Adobe CS6 crashing loop.

[taugust04]

Hi all - this is something that has occurred suddenly in the last 48 hours or so have their entire CS6 quit and stop working. All their Adobe CS6 apps are getting stuck in a crashing loop where an application such as Photohop launches, quits, the Adobe Application Manager opens, then crashes, and the cycle is repeated over and over again. It's a really nasty loop, and hard to end without a full restart. Open up a CS6 application, and it starts again.

All the CS6 installs were built with AAMEE 3.1.1 and installed via Casper. No problems until the last 48 hours.

We use RUM - and I'm wondering if Adobe pushed down (and then I pushed down on their behalf) a bad update recently.

I'm also noticing that if I manually open the Adobe Application Manager, it automatically updates itself to version 7.0.0.189, despite having updates turned off. After the update runs, it allows AAM to run as if I had never had the administrative settings configured. Not sure if this is related or unrelated. Losing hair by the second here. Anyone else experiencing these issues?

Thanks!

~Ted

[carlo_anselmi]

Same here, unfortunately...
At least 1/3 of my CS6 clients (both Master and Design+Web suites) installed with a Casper policy from 3.1 AAMEE-created pkgs have/had the very same issue (OSX 10.6.8, all installed over the same base image).
To me, it looks like something related to AAM checking for licensing.
I have already posted here on the Adobe forum but have not found a solution yet http://forums.adobe.com/message/4964592#4964592

The relevant console message I got was this

23/12/12 01.09.42 [0x0-0xab0ab].com.adobe.PDApp[3491] objc[3491]: Class HTTPHeader is implemented in both /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Application Manager/CCM/CCMNative.dylib and /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Application Manager/CCM/../UWA/UpdaterCore.framework/UpdaterCore. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
23/12/12 01.09.42 [0x0-0xab0ab].com.adobe.PDApp[3491] objc[3491]: Class ProxyManager is implemented in both /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Application Manager/CCM/CCMNative.dylib and /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Application Manager/CCM/../UWA/UpdaterCore.framework/UpdaterCore. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

I already checked all the relevant folders within Library/Application Support/Adobe and they have the right permissions.

I am VERY worried (and disappointed) because I thought I could live with this until the transition from CS5/10.6 to CS6/10.8 but today a couple of the clients already with CS6/10.8 - first fully updated and manually installed to what is now my "base" image for 10.8 - called to report the same problem, after some week of smooth usage.
Hope that someone from Adobe will soon tell us what to do, as I find it weird that something that seems to be properly installed suddenly stops working without any reason (also most of 10.6 clients showed that issue after some day) and - since all clients comes from the same image and receive the same periodic updates/apps - I wonder how come some is fine and some is not.

Thank you for bringing this up!
Ciao
Carlo

[tkimpton]

Same here. Was just going to sort out a user UAT group before rollout and this happens!

Adobe loathing is coming back!

[taugust04]

So far, the only thing that has fixed this on the affected computers is a full uninstall and reinstall of the Adobe CS6 suite. Just to be sure there wasn't an issue with the packages, I rebuilt my CS6 package using AAMEE 3.1.

~Ted

[stevewood]

Take a gander at this thread: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=6289#respond

Don posted a link to a write up Greg Neagle did about the issue and a fix.

[tkimpton]

Guys don't let Adobe get away with this absolute Munson!

I have seen Adobe delete posts they don't like on their enterprise blogs and forums.

Post here on JAMF and keep pasting the links.

They can't sweeping the screw ups under the carpet!

Thanks guys and to Greg. I find Gregs site the easiest and clearest to use instead of getting lost in the Adobe maze

[tkimpton]

have this problem and pkgs ARE built with AAMEE 3.1

[bentoms]

@Tim, RUM??

[tkimpton]

what about RUM?

Possibly...... if i find out it was a dodgy update i am scrapping RUM and never using it again and never updating.

[gregp]

We haven't seen this with our Mac CS6 installs yet... around 1000 of them. Used AAMEE to package them up last Sept.

Our Windows versions did use 3.0 and started having this problem. 3.1 seemed to help.

@tkimpton: What/who an "absolute Munson?"

