Framemaker and Parallels for mac

Report · Apr 23, 2010

(moving this over from another thread)

We decided to go with Framemaker and mac, and I'm using Windows Parallels 5 to make that happen on a virtual machine. This works well, for the most part, as it means I dont have to leave my native (mac) environment or my mac applications including (mail etc) notifications.

I am working with Framemaker 9 - creating DITA standard xml files for a help system. So far the only technical glitch is - the edit/undo buttons are now grayed out - unaccountably.

If anyone has similar experiences - any solutions? My current Parallels 5 is up to date with recent updates.

thanks,

John

Report · Apr 24, 2010

I'm using Frame 9 under Windows 7 and previously under Windows XP without seeing what you are seeing under Parallels 5. Let us get more details.

What version of Frame? What version of Windows? What version of Parallels 5? Do you have any haxies running on the Mac? Any extra background processes under Windows? Is your Parallels disk a boot camp partition or a Parallell's virtual disk. If it is a boot camp partition, you have the capability to run Windows under Boot Camp to see if the problem is a Parallels issue or not.

Report · Apr 24, 2010

Michael,

Im using Parallels 5 as a virtual machine.

Revision 558741, March 5 2010

Framemaker 9.0p196

XP home edition 5.1.2600

- extra background processes under Windows.. not that I can see in Task Manager

-John

Report · May 09, 2010

John,

I am sorry that this is a bit off your posted problem, but I couldn't find a better thread for this (please let me know if you know of one).

I cannot even get FrameMaker 9 installed. I am running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 installed under Parallels 5 (latest update) on a MacBook Pro (with an i7 Processor). When the installer is extracting the files, it consistently freezes at 26% when Data1.cab is the file listed as the one being extracted.

Did you have any problem just installing Frame 9 on Parallels 5? I tried Adobe's suggestions, I made sure I had enough RAM and hard disk space, and I tried modifying the Windows system to a simple system, but it keeps freezing at the same point.

-Mark

Report · May 09, 2010

neuropod wrote:
John,
I am sorry that this is a bit off your posted problem, but I couldn't find a better thread for this (please let me know if you know of one).
I cannot even get FrameMaker 9 installed. I am running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 installed under Parallels 5 (latest update) on a MacBook Pro (with an i7 Processor). When the installer is extracting the files, it consistently freezes at 26% when Data1.cab is the file listed as the one being extracted.
Did you have any problem just installing Frame 9 on Parallels 5? I tried Adobe's suggestions, I made sure I had enough RAM and hard disk space, and I tried modifying the Windows system to a simple system, but it keeps freezing at the same point.
-Mark

I've been using FrameMaker 9 on Win XP SP2 on Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and Parallels 5, on pre-Unibody MacBook Pro 17", 4GB RAM. No installation problems, no operation problems on light-weight FrameMaker docs and tasks. I had screen-refresh and hang problems when I used VMware Fusion 2 and Win 7, as well as with Win XP SP2. I'd suspect those problems were due to VMware Fusion 2; haven't tried Fusion 3.

If you've had other FrameMaker installations on your virtual machine, whether FrameMaker 9, or earlier, or perhaps pre-release (beta) versions, there may be junk remaining from them, as happens in Windows registries from time to time. If you've downloaded FrameMaker, rather than having gotten it on a disk, perhaps there's a defect in the download. If you've installed FrameMaker as part of TCS or TCS2, perhaps there are interactions between the other components of TCS/2.

Since it's a virtual machine, perhaps you can delete the complete virtual machine and start over from scratch, if you have no serious commitment to other Windows apps.

Perhaps others on the forum have other suggestions.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Report · May 10, 2010

Peter,

Thanks so much for your reply. I tried your suggestions, but to no avail. I then spent quite a bit of quality time with Adobe technical support, and they were very helpful, and got me on my way. Just in case anyone else with similar issues should come across this thread I will describe some of the issues.

BTW - John, now that I have FM9 running, I have not experienced the nonfunctioning UNDO command that you described in the original post. Sorry. I will let you know if it occurs in a delayed fashion as yours did.

For anyone who just installed Parallels and then Windows XP, what I found out is that many of the components in XP are very old school. Flash is way out of date, Explorer is, too. This may impair the functioning of the extractor, I am not sure. As a Mac user, some of these issues were foreign to me. I just wanted to run Windows so I could use FrameMaker on my Mac.

First I had to update Flash, and to do this I downloaded the latest version of the FireFox-Mozilla web-browser (or you could update MS Explorer).

Once we had all of these components up-to-date, we were still running into problems with file extraction, and the Tech Support person had me load a program called WinRAR (google it) which seemed to be a more configureable extractor than the default one that comes with the FrameMaker download. Using WinRAR we extracted the files into the Programs folder (once WinRAR was installed, the generic box icon for the extraction program changed to a normal looking icon). This may all be possible using the default extractor, I just don't know.

And a final for-what-its worth: before going the Parallels route, I tried installing SheepShaver to run Classic on my MacBook Pro so I could continue to run my Mac copy of Frame v7. SheepShaver may be OK for getting your old games and simple programs up and running, but it did not seem anywhere near stable enough to get something like FrameMaker running with a long document with graphics and cross references.

Final working configuration: FrameMaker 9 on Win XP SP2 on Snow Leopard 10.6.3 on a 17" MacBook Pro with Intel Core i7 processors (April 2010 model) and Parallels 5, 8 GB RAM. Seems to work so far, I have imported my old FrameMaker 7 Mac files (didn't even have to save them as MIFs!). Now I need to relearn Frame in the "Parallel" universe of Windows.

