CS4 Premium – Acrobat/Distiller 9

[bosemachine]

Hi everyone,

[size=9]I realize there’s plenty of threads about CS4 but I’ve searched through the vast majority of them and did not find one that addressed this issue of actual starting order. [/size]

So I’m putting together a behemoth of a load (75gig image, thank you FCP + Logic Content Files…) and right now the only thing that seems to be giving me problems is Adobe Acrobat 9.

Basically, in order to get Distiller working correctly I need to open Photoshop (or one of the other main CS4 programs), then Acrobat, and then Distiller. If I open Acrobat before Photoshop, I get prompted for Administrative login. If I open Distiller before Photoshop, I get prompted that licensing has failed and it just breaks.

I’ve used Composer 7 to track system changes in the correct process but the changed files are all ineffective at bypassing this ridiculous dance. Has anyone successfully imaged CS4 and loaded Distiller or Acrobat before opening up one of the other main CS4 programs? And if someone could be so kind as to try opening up Distiller on a freshly loaded machine with their CS4 package and see if it gives them the same problem, I would be ‘o so grateful.

Thanks
B

ps. I’ve tired disabling self heal in the distiller and the acrobat xml files but they only solved the problem of administrative login prompts for safari pdf association. More information on that can be found here: http://itmac.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/adobe-acrobat-admin-password-self-heal-problems/

[Patrick Fergus]

I can concur that Acrobat and Distiller will ask you to launch some other part of the suite first to allow Acrobat and Distiller to be serialized. Does your distribution at least include the following files:

/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Adobe\ PCD/cache/cache.db
666 root:admin

/Library/Preferences/FLEXnet\ Publisher/FLEXnet/adobe_00080000_tsf.data
666 root:admin

/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Adobe\ PCD/pcd.db
644 root:admin

/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/caps/caps.db
644 root:admin

The permissions (and possibly the ownership) of these files is critical.

Adobe’s Self Heal wants to heal two things:

– PDF browser plugin
My choice is to leave the browser plugin out, if you’re baking that strategy into the InstaDMG image you’re going to have to change “YES” to “NO” in this file:

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/AcroEFGPro90SelfHeal.xml

from this (it’s near the top of the file):[code]
install
YES
installmode
Browser
isdisplayedinprefdialog
minsystemversion

10
3
0

shared

type
PDFViewer
[/code]to this:[code]
install
NO
installmode
Browser
isdisplayedinprefdialog
minsystemversion

10
3
0

shared

type
PDFViewer
[/code]This is how Acrobat 9 handles disabling the PDF browser plugin, and since you are InstaDMGing it you’ll need to set it manually via defaults (if possible) or PlistBuddy.

– Adobe PDF printer support
This is very likely where you’re getting tripped up. Acrobat’s Self-Heal very badly wants to set up the Adobe PDF printer queue and the support files, but unless you’re building the “Adobe PDF” print queue when you’re setting up a new machine Acrobat is going to complain. I prefer to not have the print queue there (and after 500 installations we’ve only gotten two or three requests for it). My solution for getting around it is to allow Acrobat to launch when creating our pkg (using FileWave’s FileSet XMagic, a product with similar ideas to Composer) which sets up the files to support the Acrobat print queue. Then I edit the following file:

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/SHExpectedMissingFileTypes.plist

and change:[code]FileTypeKey
AdobePDFPrinter
IsInstalledKey
YES[/code]to this:[code]FileTypeKey
AdobePDFPrinter
IsInstalledKey
NO[/code]. This allows me the best of both worlds–the PDF print queue can be set up on-demand by the following:

– Open “AddPrinter” from the Dock
– Click “Default” in the toolbar
– Add the “Adobe PDF 8.0” print queue
– From the “Print Using” pop-up menu, select “Select a driver to use…”
– Select the “Adobe PDF 3016.102” PPD
– Click “Add”

or automatically via lpadmin or by overwriting /etc/cups/printers.conf (the last option will delete all existing printers off the machine), but in any of these cases Acrobat doesn’t complain that the print queue is there because it’s been told by SHExpectedMissingFileTypes.plist to not look for them. If you want the PDF print queue set up you probably just want to drop printers.conf in the right spot. I then capture the files and use that for the distribution.

