Connect addin for RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux)

[ricardo_aquino]

Hi,

I'm trying to convert the .deb package of Adobe Connect add-in to .rpm to install on RHEL, tryed with Alien, but does not work.

Anyone knows why the Adobe, that always lauched your applications to most commons Linux packages versions, like: .rpm and .tar.gz, is packing this important add-in only in the Debian / Ubuntu format?

Too many companies uses RHEL or SuSe Linux, the Debian / Ubuntu are very used in Academic environments, wherever...

I'm waiting for a good suol to help me convert this package...

Thanks by attention,

Ricardo de Aquino Borges

[Guest]

Here are the supported items for Linux:

Presenter/Hosts: Ubuntu 10

Attendees: Ubuntu10; Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) 4.x, 5.x; Novell SUSE® 9.x or 10.x

Mozilla Firefox 2x or 3x

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for all users (hosts, presenters, participants, and administrators)

I've not heard of any change to add Red Hat as a Host Add-in. It all depends on how many customers ask for that as an option. I've not had any of my government customers ask and none of them are running Red Hat as a desktop OS...they run Mac or Windows. But I am sure there are exceptions but the host add-in is developed for the largest customer audience and always subject to additions. A host can run a meeting if they are willing to forgo advanced audio options, file sharing and desktop sharing. Other options are to run Ubuntu in a virtualized manner on Red Hat...not fabulous but it works when there is not other option.

[Guest]

Dear HeywardDrummond,

Thanks for your response,

I have not explained well, my purpose is to question whether there will be some version of the plugin packaged as RPM instead of only DEB, because there are many Linux distributions based on Red Hat, like Mandriva, Fedora, etc...

For this reason I am trying to convert the RPM to DEB...

Regards,

Ricardo Aquino

[Marty_Criswell]

I agree. I am running SUSE and would like to install the add-in so that I can use the colledge's Connect server with full capabilities. We support 2 distros SUSE and Ubuntu.

Marty Criswell
Computer Support Manager
4022c Throckmorton PSC
Kansas State University
Manhattan Ks 66506

[Guest]

Adobe Connect Add-in is focussed on the main operating systems that people would use for conducting meetings. Surveys tell us Windows, Mac and Ubuntu are the desktop OS platforms with the largest share and that is where the investment dollars are focussed. I've not heard of any plans to expand the options to include SuSe or RedHat to date. It's a matter of resources and support for each platform. As the market numbers and customer requests arrive for this then product teams make decisions accordingly. I'll pass on these requests.

[JakeEng]

Many commercial and engineering companies use an OS based on RPMs. If you wish to engage with these DEB is unlikely to help.

[Guest]

What matters are the real marketshare percentages:

So, software companies make investment decisions on these kinds of stats. We have Connect support in each category here.

[ricardo_aquino]

HeywardDrummond,

I'm sad to know that your idea is only justify the NO packaging of a new (rpm or tar.gz) addin version. Being from the commercial or financial I understand your way of thinking, is a matter of necessity...

Oh, yes the market share!

According to your spreadsheet shows a percentage of 0.7and 0.8 for Mobile that have two versions (iOS that "does not" support the Flash Player, and the Android) great!

In contrast to the statistics, Linux has more than 5% of this market share and has only a single version for the addin. That was only developed because of the formal request made ​​by the Brazilian government, where the company I work, actively participated.

Soon there will be a big pressure for a Linux version of Connect Application Server, (as the Flash Media Server already has the Linux version), due to the new market (the area of ​​education), that is very interested in this valuable tool (Adobe Connect), but is synonymous with Linux....

Anyway I do not care their arguments, because this is a question of programming relatively easy to solve, a good Linux developer will be happy to carry more one version of the addin.

Thanks for your attention.

