Software Deployment

I havn't "package" this but I would suggest that you have a look at http://itninja.com/link/silent-installation-white-paper6 as it may work the same way for creating an admin install and use the SERIALNUMBER property instead.

Thanks, but I've tried that already, doesn't give the desired result. Framemaker 8.0 comes with msi and language mst's.

I just used Install Watch and saved whatever was different but no such luck........

The horrible thing is, this is my first assigned at a new job..............sigh.....

If there is someone out there who solved this, then please let me know.

thanks again.

If you are able to enter the serial # during installation through the MSI + the language transform then I would look into which property that gets set when this is done.

You should be able to see this in a verbose log or "Monitor MSI installation actions in real time".
For the latter have a look at my comment: http://juice.altiris.com/article/1358/troubleshooting-wise-packages-with-windows-installer-log-files#comment-2094

Then after you have changed the serial number (you may have to press a button for this change to be noticed in the DebugView tool) you should see which property or properties that are referred for the number. Then add that extra info to the language transform and you should be set to go [;)]

Unfortunately not. The serial number is entered after you launch the application.

I am soooo running out of ideas. Only one left is the Abcpy.ini. Have to dive in that one.

if there is anyone who can help me with this Abcpy.ini file, I highly appreciate it.

I can put the serial number inside this ini file, which I did. I change the install dir. to something totally different. Just to see if it would read from this ini, which it did.

Framemaker did get installed in the weird dir. that I put, but the serial number................NOPE.

Can I use this Abcpy.ini for Framemaker? I find a lot of information but then for Acrobat.

Thanks for your help.

Unfortunately not. The serial number is entered after you launch the application.That number *has* to be written to either a file or a registry entry. It doesn't matter if it encrypts it, hashes it, or whatever - it will write something somewhere. Have you tried monitoring with ProcMon? Or capturing with a different tool with a smaller footprint e.g. In Control?

hmm wonder if Ian gets a buck for each time he refers to ProcMon [8D]

I've said it before...I honestly don't know how anyone does this job without it or something similar. What do other people *do* when they run up against problems like this? Guess?!? Oh, actually, I *do* know: they put posts on AppDeploy...

And then learn they should use Process Monitor :)

Here at my new job, they use HP Radia for distribution. I have no experience with Radia whatsoever.

Anyway, Installation Monitor (from Radia) was used to capture/snapshot the entering of the serial number and those files (all of them) are now in Radia............................seems to work. One of the other packagers did so, cause like I said. Radia is totally new to me.

I have used every tool except ProcMon............I am going to give that a try now, since I have some time to spare....
I'll let you know the outcome.

Thanks everyone.

Excellent. Add these to your 'essentials' list, to be copied to your USB pen drive. They can all be run without lengthy installation (or easily 'hacked' together with a collection of .REG files) and are either free or very inexpensive:

- A decent text editor (I use TextPad)
- A file/folder comparison tool (I use Beyond Compare)
- A small foot-print snapshot tool (I use In Control from Ziff Davis)
- Dependency Walker
- MS Script Debugger (for debugging your Custom Actions as stand-alone scripts before inclusion in your project)
- Process Explorer (ProcExp from SysInternals)
- The Windows Installer SDK

Sweet! Thanks.
I already have those....[;)] Oops not totally true, I lost InCtrl. somewhere down the line.....my very first USB...gone.......[&o].
During our 8th move in 3 years? Probably so.

By the way I used ProcMon, did find something wanted to test right away and wouldn't you know it VM is giving me a hassle.

ciao

Ok, here it is.
After you entered the license information and did the registration or not, whatever your company wants. Here it was "don't register", a folder in C:\program files\common files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache is create. In this folder there is a cache.db which contains the above entered information. I added this folder to the mst.

Also, when you first launch FrameMaker a pop up window wants you to chose between 'FrameMaker or Structured Framemaker". We chose FrameMaker.
I added the line: ProductInterface=FrameMaker under the section [FRAME] in the maker.ini file, which can be found in C:\program files\adobe\FrameMaker8. Replaced the previous maker.ini with the new one in the mst.

Last thing they wanted here was to disable Updates which can be found in the menu Help | Updates. I renamed the AdobeUpdater.exe in the mst.

Everybody happy here.

I have been having the exact same issues with Framemaker 8.0 as indicated here. I can silently install the program, but it will not include the serial... I have been talking with Adobe, and so far everyone says, 'The 7.2 Instructions should work' and I keep telling them, 'They do not.'

7.2 Instructions:
msiexec /i "Adobe FrameMaker v8.msi" SERIALNUMBER=[serial number]COMPANYNAME="Adobe Systems, Inc." USERNAME="FrameMaker User" /qn[font="times new roman"]

And if you test this yourself, you will agree with me that it does not work.

So in talking with Tech Support, I was informed, you need to have Gold Support (lots of money) to have one of us escalate this issue... Well as this is a smaller product I thought that was complete garbage that they didn't want to support a large corporate client. Instead, I turned to our corporate Liason with Adobe, who got me a contact who has been very helpful thus far in working with me.

My adobe contact has been talking to the Engineers who have been investigating this matter over the past week. This is the latest answer as to why we can't silently deploy this application with the Serial Number.

Sorry for not getting back to you. I am waiting for a response from engineering on this matter. We have determined it is a bug and it is logged but I am trying to find out when it’s to be addressed. I will follow up when I have an answer.

