I fixed my Extension Manager Issues.

Question

A customer of mine came in today with his Apple Hackintosh system, running OS X Lion 10.7.1 with all updates done, and the Java Library already installed.
The issue they were having was to do with Adobe Extension Manager just crashing about 10 seconds after opening, it would not load anything just sit with a grey screen for a few moments and then just crash.
I ran an application called fseventer on his system and watched as the application opened to determine at what point it was crashing, each time I noted that the crash was something to do with the extensions being loaded by Adobe InDesign.
I opened InDesign and all seemed to be working correctly.
At this point I un-installed the entire Adobe CS 5.5 Master Collection and ran the Adobe cleanup utility, the re-installed the entire thing on International English, with all the applications.
Opened Photoshop and ran the Adobe Update Manager, to download and install every update.
Opened AcrobatX and ran the updater, to download and install all it's updates.
I repaired permissions on the entire drive through disk utility, rebooted onto Disk Warrior, repaired the directories, rebooted into single user mode ran the fsck -fy / command, and booted into the main account, not the root account.
Then I tried to open Adobe Extension Manager, same thing just a crash. Then I tried Adobe InDesign and that was still working just fine.
I opened my main hard disk, and went to this path "/Applications/Adobe InDesign CS5.5/Configuration/" in there I opened the file XManConfig.xml like this
In terminal type this to first backup the original file then open it and edit it.
BACKUP THE FILE
sudo cp -R /Applications/Adobe\ InDesign\ CS5.5/Configuration/XManConfig.xml /Applications/Adobe\ InDesign\ CS5.5/Configuration/XManConfig.xml.bak
EDIT THE FILE
sudo nano /Applications/Adobe\ InDesign\ CS5.5/Configuration/XManConfig.xml
The first line of this file should look like this
<Data key="UserExtensionFolder">$UserDataFolder/Adobe/Adobe InDesign CS5.5/Configuration/Extensions</Data>
all I did was comment that line out so it now looks like this
<!--<Data key="UserExtensionFolder">$UserDataFolder/Adobe/Adobe InDesign CS5.5/Configuration/Extensions</Data>-->
then I wrote the file with CTRL O, hit enter to save over the file with the same name, then CTRL X to exit the nano editor, then type exit in termal and quit.
Open AdobeExtension Manager and it is working.
The commented out line is pointing to a directory here
/Users/YOUR USER NAME/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Adobe\ InDesign\ CS5.5/Configuration/Extensions/
I have no idea what this directory does, but with it commented out I can launch Extension Manager, and I can still open InDesign without any errors, if I rather delete the contents of this folder and leave the line of the xml file untouched, these extensions just repopulate themselves as Extensions Manager begins to open, but maybe 1 loads then a crach, then 4 the next time then a crach etc.
So I would stick with just commenting out the line on the XML file.
I would love it if you guys could give me your feedback on this to see if anyone else finds this method to work or not.
I have done installations on other Lion systems for customers on real mack not hackintoshes and have fount them all to work without an issue, in fact i did an installation on another hackintosh too and that worked well, only this one so far, I think it has something to do with the fact that this hackintosh had to have a modified kernel and a DSDT file to rectify an issue of having to use a chameleon command of cpus=1 busratio=25 -v as this would only allow one thread of the cpu to function, this command is no longer required as the kernel and DSDT are rectifying the issue and still allowing all 8 threads of the cpu to function as normal.
The reason I think this could be the cause is because I am sure Adobe does not account for every permientation of non vanilla Apple installations, these so called chocolate kernels are a bit different to the Apple one.
Anyway I hope this helps out someone. I am off on holiday now but I will keep an eye on my emails in case anyone needs some assistance with any of these commands. I am going on an adventure holiday to the Victoria Falls to do a microlight flight over the falls. The reason I tell you this is so you do not wonder if I never return.

Answer 1

have you tried other solutions in this forum? Such as use sudo command, rename XManConfig.xml, delete ~/Library/Preferences/macromedia, grant write permission to some folder...?
It's possible to install extensions without Extension Manager. The method depends on the type of extensions.
1. If your extension is a zxp file, then you can unzip the file and copy those files within it to their destination manually. The extension would work in corresponding products. You can unzip it with Winzip, 7-zip, Winrar or similar softwares (actually it is a zip file).
1.1 If a file with postfix ".mxi" exists within zxp file, you can paste this mxi file here, I will tell you where each file should be copied to. (mxi file is a xml file).
1.2 Otherwise you can find a file named "manifest.xml" under CSXS sub-directory. Please open it with a text editor, you will find ExtensionBundleId="someText" in second line. Write down the value of ExtensionBundleId. Close this file. Create a new folder under "/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CS5ServiceManager/extensions" and rename it to what you write down. (For example, if you find ExtensionBundleId="KulerSample" in manifest.xml, then name the new folder as KulerSample.) Copy all files and directories which you unzipped from zxp file to this folder.
2. If your extension is a mxp file, it can not be unzipped directly. Please upload it to this forum as attachment, I will convert it to a zxp file then return it to you.