Workaround for Rosetta in Lion

Does anyone know of a workaround for rosetta in Lion? If anyone knows where it is actually stored, I should be able to back it up and potentially use it to open appleworks. Also, does anyone know if Lion deletes ALL powerpc applications or just Rosetta and appleworks?

It's not supported by the kernel. If you're using old applications that you can't update, don't update to Lion.

NO powerPC based apps will work, because Rosetta was the translator for PPC based code on an intel chip.

Does anyone know of a workaround for rosetta in Lion?

Click to expand...

There are none. As member Dysfunction stated, PPC apps are no longer supported and will not run. iWork applications can be purchased from the MAS for $19.00 each. Apple Works is ancient history.

And there is no known workaround or replacement for rosetta? I can't believe that apple would actually modify the kernel so as not to make new operating systems backwards compatible. Does anyone know of any way to make a shell that does support it or at least find rosetta's system dependencies? Because for me, anyway, this is a major feature that was removed from Lion for no reason. This presents a problem for me, as I have all of my data encrypted using a powerpc version of MEO, which doesn't support decryption by newer versions.

Hang on for awhile. Someone may find a way to run Rosetta or come up with a substitute. But for now, Lion will not run anything PPC. You can always continue to use Snow Leopard which does have support for Rosetta.

JeffDon213 said:

And there is no known workaround or replacement for rosetta? I can't believe that apple would actually modify the kernel so as not to make new operating systems backwards compatible.

Click to expand...

Believe it. Apple does have that track record, especially given that PowerPC Macs were retired back in 2006. If you look at Apple's history, they have a tendency to abandon legacy apps and OSes rather quickly.

Does anyone know of any way to make a shell that does support it or at least find rosetta's system dependencies? Because for me, anyway, this is a major feature that was removed from Lion for no reason.

Click to expand...

So far, no - although it has been attempted. One of our members, Discerptor, has been studying this for quite some time and has yet to find a workaround.

This presents a problem for me, as I have all of my data encrypted using a powerpc version of MEO, which doesn't support decryption by newer versions.

Click to expand...

Rosetta was kind of a stop-gap measure to ease the transition over to Intel apps. If you didn't get the hint in Snow Leopard (where Rosetta was an "optional" install), Apple has now made it loud and clear that PowerPC is dead as far as the Mac platform is concerned. I'd say don't upgrade until you've been able to make the needed transitions (can't say that I'm familiar with "MEO", but I'm certain there is a way to transition - I would follow-up with the developer).

cwa107 said:

Believe it. Apple does have that track record, especially given that PowerPC Macs were retired back in 2006. If you look at Apple's history, they have a tendency to abandon legacy apps and OSes rather quickly.

Click to expand...

Sadly, I do believe it.

cwa107 said:

So far, no - although it has been attempted. One of our members, Discerptor, has been studying this for quite some time and has yet to find a workaround.

Click to expand...

Well, at least someone else has the same problem and the desire to take matters into their own hands. Keep me updated on his progress.

cwa107 said:

Rosetta was kind of a stop-gap measure to ease the transition over to Intel apps. If you didn't get the hint in Snow Leopard (where Rosetta was an "optional" install), Apple has now made it loud and clear that PowerPC is dead as far as the Mac platform is concerned. I'd say don't upgrade until you've been able to make the needed transitions (can't say that I'm familiar with "MEO", but I'm certain there is a way to transition - I would follow-up with the developer).

Click to expand...

I got the hint in Snow Leopard, but chose to ignore it. Apple seems to have a propensity for making their own technology obsolete. MEO won't be too much of a problem, the hardest part will be finding all of the powerpc applications on my computer amongst the hundreds of others.

It's actually quite a bit of work to make an OS backwards compatible (especially to a completely different architecture). Not only in development, but in test as well. It's of no surprise to me, at all, that Apple would look to reduce this rather significant overhead going forward. There's nothing, what so ever, wrong with Snow Leopard. I'm still running it on my 11 Macbook Pro after all

Dysfunction said:

It's actually quite a bit of work to make an OS backwards compatible (especially to a completely different architecture). Not only in development, but in test as well. It's of no surprise to me, at all, that Apple would look to reduce this rather significant overhead going forward. There's nothing, what so ever, wrong with Snow Leopard. I'm still running it on my 11 Macbook Pro after all

Click to expand...

Yes, but they had already made Rosetta, and it seems like it would have taken a whole lot more work to REMOVE Rosetta, since that required them to uninstall it and remove it from the kernel. If I start up Lion from a boot disk, and then switch back to Snow Leopard later, would that remove Rosetta permanently?

