Participant

Question

Unable to install Acrobat Patch 9.2 on Mac

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
October 15, 2009
23 replies
77545 views

Case ID: 181226045

Customer is unable to install the Patch 9.2 for Acrobat 9.

Following are notes from customer:

Downloaded 9.2 patch. When attempting to install, message box said original software had been altered in some way and that patch cou
ldn't be installed. I have no idea how software was altered. Works fine right now. Would prefer not to have to reinstall.

OS is Snow Leopard
Operating System: Macintosh
Has it ever worked? If so, what's changed? (provide comments in description field): Not Applicable
Same results with different file?: Not Applicable
Same results with different computer?: No
Recent System Hardware or Software change?: Yes

This topic has been closed for replies.

Show previous replies

J

Joel Blum

Participating Frequently

I've already sent in the files that Craig requested when he was trying to troubleshoot this issue, but I wanted to add that I got the same error message when Adobe Updater wanted to upgrade Adobe Reader. (While I use Acrobat Pro as a rule, I often open PDFs with Reader so I can see how my clients will experience them, and Updater failed saying the application must have been modified since its original installation, just like Pro's 9.2 patch reported.) Don't know if that's relevant, but I thought I'd throw that out there in case it helps the Adobe detectives out there...

Sandee Cohen

Legend

I sent an email to Lori DeFurio, Adobe Acrobat sales and customer enablement manager. I told her about the problem as well as pointed her to this thread.

She has nothing to do with the installer itself, but is an important manager in the Acrobat team.

She sent me an email saying she is "trying to get someone to work on this."

If Lori can't get it fixed, no one can!

Phillip M Jones

Inspiring

Just musing here. Snow Leopard is a Full fledge 64 Bit system. I am wondering if the application used by the OS to install programs is 64 bit and the dmg or zip file file is 32 bit. From my understanding (which is very limited on Snow Leopard) 64 bit won't operate 32 bit items? I'm no familar with Snow leopard My machines won't run it a and Leopard (X.5 would run very slow on one and not at all on another). I know from my PC friends its almost impossible to find 64 bit drivers for things such as printers and scanners, and the 32bit stuff doesn't work.

S

Steve Cordero

Adobe Employee

Just an FYI that there is an Installer Group at Adobe who does own this issue and they are still looking into the patch issue that some of you are experiencing.

Regards,

Steve

A

Anonymous

Hi Steve:

Thanks very much for the update from your side of the pond. From what I can surmise, the Adobe installer team has come upon an issue that seems to be multi-tiered and quite problematic. eg...they have no clue how to fix it.

The reason I say that is because I still have received no response of any value to help address the lack of installability of any upgrades from 9.0.0 up. Well, I did get the usual tier 1 help screen stuff from the newly hired robots hehe...

Here's where I am right now after months of ineffective Adobe tech support...at the start of this fiasco, I deleted the original 9.1.3 version I had been running when I tried to update to 9.2 and failed... tried a reinstall from the original installer disk I had purchased... even got a new installer courtesy of Adobe and wasted hours and hours trying a reinstall from both of those original disks...requested tech support mulitple times via phone, email and this message board...It's been very unrewarding to say the least.

I think the hugest problem is this amateur, onerous and unnecessary sequential version updating that buries the loyal Adobe customers with unnecessary and obviously now flawed intallation protocols.

There's one other issue that's in play now and that's the security risk of using Acrobat that was supposed to have been addressed with version 9.2 but seems to be uninstallable to many users.. If someone has a major destructive intrusion that was traceable somehow to Acrobat because of its documented vulnerablity, a large lawsuit, even class action one could emanate from it. It would be wise for Adobe to re-think this issue and drastically improve their installer strategies to ensure their customers can protect themselves.

for the record, here's what I am using:

MacOSX 10.5.8 - MacPro dual quadcore - 10gb ram - 6tb raid

FYI..I've been a Mac Guru since 1984 and also own a software company so I know how this R&D stuff goes hehe. I also have owned a pile of Adobe apps including Photoshop and Acrobat since version 1.

Aloha, David Talisman

H

Hank_61

Participant

Same for me - I never changed anything on the installation (incl. languages) and cannot upgrade; all hints don't change anything.

Maybe this is the wrong forum, but the last months or years Adobe does a VERY poor job for Mac users! Is it necessary to change update procedures with nearly every upgrade? It is necessary to leave Mac GUI conventions more and more and design "windows-like" (which is one thing that makes the applications monster sized). Acrobat Pro is a powerful software, but the GUI today is a catastrophe.

There was a time Adobe for me was "the good boys" in comparison to MS and Quark, but this is past ...

