Installing Acrobat Reader on Linux

Installing Acrobat Reader on Linux

Download the software and Install

Acrobat fails to start on Red Hat

Adding a symbolic link

Add a Launcher to the Desktop

Making Acrobat Reader the Default for PDF files

Adding Acrobat Reader as a helper Application to Mozilla

Add Acrobat Reader as a Plug-in to Mozilla

Setting up your browser settings in Acrobat Reader

Another method for plug-ins for Netscape users

Introduction

There is a little more involved to getting Acrobat Reader working than the easy install procedure on a Windows machine. You may consider that to be part of the fun.

However it is well worth it as I found Acrobat Reader is much faster than for example ggv which was the default PDF viewer I had previously. I really find it a lot faster. In fact before I set this up I would rather have avoided PDFs all together on Linux, and read them on my Windows machine. That may not be too handy if you are using Linux at the time, or indeed you only run Linux.

This tutorial was based on Red Hat 9, but with one or two adjustments it should work on most Linux distros.

So get yourself a cup of coffee or tea, fire up those multimedia speakers, and we will get started. Liquid and Music is optional...

 Download the Software and Install

•  Download from Adobe. Or find the latest rpm, they are available but you will still have to set it up properly. In the end I just used the download from Adobe. It was a later version and the rpm did not really give any advantage in this case. 

•  cd to the directory where you downloaded the gunzip file.

•  tar -zxvf linux-508.tar.gz where 508 is the version. You may have to change this to match the    version you have.

• Type  ./INSTALL to run the INSTALL script.

• Use the space bar to scroll through the license.

•  Type accept for user license agreement.

•  Press enter to install in default directory /usr/local/Acrobat5.

• Press enter to accept  [ y ] as the default to create the above directory.

• After installing run the command

Acrobat should now start up and ask you if you accept the license. If so skip forward to Adding a symbolic link.

If the script aborts read the next section.

Acrobat fails to start on Red Hat

You may get an error and the script aborts:

This is solved by adding the following line to the start up script /usr/local/Acrobat5/bin/acroread

LANG=C; export LANG

Insert it towards the top of the file as in the example. This just seemed to me the neatest place to add the line and it works. This is needed in later Red Hat versions. You can use any Text Editor: gedit for example.

Example 1:excerpt of /usr/local/Acrobat5/bin/acroread

Once you have corrected this, save the changes and re run the script.

Acrobat Reader should now open, you will be asked to accept the licence again the first time you start it up.

Adding a Symbolic Link

Instead of typing /usr/local/Acrobat5/bin/acroread every time to start Acrobat

Create a symbolic link in the /usr/local/bin directory. This will mean that  all users can execute it easily by just typing acroread.

To create the symbolic link type this command into a shell.

(Note this link will not work unless you have added the LANG=C; export LANG in acroread on later versions of Red Hat, so complete this step first).

 Now from any directory at the command line type:-

and voila Acrobat Reader Opens.

Add a Launcher to the Desktop

This is very like a desktop shortcut in Windows. These instructions are for Red Hat 9 Gnome Desktop. But you will be able to do something similar on most desktops and Linux variants.

1. Right Click on the Desktop

2. Left Click New Launcher

3. Enter in the Create Launcher Window that opens :-

• Name: Acrobat Reader

• Comment: PDF Viewer

• Command: acroread

Then click on the Icon square "No Icon" and another window opens by default in /usr/share/pixmaps allowing you to choose an icon for your launcher. Pick a suitable icon and click ok. You now have a shortcut (or is it a launcher) on your desktop.

You can always choose a different Icon later by right clicking on the launcher , left click on properties and click Select Custom Icon.

I downloaded a small Adobe PDF logo from their web site and used that. I just right clicked on the image and saved it. (I am not sure what the copyright restrictions are, but if it is for personal use it should be ok)

 Once you have downloaded it you can copy it to /usr/share/pixmaps from the directory you downloaded to. You need to be superuser to write to that directory. Of course if you are logged on as root you can download direct to /usr/share/pixmaps.

Of course if you are logged on as root you can download it direct to  /usr/share/pixmaps.

