Acrobat Pro

[#1]

Hey everyone, quick question: How are you guys running the Acrobat Pro
updates? Added the AcroProUpd813_all.dmg through Casper Admin and it's
complaining that it's not a Valid Adobe Installer or Adobe Updater...
-- Thanks
Matt Matsuno
310.252.5221

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[jarednichols]

I'm also wondering about this, though more in a general sense. The updater is a .app. Can I deploy that as is into /tmp and then run a script to launch it?

j

[milesleacy]

That sounds like it should work. Of course, test, test, test.
Be sure to remove /private/tmp from the exclusion list in Composer before
building your package.

2008/12/8 Nichols, Jared <jared.nichols at ll.mit.edu>

-- Miles A. Leacy IV
----------
? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

[talkingmoose]

The problem I've seen with Adobe's Acrobat 8.x updaters is that they are not
scriptable like those for the other CS3 applications. Those .app updaters
can be called with a ­silent switch but not Acrobat's. :-(

These Acrobat updaters also require that you select the Acrobat application
to patch and also may ask you to 'repair' the installation, which is
Adobespeak for 'let me put back my Safari and Office plugins and set myself
to default again.' These prompts must be manually dismissed.

Also, JAMF may have a difficult time getting CS4 to work because the ­silent
update for those suites wants to connect to the Internet to download updates
as part of the install process. In our environment our Macs must
authenticate to our proxy (no free love access) and that just hangs the
install.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Technical Analyst
MCS IT
Merrill Communications, LLC
(651) 632-1492

[jarednichols]

Is there a best-practice way to run these updates then? I just tried deploying to /tmp and I don't seem to see it anywhere in there.

Hrm.

j

[milesleacy]

Did you remove /private/tmp from the exclusion list in Composer preferences
*before* building your package?
----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

[milesleacy]

Ok, I was under the impression that the reason /tmp couldn't be deployed to
is because of the exclusion list in Composer. Perhaps I was mistaken or
there is a bug.
What I have done that works is to create a folder in /Library for such
purposes.

I typically name it /Library/NameOfCompany and populate it with any files or
folders that I need to use for deployment or management.

You should be able to deploy the installer to /Library/NameOfCompany/Adobe,
and then call it with a script. However, I believe someone on this thread
mentioned that this particular update won't take the -silent switch. Perhaps some UI scripting can get around this limitation?

My next question is why do you have to deploy this Installer from Adobe? Why not take a Composer snapshot, run the update and package the changes
(including undoing any Adobe "repairs" you don't like)?

----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

[jarednichols]

Hi-

I actually did something similar. I decided to deploy to /Library/Caches and have the script call it from there. My weekly system maintenance clears out caches, so that should take care of the installer.

As far as why I'm deploying as is...My main goal is to cut down on our customization. Where possible, I'd like to use straight packages. Yes, there are times where it makes sense to re-package it. It's looking like the pre-CS3 packages are going to be one of those cases. At any rate, this was for a group of test machines anyway. I'm new to Casper and haven't quite sorted out what the best practice for each type of installer is yet, so a lot of it is trial by doing so I understand the what/how/whys. I must say, the support from the lists and Jamf itself I'm very impressed with. Always quick, always professional.

Thanks

j

[talkingmoose]

Adobe's applications have become more and more difficult to re-package.
Acrobat in particular has been a pain because of its self-healing mechanism.
'How do I disable Acrobat self-healing?' has probably been one of the more
discussed questions on this list and others. Standard users can't 'repair'
Acrobat and so they're presented with an authentication dialog that is
useless to them. Cancel it and Acrobat quits.

Also, Adobe changed its serialization methods between CS2 and CS3. It moved
from a flat file to a cache file. Anyone needing to install multiple
versions of an application or applications from different versions have to
essentially create a 'common files' package, which can be shared between CS1
and CS2 but not with CS3. That requires its own 'common files' package and
learning a new way to re-package.

Packaging all of this requires hours of installation and then time to take
apart and create individual packages. Sometimes this works fine but
sometimes things are broken, mostly Acrobat. It's voodoo to get it to work
properly. Then the troubleshooting has to begin. JAMF recognized the pain
Adobe's installers were causing and actually modified its own software to
help its customers make installation easier.

Even though Adobe hasn't provided Apple Installer packages it has been
providing scriptability with its own installers. This is what JAMF is using.
You can specify the serial number, disable updates, disable registration and
disable displaying the EULA by modifying just a few files. Learning how to
do this is, IMHO, preferable to the packaging problems we've had in the
past.

Of course, the ideal solution is for Adobe to go with what is now standard
and just create Apple packages.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Technical Analyst
MCS IT
Merrill Communications, LLC
(651) 632-1492

[#10]

I am using Managed Preferences to disable the self healing on adobe reader. Anyway to disable the adobe acrobat wanting to install the PDF printer and other settings on a first launch? Casper support is going to voicemail

---

Kathie Iorizzo
Lower School Technician
The Latin School of Chicago
kiorizzo at latinschool.org
312.582.6136