Intel-based Macs: Forcing a Universal application to run with Rosetta; avoids issues with plug-ins

If you are running into an issue with one of the new Intel-based Macs where plug-ins for some applications are not operating correctly, or the Universal Binary's Intel code appears to be buggy, you can use Mac OS X to force an application to run in the Rosetta emulation environment.

When this option is selected, only the PowerPC code will run.

Problems with plug-ins occur when an application is run natively in the Intel environment, but some plug-ins have not yet been updated and attempt to run in PowerPC (Rosetta) mode. When this happens, Mac OS X is unable to separate the tasks and simultaneously run the application in native Intel-mode but the plug-in in PowerPC (Rosetta) mode.

Hence you should force such applications to run in Rosetta under these circumstances (if you need to make use of the plug-ins).

This can be accomplished by accessing the Get Info pane for an application (select the application in the Finder, go to the File menu and choose Get Info or press Command-I), then clicking the checkbox labeled "Open using Rosetta."

One such scenario where forcing an application to run in Rosetta is necessary involves Safari.

As noted in Knowledge Base article #303059, you might see an alert message that you don't have a certain plug-in installed (for example, a plug-in to play multimedia content within a web page) even though you do have a plug-in installed when running the Universal Binary of Safari on an Intel-based Mac.

Apple says the solution is to "check with the plug-in's vendor to see if the there is a Universal plug-in format version available (or "Universal binary"). If so, download and install that version of the plug-in. If no such version is available, you can run Safari with Rosetta to avoid the issue."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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