Making Acrobat Reader the Default for PDF files

Right click on a PDF file and choose Open With, Other Application...

Left click Other Application.

Click on Adobe Acrobat Reader (not) in menu to select *. Another window opens.

Click modify

Image: Open with Other Application

Select use as default and click ok. This window will close. Then click done on the next window to finish.

Image: Modify

Previously ggv would have more than likely been the default application but it is now Acrobat Reader.

Double click on a PDF file and it should now open by default in Acrobat Reader.

Image: Acrobat Reader in action

(* I have seen sometimes that it is shown as in menu or not in menu).

Adding Acrobat Reader as a helper Application to Mozilla

In Mozilla you can set up Acrobat as a helper application. I prefer personally to use it as a plug-in.  But it is up to you.

From the menu bar Edit, Preferences, Navigator, Helper Applications. Click New Type, in the window that pops up enter

• Description of type: Portable Document Format

• File Extension:        pdf

• MIME type:               application/pdf

• Application to use:  /usr/local/Acrobat5/bin/acroread %

Click OK and then OK to close both windows.

You may or may not need the %. I found it made no difference to use it or not. Try both and use what works. As an alternative you can set it up as below in Add Acrobat Reader as a Plug-in to Mozilla

Add Acrobat Reader as a Plug-in to Mozilla

This is the method that I prefer to use. The main difference is that Acrobat Reader will open within the browser when used as a plug-in rather than in it's own separate window. In order to do this you need to make a symbolic link of the Acrobat plug-in in the plug-ins directory of mozilla in my case this was as follows. Run the command as root or superuser. This is a long command so ignore any word wrap here, it is one single line.

ln -s  /usr/local/Acrobat5/Browsers/intellinux/nppdf.so /usr/lib/mozilla/1.2.1/plugins

On Mozilla as above go to  Edit, Preferences, Navigator, Helper Applications on the menu bar. Click New Type, in the window that pops up  in this case enter:

• Description of type: Portable Document Format

• File Extension:         pdf

•  MIME type:              application/pdf

• Application to use:  /usr/lib/mozilla-1.2.1/plugins/nppdf.so

Click OK and then OK to close both windows.

You can then type in about:plugins into the address bar or from the menu select Help, About Plug-ins. You can then see the plug-ins you have enabled for Mozilla.

 All you need to do now is find a web page with a link to a PDF document in it to test. Why not just click here... If you see Acrobat Reader open in your browser, great if not go back and check to see if you missed a step.

This is all that is needed to set up the plug-ins for all users if set up by the root user.

Setting Up Your browser settings in Acrobat Reader

Now we have set up Mozilla to use Acrobat Reader, we need to set it up the other way around.

So the next task is to set up the browser settings in Acrobat Reader so that we can click on Hyperlinks in Documents in order to view them on the web.

Open Acrobat Reader

Select Edit, Preferences, Weblink

Click browse

Select /usr/bin/mozilla as the application to use. This is best done from the filter part of the window by typing /usr/bin/mozilla and then selecting Mozilla under Executables on the right of the window. then click ok to accept.

Choose Netscape as the connection type.

Note: If you choose NCSA as the connection type you will have problems as it does not work perfectly with Mozilla. When you click on a Hyperlink in a document you will be asked to launch your browser as it is unable to contact it. As long as you do not already have a browser open this works. Internet Explorer was based on the NCSA Mosaic browser. I would suggest to use Netscape as the connection type. Mozilla and Netscape share a similar history, so it makes sense.

Unlike setting the plug-ins above this step has to be repeated by, or for, each user. Perhaps based on the idea that every user might not use the same type of browser. This behaviour may vary on different versions.

To test you need to open a PDF in Acrobat Reader that contains a Hyperlink to the Web, or click the small icon in the shape of an "A" towards the right of the menu bar of Acrobat Reader that will open a page in your web browser to Adobe if all is well.

Another method for plug-ins for Netscape users

cd to /usr/local/Acrobat5/Browsers and if you are using Netscape there is a script you can run   sh netscape.

Then follow the instructions. I have not tested this as I only use Mozilla nowadays on Linux and Internet Explorer on my XP machine.

Have fun with those PDFs !!!!!!