A working recipe for Pulse Secure Connect client on Debian 9 (Stretch)

[timmc]

OK, I finally got the Connect client working on Debian Stretch. (64-bit, if it matters). CLI still broken (exits after I enter my password) but at least the GUI works.

1. Install client version 5.3R4
2. Run the following script to launch the UI:

   LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:/usr/local/pulse
   /usr/local/pulse/pulseUi

3. Make the connection profile and start it up
4. Bring the tun0 interface down and then up again: sudo ip link set tun0 down; sudo ip link set tun0 up
5. Wait approximately 60 seconds

And after all that, you should be able to route traffic through the VPN.

(ETA: I've only found the tun0 down/up trick necessary when using a split VPN configuration; when I use my employer's no-split configuration, it works right away. However, it also doesn't seem to clean up after itself as often.)

[zanyterp]

Thank you

[timmc]

A few other things I should mention:

- I got the LD_LIBRARY_PATH trick from several other posts in these forums, but not sure where

- Without bringing the tun0 interface down and up again (and then waiting), 0 bytes will flow through to the other side of the VPN tunnel, even though it successfully connects.

- Simply bringing tun0 up is not enough, it's not just a matter of it being down int he first place.

Hopefully this helps Pulse debug whatever's messed up in the client!