[Guest]

Ricardo,

I did not mean to make you sad! And I was not speaking on behalf of Adobe either. I have been in the software business for 25 years and was just sharing how all software companies decide on what platforms to develop for. It's really as simple at looking at the major platforms businesses, educational institutions and governments use on the desktop. Now, there alre ALWAYS exceptions like a large deal that requires a platform and then the company makes a decision as to the profit and potential if they go ahead. They have to consider the deal as well as the on-going support costs of that platform. That also includes the training and development resources required to support the new client. So, it is multi-facited and not as simple as looking at market share.

So, yes, if a major customer came forward and asked for a Red Hat Adobe Connect Host or Server version then it would be considered. Always! Again, it all depends on many factors around supporting the platform. I'd love to see a non-Windows version of the Connect Server. I'd be first in line to use it!

I'll make your desires known to management.

Thanks for your passion and support.

We are listening and we do care.

[dan_kozlowski]

so this isn't an issue of "Supporting" another operating system. Its just a matter of Adobe hiring compitent engineers to actually do meaningfull work. I present to you the whole 30 minute ordeal of me getting this to work.

download the .deb file then run these commands

ar vx ConnectAddin.deb

su -c 'tar -tzvf data.tar.gz -C /'

export currentUser=`whoami` 
ADDIN_TARGET_ABS_PATH="/home/"$currentUser$ADDIN_TARGET_PATH_USER
mkdir -p $ADDIN_TARGET_ABS_PATH
cd $ADDIN_TARGET_ABS_PATH
ln -s /usr/local/connectaddin
ln -s /usr/local/digest.s

To explain the commands you are going to extract the deb file that gives you two archives that we care about

data.tar.gz which is the two files and control.tar.gz

you extract data.tar.gz to the right place ( it places the files in /usr/local  , bonus points to adobe for not using the correct path of /usr/local/bin )

if you extraced the control.tar.gz you would find three files which contain the installation scripts. The relevent parts are included above.

If you need an RPM file it is easy enough to build one from these commands.  Prehaps you can walk across the office to the people to package the flash-player rpms and have then instruct you on how to do it.

[Guest]

Dan. from your perspective and from the customer view I totally understand and agree it should be easy to do.

However, it is about resources assigned, customer demand for this option, tech support folks trained on this, call center folks trained and documentation created/maintained. So, it is a lot more than what you describe. It really is a matter of priorities and customer demand. I'll pass your request on to management.

I wish it was as easy as asking the Flash Player team to do this. We, on the Connect side of the busieness, are like many other "users" of the Flash Player technology and reside in different divisions and it is not so easy to do as you say. Like most software companies, each division has their own priorities and funding. I share your frustration.

I do not work in development and my office is in my home office outside DC. The developers are in California, India and elsewhere around the world literally. So, I would not know who to hand the request to! 🙂

I will send this to product management with my recommendations that we do this. That's the best I can do!

I know that Red Hat would love us to do that so you may be on to something and your comments are helpful.

Thanks

[BuccaneerBill]

I got it working (passes the "Test Meeting Connection" page) under 64bit F13. YMMV. No warranty that it will not format your hard drive or be mean to kittens. And if you do not understand the commands, I recommend installing the supported Ubuntu on a VirtualBoxOSE VM.

sudo yum install libcanberra-gtk2.i686 dpkg PackageKit-gtk-module.i686

dpkg -X ConnectAddin.deb .

mkdir -p $HOME/.macromedia/Flash_Player/www.macromedia.com/bin/connectaddin/

mv ./usr/local/connectaddin $HOME/.macromedia/Flash_Player/www.macromedia.com/bin/connectaddin/

mv ./usr/local/digest.s $HOME/.macromedia/Flash_Player/www.macromedia.com/bin/connectaddin/

Enjoy!

--Bill

[Guest]

Great posting. I've passed this on to the product team. So you did thois with the host add-in under Red Hat Fedora 13. Just wondered if you had tried this under Fedora 15 which is their latest?

Just curious....nice work!

[dan_kozlowski]

I did this under RHEL and fedora 15 using just my knowledge of deb's.

[Guest]

Wonderful. Bless you for sharing and testing. I've been passing on these posts to management.

If you want to contact me directly, please do.  hdrummon@adobe.com

Always appreciate sharing so others can benefit.

