Enable 4-Finger Gestures on an Early 2008 Macbook Pro/Air

Posted December 18, 2008 - 1:46am by Brandon

Just a quick post for MacRumors + OSX Hints forum members, that will hopefully save me from typing out these instructions a bunch (more) times.

If you have an early 2008 MacBook Pro, or a Revision A MacBook Air (like me!), it was recently shown that they can be hacked to support the 4-finger swipe gestures of the October MacBooks and Revision B MacBook Air.

Unfortunately, the original hack required you to reinstall Leopard, using an installer CD from one of the newer MacBooks, and was also quite complicated, involving editing .kext files and fooling the Leopard installer into thinking you had a newer MacBook.

Fortunately, with the release of OS X 10.5.6 the hack has become much simpler, and I'm happy to report that I'm providing an edited .kext file that will enable this on Early 2008 Mac Pros and Airs.

Instructions:

  1. Update to 10.5.6, via Software Update or you can also download delta and combo updates from Apple.
  2. Download and unzip the .kext file which is attached below.
  3. Navigate to /System/Library/Extensions/ and copy the file AppleUSBMultitouch.kext to a safe location (a backup copy)
  4. Delete the AppleUSBMultitouch.kext file in /System/Library/Extensions (You will have to authenticate).
  5. Move the modified .kext file from Step 2 into /System/Library/Extensions/.  (You will need to authenticate again).
  6. Open Disk Utility (in Applications--> Utilities --> Disk Utility) and click "Repair Permissions" (This will take a while to complete).
  7. Restart your computer

After the restart, navigate to the trackpad system preferences pane, and 4-finger gestures should be enabled.  With 4 fingers, swipe up/down for Expose, and swipe left/right to switch applications.

I've tested this on a Rev.A Air, and also on a multitouch MBP, but you should be sure to backup any critical files before doing this.  If you have any problems, or want to revert to the prior state, use the original .kext file you saved in Step 3 above.

Before:

After:

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by Visitor (not verified) - 11/12/2009 - 12:14am

i can't get this to my MBP late 2008. I'm on 10.5.8. Can Anyone help?

by Visitor69 (not verified) - 03/08/2009 - 8:17am

does anyone had try on 2007 MBP (MA895LL)
is it works???

by Visitor (not verified) - 03/03/2009 - 9:21am

its just amazing. thanks a ton man!!!

by Visitor (not verified) - 03/02/2009 - 5:01pm

please help i cant find appleusbmultitouch.kext file in system library extensions folder--does anyone know where it is? I have 10.5.6 leopard.

by mamozzi (not verified) - 02/19/2009 - 12:39pm

...but all you need, for the point 6. (repair permission) is a simple and fast shell command. Open terminal in the dir /System/Library/Extensions/ and do:
$ chown -R root:wheel AppleUSBMultitouch.kext
It work fine for me.
Bye!

by Visitor (not verified) - 02/13/2009 - 6:02pm

Wicked Just What I Always WANTED! Why Apple cant Just Do This is RIDICULES

by dryburn.macbook (not verified) - 02/06/2009 - 11:23am

hi people i thought i was going to b smart...

so i got the .kext file from a demo macbook and i backed up my original .kext file the i repaired permissions and then deleted and copied then repaired permissions

but this didnt work!!!!

but i dont have enough bandwidth to download the 10.5.6 updates but after i read this post i realized i need to update it...

so i called some friends and im gonna be getting it tomorrow afternoon so many be this will work... since i did copy the appleusbmultitouch file from an other macbook. but i will post my results tomorrow evening.... if it works ill upload the .kext file i copied.

by mituru (not verified) - 02/05/2009 - 11:22pm

THANKS A LOT!!!
awesome!
Smile

by junior (not verified) - 02/05/2009 - 1:26pm

Does it work on early 2007 MBP?

by Visitor (not verified) - 02/05/2009 - 1:16pm

Does it work on early 2007 MBP?

by Visimactor (not verified) - 02/05/2009 - 12:45pm

great, it works perfectly on my MBP....thanks for sharing this info m8

by Visitor (not verified) - 01/28/2009 - 10:42am

I just did this update on my March 2008 MBP and it worked perfectly.

4 finger gestures without buying snow leopard! W00t!!

by Visitor (not verified) - 01/22/2009 - 5:18pm

This looks really cool, but will it work with a MBP from october 2007 right when leopard came out?
Thanks

by Einsteinduke (not verified) - 01/20/2009 - 9:17am

GREAT Laughing out loud THANKS IT WORK WELL!!!

by Francisco Giacomo (not verified) - 01/19/2009 - 3:09pm

Well, everything else works, but the scrolling. The scrolling just doesn't works anymore. BTW, keep the f* backup, 'cus when i thought it was OK to erase it, the damn scroll won't work... Sad

by Jauhari (not verified) - 01/12/2009 - 12:07am

This is wonderful tips Wink

by Visitor (not verified) - 01/09/2009 - 4:40am

i don't have an extensions folder under my library folder...i searched spotlight and nothing came up...

by Visitor (not verified) - 01/09/2009 - 12:24am

It worked well too on my MBP bought in july (an early 2008 model)

Thank you very much. Smile

by Visitor (not verified) - 01/02/2009 - 10:48pm

any idea what would happen if i did this to my Early 2008 macbook, the one without multi touch, the black one. i have a file that is called AppleUSBMultitouch.kext and i downloaded the one from here, could it really hurt?

by Brandon - 03/02/2009 - 1:05am

Your hardware doesn't recognize 4 fingers, so this won't work. I would say only BAD things can come about if you try it. If you decide to, please post and let us know what happened!

by Dante (not verified) - 12/28/2008 - 11:27am

Hey mate! i did this yesterday 2 my MBP and i forgot to repair permissions :S now it won't recognize nor trackpad nor keyboard. If somebody makes this same mistake! Don't Panic! simply plug in an USB Mouse and a keyboard and repair permissions. LOL i feel stupid

by Visitor (not verified) - 12/25/2008 - 10:23pm

I LOVE IT !!!

Meet the prerequisites.
Follow the simple directions step by step.
Don't skip any steps.
And it works perfectly.
It's really quite simple.

Thank you very much !!!!

by Visitor (not verified) - 12/22/2008 - 12:56pm

Done exactly what u says, and in order.
Now my MBA boots and gives me a login screen, but Keyboard and trackpad is no more responsive. Sad.

Any way to recover?

BTW I have updated Mac OS X version. 10.5.6.

by zoup (not verified) - 12/21/2008 - 3:04am

Superb! So far so good. Worked flawlessly.
Thanks.

by secretmrx (not verified) - 12/18/2008 - 4:18am

Thank you soo much! Why does Apple lock us out of features we own?

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