December 2020 - The other thing Santa is now bringing me is a new M1 Mac Mini ! It should arrive a little late, by the 2nd week of January.
Update it shipped early from China, got stuck with DHL/Customs for a day but it still arrived 6 days early.
Christmas Day. Oh Dear! For Christmas my son has bought me a 16GB memory upgrade for my Macbook ! I will have to sell it on and use the money for some thing extra for the Mini.
I had been looking to upgrade my late 2012 i7 MacBook Pro for the past couple of years. The 2012 was the last truly user upgradeable MacBook and recently I have been put off the 2017/18/19 models which have all had dubious keyboards. The base Intel processor improvements have not been that great and add to that the ridiculous costs of the modern MacBook's, even 2nd hand, and I have up until now stuck with my old one.
However recently the rendering times for some of my larger OpenScad models has grown to 30+ minutes, add to this that the 2012 has become extremely noisy as the cooling fan seems to hit max speed for the slightest reason (the GPU Diode hits 101C pretty quickly). Once the M1 is settled in I will take the Macbook apart and replace the thermal paste on the GPU and CPU before selling it on.
So the recent announcement of the new M1 Models really peaked my interest. Since I gave up both my teaching roles I have only used my MacBook tethered to a large monitor and external keyboard - so the £300 cost saving on the Mini, compared to a new MacBook, makes it the preferred option.
I have gone for the base model with a 256GB SSD (as that is what I currently have in my 2012 and it has plenty of spare space with a 2TB secondary hard drive) but I have doubled up the RAM to 16GB because a) the RAM is shared between the GPU and Processor and b) in my mind more RAM means less memory paging to the SSD and that should significantly extend the life of the SSD.
As I wanted to avoid updating my Office 2016 licence, officially it is not supported on Big Sur but works, I initially avoided the upgrade to Monterey. Eventually I purchased an Office 2019 licence, after 18 months, and upgraded to Monterey. Using Monterey virtually all of the issues that I had been seeing have disappeared.
So I now have a plan to integrate/migrate the M1 Mini with my existing hardware set up
Connect the Mini to my 23" Dell U2312 1920x1080 Ultra Sharp Monitor via it's DisplayPort or DVI-D Connectors, as it does not support HDMI. The displayPort connection would require an active adapter (£27 on Amazon). But theoretically HDMI and DVI-D are interchangeable so a simple cable adapter should work and I already have an HDMI to DVI-D Cable going spare which I have tested with an Acer Laptop's HDMI output. The Mini is HDMI 2.0 (4K) capable and the display is only HDMI 1.4 (1920x1080 at 120Hz) but they should be able to negotiate down.
Answer: My old HDMI to DVI_D Cable is working OK
Big Sur 11.2 New Issue - My display, which worked perfectly with 11.0 and 11.1, no longer sync's every time when waking from a blank Lock Screen - it just shows a lot of white noise - I have to hit "esc" and then "enter" until it recovers, or power it off/on.
Use my existing Apple wired Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2. This should just work, I only need to pair the mouse.
Answer: Installation assumes wireless keyboard and mouse, so this just works (once you have un-paired with the laptop!).
However there are known issues with Bluetooth connectivity on M1 and Big Sur, see the issues section below.
Connect the Toshiba 2TB 6Gb/s SATA-3 HDD data disk that is currently in the Optical bay of the 2012. Running Disk Test shows that this is currently limited to 135 MB/s both read and write so the 2012's Optical bay is actually running as a 150 MB/s (1.2 Mb/s) SATA-1 Channel despite the spec saying it should run at the full 6Gb/s SATA-3. The two options for the Mini are a USB 3.0 5Gb/s enclosure or a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Disk 10Gb enclosure, but limited to 6Gb/s by the SATA-3 disk. I have gone for the Gen 2 option and ordered a UGreen ASM235CM for some future proofing. I have also ordered a Gen 2 PCIx4 card for my Windows desktop (Games Machine/Flight Simulator) to do some comparative testing.
Answer: Hmmm. Connecting a USB 3.0 enclosure direct to the USB 3.1 sockets did NOT work reliably, the drive connections were going up and down like a yo-yo every 10 seconds or so. Stick a USB 3.0 Hub (un-powered) in the middle and it works brilliantly at 135MB/s transfer rates !