@bentoms: Remote Update Manager. Can tell the CS6 suite to grab its updates from an internal server and install them instead of going all the way to Adobe's server to download the updates. We tried it out here and seemed fine for what it offered. Back in late summer/early fall when we tried this, the biggest problem was that when we updated our local update repository, it grabbed whatever was available from Adobe. Then the clients would then grab the latest from our repo. While great if you just want to go along with the latest, but if you need some version control, then need to be very careful when you update the local repo. Asked Adobe to add a feature to allow us to choose which version each app should install, but haven't heard anything since and haven't bothered looking.

We have it in place but won't be using it for our Macs. We'll be upgrading every year due to Apple's OS releases and we'll toss on new CS updates at that time. If we really, really need to push out an update, then AAMEE will take care of that. Might use it for our PCs, but that's someone else's headache.

[bentoms]

@Tim.. i was asking if you guys use RUM, maybe it's not a AAMEE 3.1 thing & instead a RUM new update thing?

[carlo_anselmi]

No RUM here
CS6 (Master and Design+Web) fully updated before closing the serialized AAMEE pkg (10.6 only) and/or when manually installed from Adobe dmg directly on the clients (10.8 only)
I am thinking of the last two updates (Photoshop 13.0.3 + Illustrator 16.0.3 ) that came out after deployment and installed creating an addition PKG from AAMEE I then deployed with Casper at login.
But the issue with the loop did start earlier that those.
Cheers
Carlo

[tkimpton]

That's what I thought Ben.

@Carlo I deployed mine via a policy in the form of a dmg and a script to mount and install it.

Also I include RUM and they update out of hours.

Have 2 tester one has hardly used it and hasn't had the problem and the other used it constantly and had it happening on Monday.

@Greg Roy Munson from the film Kingpin. With these continual goofs at Adobes end they will push every one away by being stupid and will lose everything

http://m.urbandictionary.com/#define?term=munson

[carlo_anselmi]

Good news...
Created a policy to distribute and run serialization over a "broken" CS6 ("with loop") and everything seems fixed (until next time that happens...)
Policy tested from SelfService as logged user with closed Adobe apps
Until final fix from Adobe, I think I will put the policy ongoing at every login, so that at least users can start working. If the problem arises during the day, then manually from SelfService (or simply loggin out/in again).

[taugust04]

I don't believe it's RUM. I just checked in a machine with a fresh install that just started crashing - again (after a re-install) - with the crashing loop between Photoshop and the Adobe Application Manager. RUM hasn't been launched in a few days, but this problem just cropped up today.

One thing I am noticing - when I open the Adobe Application Manager by itself, it forces an update from 6.0.281 to version 7.0.0.189. This update is being forced from Adobe, and it doesn't look like there is an option to disable it anywhere. After the update is completed, it asks for the Adobe ID credentials, ignoring the settings configured when the Adobe CS6 package was built in AAMEE 3.1.

I'm checking to see if re-serializing fixes this. If so, then it looks like my workflow is to reserialize all the Adobe CS6 installs on campus. More to come...

UPDATE - Indeed it looks like re-serializing Adobe CS6 resolves the issue - at least temporarily.

~Ted

[acdesigntech]

Yep, I'll be re-packaging Monday morning. Funny thing is, today was the first day we deployed CS6 to anyone :(

Curses, Adobe!!!

[tkimpton]

Its happened again after a few days on a machine i already reserialized and was built using AAMEE 3.1

Adobe stop screwing with things, we know you are pushing to Cloud Ready and this is signs of Adobe screw-ups again!

Only thing i can do at the moment is put this in self service.

At this rate the users would be better of learning and using Quark instead!

[donmontalvo]

I posted this morning:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=6289

[taugust04]

Is Adobe aware of this 'crashing loop' problem between the CS6 apps and the AAM? I haven't posted this issue there yet, and @donmontalvo, the posts you reference on the Adobe Forums seem to be for a related, but different problem. I'm not having any issue with getting a sign-in screen on the Macs in question, and the packages I built were built with AAMEE 3.1, not 3.0.

Something is definitely going on over there at Adobe, though, as the enterprise forum has been much busier as of late.

