Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Ctrl-Alt-Del => Topic started by: Sergeant Pluck on 03 December, 2020, 10:09:34 pm
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The beloved employer recommends Global Protect for remote access. This was working fine on my Mac with Catalina. I then uninstalled it as I wasn’t working from home much. I’ve now updated to Big Sur and need to use it again.
I have encountered an issue. When I installed this before, I needed to (and did) grant user permission as described below, and all was well:
https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000boQ9CAI
The problem I am having now is that the request to grant that permission is never invoked - there is no opportunity in security prefs to “allow”. So Global Protect keeps trying to connect (“Still working”) indefinitely. That’s a known issue, and the page above provides this:
https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/globalprotect/4-0/globalprotect-agent-user-guide/globalprotect-agent-for-mac/remove-the-globalprotect-enforcer-kernel-extension.html
Doing Step 2 gives this:
kextstat | grep gplock
Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil showloaded
No variant specified, falling back to release
Where do I go from there?
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Apple are busy monkeying with kernel extensions with the ambition of getting rid of them completely. The instructions you link to are for v4.0 which hasn't been updated this year. It looks like there's a v5.1 you should be using?
Of particular note, the v4.0 document shows the GP kernel extension installed in /System/Library/, which is read-only in Bug Sur so wouldn't be allowed. If the version you've tried to install puts its kernel extension there then it will never work.
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I download GP from the GP portal itself (accessed using my work log-in) but I cannot see the version number. I can only assume it is the latest version.
I’ll have to ask IT tomorrow if they have had other reports of people having trouble with Big Sur.
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Just to bring this to a close, in case anyone else has a similar issue.
The problem was that the GP portal (that provides the package for download after entering work log-in details) gives a version that does not work with Big Sur. Work IT (I am clearly not the first to ask) gave me a link to download a version that does work, in that it asks for the required permissions during installation.
Oddly, when I run GP now, when it opens it says “an older version is available for download, would you like to install it now?”, which I decline.
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I've seen more than one post on more than one forum to hold on with installing Big Sur until they've sorted out the bugs.
On which basis, for the moment, I think I'll be sticking with Catalina on both of my machines which are running it.
FWIW, Ordinarily I'm an early adopter.
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It's fine on my home machine, but I've not tried updating the mothership Macbook, it traditionally breaks the Cisco VPN client beloved of the mothership, and one they're never up-to-date on, and one that appears to be managed by the more awkward Provisional wing of the IT department. A team once described as the customer service equivalent of a having a bagged turd thrown at you. Since I need the VPN, I'll let someone else go into battle first.
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Work-dictated apps aside, I found the Catalina to Big Sur update much less troublesome than the previous “big” OS X update, in that Sonos and the connection to my NAS seemed to sort itself out without much intervention at all.
Have to say that I am left wondering what the update has achieved other than to make my Air look like an iPad.