Did 10.4.3 Mess Up Front Row?

Tuesday, Nov. 1 2005 | Author: AlexTan

Yesterday, Apple upgraded Mac OS X to version 10.4.3. The update broke the script that opened Front Row and clicked the Escape button for you automatically. Whether or not this was done on purpose by Apple, I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter because I have found a solution.

This is the solution:

Go into /Applications/AppleScript/ and open up Script Editor.
In Script Editor, copy and paste this code:
tell application “System Events”
tell application “Front Row” to activate
key code 53 using {command down}
delay 0.0
key code 53
end tell
Press File, Save As, and name it to Launch Front Row, in your Applications folder overwriting the previous script, and change the file format to Application. Press save.
If you followed my previous instructions then you should be good to go.

Share and Enjoy

Hide Front Row icons from your Dock
Run Front Row on Any Mac
Greasemonkey and Webnote
Mac OSX Panther Maintenance Tips
Use your Sony Ericsson as a Front Row remote

Hope you like that post!

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20 Responses for "Did 10.4.3 Mess Up Front Row?"

Ben

November 1st, 2005 at 8:46 pm
1

Works flawlessly! Plus, no more Front Row appearing uglily in the Dock. And, now iTunes works; it didn’t for me in Front Row under 10.4.2. (Did you mention that previous hackers can remove Front Row from CoreServices?)
Alex Tan

November 1st, 2005 at 9:09 pm
2

No, I didn’t mention that, how did you get it to not appear in your dock? Also, can you send me a link to that you can remove it from core services?
Curious iBook

November 2nd, 2005 at 8:50 am
3

Yes, please let us know how you can get it removed from your Dock. I followed the instructions in this ticket, and it works great pushing F8 now. I added it to the Login Items, but it appears in the dock at start up (even when I put a check mark in the “hide” area).

How can I get it to not appear in the dock? Thanks!
iPontus

November 2nd, 2005 at 5:21 pm
4

What doesn’t appear in the dock? The launch script or the “front row.app”?
For me, the “Front Row.app” doesn’t appear in the dock (the version with no ESC-pressing), but this script does. How about a non-appearing cocoa app?
JW

November 2nd, 2005 at 9:12 pm
5

I had to make a few simple changes to get it so Front Row didn’t show in the dock (and so the script doesn’t either):

1. Saved the applescript as an application bundle instead of an application.
2. Control-click on the script’s icon in finder, and click “Show Contents”. Then, open the Contents folder, and edit Info.plist
3. Add the following to Info.plist, right after the first tag:

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>

4. Open Front Row’s Info.plist file in the same fashion, and make the same change (set LSUIElement to 1).
5. Open terminal and run the following 2 commands (assuming Front Row is in /Applications, and the AppleScript was saved as Launch Front Row.app in /Applications):

touch “/Applications/Front Row.app”
touch “/Applications/Launch Front Row.app”

Now, neither of them will have Dock icons.
JW

November 2nd, 2005 at 9:14 pm
6

Oops, I meant to say that you should add the LSUIElement stuff after the first <dict> tag. My bad.
Alex Tan

November 2nd, 2005 at 10:18 pm
7

JW, thanks for those instructions. I’ll place them in to the instructions.
Michael Thomson

November 3rd, 2005 at 3:10 am
8

u seriously rock !! :)
ciaocibai

November 3rd, 2005 at 8:24 am
9

changing command to control also works… for me, on both my computers, and the other two people i know who have it installed as well.
Curious iBook

November 3rd, 2005 at 12:34 pm
10

I tried the above instructions for making the Front Row icon not appear in the dock. When I use XKeys to launch the application … I get:

“You cannot open the Application “Launch Front Row” because it is not supported on this architecture.”

What gives? I’m on 10.4.3
Alex Tan

November 3rd, 2005 at 12:57 pm
11

Where did you obtain your copy of Front Row? You need the modified version which is able to run on non-iMac computers. You can get it here from a torrent: http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3403188
Curious iBook

November 3rd, 2005 at 1:00 pm
12

Alex,

I am able to run Front Row fine, and I can run it with the F8 command, but it appears in the Dock. So I used to fix detailed above, and now when I press F8, I get that error.

Any ideas?
Curious iBook

November 3rd, 2005 at 1:27 pm
13

My fault … I was saving the script as a SCRIPT BUNDLE rather than an APPLICATION BUNDLE.

Works great now.
Luke

November 7th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
14

awesome. only problem is it takes about 5 seconds to open after you press F8. I need to get a bluetooth phone and i’ll be all set!
Trevor

November 7th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
15

Yeah I was spewing when 10.4.3 broke Front Row! My mate just bought a new ( superceded model iMac G5), he’s got it in the corner of his lounge room & has it connected to his Panasonic projector( when it’s not connected to the PS2 or cable TV). Of course it’s all connected to a surround sound amplifier.

So I set up FrontRow on the iMac and connected it via bluetooth to his Nokia 6230 with Salling Clicker, worked a treat! what a great media hub… wait till other people see this in action, they’ll all want to go get a mac!

we were however dismayed when I updated him to 10.4.3 to find that FrontRow broke, so I look forward to trying this fix for 10.4.3…. thanks guy’s
eemacias

November 18th, 2005 at 9:16 am
16

Hi! Does anyone knows how to stop FrontRow from quitting when any key but {ESC, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, SPACE, ENTER}? Also, I use a Intervideo Home Theatre Remote, wich basicaly do keyboard combinatons, except one key, how do I can map this key for work as “BACK” or as the “ESC” key?
Thanks in advance.
bhavesh patel

November 22nd, 2005 at 5:57 pm
17

player!

thanks..i was just looking for the “escape” keycode so i could fix this script, and here you did it!

thanks, saved me some time!

bhavesh
Waluigi14

December 1st, 2005 at 11:13 pm
18

I did all that, and Front Row works fine (except fot the DVD player) and the icons don’t show up in the dock, but NOW I CAN’T MINIMIZE! The only things I CAN minimize are Safari and a few other programs!
HELP!
Martyn Ford

December 6th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
19

Software company Geniecommands today introduced an exciting new Macintosh software program designed to give consumers more control and fun over their digital entertainment experiences in their lounge room.

GenieCommands is a unique programmable software application that allows you to control all your applications and media via simple menus and a KEYSPAN REMOTE, in a theatre or lounge room environment.

They provided a complete set of demo Applescript menus to get you started, with links on where to download additional software. These menus can then be edited to suit your lifestyle or create a new one.

Genie is not a one stop solution like Front Row, it is more user definable and can do more with iTunes. It’s about audio and good cheap content is what we want. We know Apple will take Front Row further and we love what they have done with the first version, so we have incorporate it into our software on top of the first menu so nobody misses out.

Future upgrades to Geniecommands in the coming weeks will include a Themes importer. There has also been suggestion of an small screen version in the near future.

Talking with distributors of a remote control brand they have said that it may come down as much as $20 in the near future. As for the rest of the hardware more choice and lower costs are only just round the corner. So dip your toes in the water is warming for the Mac Media Center.

http://www.Geniecommands.com
stu

December 7th, 2005 at 10:07 pm
20

Now, you just need a remote control via Bluetooth.

Salling clicker, right?

Not so fast. Check out Romeo. It’s like Salling Clicker, only open source and easy to customize on each application.

http://www.irowan.com/romeo/

Enjoy!