[NoCaDrummer]

Heyward -

  Since Adobe's site mentions that Red Hat Linux and SuSE are supported, wouldn't be easy to just give some instructions (e.g. "Unpack the .DEB file, unpack the data.tar.gz file, find the "connectaddin" file and copy it to the _____ directory.  Restart your browser.")   Seems simple enough, right?

See http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect/tech-specs.html -

Linux

• Presenters/hosts: Ubuntu 10 (32 bit or 64 bit)
• Attendees: Ubuntu10; Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) 4.x or 5.x; Novell SUSE® 9.x or 10.x
• Mozilla Firefox 3 or later
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for all users (hosts, presenters, participants, and administrators)

Obviously, an RPM file would be ideal, but just the suggestion above would be of great benefit just by itself.  Otherwise, there's no support for (or ability to use) Adobe Connect for Red Hat or SUSE Linux.  By the way, with the introduction of "Unity" Ubuntu has dropped in popularity, apparently.

Thanks.

[Guest]

Well, not quite true. While there is no host add-in for RHEL or SuSe today, they can use the browser to host a meeting but they cannot use certain host add-in functions like screen sharing. They can attend any Connect meeting. So, it's limited functionality but they surely can do much. Ubuntu host add-in was developed for a particularly large customer that justified the development costs.

Much has happened since this thread began. A partner will be taking over development of the Host Add-in for RHEL and SuSe. I don't have any details to share yet but stay tuned. There will be a host add-in for RHEL!

When we get details, we'll share. And of course anything is subject to change as things progress.

[chalmersjohan]

I hope the RPM:s for Redhat are comming soon, we have thousands of users who need this.

[niiler]

What I have a hard time understanding is how Adobe can make one flash executable that works on all linux platforms without specifically supporting any one distribution, and yet there's a big difficulty with delivering a Connect addin that works the same way.  Mozilla does this, Oracle/Sun does this, Apache/OpenOffice does this... 

So the question is: do we need to keep coming to user forums to learn how to repackage this for general usage, or will Adobe make it easier?  Do we, the users and linux developers have permission to repackage the Connect Add-in if Adobe won't devote any resources to doing it? 

[Guest]

In case you were not aware, Adobe conducted a major reorg and realignment of resources in December, 2011. Many resources were eliminated and layoffs announced publicly. The Adobe Connect team was reduced. I left Adobe for a better opportunity to use my talents elsewhere. I do not know if this will ever happen. You would need to keep asking in the forum for support of Red Hat. I have moved on to another large software company supporting enterprise content management. It seems the web conference market is becoming highly commoditized and in many cases there are free web conference services that rival Adobe's. So, the focus by many companies will be toward cloud based services and not on-premise solutions. Perhaps that is why no Red Hat support? Not sure. It's all based on product profitability, customer demands, product direction, resources and money.

[BuccaneerBill]

I missed Dan's post when I figured out how to do the install, his is probably a bit cleaner than mine. Upgrading to F15 is on my todo list.

I setup my work's AdobeConnect Pro in my XP VM and tried to connect to my meeting from Fedora 13 and sadly it just hangs with the "Loading Adobe Connet" window, so F13 is probably a no go (and I'm not going to persue it much further until I upgrade to Fedora 15).

Dan, did you actually get a full connection under Fedora 15?

[dan_kozlowski]

Yes but there was another issue with libcurl that required me to build an

older version from source. I can check on exactly what i did when I get

home.

[Guest]

Dan,

Do you recall which version of libcurl you built from source?  I have libcurl-7.20.1-5.fc13 installed and received the error below with the same behavior that BuccaneerBill described.  I built libcurl 7.21.6 because that was the version listed on an Ubuntu 10 package website, but that had the same behavior.

./connectaddin: /usr/lib/libcurl.so.4: no version information available (required by ./connectaddin)

Thanks,

Tim

[dan_kozlowski]

I used 7.21.

[Geremia10]

I get this libcurl.so.4 issue, too. What's the solution? Thanks