Changes to Adobe support

[Greg Neagle]

One of the major features of Munki over the years was its support for installing and removing Adobe software using its non-standard installation media.

Munki has supported installs of Adobe software since at least Adobe CS3, and added support for newer Adobe install “things” as Adobe changed how their install media worked over the years.

In recent years, however, the organization I work for has moved to just installing the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop and allowing users to install and remove Adobe products (with Named User Licensing) via the Creative Cloud Desktop. So I have not been using or testing installs of current Adobe software via installation media created via the Adobe Admin Console.

I’ve seen people having issues with current/recent Adobe Admin Console packages and current Munki tools, both with install and uninstall. Many of these issues have workarounds, but not all admins will discover those.

I have a new testing branch/test build of the Munki tools that implements some changes to how Adobe installers are imported and handled at install and uninstall time.

The branch is named “uninstall_pkg” and the testing build is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5zigg6z38k4jrm5/munkitools-6.2.0.4539.pkg?dl=0

With this testing build, `munkiimport /path/to/AdobeInstaller.pkg --uninstallpkg=/path/to/AdobeUninstaller.pkg` results in a pkginfo that treats the Adobe installer package like any other Apple installer package — there is no attempt to do anything special. Likewise, on uninstall, the uninstaller package is simply installed — no Adobe-specific code is run.

If it is important to you that Munki continues its support for installing and removing Adobe software , please test and provide feedback. Again, I no longer use Munki to install and uninstall current Adobe software, so I will not be motivated to do in-depth testing here. I’ve verified an install and uninstall of a single 2021 product works as I expect. You should test 2022 and 2023 products.

Additionally:

The Adobe documentation in the wiki is seriously out of date. We need a new wiki page, focused on deploying current Adobe Admin Console packages. Earlier pages can remain, but be marked as “of historical interest” (who knows, there may be some poor K-12 admin still deploying CS6!)

I’d also like to see someone write up some documentation on using `/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Adobe\ Desktop\ Common/HDBox/Setup --uninstall=1 <etc>` in an uninstall_script as an alternative uninstall method.

-Greg

[lorisarvendu]

I still use the method 'munkiimport...Installer.pkg --uninstallpkg etc' with Munki 5 and find it successful. However due to the Adobe uninstaller removing everything except the actual Application directory (e.g. /Adobe InDesign 2023/) I have had to incorporate postuninstall scripts to rm the folder.

-DaveB

[Rick Davis]

Several years ago I adopted the method of building and deploying a pkg that installs the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop app and the license information. Shared Device License in my instance. I also set the preference to allow the user to install/update/uninstall any of the licensed apps. I import the pkg into my Munki-Repo and add it as an optional install to devices allowed to install the Adobe CCDA, we purchase 100 licenses annually for three small labs and a handful of teachers. It has served me well for five plus years now.

Rick Davis

[Oliver Hetzner]

Hello Greg and all,

I'm using the "munkiimport ...." command all the time for package creation of Adobe Products. Works fine for me, only the "installs" items are randomly wrong and has to be modified. Sometimes it is only the insert of a "32" into the filename. When using Adobe universal Packages for Intel and M1, I found that on some Products I'll have to change the installs completely. From the strange "/Library/Application Support/Adobe/installers/uninstallers/...." file to an Application based "installs" that checks the ShortVersionString.

But I found that the installation itself gets slower and slower with every new version of Adobe Software. It would be great, if you would continue the support of Adobe installations.

By the way: thanks for this great pease of software!

OH

[fnordware]

Hey Greg, thanks for posting that build, but the link's not working anymore. Can we have another?

The Adobe package functionality has been faltering for a while and now it's basically non-functional. The installer command line program works fine, so Munki should be able to just run that, right?

[Gregory Neagle]

That 4+ month old build is no longer needed because the changes have made it into official Munki releases, starting with Munki 6.2 on January 31, 2023.

-Greg

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[fnordware]

Ack, my apologies. I didn't realize I'd have to re-do the pkginfo and catalog with the new version too. Thanks for the patch!