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Install Front Row (with Bonjour) on any Mac

So the new Mac minis are cool, and Front Row leveraging Bonjour is just plain smart. But what about the rest of us who can't afford to go out and buy yet another shiny new Apple product?

Behold: instructions for installing the latest version of Front Row (with Bonjour support) on just about any Mac that can run 10.4.5 and iLife '06. A friend of mine turned me onto these instructions, and along with his Salling Clicker-enabled mobile phone, he has a pretty nice Front Row remote setup going on his 12" PowerBook. From the instructions it sounds like the setup is pretty simple, but as usual: this isn't exactly supported or even condoned by Apple (and is illegal since you're basically stealing Front Row and putting it on a non-Front Row Mac), so you're kinda on your own in case something doesn't go as planned.

With all that said, enjoy (if you dare) the latest version of Bonjour-enabled Front Row for the rest of us.

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So the new Mac minis are cool, and Front Row leveraging Bonjour is just plain smart. But what about the rest of us who can't afford to go...
 

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Baur Todd

Just followed the instructions without any problems! Running on a 2.5Ghz PMG5 and not having the issues people have said to this point. I can scroll through and use Sailing Clicker with the script from snarb.tk.

March 07 2006 at 12:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Leo of BORG

Read some of my troubleshooting comments here:

http://expat-leo.blogspot.com/2006/03/geek-unsupported-frontrow.html

March 06 2006 at 11:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stan Jensen

O brohter, how many of us jumped over the first part straight to the install. gotta download the program from Apple first...

Mac users do not like to read instructions, :)

March 06 2006 at 10:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stan Jensen

Not only did this crash my menu bar, most of my keyboard short cuts are zapped no more screen shots etc.

Viewing this as very suspicious

March 06 2006 at 10:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Xenedar

If you're installed a previously modded version, you'll run into trouble. If you install it cleanly, never having had any version of Front Row installed, ever, you should be fine.

If you're previously had a modified version installed, use this (posted by an earlier commenter), then to back and use Andrew Escobar's instructions.

http://voice.firefallpro.com/

March 05 2006 at 8:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Richard

This is an awsome hack. It worked fine for me. I had the original hack that had the non functioning dvd player and it was buggy, but this runs completly smooth and a lot faster. Maybe because I had the original front row hack, this update didn't screw up my menu bar, but I did delete it before installing this version.

March 05 2006 at 7:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin Valdez

B 4 I installed this update i installed the first hack TUAW posted a good while ago. I simply installed the update VIA instrcutions and it works great now. Infact i noticed the update made the Front Row animations more clean, so it looks a little better. Not sure if the sharing part works yet. It should ( Hopefully) but the option is there Via the menu and the playback feature works for sure and very smothly.

(Advice....)
If u install this just make sure 2 follow the instuctions.

March 05 2006 at 7:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
R Muffet

Having done this when Front Row first appeared last year, and having now got an iMac Core Duo with it built-in, I can say the genuine experience is MUCH better than the hacked one.

1) the Apple Remote (infrared) works much better than a Bluetooth phone + Salling Clicker
2) the real thing is more responsive
3) continuous button scrolling works properly
4) the Apple Remote can be used to put the computer to sleep AND wake it again
5) you don't need to constantly worry about it breaking after a system update and needing half an hour of repatching, etc

March 05 2006 at 5:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TC

You lot dont know what you are doing! This is fine and wont kill your machine. I ran it on my powerbook, no probs at all. Ran it on my mac mini, but rushed it and lost the menubar icons like otehres have stated. I think its because I ran teh crack twice and then front row wouldnt work. But it is v easy to remedy without any bother. Its just two files that need replacing and then you run the front row patch again.
Worked fine for me. I have now done this on all 5 macs in our house and everyone is running fine.

Anybody know how to get a 3rd party ir port to work with an apple remote?

March 05 2006 at 4:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tommy

WHAT A WASTE OF TIME... DO NOT USE... WILL MESS YOUR MENUBAR AMONG OTHER THINGS UPS

March 05 2006 at 4:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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