I will try and post here when I do find out further information about this, but as for gizsha's previous solution above, I encourage people NOT to capture the Cache information as it will potentially break other Adobe software such as most CS3 applications.

Additionally they don't have the white paper created for 8.0 yet, but 'one is planned'. :D I Love Adobe.

ORIGINAL: Digitalweezil
This is the latest answer as to why we can't silently deploy this application with the Serial Number.

Sorry for not getting back to you. I am waiting for a response from engineering on this matter. We have determined it is a bug and it is logged but I am trying to find out when it’s to be addressed. I will follow up when I have an answer.

I will try and post here when I do find out further information about this, but as for gizsha's previous solution above, I encourage people NOT to capture the Cache information as it will potentially break other Adobe software such as most CS3 applications.

Additionally they don't have the white paper created for 8.0 yet, but 'one is planned'. :D I Love Adobe.
Well, you gotta love their testing procedures, anyway. I wonder what the daily rate is in their QA dept?

This has been labeled as a bug 1574945.

I have worked through my corporate contact to get this investigated, however unfortunately there is no planned ETR on this issue. If you run into this issue, I highly recommend adding your business case to getting this repaired, who knows maybe before Release 9 they may come up with a fix [:(]

This is bothersome bug because it has put my company at a standstill deploying this application in a way that we can manage and track our licensing agreements. ...sigh

Adobe has issued a new bug for this issueso that it becomes more visible to engineering. Here is the new bug number. 1702704

Yay! It has been fixed. I have applied the workaround and successfully tested it.
http://www.adobe.com/go/kb403296


Silently install Adobe FrameMaker 8.0


Issue -When you attempt to install Adobe FrameMaker 8.0 using standard MSI commands you are still prompted for the serial number on initial launch.

[/align]Reason - In order to workaround the issue, it is necessary to use a two pronged approach addressing both the installer and activation technologies. [/align]

Solution -In order to meet both technologies requirements, two paths (Abcpy.ini and install.xml.override) have to be addressed to compensate for the completed installation not to prompt the user for serial number on initial launch.

[/align] Warning: This solution is not supported but is provided as a courtesy to the customer.
Step 1: Edit the "Abcpy.ini" file.

1. Copy the FrameMaker folder to the desktop.
   
2. Start Notepad.
   
3. Choose File > Open.
   
4. In the Open dialog, navigate to the directory ".../FrameMaker/Disk1/".
   
5. In the Open dialog, select the "Files of Type" pop-up menu and choose "All Files".
   
6. In the Open dialog, select the file "Abcpy.ini" and click the "Open" button.
   
7. Scroll down to the "OEM Installation Options section".
   
8. In "SERIALNUMBER=" entry directly below the text "[OEM Install]" type the serial number (including dashes)
   
9. Choose File > Save.
   
10. Choose File > Close.

Step 2: Create an "application.xml.override" file.

1. Launch Notepad
   
2. Type the following XML:

[blockquote]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Payload>
<Data key="Serial" protected="0">[TYPE YOUR SERIAL NUMBER HERE MINUS THE DASHES]</Data>
<Data key="Registration">Suppress</Data>
<Data key="EULA">Suppress</Data>
<Data key="Updates">Suppress</Data>
</Payload>
</Configuration>[/blockquote] Note: You must save the file as "UTF-8" for proper execution.

Choose File > Save.

In the Save dialog, type the name "application.xml.override"

In the Save dialog, click the "Save" button

Choose File > Close.

Place the file "application.xml.override" in the directory "...\FrameMaker\Disk1\" Step 3: Install Framemaker 8.0 silently from the command line prompt

1. Choose Start > Run.
   
2. In the Run dialog type cmd.
   
3. Click Run.
   
4. At the Command prompt, type cd, a space afterward and then the directory path to the to the "Adobe FrameMaker 8.msi" file.
   
   For example, type:
   cd "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Desktop\FrameMaker 8\Disk1"
   
5. Press Enter.
   
6. Type in the following syntax:
   %SYS%\msiexec.exe /i "%SETUP_DIR%\Adobe FrameMaker 8.msi" ALLUSERS="1" REBOOT="ReallySuppress" ADDLOCAL="ALL" /QN
   
   For example:
   msiexec.exe /i "C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Desktop\FrameMaker 8\DISK1\Adobe FrameMaker 8.msi" ALLUSERS="1" REBOOT="ReallySuppress" ADDLOCAL="ALL" /QN
   
7. Installation should complete silently.

Step 4: Install the Adobe PDF Creation Add-on silently

1. Choose Start > Run.
   
2. In the Run dialog type cmd.
   
3. Click Run.
   
4. At the Command prompt, type cd, a space afterward and then the directory path to the to the "Distillr.msi" file.
   
   Note: There are four languages that you can install and therefore four possible directory paths.
   
   For example, for English, type:
   cd "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Desktop\FrameMaker 8\DISK2\pdfadd-on\enu"
   
5. At the Command prompt, type the following syntax:
   %SYS%\msiexec.exe /i "%SETUP_DIR%\Distillr.msi" ALLUSERS="1" REBOOT="ReallySuppress" ADDLOCAL="ALL" /QN
   
   For example, type:
   msiexec.exe /i "C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Desktop\FrameMaker 8\DISK2\pdfadd-on\enu\Distillr.msi" ALLUSERS="1" REBOOT="ReallySuppress" ADDLOCAL="ALL" /QN
   
6. Installation should complete silently.

[/align]