Packaging Adobe Acrobat XI Pro - Bug after installation

[Cato-L]

Once installed (Offline Exception added for License), Acrobat XI Pro starts nicely without issues. But when I right click a website and selects "Convert Webpage to PDF" I get a "Trial version. Try for 30 days or purchase license now".

How do I fix this before deploying the software in SCCM?

I've used the Adobe Customization WIzard XI to package Acrobat XI Pro with the following changes from "Blank"

Personlization Options:

* Username: Blank

* Organization: My Organization

* Serial Number: 1118-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx (Offline Exception granted)

* EULA Option: Checked

Installation Options:

* Default viewer for PDF files: Make Acrobat the defauilt PDF viewer

* Remove Previous: Checked

* Remove all versions of Reader: Unchecked

* Enable Optimization: Checked

* Enable Caching: Checked

* Run Installation: Unattended

* If reboot required: Suppress reboot

* Application Languages: English (United States)

* Acrobat MUI Languages: en_US

Features: Everything included

Files and Folders: No changes

Registry: Removed Acrobat Assistant 8.0 and Adobe ARM from CurrentVersion\Run

Shortcuts: Desktop shortcuts removed

Everything else down to Online and Adobe Services are standard

Online and Adobe online services:

* Disable product updates: Checked

* Load trusted root: Enable & Ask before Installing

* Disable registration: Checked

* When launching PDF in Internet Explorer, prompt user with Open/Save: Checked

* Disable Help > Digital Editions: Unchecked

* Disable Product Improvement Program: Checked

* Disable Viewing of PDF with Ads for Adobe PDF: Unchecked

* Disable all Adobe online services based on workflows and entry points: Checked

Everything else is untouched.

Generated transform file and deployed to test clients. All are reporting the Rightclick, Convert Webpage with a Trial dialog showing up. They can use Acrobat and create PDFs from within the application without problems. When in word, I get an error "Adobe Acrobat is not activated. Cannot create the PDF file".

I would think that granting the offline exception should have made this unnecessary?

[Guest]

Sounds like a bad package.

I would make sure that you are using the release version of the Adobe Customization Wizard and then recreate the package.

[Cato-L]

I've redownloaded the Adobe Customization Wizard XI, removed the old version and installed the downloaded one.

This made no difference. (I also ensured that I re-extracted the installation files for Acrobat XI Pro for good measure)

Tried to create a transform file based on one of the MST's that came with the package, no change.

Tried to create one from scratch and "Save package". No change.

What is strange is that when I do the "Convert Web Page to Adobe PDF" in Chrome, the "Licence" dialog will pop-up, but in the background, Acrobat will start up and show the webpage converted.

One thing that might be worth noting is that the licensing dialog is showing up in Norwegian (The system locale) while Acrobat is installed with English locale. I don't know if this might have anything to do with it. I've tried basing the transform from the 1044.mst file (Norwegian), but this hasn't changed anything.

On a side note, I haven't found anywhere in Acrobat Pro XI where I can see licensing info "This software is licensed to So and So corporation". Is this gone from the product, or just very well hidden?

[Guest]

Hi Cato-L

I do have the same problem with Adobe Acrobat X1 standard.

If found a solution, i would be glad to hear from you.

If i run the setup.exe manually before using Adobe Customisations Wizard, every thing works !

/Steen_Lindved

[Cato-L]

I've spoken to some colleagues that also work with packaging applications, and they've found the same problem.

When you say "If I run the setup.exe manually before using Adobe Customisation Wizard, everything works!", what exactly do you mean? Do you install with Setup, then do another with the customized package, or do you mean that the licensing issue dissapears if you've already installed Acrobat XI Pro before customizing the installation with ACW?

[Guest]

Hi Cato

Happy New  Year

Running a ordinary setup.exe installation, without repacking works.

Just to inform that downloaded package is working.

/Steen

[niklass27950791]

I am facing the same problem (using cust wiz), but I can also reproduce the problem even when the product is installed manually from the original setup.exe, both under Windows XP and Windows 7 x64 on a clean machine. The message below appears when I try to print to Adobe PDF, otherwise the actual application Adobe Acrobat starts without any errors but I have no way to find out if it is running in some trial mode or not.

---------------------------

Create Adobe PDF

---------------------------

Adobe PDF creation cannot continue because Acrobat is not activated.

Click Retry after activating Acrobat to continue printing.

Click Cancel to quit PDF creation.

