AcrobatHowTo

How to get Adobe Acrobat Reader working

The last version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (5.09) can be installed via apt from the multiverse repository (apt-get install acroread acroread-debian-files), but, after installing, it doesn't work.

We have to make 2 easy changes in order to work fine:

Program looks for the executable script named acroread (in /usr/lib/Acrobat5/bin) but during installation, it is generated (I don't know the reason) with the name acroread.sh, so the first thing to do is to rename it.

Open the console and type the following:

cd /usr/lib/Acrobat5/bin
sudo mv acroread.sh acroread

This file (now named acroread) is not ready-to-work. We have to edit it with a text editor.

In the console type:

sudo gedit acroread

or

sudo nano acroread

Look for the line:

install_dir=REPLACE_ME

and change it to:

install_dir=/usr/lib/Acrobat5/Reader

Save the file. Adobe Acrobat Reader will work fine.

Acrobat Reader 7

Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7 finally introduces a GTK2 based interface. There is not yet a .deb package for it, but an installer can be found at ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/7x/7.0/enu/