Note: for Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan and later, please see this updated post instead.
(Edited/clarified Nov. 2012, Nov. 2013, Jan 2015 and June 2016)
The story is this - a while ago I replaced the built-in optical disk drive in my MacBook Pro 17" by an OptiBay (in the meantime, there are also alternatives) which allows to connect a second harddrive, or in my case, a SSD.
To be able to continue using the SuperDrive (Apple's name for the CD/DVD read/write drive), the Optibay came with an external USB case which worked fine, but was ugly. And I didn't want to carry that around, so I left it at home and bought a shiny new MacBook Air SuperDrive (by 2012, Apple USB SuperDrive) for the office.
It just didn't occur to me that this thing could possibly not just work with any Mac, so I didn't even ask before buying. I knew that many third-party USB optical drives work fine, so I just assumed that would be the same for the Apple drive. But I had to learn otherwise. This drive only works for Macs which, in their original form, do not have an optical drive.
At this point, I started to search the net, finding hints, disassembling Mac OS X USB drivers and finally patching code in a hex editor which was the first, but ugly, solution to make the superdrive work, and gave me the information to eventually find the second, much nicer solution presented below. For those interested in the nitfy details of disassembling and hex code patching, the first approach is still documented here.
For actually making the SuperDrive work in clean and easy way, just read on (but note: while it has proven to be a quite safe method, still you'll be doing this entirely on your own risk! Using sudo and editing system files incorrectly can damage things severely!).
Apparently, Apple engineers had the need to test the superdrive with non-MacBookAir computers themselves, so the driver already has an option built-in to work on officially unsupported machines! All you need to do is enable that option, as follows:
The driver recognizes a boot parameter named "mbasd" (Mac Book Air Super Drive), which sets a flag in the driver which both overrides the check for the MBA and also tweaks something related to USB power management (the superdrive probably needs more power than regular USB allows). So just editing /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and inserting the "mbasd=1″ into the "Kernel Flags" does the trick:
[For OS X 10.11 El Capitan onwards please see here for updated instructions instead!]
- open a terminal
- type the following two commands (two lines, each "sudo" starting on a new line)
sudo plutil -convert xml1 /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
sudo pico /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
- Insert mbasd=1 in the <string></string> value below the <key>Kernel Flags</key> (If and only if there is already something written between <string> and </string>, then use a space to separate the mbasd=1 from what's already there. Otherwise, avoid any extra spaces!). The file will then look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>mbasd=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>[Important update for users of Trim Enabler (thanks boabmatic!): Since Yosemite, installation of Trim enabler puts another flag "kext-dev-mode=1" into the com.apple.Boot.plist, and, unfortunately, also converts the .plist to binary format which shows as mostly garbage in many text editors (that's what the "plutil" line in step 2 above takes care about: it converts the file back to XML so you can edit it). Note that the system will not boot any more when trim enabler is installed, but "kext-dev-mode=1" is missing! So to apply the "mdasd=1" with trim enabler active, you need to combine both flags, such that the line will read
<string>kext-dev-mode=1 mbasd=1</string>. For details on Yosemite and Trim Enabler, see here]
[Update: As CyborgSam pointed out in the comments, the file might not yet exist at all on some Macs. In that case, the pico editor window will initially be empty - if so, just copy and paste the entire XML block from above]. - Save (press Ctrl-X, answer yes to save by pressing Y, press enter to confirm the file name).
- Restart your machine. That's it!
I tested this [Updated:2013-11-03] on Lion 10.7.2 up to 10.7.4, Mountain Lion up to 10.8.4 and Mavericks 10.9 so far, but I expect it to work for all Mac OS versions that came after the initial release of the Macbook Air Superdrive, which is probably 10.5.3, and is likely to work with future versions of OS X. Just let me know your experience in the comments!
BTW: the boot options plist and how it works is described in the Darwin man pages
Thanks so much. Worked on a mid ’07 iMac running Lion. DVD player launched too.
A little help needed if I may? Using OSX 10.9.5
sudo pico command not recognized.
Any ideas please?
Thanks, pete
So happy! Works on my Early 2008 iMac 24″ with Mavericks! Woohoo!
Just confirming that this works with a late 2007 MBP (15-inch) running Mavericks! Thanks so much for the tip!
Luz,
Thanks for the great tip. I have a 2011 MB pro 17″ and replaced the opti drive with a 960 gb SSD. I have an iMac with a SuperDrive and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work on my 17″ MBPro since I paid $75 for it. I had a new drive ordered on Amazon and came across your post on this. Eureka, it worked like a charm. I promptly canceled my Amazon order thanks to you.
Cheers from Boulder Colorado, USA,
Murph.
Worked a treat on my MBP 2011 running Mavericks. I have to use VLC to play DVD movies but that is no biggie!! Thanks heaps. I did use the simple fix that you posted at the end and it’s great!
I have a Late 2008 MB running Mavericks. Internal drive failed so I bought a new SuperDrive. Initially got the “not supported on this Mac” error message. I used the “mbasd=1” fix and now it works perfectly. Thanks!
Excellent! This works with my 2006 Core Duo MBP and MB, both with 10.6.8!
Thank you!
Update 2 worked brilliantly on my Macbook Pro 2009 running Mavericks. Thanks so much, this was a real life-saver after the recent Microsoft Offfice 2011 debacle where I’m reinstalling everything and my hard drive gave out.
Thanks for this, much appreciated! My mid 2010 iMac CD/DVD drive simply died over the weekend for whatever reason (looks like a common issue reading the Apple Support page) Thinking this SuperDrive would be perfect, was ready to run out the door and grab one. Figured I better check if it’s compatiable with 2010s. (apparently it is for late 2012 iMacs) It’s USB, kind of mind boggling that it won’t recognize it.
*By the way, I bookmarked this page, printed your instructions. And will try the SuperDrive. Again thank you!
When I try this it asks for a password and then won’t let me type anything in. Any ideas?
There’s no feedback when entering passwords on the command line, so it looks like it won’t let you type. But in fact, your input is recognized – just type the password blindly and hit enter.
You rule! Thanks for taking the time to post this! SO lame of Apple to neuter their own products.
This is truly an excellent fix, and a well written tutorial. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this.
Successfully worked on a Mid-2012 Macbook Pro 13″ (Non-Retina) with the original optical drive swapped for an SSD!
Absolutely brilliant, THANKS AGAIN!
I just got a brand new superdrive to try on my macbook OS X 10.5.8 in order to upgrade my operating system to snow leopard because the original drive doesn’t work. When it didn’t work I stumbled across this, followed the directions precisely and restarted the computer. Now the computer is in a constant reboot cycle. I have tried multiple things, but I cannot access disk utility and don’t want to screw things up in single-user mode (BTW when I plug the superdrive in during single-user, it says that it is not supported by this computer). I do not have backup disks (couldn’t read them anyway) and the computer has not been time-machined in awhile, but I know the hard drive is still good. Anybody else with this issue, or know what to do?
I just came home from the Apple Store having paid $100 for a Superdrive… only to get the “not supported”-message. Thank you so much for this simple fix. It worked like a charm.
I’m on a Macbook Pro (late 2011) running OS X (Mavericks) 10.9.4.
This worked for me on my ’08 Mackbook Pro except I can’t get sound from the cd/dvd. Any help appreciated.
Thank you thank you… was pulling my hair out all day with this
Thank you. My internal optical drive failed, some googling led me to this blog post, and I decided to take the punt on the $99 external superdrive and attempt your method. I’ve never used Terminal before but the .plist editing instructions were clear and worked perfectly for me on my mid-2009 Macbook Pro running 10.9.4.