Craig_Schamp

Participating Frequently

So as not to look like I forgot about this issue, I wanted to mention that due to the re-organization at Adobe on November 10, I am no longer employed by the company and, consequently, I am no longer working on this issue.

Best of luck to all of you, and I expect you can continue to find information here on the forum, although I won't be part of any "official" company investigations into the issue.

Phillip M Jones

Inspiring

Ahh, trying to fix their problems by dumping all their good employees. Good luck Maybe you can go to work for apple.

Craig_Schamp

Participating Frequently

Out of several cases, I've found two things that created problems for the Acrobat 9.2 patch installer:

1. Removing language files (or any other files) from the Acrobat or Distiller application bundles

2. Running a utility to "thin" binaries by removing PowerPC bits from an Intel-based system

The reason these cause errors for the update installer is because the update does not include entire files for Acrobat 9.2, but instead contains a set of differences between 9.1.3 and 9.2. The differences can only be applied to 9.1.3 as it was released by Adobe. If the update installer were to apply the updates to any other version of Acrobat, either a released version prior to 9.1.3 or to a modified copy of Acrobat, then it runs the risk of creating a random set of binaries that might or might not run. To ensure that it patches only a valid copy of Acrobat, it calculates a checksum (sort of a signature) for each file in Acrobat, and if the checksum doesn't match an expected value, it stops the patch and rolls back any 9.2 changes applied up to that point.

I'm not entirely sure what has caused every single update installer error that people have contacted me about. But I do think that there were some cases that fall into these two categories.

I'll continue to investigate the errors as time permits.

Craig

Phillip M Jones

Inspiring

That's one reason why when I nstall a new system I make sure to do a custom install and install everything there is to install with the possible exception of Printer Drivers for Printers I don't use. I Install every langauge OSX is capable of. Years go when I was was usin 680XX Machines I ran into a problem installing a piece of software. Turns out it was because I only installed English. After I went Back and installed every Language that was availble, was I able to install the software. So afterwards as I installed a news system I install all the languages. Can't say I've had any serious install problems since.

H

hilliarddd

Participant

I am running OSX 10.6.1. I tried to apply the 9.2 patch, but got the error that the application had been modified. After trying several things, and reading lots of blogs, I remembered I had run a program to clean out language and localization files from OSX. I tried to restore just the German and French localizations, but got the same error. Then I restored Acrobat 9.1.1 from a Time Machine backup in January, 2009, which was before I cleaned out the language files. The patch worked fine over this version, and I am now running 9.2.

Craig_Schamp

Participating Frequently

I'm an Adobe employee and a developer on Acrobat. I'm investigating this problem and would like to gather information from those who have experienced it.

I know many of you have spent a significant amount of time and are very frustrated with this bug. But if you are willing to spend a little more time, please send the following information to me in a private message on the forum:

1. Launch Terminal.app, run the following command and send me the output:

sw_vers

It should report something like this:

ProductName: Mac OS X

ProductVersion: 10.5.8

BuildVersion: 9L30

2. Version number of Acrobat that you are trying to patch. To get this, locate Acrobat on your machine in Finder, and type cmd-I to bring up the Info panel, and make note of the version, creation date, and modification date as reported there.

3. If you are inclined, also include the following log files from ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/Acrobat if they exist

AcroProUpd920_all0.log

AcroProUpd920_all1.log

AcroProUpd920_all2.log

I can't say when I'll have a solution to this problem, but debugging it is my top priority right now. I'll try to give an update on status periodically. Hopefully I can quickly find a pattern in the reported cases which will lead to a solution soon.

Craig Schamp

Craig_Schamp

Participating Frequently

Those of you who send me log files, please include them as an attachment to your message, if possible.

(If you've already sent me a message with the log files included by other means, no need to send it again.)

Thanks,

Craig

Craig_Schamp

Participating Frequently

I've received log files from 3 people, and someone else is sending another set of log files soon.

Of the three sets of log files, two people hit an error condition when the Acrobat 9.2 patch installer encountered an i386-only binary where it expected a fat i386+ppc binary. In both of these cases, the file in question was

/Applications/Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro/Acrobat Distiller.app/Contents/Frameworks/DistillerLib.framework/Versions/A/DistillerLib

One person hit the error when the following file showed an unexpected checksum, and I'm still gathering information to try to explain it:

/Applications/Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro/Adobe Acrobat Pro.app/Contents/Plug-ins/WebLink.acroplugin/Contents/Info.plist

In the case of the thin i386-only copy of DistillerLib, I don't yet know why this file is thin rather than a fat binary. I could speculate, but that's all I can do at this point. Adobe distributes this file as a fat i386+ppc binary in all cases that I know of for Acrobat 9.

I'll continue to gather more information in the hope that I can uncover the exact situation that caused the erroneous files to appear in the first place.

