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How do I install Adobe Acrobat Reader in Ubuntu 14.04 using a Trusty apt repository?

This is NOT a duplicate of How do I install Adobe Acrobat Reader deb package downloaded from Adobe website?. In Synaptic > Repositories > Other software I enabled "Canonical Partners", but I still cannot install acroread as it is not available on my 64-bit system.

Here's the output from the console: 

root@liv-inspiron:/home/liv# apt-get install acroread
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package acroread
root@liv-inspiron:/home/liv# apt-get install acroread:i386
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package acroread
Community
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landroni
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  • I did answer this for 13.10 in: http://askubuntu.com/questions/89127/how-do-i-install-adobe-acrobat-reader Try that method. – david6 Apr 25 '14 at 11:32
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    I do not want to perform a manual installation from a .deb file. I would like to be able to install acroread from a repository. – landroni Apr 25 '14 at 11:43
  • Then try using the 13.04 (Raring) Partner repository (as described in different answer to that question). – david6 Apr 25 '14 at 11:47
  • Indeed, this answer works. But I am still hoping for a native Trusty method, with binaries packaged against Trusty and with future updates (if that ever happens) being pushed via the repos. (I doubt the Raring packages will ever get bumped.) – landroni Apr 25 '14 at 11:56
  • Address this issue to Adobe Systems, Inc.; who stopped supporting Linux, etc. for latest releases of several of the products. – david6 Apr 25 '14 at 12:17
  • Not quite. That acroread is not in Ubuntu's repos falls squarely on Canonical. If their partners don't honor their agreements, then Canonical should provide the apps via a different repo. – landroni Apr 25 '14 at 13:40
  • Its not open source. – david6 Apr 25 '14 at 13:46
  • This answer maybe useful for you, you can use similar software for example okular. you can see some other software in this link too. – Ocean Apr 25 '14 at 11:56
  • I use Evince for day-to-day work, but having a copy of acroread is a necessity, if not to test that my PDFs are displayed as expected on other machines. – landroni Apr 25 '14 at 11:58
  • @landroni You can install it via Wine – Ocean Apr 25 '14 at 12:08
  • see this question http://askubuntu.com/questions/89127/how-do-i-install-adobe-acrobat-reader – Ocean Apr 25 '14 at 12:09
  • The best way explained by Enkouyami in the comment http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2014/04/install-adobe-reader-ubuntu-1404/ – Ehsan M. Kermani Jul 08 '14 at 00:22
  • I surprised that nobody asked in comments, so let me be the first: why? FWIW, even the days I was using Windows, I didn't like Adobe Reader, because it takes ≈250Mb size — compare with Okular and Evince that even on Windows took ≈50Mb, wherein they support much more formats, than Adobe Reader does; plus AR for some unknown reason holds some weird service in RAM even if you didn't use it. – Hi-Angel Feb 21 '16 at 23:25
  • @Hi-Angel Adobe Reader remains the benchmark for testing whether a particular PDF document works as expected (i.e. is not corrupted, etc.). And on some specific features (e.g. notes), alternative viewers tend to work less well. Filling out forms --- I would never do this in something other than Adobe Reader. And lastly --- reading PDF eBooks encrypted using Adobe's infrastructure (and available only for couple days of reading) cannot be viewed with something other than Adobe Reader... Bottom line: we may hate Adobe Reader, but it remains featureful and supports its own format best. – landroni Feb 22 '16 at 07:24

8 Answers8

67

It's a bit more manual to install Adobe Acrobat Reader in Ubuntu 14.04, but it's not hard.

Open a terminal.

Type:

cd ~/Downloads && wget -c http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.5.5/enu/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb

That downloads the DEB file from Adobe and puts it into your Downloads folder. Next type:

sudo dpkg -i AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb

That will install Adobe Acrobat Reader.

If you are on a 64 Bit machine, you may need to add the missing libraries that Nim mentioned: 

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libnss3-1d:i386 libnspr4-0d:i386 lib32nss-mdns libxml2:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libstdc++6:i386

If you want Acrobat Reader as your default application for PDF's, then type:

mimeopen -d *.pdf

It will display a list of programs (it displayed 3 for me). Select the number that has Acrobat Reader. It will open Acrobat Reader and say it can't open '*.pdf'. Ignore that error and close Adobe Reader. You should be set now.

UPDATE:

For 18.04, the i386 files get installed this way:

