Adobe Reader 8 problems

[tlarkin]

So, in our brand spanking new intel iMac lab, the one we just deployed as dual boot OS X/windows for our very first test run has an issue with Adobe Reader 8. I have tried changing permissions and ownership via ssh into the work stations and nothing has worked so far.

Everytime a non admin user tries to launch the application they get prompted for an admin log in. This apparently is a known issue: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc31dc7

And here is the fix, or so they claim:

Quote: Solution 1: Repair Permissions 1. Launch Disk Utility from Applications>Utilites 2. Under the First Aid tab, click Repair Disk Permissions 4. Launch Acrobat and see if it still crashes. If not, you're good to go. If it does, repeat steps 1 thru 3, but this time logged in as Root. To enable the root account: 1. In the Finder, choose Go > Applications. 2. Open the Utilities folder, and double-click NetInfo Manager. 3. Click the lock in the NetInfo Manager window to permit changes, enter the administrator name and password, and then click OK. 4. Enable the root user: -- In Mac OS X v. 10.4.x choose Security > Enable Root User. 5. Click OK to the alert indicating that the password is blank. 6. Type the password in the Password and verification boxes, then click OK. 7. Click the lock to save the change, and then quit NetInfo Manager. To disable the root account, repeat steps 1-4 above after the root account is enabled, except in step 4, choose Disable Root User. To log in to the root account: 1. Choose Log Out from the Apple menu. 2. Choose Other... in the log in window. 3. Type Root in the Name field, and type the password you create Solution 2: Disable the Updater.acroplugin Get Info on the Acrobat 8 application and, under the Plug-ins section, un-check Updater.acroplugin, then launch Acrobat.

Well, I know for a fact I am not going to run repair permissions on any of these machines since we changed lots of the permissions and default locations of items in our image of this lab. I am also very skeptic of having to run repair permission as root, i mean what the heck are they thinking?

It looks as if perhaps the adobe updater wants some type of access that requires admin authentication and could be causing the problem? I am not sure.

Has anyone ran into this before, and what was your fix? This is most annoying.

[JDV]

It looks to me like you are probably right, and that their "Solution 2" makes the most sense. But I have to say, I don't -remember- running into this problem before.

Joe VanZandt

[tlarkin]

well ironically, that second fix was already unchecked by the person who deployed the adobe packages...

[benwiggy]

Yes, the second option is the way to go.

However, not being able to repair permissions on your setup will inevitably cause you some problems.

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by benwiggy Yes, the second option is the way to go. However, not being able to repair permissions on your setup will inevitably cause you some problems.

How so? Repair permissions just sets permissions back to what Apple thinks should be a default setting. I can still modify and repair any permissions I need to manually with the terminal. I already repaired permissions on the app itself.

I read that you have to open the package and actually change a few lines of coding to get it to work properly.

[tw]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin This apparently is a known issue: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc31dc7

If you pursue this thread a bit, you'll find there's an alternate solution. open the plist file 'com.adobe.acrobat.80.sh.plist' and set 'NoSelfHealNeeded' to "yes". that should resolve the issue. you'll have to export it to every computer running acrobat, of course...

P.s. I originally thought the 'sh' in the plist name stood for 's#!t happens', but it just occurred to me that it means 'self heal'. thought I'd share that...

[chabig]

Here's the solution that I posted yesterday. It worked for me...

http://ithink.ch/blog/2006/12/07/dis..._reader_8.html

Chris

[tlarkin]

chris I am trying your solution, but when I configure the app on my macbook pro and then push it out to the imacs it tells me that the application adobe reader does not support this platform. All macs are intel based machines and all are running 10.4.9

I am starting to hate adobe!

I have to go out onsite now and manually repair this, bah!

[chabig]

I'm starting to not like Adobe. As I was mucking around in their app bundles, guess what I found? Adobe Bridge contains a full version of Opera?

[tlarkin]

okay chris that fix worked, however randomly Adobe Reader will crash and I will get that dialog box to send the report or to reopen the app.

Now, all of the sudden, the same thing is happening to Acrobat professional. I am begining to think that CS 2 on intel based macs is just a nightmare.

Hopefully we will get CS 3 rolled out soon enough.

[styrafome]

Quote: Originally Posted by chabig I'm starting to not like Adobe. As I was mucking around in their app bundles, guess what I found? Adobe Bridge contains a full version of Opera?

They've been using that for a while for places they need HTML rendering, the same way Apple uses Webkit.

Judging from comments on the Web many see this as a feature not a bug.

[tlarkin]

Okay, if you copy the file that contains the self healing code also to /Library/Application Support/Arcobat it also helps fix the problem.

It is very annoying.

[drew_952]

[QUOTE=tw;375417]If you pursue this thread a bit, you'll find there's an alternate solution. open the plist file 'com.adobe.acrobat.80.sh.plist' and set 'NoSelfHealNeeded' to "yes". that should resolve the issue. you'll have to export it to every computer running acrobat, of course...

Thanks for posting this. However, I have a question concerning your wording: Do we change the 'no' in 'noselfhealneeded' to yes, or do we add a 'Yes' after that phrase?

This problem is driving our users crazy. In turn, me.

Thanks for any help,
Drew

[tlarkin]

this also helps out a bit for Adobe Acrobat 7 pro

Library>Application Support>Adobe>Acrobat> CS2ENUProSelfHeal.xml (edit this file)

Search for the work bib.
Change it to BIB (all uppercase). There are just two changes. Ex. AdobeBIBUtils.framework

this will fix some crashing issue, no idea why this works but it was a fix sent to us from adobe.

[tiffmnbtown]

I was struggling to get my Acrobat 8 install to function after applying updates, both Distiller and Acrobat Pro would prompt for Admin. authentication. I was reading this thread when I stumbled on a link to help on removing self-heal from Adobe reader 8 (ithink.ch/blog/2006/07/12/disable_self_heal_in_adobe_reader_8.html)

I was able to use this to fix Distiller as both Reader and Distiller us the same mechanism for triggering the self-heal, however Acrobat Pro does not, but the info provided helped gain a better understanding of Adobe was trying to accomplish and how I could try to foil it... remember I am working in Enterprise deploy, so I have the benefit of managing policy and prefs. via workgroup manager. (trying to manage the pref locally, never was successful...)

You can follow the link above and apply the same fix to the Distiller.app as you would for Reader and that's all that is needed to repair Distiller.

Acrobat Pro 8

1. Completely remove the following file /Applications/Adobe\ 8\ Professional/Acrobat\ Professional.app/Contents/MacOS/AcroENUPro80SelfHeal.xml

2. Manage com.adobe.acrobat.80.sh ‘Always’ – set Boolean to TRUE

What I found was that if I only managed the pref., as soon as I launched Acrobat Pro, it would change the value back to false and prompt for Admin. -- If only removed the file then when Acrobat would launch it would error on a missing component. So, the combination is working for me and all is testing and functioning as expected.