installing on an alternative drive?

[MScherzer]

Hi,

Is there a way to install flex builder on a secondary drive? The issue I am having is that my mac like any decent unix system has a root partition which is case-senstive. As most of my development is done for system where this is the case (hahaha).

Now it appears like the insane people at adobe require an insensitive file system to install flash builder. I thought ok no problem i will just create a new partition make it ignore case and install there (annoying but ok).

However the dumb arse installer just seems to bail on launch. So any ideas what I can do, has anyone gotten flashbuilder installed on a seperate drive?

If you think that reformatting my Mac is the solution your are crazy!!!

Pretty annoyed at the moment, that I need to run Flex Builder in a windows vm on a Mac!?!?.

somebody must have a solution, i mean steam works just fine in a sparse.bundle.

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

Yes, Flash Builder supports installation to an alternate drive, but I think that will only help if your alternate drive is also bootable. In a nutshell, you need to be booted from a volume that is configured using Apple's default format: Mac OS Extended, with or without Journaling, and without the Case Sensitive option enabled.

The default Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format supports case-sensitive folders and filenames, but is not locked into the same restrictions of the optional disk partition formats that are case sensitive.

Sorry, I know this is a pain if you already have your primary boot volume formatted with the Case Sensitive option, but you should also be aware that case sensitive disk formatting can cause problems with a lot of other software programs too, not just with Adobe apps.

Also, note that Apple generally advises avoiding the Case Sensitive formatting option too:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1544?viewlocale=en_US

Apple recommends sticking with the default formatting option: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

-Chris

[MScherzer]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question. If I follow you solution can I then boot back to my normal partition after installation or do I have to dual boot everytime i want to use flex builder?

In twenty years of software development the adobe product line has been the only one I have encountered this issue and without there being a reasonable workauround. I mean it can't be such a big deal to let the installer pick the installation volume. It works for steam!

My designer was pissed off having to reinstall his machine to get CS4 working (same problem with case sensitive volume).

I stupidly assumed that for an eclipse plugin there would be NO WAY that this could be a problem that would hit me especially considering that this is supposed to be a serious developer tool!! Now I am stuck running windows in a VM. As if having to run windows is not punishment enough i am also hit with ther perfomance drain on running a whole seperat O/S just so i can use my flex builder license.

A well now i am praying that flash dies a sudden death so that i can ditch this bullshit solution.

cheers

and thanks again for responding to the post.

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

I believe you'll need to boot from the alternate drive in order to run FB4, or any other CS5 app for that matter. We didn't have this limitation for FB3, because we weren't as tightly integrated with the other Creative Suite products and their core libraries before now.

Our installers have little trouble handling the case-sensitive format, but it's a Creative Suite requirement to prevent installation in this situation, because of myriad known incompatibilities.

Adobe is hardly alone in this though. Here's a small sampling of other apps that don't support case-sensitive boot volumes:

mySQL problem with case-sensitive volumes:

http://bugs.xampp.org/view.php?id=158

HP Driver problem with case-sensitive volumes:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4639909

Filevault hassles on case-sensitive volumes:

http://www.frederico-araujo.com/2008/11/04/getting-filevault-on-a-hfs-case-sensitive-filesystem/

Nikon software does not support case-sensitive file systems:

http://nikonimglib.com/cnx2/index_en_nsa.html#os-macintosh

Dropbox problems with case-sensitive systems:

http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=5587

Problem building cvs with a case-sensitive volume:

http://www.mail-archive.com/devel@xfree86.org/msg08037.html

Apple Time Machine bug with case-sensitive volume:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11177734&#11177734

If you need a case-sensitive filesystem for certain purposes, Apple has recommended installing it on a secondary drive or partition, not on the boot volume:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA21400?viewlocale=en_US

That's an older article, but even with Leopard the recommendations remained approximately the same:

http://www.macintouch.com/leopard/faq.html

Excerpt from the MacInTouch report above:

Q: Can Leopard be installed on a case-sensitive file-system?

A: Although possible, Apple does not recommend this for previous versions of Mac OS X, and we see no signs this has changed in Leopard.

Interesting counter-perspective:

http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/_/fileCaseSens.html

-Chris

[MScherzer]

Notice: How they are "BUG" reports! They are trying to fix the bugs. Your stuff works case-sensitive and you artificially broke it, big difference.

Also "I can choose" on which volume to install the above products thus getting them to run wihout dual booting!

so instead of listing a bunch of products and saying:

"See we are just as broken as the others"

Would it not be better to say:

We support UNIX system:

"Our stuff works better than: insert your list".

Anyways enough of the flamming. Thanks for your responses. I got my answer my configuration is not supported, just means I will push as hard as I can against doing anything in flash internally and to our clients. I know it's juvenile but THATS how much I hate dealing with windows, and thats what i got to do to use flex builder. Maybe I can find a flex builder 3 version!! how dumb is that!!!

cheers

marcel

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

Hi Marcel,

If it's bug reports you want, we have a couple of those too:

http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FB-21418

http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FB-27012

I recommend that you vote for that more recent one (FB-27012) if this is important to you. If this is important to enough people, we can lobby the Core Tech group more effectively to address this for future releases.

My point with listing the various other products that have problems with Apple's case-sensitive formatting was mainly in response to your statement earlier about Adobe being the only product line that has unworkable issues with this format. In reality though, Apple itself has its own nasty bugs with it, and recommends against using this format for your boot volume, as described in the various threads above.

-Chris

[SyntetikVision]

A lot of software that u said that don't work with case sensitive fs must be from 19++.

First, the link from adobe to recommend non case sensitive fs is from 2008. Since then, a lot of updates and bugs resolve.

Another thing, I have case sensitive fs and i have:

Mysql working perfectly.

Dropbox working perfectly.

TimeMachine working perfectly (last backup was 10 minutes ago)

....

The diference is that the other software companys don't blame Apple an try to workround with a solution to fix the problem.

Adobe blame Apple and the people who want to use case sensitive filesystem (can't live without it).

Happy new year.