10.6.8 update spells Joy for Minimacs everywhere

If, after updating to 10.6.8 you get into a reboot loop, never fear the update is the same as every other update, except there is a step involving replacing the kernel.

This is very easy to do if you either (a) download it and save it on your Minimac before you update to 10.6.8, or (b) you have a mac formated USB key that you can copy it onto after your Minimac starts looping.

Here is the super-condensed minimal effort path to get you into Minimac heaven... (no not a dead Minimac, a running one), at least until Lion comes out.

On another computer (preferably a Mac or Ubuntu)

1. Download the legacy kernel [mirror]
2. Put it on a Mac formated USB key *

On the Reboot Looping Minimac

1. Hold down Shift as you boot
2. At the boot loader screen type (once you start typing it will apear in black letters on the bottom of the screen)

 recovery=yes, -x 

1. Once it has finished loading, plug in the USB key
2. Copy the legacy_kernel-10.6.8.bz2 to your Minimac
3. Double click on it to unzip it
4. Move the legacy_kernel-10.6.8 to replace the mach_kernel

$ sudo mv /<wherever you put it >/legacy_kernel-10.6.8 /mach_kernel

$ sudo chown root:wheel  /mach_kernel

$ sudo chflags hidden /mach_kernel

5. Reboot

Now you should probably replace your Sleep Kext so that your Minimac wont crash when it sleeps. 

On your Now-Normally-Running Minimac

1. Download the Kext Helper
2. Download the Sleep Enabler [mirror]
3. Open the Kext Helper
4. Drag and drop the Sleep Enabler into it
5. Reboot **

Footnotes

* If you don't have a Mac formated USB key, you can do this:

Make a USB key with mac file format by using one of meklort's img files and his Linux Guide on an Ubuntu machine: 

1. Download the img
2. Plug in the USB key
3. Open Disk Utility (on Ubuntu)
4. Look for your USB key (mine was Kingston...) and find its disk identifier something like /sdc or /sdh etc
5. Perform a low level byte copy of the Mac image to the USB key

$ sudo dd bs=1M if=<whatever folder(s) you put the file in>/NBI_083F.img of=/dev/<small USB drive identifier>



Open a terminal
As root, copy the legacy kernel to the USB key (and the other downloaded files if you like, but your airport should be working once you change the kernel so you can download them directly on the Minimac)


$ sudo  cp <wherever you downloaded them to>/legacy_kernel-10.6.8.bz2   /media/<small USB drive identifier>/


Unmount the USB key and put it in your Safe Mode Booted Minimac

**If Kext Helper won't exit and you cant shutdown or reboot, and you cant access the Apple menu, you can Force Quit it from the Activity Monitor

1. On your Dock, click on Applications, go down to Utilities, and click on Activity Monitor
2. Kext Helper might be red and Not Responding, click on it
3. And then click on Quit Process
4. Reboot, now you might be able to do it through the Apple menu, or you might have to open a terminal and type 

$ sudo reboot