Force Installing FCP 4.0 on my Ibook.

[Rob Moreno]

I wrote this hack a few years back when I needed to install FCP 4 on my G3 ibook. You will need to have FCP installed prior to doing this however.

1. Copy the Final Cut Pro 4 installer from the DVD onto your desktop. While holding down the [control] key click on the installer alias and select “Show Original”. Open the Packages folder and inside it there will be another Packages. Open it and copy the FinalCutPro401.pkg file to your desktop. The file should be around 224MB in size.

2. Open the Package Contents of the file on your desktop by holding the [control] key, clicking on the icon and selecting “Show Package Contents”.

3. Open the InstallationCheck file (located in the Resources folder) in a text editor and the “zero” in the last line in this section to a “one”.

Original:

# Only G3s are not compatible
if(CheckIOReg(“PowerPC,750@”, “PowerPC,755@”, “PowerPC,740@”,
“PowerPC,745@”, “PowerPC,750CX@”, “PowerPC,750CXe@”,
“PowerPC,G3@”, “PowerMac1,2”)) {
$hasG4 = 0;

Hacked:

# Only G3s are not compatible
if(CheckIOReg(“PowerPC,750@”, “PowerPC,755@”, “PowerPC,740@”,
“PowerPC,745@”, “PowerPC,750CX@”, “PowerPC,750CXe@”,
“PowerPC,G3@”, “PowerMac1,2”)) {
$hasG4 = 1;

4. Save your changes and run the installer.

Now, to run the program, you have to do one more hack. This requires that you have Final Cut Pro 3 installed, or access to a computer that does. There may be an easier way to do this step (one that does not require FCP 3), but this is the only trick I’ve found to work.

1. Find the Final Cut Pro 3 (not 4) app on your computer. Control + click on it and select “Show Package Contents”. Copy the Info.plist file inside the Contents folder onto your desktop.

2. Control + click on the installed Final Cut Pro 4 app and replace the Info.plst file inside the Contents folder with the copy you made on your desktop.

3. Enjoy using Final Cut Pro 4 on your G3 Mac!

Note: this procedure installs only the core Final Cut Pro 4 application. Live Type, Compressor, Soundtrack and Cinema Tools will not be installed.

MediaKobo
Tokyo, Japan

[Arnie Schlissel]

[JWood] “I own a copy of FCP 4.0 and was wondering if there was a way I could force install it on my 600MHz, 256MB (OSX 10.3.9) IBook.”

I think you need more memory. If you still have the box, the system requirements should be printed on it someplace, try the side or back. Those same requirements are probably in one of the “Read Me” or .pdf files that are on the install DVDs.

Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com