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libnss3:i386 libnspr4:i386 libnss-mdns libxml2:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libstdc++6:i386
G Trawo
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    Thanks for those instructions, worked fine. However, for opening a file with online functionality, additionally I had to install sudo apt-get install libpangoxft-1.0.0:i386 libpangox-1.0.0:i386 libidn11:i386. – azimut Jul 09 '14 at 14:05
  • crashes on my box – ses Jul 12 '14 at 01:05
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    don't forget the double quotes on mimeopen -d "*.pdf" - I couldn't edit because of the 6 chars min. – Felipe Sep 21 '14 at 08:03
  • Thanks @azimut - you just saved me a whole heap of trouble!!! – jhbsk Mar 28 '15 at 13:42
  • Instead of the mimeopen -d *.pdf command (which did not work for me), I was able to right click on a PDF file, then select "Open With > Open With Other Application ..." then select "Adobe Acrobat" and tick the "Use default for this kind of file" option. – psiphi75 Jul 10 '15 at 07:23
  • I was not able to install lib32nss-mdns in 16.04.1 . I downloaded it from wiley but could not install it. incompatible. I previously installed adobe on mate, but this is not working. unfortunately, I used gdebi to install the acroread file I had from before, so the steps are not the same. I later used the install -f method and this method. Still does not work. I get error opening libxml2.so.2 when I type acroread – Bhikkhu Subhuti Aug 14 '16 at 23:29
  • This solution works also for Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa! – Eftychia Thomaidou Jan 23 '17 at 09:07
  • I'm also not able to install getting an error : unable to locate : libnss3-1d:i386, libnss3-1d:i386 and lib32nss-mdns in ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS – Dhwanil Patel Nov 15 '19 at 06:11
  • @DhwanilPatel Please see my update to the answer for the i386 files. – G Trawo Nov 18 '19 at 15:30
  • Thanks @GTrawo, actually i tried next solution of "Undespairable" and it works. but thank you so much for reply. I also tried this next time :) – Dhwanil Patel Nov 19 '19 at 06:27
27

Instead of listing all dependencies explicitly, you could just do this:

sudo apt-get install -f

That will fix all unresolved dependencies automatically.

So the whole sequence of commands has to be like this:

cd ~/Downloads && wget -c http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.5.5/enu/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb
sudo dpkg -i AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
Undespairable
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    for the record: this works for 14.10 as well. – Alexandre Jan 23 '15 at 15:08
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    did not work for me on 14.04 64 bit. Got error message /opt/Adobe/Reader9/Reader/intellinux/bin/acroread: error while loading shared libraries: libxml2.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory . Used method of user277444 to install missing libraries, then it worked. – atmelino May 19 '15 at 23:50
  • This works in Ubuntu Mate 16.04. You will get an error notification for the second line, but the third line will fix the error. Loaded and works. I will also put this entry as a fix for printing booklets on askubuntu. – Bhikkhu Subhuti Jul 23 '16 at 23:14
4

You can see from link : ubuntu-updates (see release column) that package acroread is not released for 14.04 (trusty) yet.

So, wait until added to Canonical partners repositories. Otherwise you can install old version. See similar question: Similar question for awn.

In that case I get same error for awn: E: Unable to locate package avant-window-navigator

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Pandya
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    I also see that there is no package for 13.10, yet. Would this suggest that Canonical doesn't intend to release a package anytime soon? – landroni Apr 25 '14 at 11:47
  • There is no point in waiting: more than 6 months later, there is still no package available for trusty... – Jealie Feb 03 '15 at 21:01
4
  1. Download Adobe Reader from: https://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/.

Select system: Linux, your language, Reader 9.5.5 for Linux (.deb)

  1. Install gdebi:
sudo apt-get install gdebi
  1. Install Adobe Reader via gdebi and accept the dependencies:
sudo gdebi PACKAGENAME.deb
  1. Install required libraries:
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libnss3-1d:i386 libnspr4-0d:i386 lib32nss-mdns libxml2:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libstdc++6:i386

Finally start Adobe Reader from Menu, Dash, or PDF files' context menu.

via: ubuntuhandbook.org

wjandrea
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Nim
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1

as of 2014-10-23 the answer is still "you don't" (or can't)

unlikely to ever happen, too.

last version of Acrobat reader for unix/linux is 9.5.5

This worked for me (the answer from undespairable on Aug 17 failed to install some needed packages) on Xubuntu 14.04

# as root (prefix with sudo if you are running as an unprivileged user)
apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libnss3-1d:i386 libnspr4-0d:i386 lib32nss-mdns libxml2:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libstdc++6:i386
apt-get install --reinstall gtk2-engines-murrine:i386 gtk2-engines-pixbuf:i386
cd /tmp && wget -c http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.5.5/enu/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb
dpkg -i AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb

after testing:

rm -rf /tmp/acroread_1000_1000
rm /tmp/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb
Derek Shaw
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Try using the Terminal:

sudo apt-get install acroread

and if not working - use:

sudo apt-get install acroread:i386

Edit: First use following commands:

sudo apt-add-repository multiverse
sudo apt-get update
muru
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aastefanov
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  • Both fail. See updated post. – landroni Apr 25 '14 at 11:15
  • That means there is no package "acroread". Add it's repository with command "sudo apt-add-repository RepositoryName" where the repo name is the one used in synaptic – aastefanov Apr 25 '14 at 11:17
  • When I sudo apt-add-repository multiverse it returns "'multiverse' distribution component is already enabled for all sources.", so that must not be it. – landroni Apr 25 '14 at 11:45
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Today I tested the following successfully in a fresh install of kUbuntu 14.04.4 (an official Ubuntu flavor).

Add Canonical PPA

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner"

Update and Install

sudo aptitude update  
sudo aptitude install acroread

Works on kUbuntu 14.04 LTS
As of 30 April 2016, Doesnt work on the new kUbuntu 16.04 LTS

jtlindsey
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-1

How I finally installed Acrobat Reader on Ubuntu 14.04 on a 64 Bit machine:

  1. I downloaded .deb version from adobe.com;

  2. Install the package using gedbi;

  3. Install the libraries: 

    sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libnss3-1d:i386 libnspr4-0d:i386 lib32nss-mdns libxml2:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libstdc++6:i386

Done!

muru
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ionelf
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