Mac – How to setup a Mac (Mini 2015) without a monitor (or mouse or keyboard)

mac-miniosx-serverremote desktopserver.app

I would like to complete the initial setup of a Mac Mini (2015) without having to use an external monitor (or a mouse or keyboard).

I do have a MacBook Pro available in case this would help (and from which I would like to remotely setup the MacMini), but I thought that I would be able to just follow the procedure discussed by Apple here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202542

Basically, that article says you should be able to see the Mac in your shared computers section and just start ScreenSharing. However, this doesn't work and I am suspecting it only worked for MacMini Server models back when they sold them. Today, Apple only sells a "Server.app" from the Mac App store and the "helpful" comments on that help desk article say:

Adopting Server app

On the server, open the Mac App Store.
Sign in with your Apple ID. OS X Server should appear in your purchase history. This is for verification only.
On your administrator computer, open the Mac App Store.
Sign in with the same Apple ID as in step 2.
Go to the Purchases tab and install OS X Server.

Well, that clearly requires a Monitor, right ?

Is there no way at all to setup a Mac Mini (with the help of just a MacBook Pro)?

Current state: I can see the MacMini on the network – well I can PING it and confirmed the MAC Address – so I know its on the network, but I can't SSH or VNC into it …

Ideas:

Target Disk Mode (TDM):
With the help of a keyboard I might be able to start the Mac Mini in TDM and somehow install whatever I want on it. I don't exactly see this solving my problem, though – unless I could do this from another Mac Mini. A MacBook Pro OS X installation will look different to the one performed through a Mac Mini, I believe, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Best Answer

I contacted the Apple Support Hotline and got the expected answer: setting up a Mac Mini without an external monitor is not possible (unless you happen to know and correctly perform the exact order of keystrokes necessary to complete the setup with an attached keyboard).

This actually got me thinking: What if I could attach a pre-programmed keyboard that delivers the required input timed appropriately to the required wait-times, etc and generate a universal "Mac setup adapter"? I could imagine the "Teensyduino" being the prefect fit for this job. Unfortunately, though, I don't have one of those lying around at the moment, but it would be worth considering if one really had to do a larger scale setup of such machines.

Solution: In contrast to my initial concerns about using Target Disk Mode, apparently people have previously had success installing OS X onto another computer in this way. There are two different approaches here:

  • We can try to re-install OS X (onto the Mac Mini in TDM from the MBP), which in my view is not a very good solution.
  • We can run the initial setup only by booting into the Mac Mini OS X partition from the MBP (by starting the Mac Mini in TDM).

The secondary option appeals to me, but either solution does require a Thunderbolt (or FireWire) cable. The process would look something like this:

  1. Shut down MBP and Mac Mini.
  2. Start Mac Mini in TDM and connect the cable to the MBP.
  3. Start the MBP while holding the OPTION key to select the Mac Mini hard drive as the boot partition.
  4. Complete the initial setup and activate any remote access features you want.
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