This is one of the “neater hacks” for those of us who cannot normally run Front Row (e.g., you don’t have a Built-in Infrared (IR) receiver). For the most part, it’s any of us with the “older school” Macintoshes. It basically allows you to have a mini-media center (Music, Photos, Videos and DVD). More info here on Apple’s Site.
So, first the legal stuff. I got all of my information from AndrewEscobar.com. I am not authorized by nor do I have any affiliation with Apple Computer, nor do I really condone hacking your Macintosh unless you are willing to assume the risk of complete and utter destruction of it. Always, prior to doing anything like this, make a backup of your hard drive!!! Lastly, to copy the warning listed on AndrewEscobar’s site, This process is not supported by Apple Computer, Inc. and may result in unintended damage to Mac OS X.
Whew, all of the disclaimers aside, I must say that this worked pretty well. I had some initial issues with the install so I will list out what I did to get it to work on my mac. This may or may not work for you. Some people may have it work simply by following the directions. Where are the directions? Well HERE. Read through that page. It has all of the links to the software and the applications that will actually get Front Row to work.
So, first, what did NOT work. There was a comment on the page above where someone had created an all-in-one installer. This did not work for me (it’s still in beta though). It might work for others. This is the comment.
I ended up following the instructions at the top of the page. The Enabler that I used was version 1.3.5. Be sure that you read through all of the instructions first and follow them carefully. Even despite this, Front Row did not work. However, as I read through the comments, I found one that help me fix my issue. It involves using the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update from Apple as well a Pacifist (which is a neat little app that lets you extract and install only portions of an installer). Basically, you need to reset the BezelServices. Take a look at this comment as this is what I followed and it worked fine for me.
After all of the patching and rebooting, I now have a fully functional version of Front Row running on my Powerbook 15″ G4! Now, if I could just find a good remote control solution (might try Griffin’s AirClick)…