Craig

T

T Clayton

Participating Frequently

I am also having this problem. I'm on 10.6.1 and everything is installed (including Rosetta). One thing that may or may not be unique to my situation is that even when I run the repair, Safari still has it's default PDF viewer plugin and not Acrobat's plugin. Perhaps if the plugin can't be updated it is throwing this error?

Pat Wibbeler

Adobe Employee

Here's one thing to try, though it's based entirely on a guess as to the problem and may or may not work.

Please disable the OS X firewall and Parental Controls, reinstall 9.1 and then apply 9.2. If 9.2 installs correctly, you should be able to subsequently re-enable the Parental Controls and Firewall. Again, this may or may not work. Since we haven't reproduced this specific issue with 9.2 we're making a guess.

Thanks again!

T

T Clayton

Participating Frequently

I don't have either the firewall or parental control enabled on my computer so unfortunately that will not help fix the problem I am having.

One way to try reproducing this would be to try upgrading a 10.5.x computer that had Acrobat on it to 10.6.1 and then try to install the update. It may not be the general problem, but it's the situation that I'm in at the moment.

Pat Wibbeler

Adobe Employee

If someone could please compress and attach the contents of ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/Acrobat this might help in troubleshooting. Thank you!

M

Matt Barker

Participant

I had this problem with another update in Acrobat Pro 9 and had to completely uninstall/reinstall in order to get through this (under Leopard). I had originally thought that maybe XSlimmer had modified something, so after the reinstall/update, I made sure that program did not include Acrobat Pro for slimming. I was able to do AutoUpdates after that without any problem. Now this update shows up (granted after the upgrade to Snow Leopard), and here we go again. I'd rather work towards figuring this out instead of having to uninstall/install every time this happens. I am attaching the log file of the only part that failed to see if anyone has any ideas on where to go with the info. Basically looks like the problem is with actually patching the Distiller.

AcroProUpd920_all1-log.txt

S

Stuart Haiz

Known Participant

Like plenty of others here, I too have tried all the methods and failed to install the 9.2 update patch.

I'm on 10.5.8 on an Intel iMac currently running Acrobat 9.1.3. I've tried using Onyx to repair my System before working off the .dmg but still can't get anywhere.

There must be a flaw with the installer that Adobe need to address as everyone is getting the same message.

W

William_E_Beard

Participating Frequently

It's not a Snow Leopard or Intel thing. I run a PPC, 10.4.11, and get the same error. I have tried all the listed suggestions (except re-installing Acrobat) and nothing works. Have to wait until my SysAdmin gets back from vacation to try un- re-installing.

Phillip M Jones

Inspiring

Try going to Disk Utility and Repair Permissions. I found after trying to apply the 9.2.0 patch that it screwed up a boat load of Permissions. two three screens full in fact.
Download, and install AppleJack.
Run AppleJack by restarting holding the Command (apple)-S keys down while restarting computer.
run item 3 and 4 twice once for system and once for eacher User.
When finished quit as per instructions, and restart.
Allow plenty of time for computer to reset itself. It has to rebuild some System cache files.
Now Try to run patch.

If still won't update, try downloading and install the patch from Adobe > Support > Downloads manually.

Then be sure to repair Permissions. I've never seen one put date Mangle so many permissions since I have been using OSX.

(Please note information is given by an Experienced User of Acrobat. I am not an employee of Adobe.)

W

William_E_Beard

Participating Frequently

Still did not work.

Bill Beard

[signature deleted by host]

A

Anonymous

Dear Adobe:

This problem with not being able to update my Adobe Acrobat Pro software from 9.0 to 9.2 is absolutely infuriating. It wouldn't be so bad except the Adobe Acrobat Pro V9 is horribly flawed from a security perspective and demands some type of fix. Unfortunately, the 5 or 6 support people I have spoken to at Adobe "Tech Support" have been unable to assist. I have even received a new install disk which still is un updateable from V9.0.

I have never been through such amateur support at Adobe before. I own many many Adobe products and have updated religiously to every single version for 10 years. I have spent thousands of dollars on Adobe software but I am sorry to say that I am finished buying any new software from them.

If Adobe cannot properly support their software than I'm sorry but I can no longer support purchasing any new software. I'll struggle thru with all of the versions that I currently own and that will be the end of it.

This is a sad state of affairs when company is big and as professionally savvy as Adobe cannot provide solutions for updating their software and instead lead their loyal customers through a maze of dense foreign speaking tech support reps who can barely read the support screens they use to service Adobe customers.

I have wasted more than 2 full days of following a plethora of hair brained schemes for getting the updates to work with zero success and now I am simply finished.

The company should change the name to "ADumbe" until they can figure out a sane way to update their software!

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded