PDF XFA forms [SOLVED]

[christianvl]

So... I've been a truly happy Linux user for quite a while now... I've literally sent MS Windows to another galaxy. I don't have it in my computer for years and I refuse to even keep a virtual machine of it... However... Today I've had a bad day. I need to fill a PDF file with some XFA forms and there's nothing on Linux that seems to support it. I've tried Master PDF, Evince, Okular, PDF Studio Viewer, MuPdf... no luck...

Should I install a virtual machine to run Adobe Reader? Or maybe someone in this incredible community can help me to keep my peace of mind and to stay away from Windows? I don't want it! And I refuse to believe that it's necessary for anything! AAAAAAHHHHHH! 

[EDIT]
Added after problem solved. Had to use the outdated Adobe Acrobat Reader (mind some 32 bit dependencies not automatically pulled in a 64bit system).

[PCNetSpec]

I have no idea how to work with .pdf's, but Adobe Reader 9.5.5 is available for Linux if that helps:

Code: [Select]

wget ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.5.5/enu/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb

then

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install ./AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb

[christianvl]

Thank you. I wanted to avoid that, because it is severely outdated and it has lots of security issues. I did try to install just to see if I could get the particular file I need to work on to display properly.

OMG, it pulls a lot of dependencies (like 75)! Anyway... it won't open... I click on it and nothing happens... try to open the file directly to it, but nothing happens too... 

Code: [Select]

ristian@christian-pepper9 ~> acroread -v 
/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

There was no error or failed dependency during install.

[pin]

I had a look earlier and came across this post, https://askubuntu.com/questions/455135/how-do-i-install-adobe-acrobat-reader-from-the-repository

Pdf Studio claims to handle this, https://kbpdfstudio.qoppa.com/free-pdf-reader-with-form-filling-windows-mac-linux/
Although, it seems there is no release for Ubuntu 18.04, and therefore Peppermint 9, yet.

Foxit reader also claims to do the job.

I can't really help you with more than this, sorry 

[PCNetSpec]

Thank you. I wanted to avoid that, because it is severely outdated and it has lots of security issues. I did try to install just to see if I could get the particular file I need to work on to display properly.

OMG, it pulls a lot of dependencies (like 75)! Anyway... it won't open... I click on it and nothing happens... try to open the file directly to it, but nothing happens too... 

Code: [Select]

ristian@christian-pepper9 ~> acroread -v 
/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

There was no error or failed dependency during install.

Weird, that dependency never popped up on my system (Peppermint 9 64bit) but maybe it'd already been pulled in by something else.

In any case, run:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install libxml2

now try again, and if you get a different error, post what it is.

[christianvl]

Thank you both. Foxit reader didn't work either... It even will not open the file.

Here's another strange thing:

Code: [Select]

christian@christian-pepper9 ~ $ sudo apt-get install libxml2
[sudo] password for christian: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
libxml2 is already the newest version (2.9.4+dfsg1-6.1ubuntu1.2).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
christian@christian-pepper9 ~ $ acroread -v
/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

[PCNetSpec]

Oh hang on, it probably needs the 32bit version of that library:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install libxml2:i386

[christianvl]

Yes, that did it. Thank you very much. Looks like it's working, but I have to do some more extensive testing with my file. I'll work as quick as I can with that document and remove Acrobat Reader. I'll mark this discussion as solved just as I confirm everything is ok. 

[christianvl]

Ok, Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 worked for me. I could edit the PDF XFA Form file and submit it to the government authority that I needed to. I'll mark this topic as solved.

Thank you very much for your time and effort.

It's just sad that we still have government agencies/companies using systems that ties the user to proprietary software. They may think there's no harm because it's "free" to download and use. It's not ok. Not ok.   

[PCNetSpec]

Glad it worked for you, thanks for marking the topic solved