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Wayland breaks the GlobalProtect™ VPN client. Quite annoying.

by jsdavo 2y ago

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
...why would a VPN client care? Like, okay fine the thing is a VPN that for some absurd reason needs a GUI window - does it not work under xwayland!?
sebastos 2y ago
Why is that damn client so finicky in the first place? Even on X it's always been unreliable. What the heck did they do that makes it so delicate?
- viraptor 2y ago
  Blame marketing, branding and pressure for value-add. There's no reason for anyone to have a VPN client you can see. It's all IPSec, OpenVPN, or wireguard under the covers. It should be handed off to the OS, but every corp needs to be a special little snowflake and show you their logo. (Yeah, I'm bitter, I fought with way too many crappy GUI wrappers for openvpn CLI) Once the app exists, there seems to be little pressure to make it actually good - one of them updated and literally removed the necessary client but just from the MacOS releases. (ZeroTier gets a pass though because it's an uncommon protocol and I can't remember the last time I've actually seen the app open - as it should be.)
fyrn_ 2y ago
To be fair Even on MacOS (presumably bigger market for them) a strong breeze breaks GlobalProtect™
- nolongerthere 2y ago
  There’s something very weird about macOS multitasking in general, onedrive and other apps that you’d expect to stay alive always in the background constantly need to be refreshed.
- simoncion 2y ago
  Perhaps IT at $DAYJOB has pinned to one of the few good versions of GlobalProtect™, but the only trouble I've had with it on my work-issued Mac (and this is a recent trouble) was it refusing to pop up the dialog to enter two-factor creds. Granted, this is a right pain in the ass, because you have to restart the fucking GlobalProtect™ service to flush out the bug... but otherwise, it has been fine for years and years.
- vundercind 2y ago
  Zero problems with globalprotect on my work Mac for the year or so I’ve been using it. I’m actually super surprised because the thing looks like cheap jankware.
chenxiaolong 2y ago
I'd recommend giving openconnect a try. It was originally meant for Cisco VPNs, but has also supported GlobalProtect for a while now. It integrates with the NetworkManager GUI if you use that. It worked flawlessly with the GlobalProtect VPN we had to use at my last job. A few folks ended up switching to using openconnect on Mac too. The official client seems to be quite bad on both platforms.

Wayland breaks the GlobalProtect™ VPN client. Quite annoying.

by jsdavo 2y ago

Wayland breaks the GlobalProtect™ VPN client. Quite annoying.

...why would a VPN client care? Like, okay fine the thing is a VPN that for some absurd reason needs a GUI window - does it not work under xwayland!?

sebastos 2y ago

Why is that damn client so finicky in the first place? Even on X it's always been unreliable. What the heck did they do that makes it so delicate?

viraptor 2y ago
Blame marketing, branding and pressure for value-add. There's no reason for anyone to have a VPN client you can see. It's all IPSec, OpenVPN, or wireguard under the covers. It should be handed off to the OS, but every corp needs to be a special little snowflake and show you their logo. (Yeah, I'm bitter, I fought with way too many crappy GUI wrappers for openvpn CLI) Once the app exists, there seems to be little pressure to make it actually good - one of them updated and literally removed the necessary client but just from the MacOS releases. (ZeroTier gets a pass though because it's an uncommon protocol and I can't remember the last time I've actually seen the app open - as it should be.)

fyrn_ 2y ago

To be fair Even on MacOS (presumably bigger market for them) a strong breeze breaks GlobalProtect™

nolongerthere 2y ago
There’s something very weird about macOS multitasking in general, onedrive and other apps that you’d expect to stay alive always in the background constantly need to be refreshed.
simoncion 2y ago
Perhaps IT at $DAYJOB has pinned to one of the few good versions of GlobalProtect™, but the only trouble I've had with it on my work-issued Mac (and this is a recent trouble) was it refusing to pop up the dialog to enter two-factor creds. Granted, this is a right pain in the ass, because you have to restart the fucking GlobalProtect™ service to flush out the bug... but otherwise, it has been fine for years and years.
vundercind 2y ago
Zero problems with globalprotect on my work Mac for the year or so I’ve been using it. I’m actually super surprised because the thing looks like cheap jankware.

chenxiaolong 2y ago

I'd recommend giving openconnect a try. It was originally meant for Cisco VPNs, but has also supported GlobalProtect for a while now. It integrates with the NetworkManager GUI if you use that. It worked flawlessly with the GlobalProtect VPN we had to use at my last job. A few folks ended up switching to using openconnect on Mac too. The official client seems to be quite bad on both platforms.