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[HOW TO] Get the Trackpad Preference Pane back in 10.5.6


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After updating to 10.5.6 some people have noticed that the Trackpad preference pane is gone from the keyboard&mouse options. In 10.5.6, Apple included a separate Trackpad.prefPane, which does not load for non-Apple trackpads by default.

 

There is a very easy way to get that preference pane to show up and work. Simply remove the line that says VendorID (or the entire block that says NSPrefPaneIOServiceAttributesToMatch) in the Info.plist in /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane/Contents. An easy way to do it is the following:

 

1. In terminal backup the original pane:

 

sudo cp -R /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane.orig

 

2. If you have Developer tools run Property List Editor as root:

 

sudo /Developer/Applications/Utilities/Property\ List\ Editor.app/Contents/MacOS/Property\ List\ Editor

 

(if you want you can run TextEdit as root similarly)

 

3. Open (from the Propertly List Editor) /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane/Contents/Info.plist and under the only expandible tab, delete the key value pair for VendorID (delete the key and value):

 

<key>VendorID</key>
<integer>1452</integer>

 

or if that doesn't work, delete all of NSPrefPaneIOServiceAttributesToMatch. Save the file.

 

4. Clear our prefPane caches (or everything) in /Users/<Current User>/Library/Caches/

 

5. Reboot (you might have to do multiple reboots).

 

Hope this works and is helpful. Tell me if there are problems, and please post the type or trackpad you have and whether it is PS2 or not.

 

In System Preferences you should now see a Trackpad Preference Pane with all the old options.

 

Update:

 

If you want a faster way to get this to work and have a PS2 trackpad try this (thank you SilveRain):

 

(Note: Use this only if your PS2 kext's are loaded from /S/L/E)

 

http://www.megaupload.com/ru/?d=7WAN7BMH

 

If this does not work then another option is to replace the Keyboard.prefPane in 10.5.6 with the one from 10.5.5 here:

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fxmezuyejmf

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What trackpads do you guys have? If I recall correctly the MSI-Wind's with Sentelic trackpads get recognized as mice. For the Lenovo S10, you seem to have a multi-touch trackpad, and it is Symantec. Try seeing if you can find a Vendor ID for it and replacing that. I know very little about trackpads, but I would guess that yours is USB.

 

Also, after you edit and reboot, simply try double clicking Tackpad.prefPane and see what error it gives you when System Preferences tries to open it.

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Hmmm, this is odd. Please post the type of trackpad you have and what drivers you are using (i.e. who's PS2Nub, etc). I have a PS2 device and I am using the 2-finger ApplePS2Controller (google it, it's pretty great) and Chu-nan's (~Eureka) PS2Nub. Mine is a Synaptic trackpad. Any results with running it by hand after edits?

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Hmm... no luck here.

 

I've tried the edit, reboots, loading the PreferencePane manually - and no joy: I'm still told that I don't have the correct hardware.

 

I'm using ApplePS2Controller.kext 1.1.0 and AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext 1.0.0d1 on my EFI partition from the archive here.

 

I have a Samsung NC10, which I believe has a Synaptics trackpad.

 

Has anyone who found that an edit didn't solve the problem ever find an alternative way to use the 10.5.6 Trackpad PreferencePane... or is there an alternative method to getting it to work that I'm missing?

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Well, that's weird...

 

The PreferencePane included in the former of the two updates was a slightly more extensive edit than I had made, but after making this further change and rebooting there had been no change.

 

After a little more changing of kexts and a reboot, the TrackPad pane had appeared.

 

After restoring all of my original kexts and rebooting, the TrackPad pane is still there - despite the edit effectively being the one and only change!

 

All I can say is that the Info.plist edits do work, but also reiterate that for some reason they take multiple reboots to take effect.

 

Go figure ;)

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1. In terminal backup the original pane:

 

sudo cp -R /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane.orig

 

2. If you have Developer tools run Property List Editor as root:

 

sudo /Developer/Applications/Utilities/Property\ List\ Editor.app/Contents/MacOS/Property\ List\ Editor

 

(if you want you can run TextEdit as root similarly)

 

=======

What command do you enter to use TextEdit?

 

Thanks.

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I just used nano from terminal

 

sudo nano /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane/Contents/Info.plist

 

works fine an imho it is easier than using testedit because textedit cannot see contents inside of certain bundles

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I just used nano from terminal

 

sudo nano /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane/Contents/Info.plist

 

works fine an imho it is easier than using testedit because textedit cannot see contents inside of certain bundles

 

 

Thank you!!!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

It works better if you only delete HID attributes to match:

 

<key>HIDPointerAccelerationType</key>
<string>HIDTrackpadAcceleration</string>

 

<key>NSPrefPaneIOServiceToMatch</key>
<string>IOHIPointing</string>

 

Note that:

- HID = USB based pointing device

- Trackpad = USB or PS/2 based pointing device

 

If you delete every attributes the Trackpad PrefPane may not work.

Note: remember to delete /Users/<Current User>/Library/Caches/* to ensure that every previous PrefPane cache will be restored at next logon.

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After updating to 10.5.6 some people have noticed that the Trackpad preference pane is gone from the keyboard&mouse options. In 10.5.6, Apple included a separate Trackpad.prefPane, which does not load for non-Apple trackpads by default.

 

If you want a faster way to get this to work and have a PS2 trackpad try this (thank you SilveRain):

 

(Note: Use this only if your PS2 kext's are loaded from /S/L/E)

 

http://www.megaupload.com/ru/?d=7WAN7BMH

 

For those trying this method "SilveRain" and if Trackpad.prefPane does not load, try to copy it from /S/L/PreferencePanes into /L/PreferencePanes.

 

Repair permissions,reboot.

 

if there is stil no Vertical scroll, go to /S/L/E/ApplePS2Controller.kext/Contents/Plugins/ApplePS2Trackpad.kext/Contents/Info.plist

and delete the word "Apple" here:

 

under ALPS GlidePoint <string>ApllePS2ALPSGlidePoint<string> so it stays <string>PS2ALPSGlidePoint<string>

 

under Synaptics TouchPad <string>ApllePS2SynapticsTouchPad<string> so it stays <string>PS2SynapticsTouchPad<string>

 

Repair permissions and probably you wil not boot so, just in case, BOOT INTO SAFE MODE and REPAIR PERMISSIOS AGAIN

so you will boot and hopefully get what you want.

 

Tested and working with both, retail and modified distros.

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For those trying this method "SilveRain" and if Trackpad.prefPane does not load, try to copy it from /S/L/PreferencePanes into /L/PreferencePanes.

 

Repair permissions,reboot.

 

Easiest way to get it working:)

Thanx..

/O

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  • 2 weeks later...
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