One last thought is that [url=http://www.fernlightning.com/doku.php?id=software:fseventer:start]fseventer[/url] can really help you see the changes that happen and allow you to focus your attention on the issue. Unfortunately, Acrobat’s Self Heal just heals everything rather than just the part that needs it, which complicates figuring out where the issue lies.

– Patrick

[bosemachine]

Wow Patrick, thanks a lot for that exhaustive write-up! I’ve got my remote machine installing a fresh version of the current loadset right now at which point I’ll be able to address the first couple points regarding ownership and permissions. However, I believe I actually created a version where I went through and opened up everything to 777 to just rule out permissions (security out the door for the sake of testing!) and the results weren’t memorable (as I no longer remember what happened).

And I’ll verify the self-heal xml files again to make sure I’m following your comments.

In the meantime, we’ve already established that Acrobat requires another main CS component to initialize first in order to serialize but does Acrobat Distiller require Acrobat to run initially as well? I’ll verify by doing a fresh legit disk install tomorrow but it just doesn’t seem very robust to require these programs to domino in like that.

Thanks again for your expertise on this.

[bosemachine]

Sorry I’ve been pretty scarce but with the upcoming school year , I’ve been running around like crazy trying to accommodate software requests.

Anyway, I’ve tried all the suggested fixes but I still have the required launch order (Photoshop or something/Acrobat/Distiller). I know that even with a clean DVD installed version of CS4, I need to run Photoshop or something prior to running Acrobat, but it never breaks licensing to require authentication every time.

Can someone please tell me they’ve successfully imaged CS4 without this launch order issue so I know that I’m retarded? Much obliged!

[jeffinbk]

Having similar problems. Curious to see what happens.

bump

[dead2sin]

I’ve sucessfully Packaged CS4 using Composer 7 as well. Here are my directions straight from our Wiki on the topic:

[quote]Packaging Adobe CS4 for InstaDMG

These are directions for packaging Adobe CS4 for use with InstaDMG Only. You cannot use this method if other adobe products are already installed, it will totally pooch them.

Acrobat 9 Pro Articles found on Google and modified for our purposes.
[edit] Make Package using Composer 7

The first step is to make the install package using Composer 7. You will want to mount all the DMGs of the software you want to install and have the serial #s ready. (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash and Acrobat 9 Pro).

In Composer 7, you will click follow these steps:

1. Open Composer 7, authenticate, and select “New Package”
2. Chose the “New & Modified Snapshot” method for creating the package.
3. Composer will make a snapshot of all the current files and modified dates. This will take a few minutes.
4. After it finishes the SnapShot, install all the applications you would like to have in the package.
5. Open both Acrobat 9 Pro and Distiller so they self-heal. (You might need to open the 2x for this to work correctly).
6. Click “Build Package” in Composer and it will create another snapshot, compare them and put the files that were changed into the package.
7. Take the file from”/Users/currentuser/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.acrobat.90.sh.plist and add it to /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences/
8. Add the registration files into the same User Template directory as the previous step (I normally get these by building the CS4 package and then making another Composer Package to capture the registration files).
9. Look through the files that are in the package and remove the kruft (unnecessary files). Common examples are samba logs, apple remote desktop related things, etc.
10. Now that you have the install done and have cleaned up the files that it installs, you must follow the rest of the steps in this wiki article.

[edit] Suppressing Self-heal – Acrobat 9 Pro and Distiller

Found here:

itmac.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/adobe-acrobat-admin-password-self-heal-problems/

NOTE: This can only be used if you are packaging this with Composer or something similar. This will only work in the situation mentioned at the top of this article.

Adobe CS and Acrobat Pro/Reader are unfortunately not the easiest applications to deploy in IT, on either the Mac or PC. A common problem is having general users receive a query for administrator credentials when they open Acrobat after installation. This is caused by Adobe Acrobat running through a “Self Heal” procedure when it’s opened. Many times it’s caused by Acrobat wanting to become the default PDF reader for Safari.

