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How to "uninstall" Rosetta manually installed into Lion (or Mt. Lion)

Some users of Final Cut Studio 2 (and some users of Logic Pro 8) discovered that they could not use the installer app for these programs in Lion.


Some on this forum (and others) have suggested that Rosetta be installed from a Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD into Lion or Mt. Lion. Although that technique does work for FCS2 (and perhaps Logic Pro 8), the better and SAFER approach is to use Pacifist.


In any event, I am beginning to see anecdotal reports that some of these "Rosetta-installed" Lion Mac are experiencing problems "down the road." I am also receiving requests from those who did install Rosetta on instructions on how to remove it.


In an attempt to get Rosetta out of these machines BEFORE it can corrupt any other files, we would appreciate a detailed instruction on how to remove Rosetta from Lion (and to the extent that the instructions would be different, on Mt. Lion).


I post this on behalf of those who installed Rosetta; I am not one of them...

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.5), 2011 - 10.6.8 running in Parallels

Posted on May 13, 2013 8:52 AM

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26 replies

May 13, 2013 9:58 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

I found this thread; maybe I can get Kappy over here to help!


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4523677?answerId=20334079022#20334079022


Kappy: We want to restore these Lion or Mt. Lion Macs to their "pre-Rosetta" state!


Using Easyfind: I see only these "translate" and "rosetta" files in my non-Rosetta installed Lion Mac:


User uploaded file

User uploaded file

[click on images to enlarge]


The only two "rosetta" files on my Lion Mac that seem to be relevant are RosettaNonGrata and Rosetta_optimize. All of the "translate" files seem to be irrelevant.


[NOTE: I did not show you many "Rosetta" Safari cache files, as obviously they are not system oriented. Ignore the "rosetta.pkg" as this is a download I performed for library purposes only.]

May 14, 2013 2:18 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

Morning,


I have downloaded Easy find and run a search for translate, I have no matches!

I ensured that invisible files and folders check box was selected, I mimiced the screengrab you posted.


I have not yet restarted my iMac since the installation, is this going to help or hinder?


Thanks

User uploaded file

I changed the search criteria and got this little lot up!


Most of them are Microsoft Windows, but the top one might be what you have advised on.


So whats my best next step?


Thanks

May 14, 2013 8:09 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

Hi Michael,


There's only two files that specifically belong to Rosetta.


/usr/libexec/oah/translate


/usr/libexec/oah/RosettaNonGrata


There's also a folder named Shims in the oah folder, but I doubt that has anything to do with Rosetta. I would leave that one alone.


There also may be other support files somewhere that Snow Leopard installs, but the Rosetta package actually only has the file translate in it.

May 14, 2013 10:18 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Hello Kurt:


Thank you for your input!


I duplicated time18's attempt to use EasyFind on his Lion Mac, on my Snow Leopard Mac Mini (which I know has Rosetta installed) and I also do not find "translate"


However translate is there, as you can see from this screenshot. So the problem here must be EasyFind:


User uploaded file

[click on images to enlarge]


Kurt, can you fresh my memory on how to delete files in the "usr" directory; I seem to recall it involves using logging into the Root level.


Clearly RosettaNonGrata stays put, but...


I have a different opinion about the Shims folder: it appears clear to me that it was created by the installation of Rosetta. It is 1MB on my SL Mac Mini:


User uploaded file

May 14, 2013 11:07 AM in response to MlchaelLAX

However translate is there, as you can see from this screenshot. So the problem here must be EasyFind:

That's weird. 😕 EasyFind is what I use for any search (I never bother to even look at Spotlight). translate came up, along with 400 other files with "translate" in the name. The vast majority of which had the identical name of WordTranslatedFontSample.

Kurt, can you fresh my memory on how to delete files in the "usr" directory; I seem to recall it involves using logging into the Root level.

Nah, no need to go that route. One way is from within EasyFind itself. You could just highlight the file and click the Delete button at the top. Still don't understand why it doesn't show for you (unless the drive you have chosen for it to search, minilax, is not the correct drive). But otherwise, to view all files and folders on your Mac, open the Terminal and enter the following two lines.


defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE


killall Finder


The second command forces the Finder to relaunch so it reads the change you made to the Finder .plist file.


All hidden files and folders will now show as grayed out objects, but they are all accessible. You'll be able to navigate directly to the /usr/libexec/oah/ folder.


When you're done, type in the same two lines, except change TRUE to FALSE to return file viewing to normal.

Clearly RosettaNonGrata stays put, but...

