Slipstream Adobe Acrobat 9 updates

Want to Slipstream Adobe Acrobat 9 updates?
What you'll need: Patches and the installation files
Overview: Create network install point, upgrade network install point, install from network install point.

I copied the installation files to c:\Acro9Std, saved the update files (9.1, 9.1.1, 9.1.2, 9.1.3, 9.2.0, 9.3.0, 9.3.2, 9.3.3, 9.4) to c:\Acro9Up, and created the network install folder c:\Acro94Img.

1) Run the administrative install using the installation files - run msiexec.exe /a "c:\Acro9Std\Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard\AcroStan.msi"
2) Choose the network installation folder (c:\Acro94Img)
3) Upgrade the administrative image using the image msi - run msiexec /a c:\Acro94Img\acrostan.msi /update c:\Acro9Up\AcroProStdUpd910_T1T2_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd911_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd912_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd913_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd920_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd930_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd940_all_incr.msp
4) Choose the network installation folder (c:\Acro94Img)
5) Install from the network installation folder

Note: If you need to run a repair on Adobe Acrobat 9, these files need to be available. Adobe Acrobat 9 will now see these files as the installation media and will not repair using the original media.

If you do not want to create a network installation point, you can use the following command to install Adobe Acrobat 9:
msiexec.exe /i "c:\Acro9Std\Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard\acrostan.msi /update c:\Acro9Up\AcroProStdUpd910_T1T2_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd911_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd912_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd913_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd920_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd930_all_incr.msp;c:\Acro9Up\AcrobatUpd940_all_incr.msp
(if your path to the updates includes spaces, put quotes around the first update through the last update msp -Microsoft Patch- file)

Return Air problems

On the return leg of a vacation trip, the flight was delayed. At the first delay, the flight crew said they were experiencing maintenance delays. A warning light was on, they tried a fix, and were waiting to see if the light would turn off so they could sign-off on paperwork and take off. Then, it was announced the fix did not work. Next, the flight crew announced they were going to completely power down the plane, including the lights, and power back up to reboot the computer. Sarcastically, I hoped they weren't running Windows, thought they should try downloading updates or uninstalling any recently applied updates. The flight was deplaned (off-boarded?), we were told the warning system was inoperative, they were to try working on connections, restarting the computers again, more testing, and let us know within an hour. I guessed a recently passed passenger's rights bill might have affected how they handled it (de-boarding the plane as opposed to sitting on the plane for another hour).

The flight crew or attendants tried to reroute as many people with connecting flights as possible. They spoke of the option of vouchers for hotels at both ends of the trip, rescheduling flights, or catching the later flight. I was told that although the expressed the possibility of catching the later flight, that flight had 7 open seats but 10 on the waiting list. They ended up sending a plane across from Newark, maintaining the same flight number, and this resolution suited me. As an apology or thank you, we received coupons for a discounted future flight, a "premium beverage", and we received free satellite programming (movies) for the flight.

I would not say I was upset and felt they did their best to help us. It was one of those situations where I felt getting upset, annoyed, or off-put would not help and would just make things worse for myself, the other passengers, and the airline's employees. Others did not feel this way, and I don't know if I would have felt the same had this been the beginning of my trip, not the end. I felt the airline handled themselves professionally and the coupons were nice, but the behavior of some was embarrassing. I don't know the accuracy of the information I received, but I tried to transcribe it above accurately. In other words, I imagine that the maintenance passed the information to the pilots (perhaps indirectly) who passed the information on to the flight crew (kind of like the message passing game). This is the first time I've experienced this kind of delay, and I was interested in capturing it.

VirtualPC Virtual Network Adapters in Windows (Server 2008)

I am using a set of Microsoft VHDs to demo their software (specifically Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2), and I wondered why my Local Area Connection was around Local Area Connection 24 and my network card was Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network 15. My guess is that Microsoft passed these VHDs around for review before release, so it stored past local area connections and network adapters. The Virtual Machines had a startup script called startup.cmd that referenced a Local Area Connection that wasn't the current one. I changed the number to match mine, then decided to remove the old adapters through the registry. Here's what I did (take caution and perform backups before editing the registry):

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Network Cards\, network cards are enumerated by number. The Description subkey lists the name of the adapter and the ServiceName subkey lists the Service GUID. I noted the ServiceName and deleted the keys.

For Windows Vista/Server 2008 and above, the keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\NetworkList\Profiles represent the networks. I deleted all but the network I was interested in (the domain). The network names are listed under Description and ProfileName. Interestingly, one of the networks was corp.microsoft.com.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}, network connections are listed (like Local Area Connection n) by GUID with their names under Connection\Name. I deleted all the GUIDs for the connections I didn't want.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\Description, adapters are enumeratec and used the numbers are listed under the data of the REG_MULTI_SZ key. I cleared the data for Microsoft Virtual Machine Bus Network Adapter and Microsoft VMBus Network Adapter.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services are listed the the GUIDs representing the network cards from the ...Network Cards subkeys (ServiceName). I deleted the corresponding GUIDs from the Network Cards.

Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip\Adapters are listed GUIDs representing adapters. I deleted the unwanted keys. The same is true for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip\Interfaces. I left HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\Interfaces alone.

