illustrator CS4 plugin problem after upgrade to OS X Yosemite

Turns out it is not necessary to install the (insecure) legacy version of Java. CS4 asks for it but, AFAIK, doesn't actually use it. You can trick CS4 into thinking it's installed by creating empty folders as per this in-depth discussion and instructions (scroll down to Workarounds section):

https://www.macstrategy.com/article.php?135

See also:

Adobe Illustrator CS6 with Java 8? - Ask Different

Which includes instructions for making a symbolic link to a newer version of Java if you have it installed. I haven't bothered trying this, as there doesn't seem to be any need for Java with CS4.

Here's what you should end up with (deploy.bundle is a folder. OS X just thinks it's a bundle because of the extension):

I Have the same problem

Same problem here.

A fix has been posted here:

https://github.com/ralvarezt/aics4_yosemite_fix/releases/tag/1.0

but I haven't tried it, because I don't have a test machine. Any one out there willing to give it a go?

Package created by Raúl Álvarez.

The author is not affiliated by any means with Adobe Systems inc. or any of its subsidiaries.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Considering a large amount of Apple customer base are photographers, designers, and artists. I'd say it would be wise to fix the issue, if they ever want us to buy Apple products again.

It's hard enough to get Apple to fix something they own in entirety before they would ever fix someone else's software problem, but the reality is neither Apple nor Adobe is under any obligation to fix eight year old software that has fulfilled it's product lifecycle and is now five iterations back.

https://www.adobe.com/support/products/enterprise/eol/eol_matrix.html

if you want compatibility and support you will need to subscribe to Creative Cloud 2015 which is the proverbial basket that Adobe put's all it's eggs now. I have 2015 on my work mac only because I have to, I have CS 2 on my Windows 7 computer at home, it's dog slow and wonky as **** but once I go to Windows 10 I'm not sure it will work again, that's the nature of software, update and pray to great Atheismo it works when you get to 100%.

The problems with Adobe and Apple isn't old software, it's something that has to do with the Yosemite update. I have the CC and I am having many bug issues since upgrading from Mavericks to Yosemite. Apple and Adobe both know it is an issue.

have you posted on the adobe forums? their tech support is garbage but there are no shortage of users who might be able to help. I don't use CC2015 that often, but I have not run into many problems with it, when I do I go there.

Try looking/posting here.

Adobe Forums

Hi Everyone,

I'm the author of the fix. The disclaimer of the package applies, I'm not with Adobe and this is a hack, but it's the best that I can do.

I'm pasting the response from here: Itunes Giving Free Gifts

By the way, joesickpack has tested this fix and as expected, is working.

The problem with Illustrator CS4 resides not with Illustrator itself but with the Photoshop file format import and export plugins. When they get loaded they expect that a function that allocates memory and was available in previous versions of OS X, is currently available in the System Library (libSystem). This function is map_fd. Apple removed this function in the latest versions of OS X adducing that it contained a security flaw. This functionality were implemented elsewhere is the system.

So, I found that bfleischer had the same problem and worked out a solution that consists on a rewrite of this function using standard methods and compiling it into a shared library that could be loaded before any program executes.

My work on this problem consisted on refining the way the shared library loads. As some of you may know, Applications in OS X are bundles (directories) that follow a standard content schema and contain a file with the Application information and some other information. My approach is copying the shared library onto the Frameworks folder of Illustrator bundle and modifying the Info.plist file to instruct Launch Services to load the shared library before Illustrator loads. Doing it this way don't affect the rest of the system and there's no binary patching or some sort of modification of Illustrator, it only happens at runtime.

If you want to perform some tests and be able to revert the changes, you only need to backup the "Adobe Illustrator.app" bundle.

Here's what I tried:

1) Installed OS 10.11 Beta on a partition of an external drive (I decided to try El Capitan Beta instead of Yosemite, since by the time I buy new hardware El Capitan will be released).

2) Booted into OS 10.11 and installed CS4 Photoshop, Illustrator, and all support files and recommended applications.

3) Installed Java for OS X 2015-001(if you start Illustrator without this, you will get a prompt and link to the file on apple.com)

4) Ran Yosemite AICS4 Fix.mpkg

5) Apple>System Preferences>Accessibility>Display>ReduceTransparency (fixes the font menus, so that you can see the font names and previews)

6) Opened Illustrator and Photoshop with no problem.

7) Created eight test files in Photoshop (all possible combinations of CMYK and RGB, layered and flat, TIFF and PSD), imported them into an Illustrator file, and saved. They all worked.

Many thanks to Raúl Álvarez and Benjamin Fleisher. No bucks for Adobe CC.

I just ran this patch on CS4 running El Capitan. Thank you so much for this! Now if I could only get Distiller to stop asking me for my serial number only to have it tell me it's the wrong one.😐

I miss Steve. He would've had people in tears over some of these bugs.

hi joe!

im struggling with this problem for a few weeks until i decided to check out if its here on these forms and bingo, i tried step by step what u wrote, and it works wonders, the fonts, the psd links, thanx a million!!!!