Reader Tip: Run Lion 10.7 Developer Preview on Unsupported Core Duo Macs

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Lion Preview running on Core Duo Mac

For those of you who like living on the Bleeding Age – while running on older hardware – Cult of Mac received this tip from reader Matt Briggs about getting his Core Duo based MacBook running the Lion Developer Preview installation of Mac OS X 10.7:

I managed to get the Lion preview running on a supposedly unsupported Macbook Core Duo from May 2006.

I installed Lion on a USB drive hooked up to a Mac Mini Core 2 Duo 2009, then removed /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist and the same drive booted in the Macbook with no issues!

there might be some stricter restrictions in the future, but pretty good right now!

IMPORTANT: This is an unverified tip of an unsupported configuration. Use a spare hard drive for any tests, do not overwrite your primary system. This capability may not last in the official release versions.

I don’t have a Core Duo system myself to test this, so if anyone can duplicate these results on their own system please let us know in the comments.

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