I finally received my 3.1 Disk enclosure and installed the same drive - and hey presto it runs slower than the 3.0 enclosure. I purchased a second 3.1 disk enclosure and this works but at roughly the same speed as 3.0
Card Reader for use with the 3D Printer. I have a cheap USB 3.0 Hub with an inbuilt SDcard reader so this should just work, I currently get 29MB/s Write and 75MB/s Read on the 2012. Whereas my "Integral" USB 2.0 stick type SDcard reader runs at just 11MB/s Write 18MB/s Read on the 2012.
Answer: Another Hmmm. Connecting the same SDCard and the write times are appalling ! This also needs further investigation
Update: on Big Sur 11.6 copying a 1.5Gb mp4 file from the system SSD to a Samsung EVO 32gb U1 Cards takes about 70 Seconds so this seems to have been fixed.
Optical DVD from the 2012. This is already in an existing USB 2.0 external enclosure so this should just work, slowly. I rarely use this now, except to burn the odd DVD or validate the X-Plane licence, so speed is not an issue.
Logitech 720p WebCam. I did not need to install drivers for this to work on the 2012 so hopefully it should just work on the Mini.
Answer: It just worked.
Canon TS5051 Wireless Printer/Scanner. This was expected to be the biggest issue as there were many issues reported on the web. Canon are very unlikely to provide native M1 drivers for older (almost 4 years older) printers. There are reports of work arounds using CUPS + Gutenprint to drive older Canon Printers. But the scanner will be a separate problem to sort out see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252132104.
Answer: After upgrading the OS to 11.1 - I was able to connect the printer as a Secure Airprint device in System Preferences, Printers & Scanners, add printer and the OS just found the Canon on my home network.
Surprisingly having tested that the printer worked I went back into the Scan section and that also worked first time without any further configuration. Well done!
Actually not so well done as the BigSur 11.2.1 Update completely broke the scanner and it has taken days for me to get it working again. I have tried in order - deleting the printer, resetting the printer system, updating firmware and drivers, factory resetting the printer, disabling IPV6 on the printer.... Nothing will get it working with Open Scanner in Printer Preferences but it now works using the Image Capture App directly.
Update: This still does not work on the latest Big Sur 11.6, but the Image Capture App is fine.
As my 2012 has been around a long time I have installed and uninstalled a lot of packages, many of which dod not perform a good clean uninstall. So to avoid any old software or driver problems I decide to perform a clean install rather than let Apple do a straight migration. There is the long list of Intel based software that I currently use that needs to be up and running on Rosetta. Fortunately I have already migrated all of my working Apps to 64 bit, ready for Catalina. I will catalog my process, fixes and workarounds here, as I go down the road.
The priority list is....
Office 2016 - This is reported as known to work, but it is not supported anymore.
Update: Once you can lay hands on a 64bit install pkg then this installs cleanly. Finding a copy on the web is difficult but fortunately I still had a copy from when I installed my wife's machine last year. It will ask for a Microsoft sign-in on first use and if you have a licence record on that ID it will auto-activate. Let it update once to the latest version and then switch off autoupdate as 2016 is no longer supported, so there will be no more updates! However Microsoft will continually nag you to upgrade to 2019. This was far easier than the last time I switched machines, as that took several calls to India to locate the 64 bit package and then even more calls to get it activated.
The upgrade to Office 2019 also went seamlessly and I was able to reinstall the Office 2016 licence on my old 2013 i7 Macbook Pro.
Thunderbird Mail - for all the history that it contains.
Update: This worked fairly easily just copy the old profiles directory and edit a couple of lines in Thunderbird's profile.ini
Brave and Epic Browsers, and Dashlane Integration (for Password Management).
Update Big Sur 11.2 did not fix the issue but a later Epic update to Version 88.0.4324.96 has fixed the problem.
Update Big Sur 11.1 Brave works OK, but Epic fails on startup.
Installing the Dashlane plug-in simple, installing the stand alone app a pain (I do not want hosted passwords). But it looks like Dashlane are changing their model to remove the stand alone app so no point in fighting the setup until the new system happens.
Warning: I was using the Great Suspender extension in Brave but recent investigations have shown that this has been sold on and hidden reporting code has been added so we have to treat it as malware now.
Zoom ! For all those lockdown calls....
Update: I installed the Mac OS App. The first time I ran Zoom it upgraded itself to a native M1 App, well done Zoom.
AntiVirus ? Depends on which side of the fence you sit. I currently use Avast on all of my machines including the 2012. Big Sur is supposed to be pretty secure but I do use a lot of downloaded open source code which is a prime vector for the few viruses/malware/ransomware that do exist for Mac.
Update: I have been running without AV for the past 10 months but there are reports of specific M1 targeted viruses out there.
