Recently I had to re-install my CS4 upgrade and hit a strange error, opening the "Setup" application resulted in the normal request for Authentication, as shown below. The problem is, nothing else happened - the dialog box went away and literally nothing happened.
Naturally I tried again by opening the "Setup" application and again it asked for me to authenticate, and again it silently failed. After a fruitless search on the Adobe websites and Google I decided to dig around and find out what was actually happening.
My first stop when things are not working right is always the Console, and yet again it gave me the answer.
If you open Console and see a line like this being dumped in to the logs every few tenths of a second you know somethings not right.
23/04/09 16:22:55 PM authorizationhost[58799] Failed to authenticate user bob (tDirStatus: -14090). 23/04/09 16:22:55 PM authorizationhost[58799] Failed to authenticate user bob (tDirStatus: -14090). 23/04/09 16:22:55 PM authorizationhost[58799] Failed to authenticate user bob (tDirStatus: -14090). 23/04/09 16:22:56 PM authorizationhost[58799] Failed to authenticate user bob (tDirStatus: -14090). 23/04/09 16:22:56 PM authorizationhost[58799] Failed to authenticate user bob (tDirStatus: -14090).
The most annoying part of the experience is the complete and total failure by Adobe's Setup application to neither notify me about the error or to time out (the first time I authenticated I went and had a coffee before I came back to check on it). The problem may have been a result of something else going wrong in my Mac but surely an installer that is custom built should at least do as good a job as the OS's supplied Package Manger? Shouldn't it? Otherwise why build it?
Not wanting to waste any more time, on this silent failure I took the quick and simple way first - I rebooted the Mac Pro.
Upon restart the CS4 upgrade installed without a hitch. I hope this saves someone a few minutes somewhere.
Till next time - watch out for those silent failures. Right now I've got to go an look at some code that relies on system frameworks and user interaction to see if I've left a potential silent failure waiting to bite someone.
I've been described as a lost technocrat or a wondering luddite, personally I just like everything that takes us forward.
Interesting article.
Im new to the whole mac business and i just got myself a nice quad core mac pro ... been trying to install CS4 with a very similar problem. I need to know how to check the terminal for an error log? if u can help?
Probably the easiest place to check is the Console - you can find a dedicated console application in /Applications/Utilities/Console
You will also find the Terminal application there as well - although I think Console will probably be of more use.
Im having this issue...
Im on a iMac OS X
Im trying to install Master Collection
I did have CS3 & CS4 Design Premium installed befor but wanted after effects and prem pro.
When i double click Setep i get the password thing pop up and i enter it, then the 2 boxes appear on the doc And thats as far is it gets it just stalls there…
What should i do.?
Thanks for this. So you downloaded the updates via Adobe Updater then rebooted?
In this case the after the re-boot all of the Adobe Updates came in without requiring a reboot - which is the way it should happen. Of course, this meant I had to quick Firefox, Safari etc as they get affected by the PDF and Flash web plug-in's.
Cheers
Now I have the same Silent fail trying to install a brand new CS4 Design Premium on my brand-new Mac with 10.6.2 system.
Double click the Setup icon, then after 1 seconds it blows up with no clue. The best web reference I found is your blog.
In my case, the Console message (just in case it gives a clue...) is not waht you point in your post, but something like "Invalid path passed to Filesystem constructor"...
Cheers,
Hmmm... Adobe have had various problems with case-sensitive hard disks and with some international characters in the volume name. They used to have some Adobe Tech Notes on it (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/326/326193.html and another one I can't find).
You can check if you OS X install is formatted with a case-sensitive file system by selecting About this Mac from the Apple menu.
Then click "More Info" to open System Profiler and under Hardware select Serial-ATA, then the drive your trying to install on; look for the "File System: Journaled HFS+"
You could also try their AIR based "Adobe Support Advisor" app which will look at the failed install log and try to point you at the relevant tech notes.