4 finger multi touch for older Macbook Pros and Airs
Haven’t you all been jealous of your friend(s) with their new Macbooks (and Pros, and Airs) and their cool 4 finger swipe gesture functionality? Well, your wait is finally over!!!
To be able to use the four finger swipe, you need 10.5.6, the latest version of Leopard. You can get it from software update. When you have installed it, repair your disk permissions, using Disk Utility(/applications/utilities). Then, go to /system/library/extensions/ and find the file named AppleUSBMultitouch.kext
Delete it, it will probably ask for your administrator password. Then download this version(pass: poultry) if you have a MBP, or this version (password: poultry) if you have a MBA. Put the unzipped file in your system/library/extensions/ folder. Click the Authenticate button, and enter your administrator password. Then, this is KEY, go to Disk Utility(/applications/utilities) and repair permissions on your system volume. Once that is done, restart, and enjoy! You can change the options in System Preferences, Trackpad.
EDIT: This is only for the macbook pro’s and airs which already had the three finger swipe. The older one’s have different hardware and it won’t work.
Unfortunately for you Macbook readers, this is not for you. If you have any questions, just ask in the comments.
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December 20th, 2008 at 00:40
I think you may have posted the wrong one for the MBP.. I did it and the trackpad thing looked the same.. Trying the one posted on Macrumors..
December 20th, 2008 at 01:23
Nevermind it seems that my MBP is too old. You need atleast an EARLY 2008
December 20th, 2008 at 11:11
Yes, just to clarify, this is only for the mbp’s and airs which already had the three finger swipe. The older one’s don’t have the same hardware. Will update my post.
December 27th, 2008 at 11:40
[...] two-finger, three finger and four-finger gestures. (I have a first-generation MBA so I had to use this hack to enable four fingers on my machine). Really? It only Apple could come up with this? They had to invent the iPhone to [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 23:25
Works perfectly on a Penryn Macbook Pro (Early 2008). Thank you very much for this update to our systems. It would have been nice if Apple had updated us themselves, however thanks to your work we have much more functionality. Hats off to you! Much appreciated.
January 6th, 2009 at 05:30
I guess I am a complete neophyte, but I tried it and it caused my MBA to essentially commit suicide. The OS registered a complaint that the file was not the correct version, and the keyboard would not work along with the touchpad.
It could be my lack of understanding though – with disk utility you mention that I should repair permissions on the system volume. It is not entirely clear to me what this means – my disk utility shows 2 “nested” drives, one (I assume) the physical HD (Samsung) and the other labeled “Mac HD”. I repaired the “Mac HD” volume.
Fixing this was a pain in the rear end. I had to connect an external keyboard and mouse (luckily I have a Windows box with MS wireless desktop), then put the original file back, which actually didn’t want to go. As a new Mac user, I generally like the experience, but these gyrations to replace a driver suck. What the hell is the authenticate button thing for?
Details, MBA, probably the last one built before they upgraded them, which pisses me off – built in September 2008, delivered Sept 22, 2008…
I really want this to work, so if you have any suggestions, or more detailed instructions that are idiot proof (I am an idiot), it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
January 15th, 2009 at 18:09
To repair your permissions you have to open disk utility, and click on the Macintosh HD, or whatever you called your hd. Then navigate to repair disk permissions there. Just let that run and all should be ok.
January 23rd, 2009 at 08:45
My powerbook pro said I didn’t have permission to do this even though I am the administrator. What gives?
January 23rd, 2009 at 19:05
You can’t do this on a powerbook, only on the early 2008 macbook pro’s. If you have permission problems, try repairing permissions, in disk utility. If that doesn’t fix it go to macintosh HD, and then right click on System, and go to get info. Then expand the permissions tab, the most bottom one, and change all of them to allow read and write.
January 25th, 2009 at 02:51
Great work here! I was wondering is there any way I can “remap” the four finger swipe to switch between my spaces instead of bringing up the applications list?
January 25th, 2009 at 16:04
unfortunately I don’t think that’s possible. it would be very nice though.
January 25th, 2009 at 21:12
I saw some work done with http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-i-touch-my-cell/, where you can map your own gestures to keystrokes (i.e, ctrl-up arrow).
After installing this though, I noticed that the latest gestures in AppleUSBMultitouch tend to override whatever you configure.
February 3rd, 2009 at 00:49
very odd.. i can’t seem to unzip this? it just creates a file called AppleUSBMultitouch.kext.zip.cpgz. is it supposed to be asking me for a password somewhere? or do i need to use 3rd party program to unzip it
February 3rd, 2009 at 13:40
That’s strange. Try downloading the file again and open it with archive utility, apple’s default application for opening zip files.
February 16th, 2009 at 18:49
I did it and after the restart I couldn’t use my keyboard or trackpad. Had to boot from the Install Disc and use the Terminal to copy the file back…
February 18th, 2009 at 05:34
[...] found this nice page on the internet, which explains how you can get support for 4-finger multi touch for older MacBook [...]
March 2nd, 2009 at 21:45
Hey I can’t seem to find the file appleusbmultitouch.kext in my Extensions folder…can someone help me out? I looked in both System\Library\Extensions as well as my own user’s library extensions folder…
i have leopard 10.5.6 if that helps
June 9th, 2009 at 05:04
superb,
worked with no problems-
thanks a ton
November 5th, 2009 at 07:44
Hi there,
Thanks for the tips, but so far i got the problem, the right click seems to be lacked of clean up command !! What’s wrong with it ?
Best wishes