Mac Mini 10.6 Server OS Issues

AHT finds selected hard failures. It can and variously does miss soft errors, and transient problems.

Usual keyboard choice here would be a USB-A wired keyboard, whether that keyboard originally for Mac or PC.

Ethan0001 wrote:

So I finally got my KB, sorry for such a long wait, what should I do?

Plug it in, and see what else failed, whether the battery leaked, and see how much of networking and comms and apps doesn’t and won’t interoperate because it’s OS X 10.6.

That Mac mini can get to macOS 10.13, though server (Server app) is likely only available to those that had already purchased it

LG drive should be fine.

Apple Hardware Test (AHT)

Description

Apple computers ship with a pre-installed suite of hardware diagnostic tools, known as Apple Hardware Test (AHT). In principle you can start them by holding the d key while booting. Newer models support holding option d to load AHT over the internet. Refer to the official Apple documentation for details: Using AHT on Intel-based Macs, Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite. Apple redesigned the AHT, now called Apple Diagnostics, for Macs introduced after June 2013. Consult the reference codes to interpret the results.

If however, you reinstalled an older computer from scratch, the diagnostic tools might no longer be available. Unless you have the original disks that came with your computer, there seems to be no way to restore the AHT.

It happens that Apple provides disk images with AHT for most computers, but does not make the links publicly available. Various blogs and forums, mostly Riven by Five and MacForum.ro have gathered a list of download links. The rest were obtained by scraping http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Hardware_Test/ for all the links of the form 0(18|22)-\d{4}-A.dmg.

Even though there's no guarantee that this list is correct or complete, some links can come in very handy to whoever is trying to debug hardware problems.

You can use the following terminal commands to determine the model and board ID of your computer:

sysctl hw.model | awk '{ print $2 }'

ioreg -l | awk -F\" '/board-id/ { print $4 }'

Download the AHT for your computer model and use the contents to restore the /System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics folder, then reboot while holding d to start the diagnostic tools. Alternatively you may try with a bootable USB stick, as described below. This is also the preferred way on OS X 10.11 or later, where the System Integrity Protection (SIP) no longer allows writing to system folders.

When trying to open an old dmg you may get the error 'legacy image should be converted'. To convert it to a newer format, open Disk Utility, in the menu Images click on Convert and select the dmg to convert and save it under a new name.

Note that there is no one-to-one correspondence between hardware model and AHT. For some models no hardware test could be found, while others seem to have multiple AHT. As the differences are not clear, feel free to try them out, to see which one works best for your hardware.

https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

As MrHoffman says, AHT isn't very good & a USB KB is needed.

Windows Win key = Mac CMD key or ⌘ 

Windows alt key = Mac Option key or ⌥, also called alt key on Mac sometimes.

Restore modes do not work on that old of Macs.

Can you reinstall from the Original Install Disc?

Start with this ..

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes or more.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

Hmmm, my memory is pretty dim back that far, but it seems it is installed & needs to be Authenticated.

Not syre what to try, but perhaps disconnect from the Internet & use Single User Mode to setthe Date back to a 10.6 date...

https://bensmann.no/changing-system-date-from-terminal-os-x-recovery/

Like June 9, 2008, August 28, 2009 or July 25, 2011

For instance...

date -u 0825000011

What's your goal here? Setting up a new server running Mac OS X Server 10.6? Recovering an existing server? Something else?

From your replies, it seems like you’ve acquired and unboxed a new-old-stock Mac mini mid 2010, and want to play?

Also, do you have the 10-user or unlimited-user license key for Mac OS X Server 10.6?

Those grey recovery disks are platform-specific, too. They’ll only work on a Mac mini that can run 10.6. A1347 is one of various, but the other code MC438LL/A indicates this is a Mac mini from mid 2010, which can run 10.6.4.

Hardware diagnostics would be next after full and complete backups, as your hardware might be failing, or your existing Mac OS X Server installation is corrupted.

Given it’s fifteen years old, a failing hard disk or a leaking battery or other issues would not surprise.

Having run it, Mac OS X Server 10.6 did have its issues, too.

And you won’t be able to do modern networking with that server, too. The TLS is just too old, among other limits.

Single User Mode did launch, though that now means you’re going to be troubleshooting with the command line.

Ethan0001 wrote:

I bought this as a low cost entry to experiencing older MacOS versions I always wanted to use. Yeah, not a great reason, but this is something I want to get working. Since this is new, I don’t really need to back-up anything. Oh also, it has an unlimited license key. What should I do now?

This is not a new Mac.

This is a previously unused some-fourteen-years-old Mac.

There might have been a problem with the components of this Mac mini when it was built all those years ago, and the HDD lubricants and electronic components can and will have degraded and media rusted, and components can have failed in the ensuing years, and the NVRAM battery has quite likely failed. Those batteries are usually good for somewhere around seven to ten years. Whether the battery itself or any components have leaked, too?

Network connection security (TLS) is not going to play at all well that far back. Due to fixes for security issues found, network connections are increasingly difficult when versions prior to macOS 10.13 are involved.

You wanted experience with old versions. You’re certainly going to be getting it on this path, too.

Start by determining if the hardware is even working. Run hardware diagnostics. IIRC, the diags were included on the utilities disk and pre-installed, but it’s been a while. (Search for a GitHub page for Apple Hardware Test (AHT) Info.)

Probably also involves disassembling it all, and looking for swollen or leaking capacitors, leaking batteries, and other overt failures.