Mac OS 10.5.6

This being my first official post– I thought I’d start out with a tech tip just to kick things off. Apple recently released Mac OS 10.5.6 to the joy of many mac users out there who were hoping for something to be released before the christmas holidays. How thoughtful of Apple to give people an early xmas gift. Well it could be a good or bad thing depending on your experience with it. My experience was rather pleasant to say the least. My Macbook Pro sucked down the 190mb update and dutifully updated the system without any problems. Feel kinda sorry for all the people who seem to be having problems with the update. The update brings some much need polishing to the overall system and updates some vital components like MobileMe, Airport, Bluetooth, Time Machine and Mail.

However, what’s most interesting about the update are the small little tweaks under the hood and some changes that aren’t so hidden. The update moves the Trackpad into its own preference pane which separates it from the keyboard and mouse. I like it. Makes it easier to find. Although, what seems to be missing is what the New Macbook/Pro users have been used to for some time. And that’s the four finger gestures exclusively available to the new laptops. I wanted some four finger lovin too! (Um, you know what I mean.) So I went searching through the forums. Low-and-behold, there were others who wanted this feature too!

How to add Four Finger Gestures to your Pre-Unibody Laptop

Here it is. Add some four finger magic to your multi-touch laptop. Now, I’ve only been able to test this on a early-2008 Macbook Pro (Penryn). So your mileage may very. Update: Apparently, it works with the previous Macbook Airs too.

Optional: Perform complete Time Machine backup before you try any of this. Just in case. It’s not that serious a mod but you never know.    

(1) First you need to update your laptop to 10.5.6. It’s been done in 10.5.5 but its cleaner and easier with the point 6 release. Once you’ve done that and you didn’t have any of the aforementioned problems then move on to the next step.
(2) You’re gonna want to backup an extension file in your system. The file is named AppleUSBMultitouch.kext and you’ll find it in /system/library/extensions folder. Once you’ve safely backed it up replace it with the file in step 3.
(3) Next you’re going to delete the extension you just backed up and replace it with a modified version. Which you can get here. Now your mac is going to ask you for your admin password so make sure you have that handy. Copy the modified .kext file to /system/library/extensions
and then you’re done.
(4) Finally, just make sure you run Apple’s Disk Utility and repair permissions. Reboot.

And you should see a new four finger gesture option in preferences. Yay! Joy. Happy Holidays!

 

Update: This totally still works for 10.5.7. Just thought y’all should know. Macbook Pro 2008/Macbook Air A & B Rev./ Sound off in the comments if you agree/disagree. Thanks!