Rosetta lets PowerPC apps run on Intel Macs, but losing Rosetta means that some installers and updaters will no longer run.

The Implications of Losing Rosetta in OS X 10.7 Lion, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2011.05.09.

Enabling the Set date and time automatically setting is the easiest way to do it.

Install Lion and make several rounds of updates.Īfter you complete the process, be sure to set your Mac to the current date and time.

Click on the year and use the down arrow to the right of it to change the year to 2012.

If your Mac is set to Set date and time automatically, which is usually the case, disable it.

Using trial and error, I found that setting a date in 2012 will let the installer function. The installer’s certificate has expired, so you need to set your Mac to think it’s operating in the past. You can’t just install Lion on any old Mac that support it. See Apple and the ‘goto fail’ Bug for information on securing Lion. Lion is the oldest version of OS X impacted by the “goto fail” bug.

Lion is no longer available for purchase through normal App Store channels, although you may be able to acquire access to it through Apple Support. Lion was replaced by OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on July 25, 2012, just a year after Lion first became available.

It was the first version of Mac OS X to be part of the annual upgrade program – ever since Lion, Apple has released a new macOS version every year. The last version of Lion, OS X 10.7.5, was released on October 4, 2012.

Apple introduced Rosetta, which lets Intel CPUs run PowerPC apps, with OS X 10.4 Tiger for the first Intel Macs in 2006, and it had been part of OS X until now. It requires Core 2 Duo or newer, which leaves the following Macs behind unless you update the firmware and install a Core 2 Duo CPU:Īdditionally, Lion is the first version of OS X with no support for PowerPC software. First of all, Lion is a 64-bit operating system, so it won’t work on those 2006 Macs built around 32-bit Core Solo and Core Duo processors. Like OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Lion requires an Intel-based Mac, but it goes two steps beyond that. As a convenience, Apple allowed users to bring their Macs to a nearby Apple Store and use Apple’s WiFi to make the download. You must have OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard installed to purchase, download, or install Lion, and the 4 GB download could take some time with slower DSL connections (we don’t even want to think about how long it would take with dial-up). Lion was only available by purchase and download from the Mac App Store, where it retailed for US$29.99. Some of these changes were to make it easier for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to adapt to the Mac, some to make the two platforms work better together, and some to keep making the Mac better and better. OS X 10.7 Lion was released on Jand made some huge changes to the Mac.

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