Printrun/Pronterface
Update: BigSur will not run 32 bit Apps so you need a 64 bit Mac build that is not generally available. However if you follow this link https://github.com/kliment/Printrun/issues/1016 you will find that leonelhs has made available a 64 bit zip file that works well.
OpenScad.
Historically the Mac port is always a long way behind the Windows Version, but the latest Release Candidates are now being built for Mac simultaneously so I have loaded both versions and they run acceptably despite the extra emulation layer. They render 175% faster than my old i7 Macbook. A big win. However there appears to be a problem in editing mode as preview rendering some parts can be an order of magnitude slower. After discussing this with the developers it seems that part of this is due to my poor modelling skills, many intersecting holes makes for hard work, but most of it is down to issues with the old CGAL libraries that OpenScad uses.
I was looking at Crossover to run with the latest Windows development version - but they have just priced themselves out as they offer no support/updates on the basic £30 package and they want you to pay an annual licence for updates.
There is a prototype M1 version under development and the beta really improves the speed but has an issue with Mac's new file security which demands user approval for file access every time that you use it.
Various Slicers/STL file handlers - Prusa, Slic3r, Cura, Pleasant3D, Blender, Mesh Mixer
Update: Prusa, Cura, Slic3R, Pleasant3D and Mesh Mixer are working I have not found the need to use or test Blender
Compilers and Tools - BBEDIT, GITHub, XCode, Atom, VSCode, ATMEL
Update: BBEDIT V12 will not work with the M1 - V13 onwards from the App Store work OK - I am now using version 14.6.1
Atom and VSCode are working like s**t off a shovel. My Marlin Compile times are an order of magnitude faster then the old 2012!
Arduino and TeensyDuino
Update: Arduino loads and compiles
There are reports of crashing when trying to upload to devices ie USB Connection problems
I spent ages debugging a connection issue with the Arduino IDE and Big Sur 11.6 only to find that the problem was caused by using a dodgy USB cable ! This all seems to be working OK for me, but some people were initially reporting issues.
Image Handlers - PhotoShop Elements, Inkscape, GIMP, Nikon
Update: Nikon have provided new 64 bit versions ViewNX
Inkscape do now have a 64bit Version but I have yet to test it.
My Photoshop Elements is a 32 bit App so that is a no go with Big Sur or Monterey0..
Utilities - WireShark, BlackMagic, Burn, DirEqual
BlackMagic Works
VLC - Video and Music Player
Works Fine
Android File Transfer - should be amusing !
Update: This works just as badly as it ever has on any Mac ! Re -plugging and Multiple loops round the same authorisation screens to get it to connect and then If you keep your Camera Directory fairly empty it is acceptable. But if you have a few hundred photographs in it then you will get the bouncing ball and a longggggggg wait. I have to connect to a Windows machine and housekeep the photographs on a regular basis.
I installed CommanderOne and that worked well during the month trial but Android support is disabled in the free version.
Oct 22: 20 months on and I tried the latest Android File Transfer with Monterey and it still locks up the system when you try to use it.
PCB Tools - kicad
PulseView
Games, the only game I have on the Mac is X-Plane 11 and that is purely for test and development. The 2012 Mac's graphics are far too slow to use for play.
Wow! I am surprised. It is not just usable but actually playable on the M1. With graphics features turned down and Metal enabled I am getting 90fps on several aircraft.
There are a few more applications that I occasionally use but they can wait as the above list is long enough!
The problems found so far are:
Why does a fresh factory machine ship without the latest level of OS on it ? It took several attempts to download Big Sur 11.1, 15 minutes to prep it and 30+ minutes to install it. That on a pretty much empty machine as I had yet to install too much.
The default wavy multi-coloured background exhibits some worrying flickering spots on the screen. These spots are blocks of colours approx 16 pixels square moving across the screen.
Update: After the BigSur 11.1 update this problem is now limited to the logon screen mode and appears to be a problem with displaying the progress bar. I have not seen this in normal use with a photographic wallpaper. Apple Tech Support "think" this is a software problem but they are not sure....
Update: `Still there in the BigSur 11.2 update.
Update: I have not seen this when rebooting Big Sur 11.6
Oct 22: Not apparent in Monterey 12.6
I connected my USB 3.0 2TB external data disk directly to the USB 3.0 sockets and the partitions would only stay connected for 10 seconds before they were dropped and then reloaded and repeat ad nauseam. I have another enclosure on order.
Update: Surprisingly the disk does work well with an intermediate un-powered USB Hub.
