Rosetta and Lion - Is there a solution?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3934840?answerId=18342065022#18342065022&

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3240973?answerId=18123129022#18123129022

Kurt: be sure to check out Carter's solution to his similar problems?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3960994?answerId=18238312022#18238312022

Kurt: I forgot about your post with your solution; good work!:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3240973?answerId=18117652022#18117652022

Buy another mac. (Mac Mini or Mac Air)

OK, go ahead and update Latin WORDS, Age of Empires II, and all my other PPC apps for me so they work in Mountain Lion. I don't have any other choice because nobody else has made anything like these apps, and the developers have either moved on or (in the case of Latin WORDS) died. I still need the apps, so I'm not going to update to Lion and lose Rosetta just because someone at Apple decided to axe it for no reason.

petermac87 wrote:

Stuthejag wrote:

I just contacted Applecare who told me explicitly that 10.6 server is licenced in virtualization, client isn't. Seems pretty clear, unfortunately.

Yes and seeing that Rosetta has been dead for over 10 months now, it still amazes me that people need to use PPC programs at all with the choices around. Anything that won't run in Lion is too outdated and will be further outdated with the intro of Mountain Lion and future OSXs.

Good Luck

Pete

ServerMac wrote:

OK, go ahead and update Latin WORDS, Age of Empires II, and all my other PPC apps for me so they work in Mountain Lion. I don't have any other choice because nobody else has made anything like these apps, and the developers have either moved on or (in the case of Latin WORDS) died. I still need the apps, so I'm not going to update to Lion and lose Rosetta just because someone at Apple decided to axe it for no reason.

petermac87 wrote:

Stuthejag wrote:

I just contacted Applecare who told me explicitly that 10.6 server is licenced in virtualization, client isn't. Seems pretty clear, unfortunately.

Yes and seeing that Rosetta has been dead for over 10 months now, it still amazes me that people need to use PPC programs at all with the choices around. Anything that won't run in Lion is too outdated and will be further outdated with the intro of Mountain Lion and future OSXs.

Good Luck

Pete

Your frustration is real; although aiming at Apple is misplaced. Here is a post that I assembled for a similar question:

Unfortunately you got caught up in the minor miracle of Rosetta. Originally licensed by Apple when it migrated from the PowerPC CPU platform that it had used from the mid-1990's until the Intel CPU platform in 2006, Rosetta allowed Mac users to continue to use their library of PPC software transparently in emulation.

However, Apple's license to continue to use this technology expired with new releases of OS X commencing with Lion (and now Mountain Lion). While educational efforts have been made over the last 6 years, the fact is that Rosetta was SO successful that many users were caught unaware UNTIL they upgraded to Lion or Mountain Lion.

Workarounds:

1. If your Mac will support it, restore OS X Snow Leopard;

2. If your Mac will support it, partition your hard drive or add an external hard drive and install Snow Leopard into it and use the "dual-boot" method to choose between your PowerPC software or Lion/Mt. Lion;

3. Upgrade your software to Intel compatible versions, or find alternative software that will open your data files;

3. Install Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) into Parallels:

[click on image to enlarge]

Full Snow Leopard installation instructions here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

NOTE: STEP ONE of the instructions must currently be completed on a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac and the resulting modified Snow Leopard.cdr install file can then be moved over to your Mountain Lion Mac for completion of the remaining steps.

NOTE 2: Computer games with complex, 3D or fast motion graphics make not work well or at all in virtualization.

I understand the rationale that Apple no longer has the licensing for Rosetta. So why isn't someone else selling it?

Not being able to run my little PPC program SkyMACMate under Lion 10.7.5 now means my desktop Skype phone is crippled. I don't really feel like installing a dual boot system just so I can use the telephone. I'd need it to be running all the time for the phone to be of any use so I'm much better off to wipe the drive and start over with my old Snow Leopard DVD.

But how do I get the pre-installed Lion back in the future if ever I change my phone hardware? I don't see any way to save the OS when I downgrade.

GaryGee wrote:

I understand the rationale that Apple no longer has the licensing for Rosetta. So why isn't someone else selling it?

Good question: Not only would the new licensee have to license the underlying technology from IBM, but they would both have to figure out how to program the hooks needed for it to work with Lion and then acquire the necessary license from Apple.

In addition to the fact that Apple would not want a third party fooling around with Lion in such a manner, the costs involved to acquire these licenses and program the hooks would probably be well out of the reach of any possible income that would come from making this available to the increasingly shrinking (is that an oxi-moron?) user base of Lion users that need to run PowerPC applications. There is just no future in it!

On the other hand, what about my suggestion (running Snow Leopard with Rosetta installed into Parallels concurrently with Lion) so that you could continuously use SkyMacMate, didn't you like???

[click on image to enlarge]

Running a dual system is a pain. Just give up installing Lion. This loss of legacy will cost the user million in the end.

Purchasers of new Macs do not have the option to load/run Snow Leopard. This is their only option to run PowerPC and Lion/Mt. Lion.

