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Hack for installing FaceTime on Leopard 10.5 ?

There is a chance (and I haven't tested this) that FaceTime uses some Frameworks/APIs that just aren't available in Leopard. I don't think Apple would introduce an arbitrary restriction as it is beneficial for them to have as many FaceTime devices as possible. (Aside: that's why I believe there will eventually be a Windows release, hence why it is NOT tied to iChat). If this is the case then no amount of version number changing will make it work.
 
codyliger said:
Yeah but I have to wait for it to come in the mail sometime next week I know it's kinda lame but it will be my first hack and makes me feel smart!
Click to expand...

But im on H4ck1nt0sh And i have no other option, however, i did some fiicking around with it and i used pacifist to etract the facetime.app without installing, i have facetime now... just sayin, :D
 
Interesting!

Gmoney147852 said:
But im on H4ck1nt0sh And i have no other option, however, i did some fiicking around with it and i used pacifist to etract the facetime.app without installing, i have facetime now... just sayin, :D
Click to expand...

Can anybody elaborate on this solution? Got this strange problem that after update from 10.6 tot 10.6.4. my video doesn't work.

You say you've extracted the facetime.app with pcifist. That, I follow. What do you exactly do to use the program? sorry, I'm a newbie

OdB
 
bru410 said:
Can you elaborate on this solution? Got this strange problem that after update from 10.6 tot 10.6.4. my video doesn't work.

You say you've extracted the facetime.app with pcifist. That, I follow. What do you exactly do to use the program? sorry, I'm a newbie

OdB
Click to expand...

Ok, I extracted facetime.dmg, and got this:
0.ddm
1.free
2.Apple_partition_map
3.Apple_Driver_ATAPI
4.free
5.hfs
6.free

Now what?:confused:
 
elppa said:
There is a chance (and I haven't tested this) that FaceTime uses some Frameworks/APIs that just aren't available in Leopard. I don't think Apple would introduce an arbitrary restriction as it is beneficial for them to have as many FaceTime devices as possible. (Aside: that's why I believe there will eventually be a Windows release, hence why it is NOT tied to iChat). If this is the case then no amount of version number changing will make it work.
Click to expand...
It may but that doesn't explain why it has to install itself. I'm thinking that the installer adds the framework.
 
bru410 said:
Ok, I extracted facetime.dmg, and got this:
0.ddm
1.free
2.Apple_partition_map
3.Apple_Driver_ATAPI
4.free
5.hfs
6.free

Now what?:confused:
Click to expand...

you did something wrong.... you extract facetime.app, from facetime.mpkg thats in the.dmg Mount the dmg then copy the installer to desktop then open that with pacifist
 
bru410 said:
Can anybody elaborate on this solution? Got this strange problem that after update from 10.6 tot 10.6.4. my video doesn't work.

You say you've extracted the facetime.app with pcifist. That, I follow. What do you exactly do to use the program? sorry, I'm a newbie

OdB
Click to expand...

just click and and run it and hopefully it works, there have been mixed results, it works for about 70% of people, however we have all had iMovie '11 and Garageband '11 installed before facetime, idk if that installs some snow leopard api's needed for facetime or what but just givi it a try its still just a temporary hack, my and a few friends of mine are working on a legit hack that works for everybody, if it doesnt work, give us time. we will prevail.
 
1064727729_KiuKG-O.jpg


I've been mucking about with the app on a 10.5.8 MBP. I used Pacifist to extract the app, tried modifying the info.plist file first, nothing. Nothing else I've tried has worked so far, only wanting to work on the app itself.

I get the same error as everyone else seems to in 10.5:

1064731785_hGGve-O.jpg


I've even tried it in 32-bit mode, to no avail:

1064731807_Cqhsi-O.jpg


I'm limited to 10.5 due to work requirements, though my other Macs run 10.6. Haven't tried the supported systems yet, more fun to try what isn't supposed to work first. :rolleyes:
 
Found a solution!

Gmoney147852 said:
just click and and run it and hopefully it works, there have been mixed results, it works for about 70% of people, however we have all had iMovie '11 and Garageband '11 installed before facetime, idk if that installs some snow leopard api's needed for facetime or what but just givi it a try its still just a temporary hack, my and a few friends of mine are working on a legit hack that works for everybody, if it doesnt work, give us time. we will prevail.
Click to expand...