You can minimize the chance of this happening by modifying the Self Heal XML file that is created after installing Acrobat. Please note that this IS NOT RECOMMENDED by Adobe, but seems to be the a common modification amongst IT departments rolling out Acrobat. The file to edit is /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/AcroEFGPro90SelfHeal.xml (for Adobe Acrobat Pro – Reader may have a slightly different name/location. A quick summary of changes made to the XML file:

Change the string of “YES” to “NO“
Change the string of “REQUIRED” to “NO“

Depending on the flavor of Acrobat, you may also see a “FIRST RUN” value as well. This value should also be changed to “NO“. These changes are case sensitive. Also note you will see the “required” key in lower case letters many times in the XML file. These should not be changed. Only the strings previously mentioned should be changed, and they are always capitalized.

Sometimes you will continue to receive the admin username/password request even after modifying the self heal XML file. To remedy this, I’ve found that logging in under a clean admin account, configuring the Adobe Acrobat Pro/Reader preferences as desired, will result in the following .plist files being modified in ~/Library/Preferences.

com.adobe.acrobat.90.sh.plist
com.adobe.acrobat.pdfviewer.plist
com.apple.LaunchServices.plist

If you’re in the image creation process when doing these configurations/testing, you can copy these preference files to the /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences directory, and once your image is complete, new users who login to the system will receive these modified prefrence files by default. You could also deploy these changes in .pkg file, and have a script copy these preferences to the User Template and existing user home directories. The Casper Suite allows you to build specialized packages that can deploy these changes to both the User Template and existing user directories, if needed. Although I haven’t tried, I would guess these preferences could also be managed by MCX/Workgroup Manager if you have your Macs bound to an Open Directory server and are managing them in that manner.

Click here for a .pdf of the Self Heal XML file. Feel free to try it out, modify, and use if needed. This is the self heal file for Adobe Acrobat Pro 9. Those for Reader and version 8 of Acrobat Pro are different, so don’t try and use this one. Instead, compare the changes made on this file and apply to yours as needed. Good luck.

This must also be done for the Distiller Self-heal file. It should be called AcroENUDist90SelfHeal.xml.[/quote]

On my Packages, I choose to disable all self healing since I capture what the self heal does anything by opening both acrobat and Distiller before building the package.

Hope that Helps!

Nate

[denmoff77]

Thanks for the detailed solution. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work for me. Acrobat will crash after two seconds when opened by a normal user. Has anyone had any luck with this? Really frustrating.

[bosemachine]

Sorry about the lack of update – but my original CS4 problems persist despite following the amazing write-up word for word. I’ve taken a break from it in the meantime for some other issues (Mac Pro default sound output anyone? Why can’t the back line out work like the front headphone jack and detect when I have external speakers plugged in?).

[dead2sin]

Sorry it isn’t working for you guys. I’ll try to help you out in a bit (really busy atm).

Are you using Composer 7?

Nate

[bosemachine]

Yessir. Right now I’m basically just using ARD to login and start up Photoshop on all my machines. It’s an extra 2 steps but it makes sure whatever CS4 needs to do to install its licensing gets done.

[nessts]

i have a script that runs at first boot as root, launches photoshop, acrobat, distiller and in my case the contribute plugin installer. then when those things have been done i copy the plists and other files created by this process in roots home directory to the template and to all users, no admin rights are needed, but users need to quit each app as it is running as root, and step through all of them, but a non-admin user can finish the setup for me.

i have tried composers make a cs4 package from their known list of files, but everytime i have run it, it core dumps my whole system.

[denmoff77]

I’m using Composer 7 to build the CS4 install. everything works fine with it except Acrobat. I’ve tried installing the suite and then running composer to gather all changes after opening Acrobat and typing in the password. I’ve copied the relevant plists to the standard users Library and copying over the edited selfheal file (With everything set to NO). It doesn’t ask the user for a password, but it crashes 4 or 5 seconds after they open it.

[ttpedersen]

This issue is described here
[url]http://groups.google.com/group/adobe.acrobat.macintosh/browse_thread/thread/c425e6404785220f/c8d4ee124776da61?lnk=raot[/url]

The solution is to symlink [i]path-to-network-home[/i]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/9.0_x86 or 9.0_ppc (depending on platform) to a location on the local disk. It works with our setup.

-Thomas

[Author]

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