MlchaelLAX is correct. Since you (almost 100% of the time) can't install an OS older than the one your Mac came with, the only two options are:

1) Run Snow Leopard in a VM, such as Parallels (and hope the software can a see device from within it)

2) Keep an older Mac around for PPC software which can boot directly into Snow Leopard.

Kurt Lang wrote:

...Since you (almost 100% of the time) can't install an OS older than the one your Mac came with...

I think that a common exception is the late 2011 iMac which, although it came shipped with Lion, will allow Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.7 to be installed on it.

The "trick" is to find a grey Snow Leopard Install disc for a similar model (MBP) or install the retail SL 10.6 or 10.6.3 into a partition on another Mac, upgrade it to 10.6.8, clone it and then restore the clone to the late 2011 iMac.

The Mac Pro has a series like that, too. We got one of the last 2010 Mac Pro's with Snow Leopard in the box. But for quite a while, the same Mac Pros were being bundled with the then current Lion. If you could find the gray disks, you could get the "newer" Mac Pro's to boot to Snow Leopard since the hardware was identical. Or as you note, a clone from a similar Mac Pro running 10.6.8.

Heck, I'm not sure the Mac Pro has changed much in the last three years. If you check the current lineup, the base 4 core model can be upgraded to the 6 core chip (same as mine), and still has the same Radeon 5770 card as the default choice. Except for possible firmware changes that might prevent you from using older gray disks to install SL, it still might even run it from a clone.

Sorry I am a year too late but Apple has stopped users using Parallels to VM SL. You can, 'bodge' it to work but not knowing how, you can only install the SL Server in VM.

I find it quite strange that a 2MB chunk of 'Magic' Rosetta, wrapped within a folder of 3MB, that under SL one had the OPTION to install has gone!

Apple had no worries @ PPC code, the 'hooks' were only required after the exit in Native code this small MAGIC chunk produced. (AFAIK)

From my POV I relish Eudora and GoLive 8. I installed Mavericks (FW) and started to up-mentalise to Entourage & GoLive 9, then found Quicktime ALSO used Rosetta for embedded MIDI in Browsers! (Deprecated in QTX with NO 3rd party allowance!)

Apple NEVER told me!

I only use MIDI as entertainment on sites. MANY people SELL MIDI, and if the USER cannot hear, their INCOME will SUFFER!

Apple STILL supports QT in Windows that CAN play embedded MIDI. WHY?

Many musicians it is alleged are buying old PPC machines because the audio rendering is much faster than a 'Unix + Pretty-GUI' that spends too much time in rotational prettyness?

Apples decision to migrate OS>9>X was hard but welcomed. PPC code>Intel welcomed (because of Rosetta) but, surely, migrating X>iOS would have been much better if one had the OPTION to use Rosetta or not? Surely users would have still upgraded to L/ML/Mavs/11?

Even 'Hackintosh' experimenters have been fooled into, 'Look, Mavericks running!' "Why run Legacy S/W like SL....'

I have no option. I like Mavericks after I stopped the, 'Kiddie-stuff.'

Maybe I'll like it just like migrating from OS9>X?

I have NO CHOICE!

cruttis wrote:

I find it quite strange that a 2MB chunk of 'Magic' Rosetta, wrapped within a folder of 3MB, that under SL one had the OPTION to install has gone!

Apple's license to use the technology underlying Rosetta expired with the release of OS X Lion. It is doubtful that the current owner of this technology, IBM, would license it to Apple at a reasonable price, even if Apple were inclined to do so.

cruttis wrote:

I have NO CHOICE!

There are lots of "choices":

Much software can be upgraded or replaced with alternatives that can run in Mavericks.

Macs up through 2010 and some in 2011 can "dual-boot" into Snow Leopard installed on a separate partition or external drive.

Older Macs are still available that will run Snow Leopard.

Snow Leopard can be virtualized within Mavericks.

You have determined that there is NO CHOICE for YOU!

Thanks Michael. I spent a lot of time in Lion (F/W) transferring Eudora emails using Entourage, the best method I found for the transfer.

I upgraded to ML then Mavs and got used to GoLive 9. I was prepared to ADAPT.

When checking my websites that have MIDI embedded I was totally disilusioned as there were no Plug-Ins!

Apple, AFAIK, never announced this to be the case?

I booted Parallels, Win7, only to find QT supported therein? All embedded MIDI worked!

Somehow, I felt, 'let-down,' I could see no real improvement, for me, yet liked Mavs.

Since SE days I have always looked forward to improve. 9>10 was difficult but a good move. PPC>Intel also.

Mac OS>iOs I am not sure?

But I understand the 'Business' ramifications of rationalising OS so that Mac OS X will become defunct.

So far I have established that staying with Sandy Bridge will be problematical. I do not need Ivy or Haswell since this hardware OS upgrading is incompatible with SL, even though the latter is required to upgrade?.

Yet, it seems that going Hackintosh can take an i52500K to 3-times the speed of current Mac OS hardware at a significant lower-cost. It will also throw me to the, 'Dark-Side' since I will have to 'know' what my OS is doing, not just, 'Using it.'

It appears that I have been relegated to my 'garage,' as 'someone else' was who gave me Mac OS!