Register FAQ/Rules Forum Spy Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Welcome to the Mac Forums forums. Please read the FAQ if you have questions. Register to participate.

 
Go Back   Mac Forums > Apple Hardware > Notebooks > MacBook Pro, PowerBook
TouchArcade.com - iPhone Game Reviews and News

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread  
Old Oct 22, 2008, 07:23 AM   #1
michaelb
macrumors member
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
I can confirm the four finger gesture is possible on pre-October 2008 laptops, and I currently have four finger Exposé and Application Switching working on my January 2008 MacBook Air.

Here's what I did:

My girlfriend recently bought a new unibody MacBook. Just for kicks, and being insanely jealous of her four finger Exposé ability I installed the system it came with on my 1st gen MacBook Air.

(This required hacking Apple's installer to ignore machine checks to avoid the "Mac OS X cannot be installed" obstacle. The method to do that is here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=371302 )

This got the latest, slightly updated 10.5.5 system (with the energy efficient bulb in the System Preferences) on my first generation Air.

However, I was disappointed it didn't show "Four Finger gestures" in the Trackpad system preference, just the old standard gesture. I had a hunch it was possible though, so...

I then examined the kernel extension "AppleUSBMultitouch.kext" (the one installed with the new 10.5.5 unibody OS X).

This Info.plist of this kext contains several entries for what looks like different makes of trackpads. I noticed that some of them had two keys that the others did not:

<key>TrackpadFourFingerGestures</key>
<true/>
<key>TrackpadSecondaryClickCorners</key>
<true/>

I didn't know which model trackpad my Air has and it didn't really matter, as I copied those keys to all entries.

Once the AppleUSBMultitouch.kext was modified (and permissions restored), I rebooted and, hey presto!, there is the Four Fingers entry in the System Preferences.

Four finger Exposé on my January 2008 MacBook Air now works just as it does on the unibody MacBook.

(Secondary click, where you click the bottom right corner of the trackpad to get a right-click, is also there, but only seem to work in combination with the Air's physical button - haven't worked that one out yet, and don't really care as I am used to soft two finger clicking for right-click.)

I suspect this would work on all later model multitouch trackpads.
michaelb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old Oct 22, 2008, 09:27 AM   #2
lauph
macrumors regular
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: 30 mins from Cupertino
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb View Post
I can confirm the four finger gesture is possible on pre-October 2008 laptops, and I currently have four finger Exposé and Application Switching working on my January 2008 MacBook Air.

Here's what I did:

My girlfriend recently bought a new unibody MacBook. Just for kicks, and being insanely jealous of her four finger Exposé ability I installed the system it came with on my 1st gen MacBook Air.

(This required hacking Apple's installer to ignore machine checks to avoid the "Mac OS X cannot be installed" obstacle. The method to do that is here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=371302 )

This got the latest, slightly updated 10.5.5 system (with the energy efficient bulb in the System Preferences) on my first generation Air.

However, I was disappointed it didn't show "Four Finger gestures" in the Trackpad system preference, just the old standard gesture. I had a hunch it was possible though, so...

I then examined the kernel extension "AppleUSBMultitouch.kext" (the one installed with the new 10.5.5 unibody OS X).

This Info.plist of this kext contains several entries for what looks like different makes of trackpads. I noticed that some of them had two keys that the others did not:

<key>TrackpadFourFingerGestures</key>
<true/>
<key>TrackpadSecondaryClickCorners</key>
<true/>

I didn't know which model trackpad my Air has and it didn't really matter, as I copied those keys to all entries.

Once the AppleUSBMultitouch.kext was modified (and permissions restored), I rebooted and, hey presto!, there is the Four Fingers entry in the System Preferences.

Four finger Exposé on my January 2008 MacBook Air now works just as it does on the unibody MacBook.

(Secondary click, where you click the bottom right corner of the trackpad to get a right-click, is also there, but only seem to work in combination with the Air's physical button - haven't worked that one out yet, and don't really care as I am used to soft two finger clicking for right-click.)

I suspect this would work on all later model multitouch trackpads.
can you upload that kext? or must there be many other components for it to work other than just the kext?
lauph is offline   Reply With Quote
Old Oct 22, 2008, 09:41 AM   #3
TBi
macrumors 68020
 
TBi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Ireland
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb View Post
<SNIP>
(Secondary click, where you click the bottom right corner of the trackpad to get a right-click, is also there, but only seem to work in combination with the Air's physical button - haven't worked that one out yet, and don't really care as I am used to soft two finger clicking for right-click.)

I suspect this would work on all later model multitouch trackpads.
Good work getting this to work with the older model!

About the right click, remember the whole trackpad on the newer model is a button. So more than likely the right click only happens when the pad is 'clicking', which is why you need to use the button on your laptop.
__________________
Than: (used to introduce the second member of an unequal comparison): "She's taller than I am."
Then: at that time: "Prices were lower then."
TBi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old Dec 15, 2008, 05:20 PM   #4
fjk
macrumors member
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelb View Post
This Info.plist of this kext contains several entries for what looks like different makes of trackpads. I noticed that some of them had two keys that the others did not:

<key>TrackpadFourFingerGestures</key>
<true/>
<key>TrackpadSecondaryClickCorners</key>
<true/>

I didn't know which model trackpad my Air has and it didn't really matter, as I copied those keys to all entries.

Once the AppleUSBMultitouch.kext was modified (and permissions restored), I rebooted and, hey presto!, there is the Four Fingers entry in the System Preferences.
Just to be clear, this is all you really have to do. The kext in 10.5.6 update already has those entries for what is probably the trackpad in the LATE-2008 MBP. So just add those strings from the LATE-2008 trackpad's entry to the other trackpad entries and voila. Restore permissions and reboot. Done.

BTW I used plistedit in order to copy/paste those strings to the other entries. You do NOT need to download any other kext files, the AppleUSBMultitouch.kext in 10.5.6 has what you need.
fjk is offline   Reply With Quote

Reply

Mac Forums > Apple Hardware > Notebooks > MacBook Pro, PowerBook

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:25 PM.

Mac News | Mac Rumors | iPhone Game Reviews | iPhone Apps

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.10
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright 2002-2009, MacRumors.com, LLC