~Ted

[donmontalvo]

@tedaugust04 Our Desktop Support folks report pushing the serial number to the user and rebooting fixed the loop for some users. I think they also applied the AAM patch.

[taugust04]

@donmontalvo There is a patch for AAM? If so, is this a deployable package, or a manual install?

[donmontalvo]

@taugust04 Oops...yes, sorry!

http://www.adobe.com/applicationmanagerpatch/index.html

[taugust04]

@donmontalvo - thanks for the link.

Happened again today - in case anyone is interested, or having the same issue:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1136451?tstart=0

I have my logs and a video of the issue posted there via Dropbox.

~Ted

[donmontalvo]

@taugust04 Lots of threads on this, and I'm betting you already know, Adobe released Photoshop 13.0.4 patch today, have you tried running it to see if it fixes the looping crash?

PS, might want to follow/post here so Adobe can keep their finger on the pulse of the Admin community...lots of updates on this and other issues:

http://twitter.com/Adobe_ITToolkit

Don

[tkimpton]

Thanks Don. Our whole company is using CS6 and people are starting to notice problems and are really shouting :(

Can't believe Adobes choice of comms is f**in Twitter!

Surely if I have RUM and my AUSS server polls Adobe updates at night then if this Photoshop update was to fix it people wouldn't be shouting ( machines get RUM checking at night) unless this update isn't on Adobe Servers yet which wouldn't surprise me!

Personally I'm not doing this faffing about and I'm not testing Adobes CRAP out when they should be doing it.

I want Adobe to sort it out even if I need a new AAMEE and remake the packages!

[tkimpton]

All I can say is GO QUARK LOL!

[RobertHammen]

Supposedly installing the Photoshop 13.0.4 patch + using APTEE to re-provision the software fixes the issue. Too early to tell, Adobe's not saying this on-the-record yet...

[taugust04]

I just forced a sync with my RUM server and it didn't pull down 13.0.4 yet. Hoping it will sometime over the weekend. I already have the APTEE tool packaged and in Casper to deploy as needed. What a pain - TGIF!

[tkimpton]

Just read the tech note on APTEE and it say you need to be connected to the Internet to serialize...... We have a proxy server so that not going to work!!!

Again Adobe not thinking

[donmontalvo]

@tkimpton wrote:

Just read the tech note on APTEE and it say you need to be connected to the Internet to serialize...... We have a proxy server so that not going to work!!! Again Adobe not thinking

From page 4 of the APTEE tech note:

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/creativesuite/pdfs/AdobeProvisi...

Introduction The toolkit supplies commands that enable you to conveniently manage the serialization of an installed product. You might need to do this for example, in Creative Suite 6, users needs to be online for serialization to be successful. However if there are client machines that are not connected to the internet, you can use the Adobe Provisioning Toolkit Enterprise Edition to serialize a package on the machine.

[tkimpton]

Thanks Don

[tkimpton]

Actually take that back lol...

Don this is EXACTLY what i am taking about and where the Adobe loathing comes from...no UAT what so ever!

from APTEE tech note:

Serializing a package when a user is offline In Creative Suite 6, users needs to be online for serialization to be successful. However if there are client machines that are not connected to the internet, the following process, called the Type1Exception process, can be followed to serialize a package. ???? Using the Adobe Provisioning Toolkit Enterprise Edition Syntax For Creative Suite 6 6 This process requires generation of a keycode on the offline client machine. The keycode is then used to generate a response code from an online machine. The response code generated using the online machine is then used to serialize the package on the offline client machine. This process can be used for both Retail and Volume customers. 1. On the offline client machine, generate a request code for activation by running the following command: adobe_prtk --tool=Type1Exception --generate --serial=serialNum where serialNum is the serial number This command returns a 44-character request code. 2. Using an online machine, visit the AOES website: http://www.adobe.com/go/getactivated 3. At the AOES website, log in with the Adobe ID. 4. Once authenticated, enter the Adobe serial number and the request code that was generated in step 1. Once the activation service successfully activates it, the response code is displayed. 5. Note down the response code 6. On the offline client machine, run the following command to activate the package: adobe_prtk --tool=Type1Exception accept --serial=serialNum --responsecode=responseCode --leid=LEID where: ? serialNum is the serial number ? responseCode is the code generated on the online machine in step 4 ? LEID is the product’s licensing identifier (see “Product identification” on page 9).