I found these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles, but they apply to NT 3.5 - 4.0:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/146333
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/147797

Slipstream Adobe Acrobat 8 updates

Want to Slipstream Adobe Acrobat 8 updates?
What you'll need: Adobe Customization Wizard 8 (http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3564), Patches, the installation files

Download and the patches to a patch folder
Copy the Adobe Acrobat 8 installation files to a folder (an install source folder)
Install and run the Adobe Customization Wizard 8
Click File -> Open Package, and point it to the folder containing the msi file, example c:\Acro8StdCD\Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard\acrostan.msi
Make any customizations to the installation process
Click Transform -> Generate Transform..., create a folder to contain the administrative installation point, and name the file, for example c:\Acro8Std\acrostan.mst
Run msiexec /a "c:\Acro8StdCD\Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard\acrostan.msi"
Click Next, click Change, select the admin install point, click OK, and click Install. Click Finish.
For each update and in order (8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.1.3, 8.1.6, etc), run the following msiexec /a c:\Acro8Std\acrostan.msi /p C:\patch\AcrobatUpd810_efgj_incr.msp
Click Next, Install, Finish
When you're done, run msiexec.exe /i "C:\Acro8Std\acrostan.msi" TRANSFORM="C:\Acro8Std\acrostan.mst" on the target workstations
Since you're using a mst file, this method doesn't help as a group policy software installation method. Using the Save package feature of the Adobe Customization Wizard might help with group policy software installations. I haven't tried to see what it can do.

Update: for installation repairs, Adobe Acrobat looks for the originally installed msi/image. If you update the network installation location, an installation that used the older files will not recognize the updated files. To maintain repair functionality, you'd either need to maintain separate install images, copy the files locally, or resort to uninstall/reinstall instead of repair.

Fedora 12 Out of the box

Out of the box, which is to say out of the ISO, Fedora 12 doesn't have many things I want, mainly patent or license encumbered packages or software. It didn't include support for mp3, divx, DVDs, or AC-3. I didn't know how to watch on websites without Adobe Flash (which has Linux support). In Windows, I use WinAmp to play MP3s. In Fedora, I am using Audacious. For mp3s, I needed audacious-plugins-freeworld-mp3 (which needed libmad). For xvid support, I used xvidcore (unsurprisingly). I got the Adobe Flash plug-in from get.adobe.com/flashplayer.

I could get Audacious from Fedora's Add/Remove Software and Flash from Adobe. I had to get the rest from rpmfusion.org. I chose not to add RPMFusion to Fedora's Add/Remove Software because I wanted to know the dependencies. I picked up Linux because I wanted to know how Linux worked.

Audacious needed libmowgli, audacious-libs, lirc-libs, audacious-plugins, libsidplay libbinio, mcs-libs, SDL, libmpcdec, and libcddb. ffmpeg-libs needed faad2-libs, faad2, dirac-libs, libdc1394, gsm, and schroedinger. libquicktime needed lame-libs, ffmpeg-libs, and x264-libs. gstreamer-plugins-bad needed mjpegtools-libs, libmms, libmimic, libdca, libdvdnav, rasqal, lzo-minilzo, libmodplug, raptor, celt, enca, directfb, libmusicbrainz, slv, libkate, tslib, fftw, libdvdread, libofa, redland, libass, libvncserver, postgresql, and libsysfs.

No Flash for FreeBSD, using Fedora

I could not figure out a way to get around the lack of availability of Adobe Flash for FreeBSD. Suggestions were to use Gnash, swfdec, or to use the Linux version of Adobe Flash Player with FreeBSD. I installed Gnash and swfdec but couldn't figure out how to plug them into Firefox, and I wasn't sure about using the Adobe Flash Player for Linux with FreeBSD. Adobe.com didn't want to help me to that, certainly.

I had tried Red Hat Linux before the time of Fedora Core. I tried Fedora Core 4 and 5 and even had Fedora Core 5 joined to the Active Directory domain at work using samba. I grabbed Fedora 11 and recently upgraded to Fedora 12. Adobe Flash Player installs from get.adobe.com/flashplayer onto Firefox easily. I use Firefox on Windows alternatingly with Internet Explorer, and I'm a fan.

I remember using BBSs, then CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy, then Mosaic (I remember SPRY Mosaic), then Netscape. I was in public school at the time when Netscape was for charge, but you could get a free copy as a student.

To recover from that digression, I am now using Fedora 12.

Wifi on FreeBSD

Compared to adding sound support, adding wifi to FreeBSD was a little bit more difficult. Of course, man wlan helps. Once you know what your wireless chipset is called, you can man that (look it up in the manual). On this Latitude D600, it was iwi. It could have also been ipw. I found this documentation helpful: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-wireless.html (FreeBSD Handbook, Chapter 31 Advanced Networking). Part of the difficulty is that the wireless router (access point) I wanted to connect to uses WPA security. Another issue is that you need to agree to the Intel license agreement and load the firmware. You need to load the 802.11i security components and use the wpa_supplicant. These lines get added to /boot/loader.conf (again, there is a way to do it in the kernel configuration file, but I don't know the pros/cons of that):
legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1
if_iwi_load="YES"
wlan_load="YES"
firmware_load="YES"
iwi_bss_load="YES"
iwi_ibss_load="YES"
iwi_monitor_load="YES"
wlan_scan_ap_load="YES"
wlan_scan_sta_load="YES"
wlan_wep_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"

In the file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf I had to add:
network={
ssid="mySSID"
psk="myPSK"
}

I added this line to /etc/rc.conf:
ifconfig_iwi0="WPA DHCP"

When I reboot, I have internet access, and it connects to my network as part of the loader script. Once I figure it out, I need to detail how to load Firefox (not hard) with Adobe Flash support (seems hard).