Anyone using DeskPack on a new Mac running Mavericks?

[WI-Flexo]

We have been trying to setup Deskpack on Macpros running Mav. and have not had success. We are connecting to Automation engine 12.2. Support has not been able to find a solution and has escalated to global support. This has a tendency to take a long time and I am trying to figure it out in the meantime. Appreciate any info you guys may have.
Thanks!

 

[Doh]

We have been trying to setup Deskpack on Macpros running Mav. and have not had success. We are connecting to Automation engine 12.2. Support has not been able to find a solution and has escalated to global support. This has a tendency to take a long time and I am trying to figure it out in the meantime. Appreciate any info you guys may have.
Thanks!

Hi WI,

Can you elaborateon your issues?

We have issues with DeskPack 12.1.2 freesing Illustrator CS6 and CC on startup. Not sure if it´s Mavericks related or not.
We had to downgrade to 12.1.1. Strangely enough it worked to downgrade once 12.1.2 had been installed since 12.1.1 won't install clean on Mavericks...

Regards,
D

 

[chevalier]

We have a MBP workstation running Mavericks and Adobe CC wtih AE pilot 12.2.0 and DeskPack 12.1 (I'm not aware of a 12.2 release of DeskPack) with no issues. Can you elaborate on what problem(s) you are experiencing?

This workstation runs these packages:
Dynamic Barcodes, Dynamic Panels, BoostX, Channel Mapping, PDF Import, PowerTrapper Client, Preflight, Screening, White Underprint, Studio Toolkit, Studio Designer, Shuttle

 

[WI-Flexo]

Thanks for the info guys.
To clarify we are running AE 12.2 on server 2012. And running Deskpack 12.1.3 on new mac pros running mavericks. Installs of the plugins on the Macs go fine but when trying to enter server information into Illustrator it will either crash or if we are able to quit and restart, then all server setting are gone out of Illustrator. I was thinking maybe it was a server 2012 issue but the server settings dropping in Illustrator seems more like a prefs issue on the Macs. Its very encouraging that you have this setup running chevalier! Even though your on a macbook its a pretty similar setup. You are not also running server 2012 are you?

 

[chevalier]

Our AE server is currently running on Windows 2008. Are you running Illustrator CC? CS6?

A few questions that may lead to discovery of the source of the problem:
Is/are your Mac(s) domain integrated or setup on a workgroup? What about AE..Domain integrated?
Have you tried using different user credentials?
Have you verified that the Mac has proper DNS for the AE server?
Can you manually mount the AE fileshares? If so, have you tried connecting then configuring?
Is Pilot able to open/connect/work without issues on this workstation?

 

[WI-Flexo]

Chevalier
Good questions. We are running CC on the Macs. And Pilot runs fine on the mac. Domains are good and yes we can mount shares. Actually if we enter server info into illustrator we are actually able to launch jobs and work as normal… until Illustrator crashes or you restart AI. Then all server setting are gone in prefs. It makes me think its an issue on the macs but if we enter the server info of our other AE server (AE12.1 running on server 2008) that info seems to stick in AI prefs just fine. Appreciate the help and I will keep you posted with any info I get.

 

[chevalier]

That's a strange one for sure.

 

[WI-Flexo]

FYI found a solution. The server name and IP needed to be added to the host tables in terminal on the new macs. I made a video of the change if anyone hits a similar snag and needs to see how its done. Thanks again for the help guys!

 

[chevalier]

I thought this might be the problem.

Open Terminal
Issue this command "sudo pico /etc/hosts"
Enter an administrative password
You'll see something like quoted below

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

Use your arrow keys to get below the lowest listing
Type in the static IP address for the server, computer, device you are wanting to create a manual entry for
Hit tab
Type in the hostname (example: automation engine)
You should see something like this:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
192.168.3.99 automationengine

Hold the control key and strike the X key

Save modified buffer (ANSWERING "No" WILL DESTROY CHANGES) ?

strike the Y key
hit Enter/Return
You're now back to the standard terminal prompt. You'll want to verify your entry.
type: ping automationengine
hit Enter/Return
If you see this you are good to go:

chevaliers-macbook-pro:~ che$ ping automationengine
PING automationengine (192.168.3.175): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.3.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=0.355 ms

Hold the control key and strike the C key to make it stop.
Close the terminal (type: exit, apple+Q, file>quit, whatever)

If you see this something is wrong:

chevaliers-macbook-pro:~ che$ ping automationengine
ping: cannot resolve automationengine: Unknown host

Restart the computer (not always necessary)
Open Terminal
type: ping automationengine
hit Enter/Return
If you are still not working go back to the first step and verify you have not entered any typos and your spelling is absolutely perfect.

TIP (not always necessary): enter the hostname in as many capital letter configurations as you can think of with a tab between each. Sometimes this behavior is case-sensitive. Example:
1.1.1.1 automationengine AUTOMATIONENGINE AutomationEngine AUTOMATIONengine automationENGINE

I've yet to find a real solution to this. Manual DNS entries is a duct-tape patch not a real solution. At scale (imagine a environment with more than 5 OSX sdevices) this would a nightmare hence why DNS is handled by servers… Windows2003 DNS servers had a check box you could force clients to accept updates but with Windows2008 this disappeared. The whole issue boils down to how OSX computers update and cache DNS. This quirk affects all kinds of things (including prepress software from other vendors) when a Windows server is providing DNS.