Any success running TCS/FrameMaker on M1 Mac? (LOCKED)

[Alan Houser]

Just sending this flare as I continue to work on the issue...

Have any of you successfully run TCS or even just FrameMaker on an M1 Mac? Here's the situation I'm encountering:

• Microsoft no longer provides a Windows 10 image for ARM-based processors. You can only install Windows 11 (BTW, which Microsoft claims provides full backwards application compatibility with Windows 10).
• It's no longer possible to install Internet Explorer on Windows 11. Only Microsoft Edge is supported.

Here's what I'm seeing thus far (in a Windows 11 VM under Parallels):

• The TCS installer initially terminated on launch, with message "Your browser or operating system is no longer supported. You may need to install the latest updates to your operating system". Applying the Adobe registry modifications for bypassing the IE 11 requirement appeared to fix this problem.

• FrameMaker terminates on launch with "The code execution cannot proceed because atmlib.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem". I've also searched for a copy of 'atmlib.dll' on my Windows 10 filesystem, without success. (I've attempted multiple re-installs from both the TCS and stand-alone FrameMaker installers).

If anybody can report success and/or provide a path forward, I would be grateful to learn of it!

-Alan Houser

[pdeitel]

My understanding is that Windows ARM **can** emulate x64. But for the life of me, I can't get the x64 Framemaker to install. I don't need anything other than the ability to edit Frame files and produce PS output. 

[diver314]

sorry for the semantics but the question is if Parallels emulation for WinARM on M1, M2 (with a windows ARM license you download and install) "emulates" or runs programs developed for X64 Intel architecture. The current Framemaker installer does nor recognize and braks out. Even if you somehow succeed, as shown on this site, you are left with problems of postscript and many others. 

[Alan Houser]

This thread is now more than two years old, but it seemed to be popular, so I thought I would check on any updates here.

I don't see any evidence that "Update 3 of FrameMaker (September 2022 release)" will install on Windows 11 running on an M1 Mac. When I attempt to run the installer, I get "Installer is corrupt. Please re-download the installer and try again". I do not believe the error message is correct.

Has anybody successfully installed FrameMaker 2022 on Windows 11 running on an M1 Mac? Thus far, I'm still running FrameMaker 2020, installed via the "atmlib.dll" hack mentioned previously.

Thanks in advance!

-Alan Houser

[Isaac21880176y11e]

I tried to install Framemaker on M1 running the latest parallel and windows 11 and got the same error as Houser. Any new ideas ?

[pdeitel]

For any of you who did not see this posted:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/framemaker-discussions/private-beta-for-framemaker-on-arm-processor-b...

[paul_6939]

I was just notified that there will not be an ARM build for FrameMaker. Has anyone been able to successfully install FrameMaker in Windows 11 ARM on parallels recently with the newer Windows emulation updates?

[Bob_Niland]

paul: I was just notified that there will not be an ARM build for FrameMaker.

Can you share where that was communicated?
Not that I necessairly doubt it, after the Linux build of FM never made it out of βeta either.

[frameexpert]

Paul is correct, the ARM build for FrameMaker is dead.

[paul_6939]

I had interacted with support MONTHS ago and the communication came to me by email just today.

[Dan Phillips @Korg]

This is exceptionally disappointing, and will lead to my group abandoning FrameMaker in favor of tools which are less capable but actively supported. It's not practical for me to buy and maintain a Windows computer just to run Frame Maker.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Of course, anything could change based the market--even Adobe. And Intel is not sitting still with new processors to compete with ARM. Windows is certainly not going to abandon Intel processors in favor of only ARM like Apple did. And if the company that owns ARM gets greedy with its licensing--who knows...

[Dan Phillips @Korg]

Not interested in arguing Intel vs. ARM. Go to a cafe in my area, and you'll see 10 Macs for every Windows laptop. Adobe offers no FrameMaker solution for those potential customers - not even via emulation. Adobe knows their market for FrameMaker, I'm sure, but they've also limited it by not investing in FM as they've done with the rest of their major applications. Both supply and demand play a part here. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

It was Apple's decision to switch entirely to the M-processors. The emulation issue is that only ARM compatible Windows 11 will work on Macs, and therefore, only ARM compatible software. 

Again, I think Adobe's stance could change in the future based on marketshare. If they see the Intel market shrinking too much, things could change. Only time will tell. 

[jarome]

For Macs, Affinity Publisher 2 is much cheaper and very capable. If only it did equations, it would be better than FrameMaker.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

OR, since this is an Adobe forum, Adobe InDesign. 

[paul_6939]

supposedly win11 ARM can emulate x64, but when I try to run the installer it just says it's corrupted. I bet they could fix the installer and let us use emulation

[paul_6939]

InDesign is not a great authoring tool though. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

It's better than Affinity Publisher, which is what I was responding to.

[Dan Phillips @Korg]

Dave Creamer: this is a discussion about running FrameMaker on Macs. It's not a comparison of ARM and Intel; nor is it a debate of Mac vs. Windows. Most emphatically, it is not a debate about whether or not some longtime FM users would like to be able to continue to use the application on our OS of choice. We do. Note that despite my "beginner" tag here, I have used FrameMaker since around 1992, on SPARC, 68k, PowerPC, and Intel hardware.  

[paul_6939]

I've been using it on Macs inside a VM since VMWare Fusion first debuted. Most authors and developers run macs so they can have macOS, Windows and Linux running on one computer. Maintaining multiple computers is not cost effective or efficient.

Microsoft provides "migration" possibilities to compile x64 stuff in a manner that can run on ARM. Adobe as a minimum should be doing that.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Dan Phillips @Korg I know what the discussion is about--thank you very much. I've been using Frame since 1989, and a certified consultant by Frame Tech. in 1991 and Adobe Certified Expert. I've used Frame on Mac, Macs with emulation, and Windows (not Unix however).

If one wants to use Frame on Macs, with or without emulation, its going to be on an ARM processor. I wasn't making a "one is better than the other" comparision. I'm not sure where you got that from.

What I WAS saying is that if Windows computers start to sure ARM more and more, Adobe may rethink their position. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I'm getting the impression that this thread should be locked - there's nothing anybody can contribute to the issue now because none of us have any control over Adobe, Framemaker, Apple or Microsoft.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this sums it up:

- Apple has gone to ARM processors - ARM processors don't run regular Windows in emulators
- Microsoft has a Win11 for ARM product (sorta)
- FM could theoretically run on this Win11 for ARM platform, but the installer flakes out & you can't create PDFs anyway
- FM seems to think there isn't enough market share in fixing this up; nothing we can do about that

Did I get this right? Should we just close this down?

[mscmbl]

Close it