Apple Tech Support suggest resetting the SMC. But there appears to be no such thing as resetting the SMC on M1 Silicon - so this was just bad advice. Note: The NVRAM diagnostics are supposedly automatically run at startup and the NVRAM is reset if needed.
I tried to connect the disk enclosure to the USB-C 3.1 socket using a third party USB-C to USB 3.0 adapter cable - which appears to be very loose - Turns out this was a cable assembly problem I have had to remove the cables metal shroud and trim 2mm off the moulding to make a connection.
Update: Eventually received my 3.1 enclosure and that seems slower than the 3.0 - Oh dear...
Oct 22: I am still using the intermediate Anker USB 3.0 hub as a workaround.
Initially the Mini kept dropping the Bluetooth connection to my Magic Mouse 2, on average around every 5 minutes - which was extremely annoying, as it also required me to connect a wired mouse just to stop and start the Bluetooth connection.
Update: After upgrading to BigSur 11.1 OS the connection is not perfect but seems to be a little more stable as it typically works for around an hour before failing and then automatically reconnecting - but the Mini has to take two goes at the reconnection before it starts working again.
Update: Big Sur 11.2 has not fixed the problem but they have reduced the frequency to a couple of times a day.
Update: Big Sur 11.3 I have not yet noticed the problem - so it may be fixed !
Update: Big Sur 11.6 Well the laggy bluetooth mouse is back again. Making using the mighty mouse very frustrating. I suspect this is an Apple software issue as connecting and enabling an external USB Bluetooth adapter then switching back to internal (using a wired mouse) seems to make it work !
Mind you getting hold of the bluetooth utility is a pain as you need an Apple developer account and download the "Additional_Tools_for_Xcode_11.4" as the Bluetooth tools is missing from the 13.x packages
Oct 22: Not apparent in Monterey 12.6
I had a problem with several Apple Apps not updating because "They were refunded or installed with a different AppleID". The initial Apps being Garage Band and Keynote. As these are Apps provided as part of the system this looks like a bug in the default image that they load.
Update: Tech Support advised me to just delete the Apps and then download a fresh copy using my own AppleID. Which I have done but I will have to wait until their next update to see if it has worked. 1/15 Keynote has now updated OK.
Update: 1/15 Now Numbers and Pages have had the same problem and fix.
The text in some Apps appears very fuzzy compared to the 2012. I later remembered that this was an old anti-aliasing problem that I had found the fix for some time ago. So not a Mini problem at all, just a new "feature" added back in the Mojave release. You just need to turn off/down font smoothing from the terminal command line and reboot.
I am beginning to see some software crashes on the M1. These all appear to be well sandboxed as the crash only affects the one program and the OS continues unaffected. I suspect Rosetta or a top end Memory fault . I have rebooted and ran Memory diagnostics and that came back clean.
Epic Browser either does not load or crashes after a few seconds - Fixed in Big Sur 11.3
OpenScad has crashed once after a pretty heavy day of 3D modelling - appears to have run out of memory. I Only saw this once and despite some pretty heavy use over the past few months I have not seen it again.
Brave Browser started crashing on start up on Big Sur 11.3, but an update seems to have fixed the issue.
Update: Big Sur 11.6 - I have not had a crash on any apps in months so this now seems to be working well.
Oct 22: I have had just 1 crash in the past 6 months us.
Big Sur 11.1 - Just had my first refusal to wake up. I had to force a reboot and lost one of my desktop background images in the process......
Big Sur 11.2 update seems to have ignored my locking out the Guest Account and has re-enabled it - Apparently this is because I have enabled "Find my Mac" and that requires an active guest account to work.
Big Sur 11.2 New Issue - My Dell display, which worked perfectly with 11.0 and 11.1, no longer sync's every time when waking from a blank Lock Screen - it just shows a lot of white noise - I have to hit "esc" the "enter" until it recovers.
Update: This bug is still present in the most recent Big Sur 11.6
Oct 22: Not sure if the is fixed or not as I am now using a 27" Dell S2718D WQHD 2560x1440 monitor and that wakes every time but does bring new issues with scaling
The sound quality is OK for speech or the odd YouTube Video but not for watching Films or any prolonged Music.
I do not use headphones and besides the jack socket is at the back (why?) so is awkward to get to.
I do not want to leave a speaker amplifier permanently powered on and connected.
So the workaround I now have is a Panasonic sound-bar, that I can turn on when I want to have better sound quality and I connect it to the Mac Mini via the Headphone socket. (I have removed the old USB sound car that I was using as in intermediary as it was not really necessary)