Use the MacBook Air SuperDrive with (almost) any Mac

Use the MacBook Air SuperDrive with (almost) any Mac -

The Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive is only officially supported on the MacBook Air or Mac Mini, but what if you have another Mac that you want to use it with? Turns out you can make it work by editing one text file and then rebooting your Mac.

The MacBook Pro shown above is mine. The story behind that damage is fairly long and emotionally painful, involving airline travel, delays, and an unexpected layover in Vegas. The only good part of the story is that the SuperDrive did not work before it happened. When I purchased my MacBook Air, I bought the SuperDrive because there are still times when I need it. I knew that it was restricted to the MacBook Air (later expanded to the Mac Mini), and I assumed that there was a good reason. Maybe the USB port on the Air and Mac Mini sent more power than other USB ports. Maybe there was some other reason.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I learned about Lukas Zeller and his instructions on How to make the MacBook Air SuperDrive work with any Mac.

When I first read them, this involved getting editing a binary with a hex editor. Now, I'm a nerd, but I'm not a über-nerd. I'm also really extremely very much opposed to hacking system binaries, kexts, etc. because it could cause all sorts of problems and whenever there is a new version of Mac OS X, your change is either going to get blown away or may cause problems or it may work. That is only a one-in-three chance of success. Those aren't very good odds. So I didn't do it.

Then Lukas also found an easier way which only requires editing one line in one text file ...

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)