How to Force an Application to Open Using Rosetta...

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How to Force an Application to Open Using Rosetta...

I'm indebted to Greg Weston, writer of TrimTheFat for this tip...

I needed to Force iMovie HD to open using Rosetta -- but there's no option for this in in iMHD's Get Info... box.

So, what you need to do is this: (Terminal commands are in bold)

1. Open Terminal.

2 Change to the Directory where your copy of iMHD is: cd /Applications

3. Type: ditto --arch ppc iMovie\ HD.app iMovie\ HD-PPC.app

Note here that "\ " (backslash followed by a space) is the way of signalling a space in a filename to the Terminal.

You'll now have a second PPC-only copy of iMHD called "iMovie HD-PPC"

Just substitute appname.app for any other progs.

Mac Pro 2.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8) 4GB RAM, 160/320/320 HD, GeForce 7300

Mac Pro 2.0 GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.8), 4GB RAM, 160/320/320 HD, GeForce 7300

Posted on Nov 27, 2006 6:52 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 27, 2006 10:25 AM in response to TimDanaher

In an application's Info.plist file (iMovie HD.app/Contents/Info.plist), which is an XML property list file that holds information about the application's capabilities, if there is an "LSRequiresNativeExecution" key with a Boolean value of YES, then the "Open using Rosetta" checkbox will not appear in the Get Info window for that application in the Finder.

You can take the iMovie HD.app application, duplicate it, Control-click on the copy, and choose "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu. Inside the new window look inside the Contents folder for the Info.plist file. Open that file in a text editor such as TextEdit. Remove these two lines from toward the end of the file and save it:

<pre>
<key>LSRequiresNativeExecution</key>
<true/>
</pre>

Open the Terminal application, type in "touch " (note the space after the word 'touch') then Drag the iMovie HD copy.app bundle from the Finder to the Terminal window (this will automatically copy the file path there) and then hit enter. This will force Launch Services to re-parse in the info in the Info.plist and notice the change you made. That should bring back the "Open using Rosetta" checkbox in the Finder's Get Info window. Note that the developer of said application most likely included that "LSRequiresNativeExecution" key for a reason, so the app may not necessarily work as you'd expect or hope.

Hope this helps.....

Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM; 17" MacBook Pro w/ 2 GB RAM - Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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