used one for a pretty reasonable price.


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## fryke (Oct 24, 2007)

Of coursea Mac mini with dual core intel processor would give more performance than such an old, loud beast.


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## martinatkinson (Oct 24, 2007)

Depends what kind of files you are serving.  If your serving just data files (spreadsheets, text documents, etc.) then the Mini should be just fine.  If, however, you are looking to serve large >1Gb files such as videos and large graphic files you may find things slowing down and need to get a faster system or network.


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## fryke (Oct 24, 2007)

Yes, but even the 1.42 GHz dual-processor G4s simply _don't_ have the processing power of a dual core Mac mini. And the mini has Gigabit Ethernet. We're talking serving files here (large and small), maybe some database stuff, so AltiVec/SSE doesn't play much of a role, either. RAM might be important. I'd max that mini out.


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## eric2006 (Oct 24, 2007)

> with future time machine backup off it



I would go Mac Pro, as backups will take up much space, and you only get the internal + one FW drive. If that's not an option, then the Mini will still be able to give you good performance, just not nearly as much HDD space.


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## Captain Code (Oct 25, 2007)

It might be a good stop-gap solution.  File sharing isn't very resource intensive but the new C2D would definitely be best to get over a G4 Mini.  And an external FW drive is pretty much required otherwise you will fill up the internal laptop drive and it will be slower as well.

You can daisy-chain FW drives as long as the case has another FW port or get a FW hub/

I have Tiger Server on my old G4 Sawtooth with an upgraded CPU to 1.4 GHz, SATA PCI card, gigabit ethernet card, and I can read/write about 30MB/s over gigabit ethernet with that old machine.  It has 1.25 GB PC-100 RAM.  It's slow for most things but for file server, light webserver and database server it's perfect.


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## DominikHoffmann (Oct 28, 2007)

Any idea how to hack it so that it can be installed on a G4 733 MHz (Digital Audio) system? I am currently running 10.4 Server on it without a problem.


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## Captain Code (Oct 28, 2007)

You can try XPostFacto, but it doesn't appear to work with Leopard yet.  I'm sure it will in time 
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/

Some things probably won't work though like Time Machine restoration because it uses that star field effect which requires a good GPU.


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## g/re/p (Oct 28, 2007)

fryke said:


> Of coursea Mac mini with dual core intel processor would give more performance than such an old, loud beast.



I forgot that the newer mini's have the core 2 duo's, my mistake...


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## mharding (Jan 5, 2008)

Can I install Leopard Server, which come on a Dual Layer DVD on a Mac Mini server which does have a dual layer dvd drive?  I currently run Tiger Server on it and was wanting to upgrade.


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## Captain Code (Jan 5, 2008)

Pretty much all DVD-ROM drives can read dual layer, they just can't all write them.  So if your Mini supports Leopard's required specs then you can install it.


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## DominikHoffmann (Jan 5, 2008)

I have since found out about LeopardAssist,which is free.

Dominik Hoffmann


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