---------------------------

Retry   Cancel 

---------------------------

I opened a case with Adobe almost a month ago to get our license key verified since there is (according to support) *no way to verify activation* in Adobe XI. Support just closed the case just after christmas without verifying the license. Will try another support # today.

It would not be to fun to roll out XI on +1000 machines as in my case just to discover after 30 days that all installations has stopped working..

[Guest]

Hi Cato-L,

What was the method of your installation? If SCCM, what was the command line that you used to install Acrobat on the client machines? Is the issue also reproducible when you install the customized package manually on a machine rather than pushing it?

Another question, what was the locale of the serial number? was it Norwegian or English? i'm assuming that it was a volume serial number not a retail serial number since you were able to grant offline exception.

[EnterpriseHelp]

Verify that you are using the activation methods as described here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/AdminGuide/licensing.html.

hth,

Ben

[firefluxx]

Same problem here.

We have deployed Acrobat XI to 300 computers, and turns out that it pops up trial registration on each computer and user. The deployment package has been made with the Adobe Customization Tool and deployed with SCCM2007 to workstations. After hours of frustration we managed to get the software activated by creating a provisioning XML with APTEE and updating the version to 11.0.01.  Still the sofware pops up the trial registration window.

By doing the previous we even managed to get the "Product Registration..." to show up in the Help-menu. Clicking it opens a web browser and redirects to this helpful page: http://www.adobe.com/special/errorpages/404.html.

Tomorrow we're going to rollback to X, since currently Acrobat XI is unusable.

Similar problem with single user installation: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1119785

[niklass27950791]

I have been in contact with Enterprise support. I never got any case # but a rep. has called me back and told me they are investigating this matter.

I made a clean machine available to tech support for remote controlling (a machine which experience the licensing problem) but they had no use of it so I am guessing Adobe has been able to reproduce this error on their own.

I hope they get things rolling soon. Have waited with deployment for well over 6 weeks now. Bad value for the money spent on those 1000 licenses so far.

[Varinder_Saini]

Hi,

We are sorry to hear that you are running into troubles with Acrobat lately. However this has been fixed in our latest update (11.0.01). Please apply the update  and it should work.

Varinder

[niklass27950791]

I install via setup.exe and added PATCH="AcrobatUpd11001.msp" in setup.ini.

Verified in about dialog that version display as "11.0.1".

Tried to print to Adobe PDF directly after installation using an local admin account and evaluation dialog ("Login required") appeared (PDF is created though).
Tried another print to Adobe PDF, now I got the modal dialog (error) where it says the product is not activated.

Rebooted the computer. Problem seem to have disapperared. Created several PDF via print -> Adobe PDF without any problems.

Logged on as a new user and I am presented with eval dialog again when I print to Adobe PDF.
On attempt number two I once again get the modal dialog "cannot continue because Acrobat is not activated"
On attempt 6 or 7 no dialogs appear anymore and the problem seem to be fixed.

Logged on as yet another (completely new to this machine) user and it all start over with the dialogs again..

So no, the problem is not resolved from what I can see. If I deployed Acrobat XI 11.0.1 helpdesk would probably get at least one support call per machine as soon as the software is used.

Also I did not see anything in the release notes that this problem has been fixed?

I got a case # last week and submitted my .mst that  Cust. Wiz. has created but haven't heard anything back since then.

[Guest]

Hi hh-hh,

Sorry for the inconvenience. I am able to reproduce the issue that you are seeing. The workaround to this issue would be to launch the Acrobat atleast once before printing to Adobe PDF on the user for which you are seeing the issue. The issue is seen if Acrobat is never launched for the user.

Thanks.

[niklass27950791]

cmad123:

With 11.01 starting Acrobat XI seem to fix the problem (with 11.0 it does not). Starting Distiller 11.01 first is impossible.

However this workaround is not feasible in my environment. I have 1,000 XI licenses and +15,000 user accounts and many machines with hundreds of unique users whose password we have no access to.

Will there be any 11.02 soon? If the problem can be reproduced I guess it can be fixed in the installer?

Regards

[Guest]

Hi,

We do understand that this bug has caused trouble and we appreciate your patience and cooperation. We are working towards fixing this in future releases. In the meantime there are 2 workarounds if you have Acrobat 11.0.01, to overcome this issue:

1. Creating this registry would resolve the issue for all the users on the machine: For a 64 bit machine: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\11.0\Language\current\”. For a 32 bit machine: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\11.0\Language\current\” with default value as acrobat.dll. Please see the  below inserted snapshot for reference. Admins can push this registry via GPO or other enterprise tools.

