AIR Installer Error #1

[mfreeman1972]

I'm running Adobe AIR 2.6 on 64-bit Linux Mint 11 (based on Ubuntu 11.04).

When trying to install AIR apps, I keep running into an Error #1. This is intermittent, but quite frequent. In other words, some .air files install just fine (like Tweetdeck), but most end up with the error and won't install. Here is the output of the Install.log file from one app (specifically the Comcast CallerID app), which worked fine on an older installation of Linux, but doesn't now:

[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Application Installer begin with version 2.6.0.19170 on Linux x86
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Commandline is:
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Installed runtime (2.6.0.19170) located at /opt/Adobe AIR
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Unpackaging file:///home/mike/Applications/ComcastCallerID.air to /tmp/FlashTmp.vzmR55
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Application signature verified
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Unpackaging/validation complete
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] No app located for appID 'com.comcast.callerid' and pubID '13A1FA90F0FC9DC009FB0956ADD0F13F8608561B.1'
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Converting unpackaged application to a native installation package in /tmp/FlashTmp.59Ej7P
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Native installation package creation succeeded
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Starting app installation to /opt. Installing app com.comcast.callerid.13A1FA90F0FC9DC009FB0956ADD0F13F8608561B.1 version ComcastCallerID-2.1.7 using the source file at file:///home/mike/Applications/ComcastCallerID.air
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][ERR] Error occurred during rpm install operation; beginning rollback: [ErrorEvent type="error" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text="Unhandled exception Error: Only root can install the application" errorID=0]
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Rollback complete
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][ERR] Got an unexpected fatal error while in stateInstalling: [ErrorEvent type="error" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text="Unhandled exception Error: Only root can install the application" errorID=0]
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Launching subprocess with commandline /opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/Adobe AIR Application Installer -runtime /opt -silent -logToStdout -url -location /opt -desktopShortcut -programMenu file:///home/mike/Applications/ComcastCallerID.air
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][INFO] Relaunching with elevation
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][ERR] Elevated install failed: error 1  error: dpkg: error processing /tmp/FlashTmp.n0KHXB/setup.deb (--install):; parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/control' near line 2 package 'com.comcast.callerid.13a1fa90f0fc9dc009fb0956add0f13f8608561b.1':; error in Version string 'ComcastCallerID2.1.7': version number does not start with digit;Errors were encountered while processing:; /tmp/FlashTmp.n0KHXB/setup.deb
[Adobe AIR Application Installer:978][ERR] Application Installer end with exit code 7

Any ideas what could be causing this error and how to fix it? Thanks!

[Guest]

The problem is that the air package has a version string 'ComcastCallerID2.1.7', which does not start with a digit, and the underlying package installer 'dpkg' does not allow that anymore in recent versions.

I only know of solutions that are rather technical, so I hope for you that that is not a problem for you.

One solution is to grab an older version of dpkg that doesn't have that limitation yet, and (temporarily) put that in a place earlier in the path than /usr/bin/dpkg (or overwrite the current version (make a backup)). Another solution if your dpkg is new enough to have the '--force-bad-version' option, is to make a wrapper script thart adds that option. A third solution is to patch the dpkg in your system (Add a 'return NULL;' to the beginning of version_strict_check() in parsehelp.c, and add a 'return;' to the beginning of 'test(void)' in t-version.c).

More information about the new version restriction http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=620566