Behind a dam proxy like loads of other Enterprises.

DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO GO AROUND TO EVERY SINGLE DAM MACHINE TO GENERATE THE CODE ADOBE!!!

Cant i just unserialize and then use the serialized package i created with AAMEE?

[tkimpton]

just tried the offline activation and this doesn't do anything

technote:

adobe_prtk --tool=Type1Exception accept --serial=serialNum --responsecode=responseCode --leid=LEID

also from adobe_prtk -h

adobe_prtk --tool=Type1Exception --accept --serial=serialNum [--responsecode=responseCode] --leid=DRIVERLEID

ADOBE SORT YOUR DOCUMENTATION OUT!

As you can see both say different things and they both dont work

[tkimpton]

Tried RUM

Photoshop 13.0.4 is not showing on Adobes Akami servers. Either this is overlooked or Adobe are confident of this fix yet.

Im inclined to think its the latter especially as the UAT has been non existant and seems to have gotten worse.

[gregneagle]

Tim - in your situation another option would be to just uninstall the CS6 product, then reinstall, making sure the Photoshop 13.0.3 and 13.0.3 updates are not applied, but the Photoshop 13.0.4 update is applied.

[kagibson]

Tim,
We are investigating why the PS 13.0.4 patch is not appearing with RUM or AUSST, there is nothing different about this patch that it should not have been posted. If you are in a situation whereby your clients cannot connect to the internet then it is best to use APTEE to create a prov.xml file that you can push to the clients this means the clients will not have to be online.

The steps I would advise you take are Create Update Package with AAMEE 3.1 and include PS 13.0.4
Use below command with APTEE to create prov.xml

1) create prov.xml file using following commandline -
adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial=<serial number> --leid=<LEID of product> --provfilepath=<path where it should be created>

NOTE:
If –provfilepath flag is used, then prov.xml will be created at the specified location. If –provfilepath flag is not used, then prov.xml will be created at the default location. The default location will be the location where the adobe_prtk file is present.

2) on client serialize with command line -
adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize –stream –provfile=<Path of prov file>

You could push this out with casper.

Please let me know if this works or does not work.

Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enerprise IT Tools

[taugust04]

@tkimpton - still not up on their AUS servers yet. I've been doing a check every 12 hours or so.

I'm going the un-install re-install route on the computers that have 13.0.3 applied. I can't apply the patches manually via the GUI due to my settings in AAMEE having updates disabled. I know there is a way to install these patches in a different manner, but I don't have the time to go through the documentation at this moment to figure it out, considering an uninstall/reinstall is just a couple of clicks away using Casper.

In addition, my attempts at uploading the patch to the AUS have been unsuccessful, due to some errors in RUM about being unable to download the patch, despite all the permissions being correct and I'm able to get the patch over http through a direct URL in a web browser.

It's disappointing the loopholes that legally licensed volume customers are going through to get this software installed, when you can still go on Pirate Bay and download a cracked version of every version of their software, despite all of Adobe's copy and licensing protection.

[donmontalvo]

@taugust04 wrote:

It's disappointing the loopholes that legally licensed volume customers are going through to get this software installed, when you can still go on Pirate Bay and download a cracked version of every version of their software, despite all of Adobe's copy and licensing protection.

Karl just posted a fix/workaround for the missing 13.0.4 patch issue:

http://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-2991

[tkimpton]

Thanks Don but Again Adobe with ZERO instructions what to do with it...FFFFIIINNGGG BRILLIANT!!!!

[tkimpton]

KARL

I HAVE WASTED ABSOLUTELTY HOURS AND HOURS (YES THIS IS SHOUTING)

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WHERE DOES IT SAY TO USE THE FLAG adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/creativesuite/pdfs/AdobeProvisi...

It also does say in terminal if i just type in adobe_prtk and hit enter.

ADOBE TWAT THE DOCUMENT WRITER SERIOUSLY ....HUNDEREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF ADMINS READ THE MANUALS AND THEY ARE WRONG!!!