      2. At the user level, any user who faces this issue, can just launch Acrobat once and the issue will get resolved. Though this workaround is not admin friendly, but individual users can use this           on their machine when they face the issue. Please do remember, if Acrobat has already been launched for a user, this issue will not arise for that user.

Sorry for inconvenience. Thanks.

[niklass27950791]

cmad: thanks!

I modfied the registry entry directly in my .mst for 11.0.
Install via setup.exe and have added .msp for 11.01 in setup.ini.

FINALLY! I have tested on XP and Win 7 x64 and the activation problem seem to be gone! At least when I do print -> Adobe PDF without having launched Acrobat Pro.

Also it seems like it is now possible to launch Distiller directly after installation which was impossible before.

Will do some more testing, if you don't see me nagging within a few days all is well with this fix.

[Cato-L · Accepted solution]

To summarize for those who are still confused (I got it to work), deploy the Setup.exe (No command needed for silent install) in SCCM.

Use the Adobe Customization Wizard to make changes, licensing and such. I used the ACW to inject the acrobat.dll value into the default value of "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\11.0\Language\current\" and then saved the changes as "Custom.mst" with the Generate Transform in ACW.

Modify the Setup.ini file to reflect what you want done with Setup.exe. Here is mine with a few alterations for company anonymity. Bold lines are lines added for patching. Bold Underline lines are where I've made changes. Please note. 1044 is the only remaining code in Languages. This is to ensure my company that the Norwegian features are prioritized in the installation:

------- Setup.ini Start -------

[Startup]

RequireOS=Windows XP

RequireMSI=3.1

RequireIE=7.0.0000.0

Require64BitVC10RT=1

CmdLine=/sl"1044" /spb /rs

[Product]

msi=AcroPro.msi

vcrtMsi=vc_red.msi

vcrtDir=VC10RT_x64

Languages=1044

2052=Chinese Simplified

1028=Chinese Traditional

1029=Czech

1030=Danish

1043=Dutch (Netherlands)

1033=English (United States)

1035=Finnish

1036=French (France)

1031=German (Germany)

1038=Hungarian

1040=Italian (Italy)

1041=Japanese

1042=Korean

1044=Norwegian (Bokmal)

1045=Polish

1046=Portuguese (Brazil)

1049=Russian

1051=Slovak

1060=Slovenian

1034=Spanish (Traditional Sort)

1053=Swedish

1055=Turkish

1058=Ukrainian

1025=English with Arabic support

1037=English with Hebrew support

6156=French (Morocco)

CmdLine=TRANSFORMS="Custom.mst"

PATCH=AcrobatUpd11001.msp

[Windows XP]

PlatformID=2

MajorVersion=5

MinorVersion=1

ServicePackMajor=3

[MSI Updater]

Path=WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe

------- Setup.ini End --------

I hope this will help you deploy Adobe Acrobat Pro 11.0.1 to your corporation.

A special thanks to all of you who helped, and the Adobe employees assisting us in this matter.

Cheers!

Edit: Some users get a 30 second warning for a reboot after Setup.exe has completed. This is even when Reboot is set to suppress in the ACW MST file. To work around this issue, you can call setup from a cmd file like this:

@echo off

setup.exe

IF ERRORLEVEL 3010 exit 0

All other error codes will be accual errors, so we want those thrown back.

Message was edited by: Cato-L

[Guest]

It is a good thing there is a work-around, but now, in patch 11.0.10 the problem is still not solved.

(I have recommended to my boss not renewing the license due to adobe's lack of interest in making silent installation workable. There are problems in every version...)

EDIT: workaround didn't work for my users, the value was already correct.

[firefluxx]

cmad123:

...Really? Adobe's suggestion to fix the problem is to start the program once for all users? I would like to see that happen in environments such as ours with around 30k users.

hh-hh:

Our software distribution team was able to get 11.01 installed and to work without any nags about activation or registration. It took frustratingly much testing and time, which in my opinion is unacceptable with a software that is supposed to be enterprise-friendly. However, I will write instructions on how we got it to work via private message/post it here. Thanks for keeping this thread alive, I would very much like to see this issue get resolved by Adobe too.

[Guest]

Can you also send me the MST that you created? It may be helpful in debugging the issue. Send it to me as a private message, don't release it publically.

Thanks.