Logo

Why does adobe reader crash when when I run it from a server based home directory?

- Bill TX

Adobe knows about this problem and at times has fixed it in different version. It appears not be a priority for them, because after an upgrade it stopped working again.

The problem lies that adobe uses the home directory to store some cache data. Apearently the compiler they use can handle the network drive. It might have to do with the copy write version of adobe writer, which might share part of the same code-base. Anyway, the directories that seem to be the problem are /Users/Shared/9.0_x86/ or on the old ppc /Users/Shared/9.0_ppc/ . During various version we have been able to work around this problem by using symbolic link to fool reader to think it is running from on a local hard drive. While this worked for a while, various update tend to break this.

The solution we can offer at this time is to use mobile accounts, which are on the local hard drive. Of course this might not solve the backup problem in your situation and seriously tasks the server storage in situations were users often switch computer. Also one needs to implement a strict monitoring policy to make sure the mobile accounts are sync.

Link