As far as I can tell, that file has no use other than to turn Rosetta on and off using the Terminal. Like this:


Disable Rosetta:


sudo /usr/sbin/sysctl -w kern.exec.archhandler.powerpc=/usr/libexec/oah/RosettaNonGrata


(These two sudo commands are all one line, they're just wrapping in the forum display)


That's a quick cheat to get Rosetta to reinstall. After running the command, Snow Leopard believes Rosetta is not installed (even though it is). When you attempt to run a PPC app, OS X then asks to download and install Rosetta.


You can also manually reenable it:


Re-enable after Rosetta has already been installed:


sudo /usr/sbin/sysctl -w kern.exec.archhandler.powerpc=/usr/libexec/oah/translate


Other than getting the Rosetta translate file to reinstall without searching for your Snow Leopard disk, the commands don't have much use.

I have a different opinion about the Shims folder: it appears clear to me that it was created by the installation of Rosetta.

You could very well be right. Being in the same folder with the other two items, you would assume they're related. If I drill down through the various items in the Shims folder and opened them in TextEdit (including the .dylib files), nothing references Rosetta. At least not by name. It's rather hard to tell what any of them are for.

May 14, 2013 11:55 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Just because I was curious, I dug a little more. Snow Leopard installs this by default:


User uploaded file


As you can see, the Shims folder is part of the basic install. Pretty good, though not perfect evidence it's all related to Rosetta. The actual translator is in its own installer package (the same one that downloads when running a PPC app for the first time).


User uploaded file


The only reason they're not together of course was that Apple was trying to get developers and users used to the fact that all PPC software's days were numbered, and you had to install the interpreter separately. Unlike Leopard, where Rosetta was part of the default install.

May 14, 2013 12:44 PM in response to MlchaelLAX

Michael,


As far as I am aware you only need remove the translate file to stop Rosetta from functioning. I'm afraid I can't offer much more help along this line. I once tried installing Rosetta in Lion but it did not work at all. I used Easy Find to locate the files by searching for "translate." I only removed the executable, as I recall. I don't remember where it was located, but it may have been in that "oah" directory.


The advice to install the Rosetta package in Lion or Mountain Lion is not good. I would not recommend it to anyone based on my experience.


Sorry if this isn't helpful.

May 14, 2013 12:51 PM in response to MlchaelLAX

But you do agree that RosettaNonGrata has to remain undeleted in any event?

Can't hurt anything to leave it. Worst it can do it take up a small amount of space on the drive. As Kappy noted, removing the file translate (which is the actual interpreter), is all you need to do.


Though really, in Lion or Mountain Lion, installing the Rosetta package doesn't do anything. Leaving the file translate on the drive is like leaving a .plist file in the Preferences folder for an app you've removed. It's inert.

May 14, 2013 1:11 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt Lang wrote:


Though really, in Lion or Mountain Lion, installing the Rosetta package doesn't do anything. Leaving the file translate on the drive is like leaving a .plist file in the Preferences folder for an app you've removed. It's inert.


I have been reading anecdotal posts by some of those who originally installed Rosetta into Lion (for purposes of installing FCS2 and perhaps Logic Pro 8) back over one year ago, that they are now experiencing unexplained system problems, crashes and other troublesome phenomena.


The only common features of these posters I have seen so far, were they installed Rosetta in the early days of Lion and have now either updated to later versions of Lion or Mountain Lion.


Two possible scenarios:


1. The updates with the continued presence of Rosetta causes the problems; or


2. The updates with the continued presence of Rosetta corrupts other System software, which then causes the problem.


If the answer is scenario 1, then a simple deletion of Rosetta should solve the problem.


If the answer is scenario 2, then a full backup, a wipe and reinstallation of Lion, or Mt. Lion, as applicable with a restore (but NOT a restore of the prior system files) would be required to solve the problem.


So far I have been warning as many people on this forum that are currently posting about installing FCS2 or LP8 NOT to attempt to install Rosetta (use Pacifist instead to install these programs).


time18 posted such a recent post, but he did not read my cautionary reply in time and he did install Rosetta. Hopefully a simple deletion of the translate file will work for him.


Despite my protestations, one poster, who admitted to historically advising several FCS2 users to install Rosetta in Lion, has refused to warn them of possible down the road problems, or even cease giving the "install Rosetta into Lion" advice, until I can "prove" my hypothesis!"


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4465199?answerId=21948728022#21948728022

How to "uninstall" Rosetta manually installed into Lion (or Mt. Lion)

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