hello 7design,
a few questions: have you checked performance with xbench or geekbench? I also made the downgrade to 10.6.8 and got it running (although starting the process from an 2010iMac) and it works, but the mac mini is way to slow (xbench gives a result of ca. 70 - like an 7 yrs old mac) and geekbench-32 gives 1900 (SL) vs ca 6000 (Lion) - so for me it works but makes no sense.
On the other hand I got the info from an Apple Store Manager that the MacMinis all came with SL on it and have been upgraded to Lion just before selling.
So I'm still curiuos If I have a chance to get it to work
Thanks
ajanky