[UniMacTech] Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0 for Mac

[David Whiteley]

I've already tried that. Acrobat is an absurd program, given the need to hack the repair plists embedded in the application bundles to prevent it trying to "repair" itself, in conjunction with pre-loading the user's Acrobat prefs plists to convince it that it has already done its first-run, but I have managed. The problem is with the license database in /Library/Preferences/, and /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PCD/.

The normal CS3 installers update this correctly, and can be managed by following their CS3 deployment guide PDF (xml files, some scripting and some command-line switches to Setup.app) but without an installer, there's no way to get the Acrobat 9.0 serial number into the database, other than stomping the entire thing out and un-licensing everything else that was already installed.

I've tried the old "Adobe Registration Database" method, by trying to create a "definitive"/jumbo/mega Adobe license code db with everything in it, but Adobe's product installers have been written to be too clever, and do not (for example) accept a Photoshop standalone installation when a serial for a Photoshop-inclusive suite is present.

At best, that means re-running every CS3 installer again after first stomping out the database with one containing only the Acrobat 9.0 serial, in order to "repair" the licenses. Which potentially means up to 2 hours of "fixing", depending on the number of CS3 apps the user has. And the possibility that these installers won't actually run again because the software is "already" installed, and the further potential requirement to have to fully un-install all non-Acrobat CS3 (and presumably CS4) apps before re-installing them again.


Thanks,
David.

________________________________________
From: joetheintro at gmail.com [joetheintro at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Joe Ayala [josephayala at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, 17 October 2008 3:29 PM
To: University Macintosh Technical Mailing List
Cc: David Whiteley
Subject: Re: [UniMacTech] Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0 for Mac

Hey I had the same problem.  I used LANrev InstallEase to create a
custom package.  You need the Apple Developer tools.  Move Adobe
Acrobat 9 folder from Applications, and Adobe from Application Support
in main Library folder.   This allows you to use Apple Remote Desktop
to deploy it and the user doesn't need to enter the serial number.  Oh
and it reduces the install size of the Adobe Install from 900 MB to
about 450 MBs.

Thanks

Joe Ayala
Madera Unified School District

On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 8:41 PM, David Whiteley
<david.whiteley at deakin.edu.au> wrote:
> If anyone has managed to automate deployment of Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0 for
> Mac, could you please drop me a line? Adobe is absolutely useless – they
> provide deployment instructions and toolkits for everything but Acrobat,
> which doesn't even have an installer.
>
> Thanks,
> David.
>
> David Whiteley
> Senior Desktop Infrastructure Engineer, Information Technology Services
> Division
>
> Deakin University Geelong Victoria 3217 Australia
> Phone: 03 5227 8914 International: +61 3 5227 8914
> Fax: 03 5227 8866 International: +61 3 5227 8866
> E-mail: deej at deakin.edu.au
> Website: http://www.deakin.edu.au
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--
Thanks

Joe