Actually no. They'd have to have completely built the OS AROUND Rosetta. Then completely and fully tested it. It's not like Lion is simply an add-on to Snow Leopard, it's a new thing entirely. If you built a Lion install, then formatted and installed Snow Leopard, you could still install Rosetta.

Hello, in order for Rosetta to do what it did, it REQUIRED PowerPC code. Kind of obvious if you think about it for five seconds.

So, if there's no PowerPC code in Lion, how would Rosetta work? Answer: it won't!

Is there ANOTHER, completely DIFFERENT approach that could make PowerPC apps work in Lion! SURE!! All you have to do is write a PowerPC emulator in native Intel code. Kind of like how SheepShaver works.

Will that happen someday? I wouldn't be at all surprised, given the lovely emulation-crazy developer community in the Mac world. Will it happen anytime soon? Very, very unlikely -- that's a HUGE job I've just described. Check back in three to five years, would be my guess.

I just made a crapload of money today helping someone who waited WAY TOO LONG and ignored over a DECADE of warning signs and suddenly found herself stuck with ClarisWorks (you read that right) files and NO way to open them.

Luckily for her, I kept a full clone copy of my Snow Leopard install with MacLinkPlus Deluxe on board. Speaking of which, if anyone's going to solve the "Help I forgot to update my AW files" issue, it's likely to be them first.

I should also point out that AW 6.2.x files (WP at least) can be read by Pages, but of course they are converted to Pages documents.

NBagley119 said:

Yes, but they had already made Rosetta...

Click to expand...

Just a point of clarification... Rosetta is actually licensed from a third party. Apple didn't develop Rosetta.

How/if that impacted their decision to remove it is open to speculation.

Inconvenient but probably will work

I have a 16GB partition with Vista installed. (I never use it. If you don't boot Windows regularly it freaks out when you do, commandeering your machine for hours and hours to load security updates.) I plan to erase it then do a clean install of Snow Leopard (with Rosetta installed, of course) and, to keep it trim enough to fit on 16GB, not migrate any personal stuff. I assume that PPC apps on my main drive partition will run if I am booted off the 10.6.8 partition. Restarting is not particularly convenient, but this workaround saves sending hundreds of dollars to Adobe to update my perfectly functional CS apps. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tiger, or Leopard best on a PPC Based Mac

I assume that PPC apps on my main drive partition will run if I am booted off the 10.6.8 partition. Restarting is not particularly convenient, but this workaround saves sending hundreds of dollars to Adobe to update my perfectly functional CS apps. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Click to expand...

How can you have PPC apps on the main drive if it's running Lion? (Assuming that's what you mean?)

You can certainly have two partitions - one running Lion and the other Snow Leopard. However, any PPC apps that you have (CS) will have to be installed and run exclusively from the Snow Leopard partition.

In other words, the apps need Library resources that have to be on the boot drive. Do all apps have to be on an active boot drive to run?

In other words, the apps need Library resources that have to be on the boot drive. Do all apps have to be on an active boot drive to run?

Click to expand...

No, but if you're trying to run PPC applications, they must be run from a version of OS X that's compatible. Which means your PPC apps have to be run from Snow Leopard.

I'm confused.

I understand that PPC apps must be run from OS10.6 or before. If I upgrade the main partition on my computer to 10.7, my PPC apps won't work.

If I install 10.6 on a separate partition and then startup from that partition, will PPC apps work?

Will they work even if they remain installed where they always were, that is, the partition that now has Lion installed?

Or do I need to reinstall the PPC apps on the Snow Leopard partition?

Here's what I did:
I have 4 partitions: Windows 7 (40GB)/Lion (80 GB)/Snow (80GB)/Shared (120GB)
I installed all my intel apps to Shared (Virtual Box/Adobe Master Suite 5/Acrobat X [why is it no longer included in suite 5?]/Office 2011) I installed a few PPC only apps on the snow partition, along with iWork '09 & iLife '11. I just use rEFIt to switch between them. I only use Windows for cool edit and videoredo any more. I only use Snow for a few PPC games I still play periodically and iLife '11.

johnarms said:

I'm confused.

I understand that PPC apps must be run from OS10.6 or before. If I upgrade the main partition on my computer to 10.7, my PPC apps won't work.

If I install 10.6 on a separate partition and then startup from that partition, will PPC apps work?

Click to expand...

Yes, as stated twice in replies.

johnarms said:

Will they work even if they remain installed where they always were, that is, the partition that now has Lion installed?

Click to expand...

No, because Lion will refuse to allow them to open. No way around it.

johnarms said:

Or do I need to reinstall the PPC apps on the Snow Leopard partition?

Click to expand...

Yes.