Time spent monkeying around with SheepShaver, trying InDesign as a substitute for FrameMaker (close, but not close enough), downloading and installing Parallels/Windows XP and trying all kinds of tricks to get iFrameMaker running and then being on-hold/on-line with Adobe tech support: 16+ hours.

Getting FrameMaker running again on my main machine: Priceless!

-Mark Greenberg

Report · Apr 26, 2011

neuropod wrote:
Peter,
Thanks so much for your reply. I tried your suggestions, but to no avail. I then spent quite a bit of quality time with Adobe technical support, and they were very helpful, and got me on my way. Just in case anyone else with similar issues should come across this thread I will describe some of the issues.
BTW - John, now that I have FM9 running, I have not experienced the nonfunctioning UNDO command that you described in the original post. Sorry. I will let you know if it occurs in a delayed fashion as yours did.
For anyone who just installed Parallels and then Windows XP, what I found out is that many of the components in XP are very old school. Flash is way out of date, Explorer is, too. This may impair the functioning of the extractor, I am not sure. As a Mac user, some of these issues were foreign to me. I just wanted to run Windows so I could use FrameMaker on my Mac.
First I had to update Flash, and to do this I downloaded the latest version of the FireFox-Mozilla web-browser (or you could update MS Explorer).
Once we had all of these components up-to-date, we were still running into problems with file extraction, and the Tech Support person had me load a program called WinRAR (google it) which seemed to be a more configureable extractor than the default one that comes with the FrameMaker download. Using WinRAR we extracted the files into the Programs folder (once WinRAR was installed, the generic box icon for the extraction program changed to a normal looking icon). This may all be possible using the default extractor, I just don't know.
And a final for-what-its worth: before going the Parallels route, I tried installing SheepShaver to run Classic on my MacBook Pro so I could continue to run my Mac copy of Frame v7. SheepShaver may be OK for getting your old games and simple programs up and running, but it did not seem anywhere near stable enough to get something like FrameMaker running with a long document with graphics and cross references.
Final working configuration: FrameMaker 9 on Win XP SP2 on Snow Leopard 10.6.3 on a 17" MacBook Pro with Intel Core i7 processors (April 2010 model) and Parallels 5, 8 GB RAM. Seems to work so far, I have imported my old FrameMaker 7 Mac files (didn't even have to save them as MIFs!). Now I need to relearn Frame in the "Parallel" universe of Windows.
Time spent monkeying around with SheepShaver, trying InDesign as a substitute for FrameMaker (close, but not close enough), downloading and installing Parallels/Windows XP and trying all kinds of tricks to get iFrameMaker running and then being on-hold/on-line with Adobe tech support: 16+ hours.
Getting FrameMaker running again on my main machine: Priceless!
-Mark Greenberg

Hi, Mark:

I wish everyone keeps a copy of this post, so they could present your positive Adobe tech-support experience when someone posts a polar-opposite bad Adobe tech-support experience.

D'ja ever notice that you find something that you lost in the last place you looked? Because you don't need to look further, right? Glad you got a working combination.

I didn't have any special problems installing Parallels, Windows XP, and FrameMaker on my Mac (hardware and OS described in another post on this thread,) but I've been bi-platform for a long time. Actually, I began with Virtual PC on a much weaker Mac running OS 9 years ago, which I abandoned because of the poor performance, due almost entirely to the underpowered Mac. On my current Mac, I began with VMware's Fusion 2, then 3, but found it quirky enough to try Parallels5, which seemed smoother, and offered an inexpensive side-grade, followed by inexpensive deals to upgrade to Parallels 6.

I'm interested in what shortcomings you found with InDesign for your purposes. If you think not too many folks would be interested, please send private forum email by clicking on my name and looking for send private message.

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Report · Apr 26, 2011

Other than the missing options, how is performance?

I'm thinking of doing this and am concerned about reports of crashes

due to overheating and unacceptably slow FrameMaker performance.

How's it working for you?

And remind me again why Adobe won't make a Mac version of FrameMaker...

Report · Apr 26, 2011

rvbdwriter wrote:
Other than the missing options, how is performance?
I'm thinking of doing this and am concerned about reports of crashes
due to overheating and unacceptably slow FrameMaker performance.
How's it working for you?
And remind me again why Adobe won't make a Mac version of FrameMaker...

I use FrameMaker 9 and 10 in Windows XP SP3, with Parallels 6 on Mac OS X 10.6.7, on a 2.5 GHz MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo with 6GB RAM (the maximum possible RAM for this February 2008 model.) Depending how I divide the RAM between Mac OS X and Parallels, and how I configure Parallels to favor one or the other operating system, and how much stuff I have active on the Mac - including both applications that are doing stuff, and sleeping ones, the FrameMaker performance is either about what I'd expect from a pretty-good PC, or disgustingly slow. I attribute the slowness mostly to my own gluttonous use of resources on the Mac side.

If your computer is overheating, there may be other components contributing to the problem; on a laptop, extra-large and extra-fast hard drives are a likely source, but also poor attention paid to keeping the cooling vents and fan intakes unobstructed. Search Google for terms like "macbook fan temperature utilities" or "mac pro fan temperature utilities" without quotes to find free applications that can tell you how your fans are working, and how hot the various heatmaking components are.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices