Enable Trackpad Scrolling on pre-2005 PowerBooks and iBooks
Alright, so I loved the announcement of the new PowerBooks. But, since I'm already using an older-model 17" Aluminum PowerBook, this update - bringing with it faster processors, better graphics, a faster SuperDrive, etc. - wasn't really that significant to me.
The only thing I was interested in, however, was the new "scrolling trackpad", which sounded like it would be quite useful. After all, when I'm away from my scrollwheel mouse, I certainly miss the capability of being able to scroll a window without moving the cursor around and clicking on the scroll arrows.
But then I saw the following article regarding how to enable this feature on existing PowerBooks (and iBooks):
http://www-users.kawo2.rwth-aachen.de/~razzfazz/
Sure enough: I downloaded the .kext, unloaded my existing "AppleADBMouse.kext" (why in the world is Apple re-using Apple Desktop Bus drivers for new products?), then loaded the new one, and I can now take advantage of two-finger scrolling using just the trackpad! Woo-hoo! It works for scrolling left-to-right and top-to-bottom, as well as simply scrolling a page around within a window - a feature of Internet Explorer (via the Cmd key), which is sorely lacking in Safari, by the way.
Be sure to backup your old .kext first, Your Mileage May Vary™, Void Where Prohibited™, and all that jazz - but hey, It Worked for Me™! ;-)
I love the internet.
UPDATE: A bit more information from the author of SideTrack (another alternative trackpad driver) regarding the details - including how the new PowerBooks apparently do not use "ADB" trackpads - here:
http://www.ragingmenace.com/index.htmlArchives
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