GMoney, thanks for your reply. All: I found a way to get Facetime to work on my 10.6 Snow Leopard. Don't know if it'll work for 10.5. But hey, people can give it a try:

Google is your best friend. There's a twitter from 0wnDev, who hacked the facetimeapp for mac. He zipped it: http://www.multiupload.com/VHUL5OWLN0

He actually made it to work with 10.6.2, but I changed the info.plist from 10.6.2 to 10.6. Saved it (be sure to really save it), restart, and voila facetime works for 10.6. I imagine that if in the info.plist you change everything from 10.6.2 to 10.5, save it, reboot, the facetimeapp might work.

Good luck in trying.
 
QuarterSwede said:
It may but that doesn't explain why it has to install itself. I'm thinking that the installer adds the framework.
Click to expand...

True, the installer adds a number of frameworks.

But that doesn't mean there aren't additional dependencies on Snow Leopard.
 
Last edited:
elppa said:
True, the installer adds a number of frameworks.

But that doesn't exclude mean there aren't additional dependencies on Snow Leopard.
Click to expand...

I've been going back and forth on this hack and I'm starting to think that this app calls on SL specific API's that just aren't present in vanilla L. I've tried looking at Sys logs during the installation to see if the app installs anything special but to no avail. I do think apple inserts a "com.FaceTime.plist" in the Library folder which would explain why the app fails to launch.

Ill keep tackling the issue and see what I'm able to turn up.

But to all the people that are saying "just upgrade", please bear in mind that that might not be an option for some which is exactly why we're trying to hack the app.
 
Hey, I have a question.
I tried installing facetime BETA for Mac. But it says:

You are missing a critical security patch. Please use Software Update to install Security Update 2010-005

Will Facetime BETA work on MacBook Pro with 10.6.3 Snow Leopard Version?

What should I do?
 
ice101 said:
Hey, I have a question.
I tried installing facetime BETA for Mac. But it says:

You are missing a critical security patch. Please use Software Update to install Security Update 2010-005

Will Facetime BETA work on MacBook Pro with 10.6.3 Snow Leopard Version?

What should I do?
Click to expand...

If you want to install it without the security update, Google for Flat Package Editor which is a built in tool if you have Xcode installed.

Once you've done that, open the FaceTime mpkg in flat package editor, drop the Distribution file onto your desktop, edit it in TextEdit (I used Terminal > changed directory to the desktop > vi "Distribution").

Look for the lines that check for the security patch number and change to whatever is listed as the current security framework in Sys Prefs.

Save everything, replace the distribution file in the facetime mpkg and save.

Now run the installer. It should work.

-=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=-


To everyone else looking for a 10.5 solution:

I've tried a bunch of different things, ranging from adding the appropriate files in System/Library/CoreServices and Library/Launchagents, editing the distribution file to remove the OSX checks and exporting the app file to desktop. I really did a lot of work on this and I'm pretty certain the problems lie with missing frameworks that are native to SL and not plain old Leopard.

Example: adding the imagents.plist file into Library/Launchagents caused Leopard to constantly report that imagent could not be launched. Maybe I missed something there but wasn't sure where else to look.

If anyone would like to disprove this theory, please do so and kindly share your findings. If anything, I've had fun hacking this little pet project and it's really taught me a lot about the OSX and FreeBSD platforms!
 
Gmoney147852 said:
But im on H4ck1nt0sh And i have no other option, however, i did some fiicking around with it and i used pacifist to etract the facetime.app without installing, i have facetime now... just sayin, :D
Click to expand...

I have managed to install FaceTime this way too, but unfortunately it doesn't work on my 1.5.8 Leopard. It says "you cannot use this version of the application FaceTime with this version of Mac OS X"
 
Ok...

Has anyone tried changing their OS 10.5.8 info so that it reads 10.6.4, then set the plist file to 10.5.8, and then, after installing it, seeing if it runs? If it runs, you could revert your computer info back to 10.5.8... or upgrade for $30. :rolleyes:

I want my sister to be able to FaceTime from her MacBook with me on my iPhone. Looks like I think it would be cooler than she does. She's not interested in forking out $30 so that she can see me smiling at her. Maybe I'll buy it for her for her birthday... in September.
 
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