There's a much easier way to do this without hacking OS files. This works for me on Lion and Snow Leopard, I haven't tested older OSes.

The trick is to add "mbasd=1" to the Kernel Flags in com.apple.Boot.plist. com.apple.Boot.plist exists by default in Lion, but not in earlier OSes.

There are multiple ways to edit a plist, I'll use TextEdit since every user has it. Since Lion already has com.apple.Boot.plist there are two subsets of instructions, one for Lion and one for all other OS Xes.

Bottom line: com.apple.Boot.plist will look the text between the starred lines when done:

*****************************************
<?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>
*****************************************

First, launch TextEdit.

--------------
For Lion:
Copy /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist to the Desktop. Drag the file onto TextEdit's icon in the Dock. The file will look like this:

<?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></string>
</dict>
</plist>

Add the text "mbasd=1" (no quotes, no extra spaces) between <string> and </string>. It should look like the text between the starred lines above. Save and close the file.
--------------
For Snow Leopard and earlier:
In TextEdit create a new document, then copy all the text above into the document. Save it to the Desktop using the name com.apple.Boot.plist and close the document.
--------------

Finally: Copy the file to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration and authenticate when asked. Restart, the SuperDrive will now work.

There, fixed that for you.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Hi

Are you saying that if I type that in terminal, it will make my Mac Mini DVD optical drive work? Thank you!!

I followed CyborgSam2011 hint about the com.apple.Boot.plist file, but found that TextEdit didn't work so well, it didn't want to do a simple ascii file. On my Snow Leopard system (iMac 24) I found that the file was already there so I did a sudo vi com.apple.Boot.plist from a terminal window and adjusted the file and rebooted.

It worked! Usually. Some DVD's do play, at least one won't.

Good job man!

DLC