I have been using a Universal Binary of the Cisco VPN client for weeks now with no problem. I believe this is an old issue and has been resolved. I suspect part of the problem is Cisco doesn't just release updates to anyone, even if their software crashes and burns the OS.

"rewrite the code for 64bit machines"?

the mac's been 64 bit for quite some time.

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For anyone concerned about the client in general (i.e. not just on a Mac Pro), I've been running it on a Macbook Pro for the past week constantly. I haven't had any trouble.

I am using version 4.9.00

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This is not much of hint. Just saying that Cisco has not updated its driver for the Mac Pro. A true hint would provide a work around.
As for the first reply: Very little software for the Mac takes advantage of 64 bit hardware (when present). Hence Cisco's driver might be one of those who does not.

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robdew: Are you on a Mac Pro when using the Cisco VPN client? My last experience was the same as the "hint". If I had known hints could be bug reports, I would have posted about this a month and a half ago when I had the exact same experience.

I'm looking for this problem to be resolved. So if you are using the client on a Mac Pro without incident (even after restarting/rebooting your system), please let us know and let us know where you got the download from.

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I've had no problems on an Intel mini Duo using version: 4.9.00 (0050).



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I'm using the cisco vpn client on a PPC iMac and it works like a champ. I suspect your problem may be due to chip architecture. The vpn driver works on such a low level, that I think that running it on Intel might be a problem. I havent tried it though. I'll give it a shot on my ProBook.

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I just dealt with this on a brand-new 24" iMac Core Duo (2.33ghz). I thought it had a hardware problem. I would kernel panic during shutdown, etc. Once it started panicking during boot and got stuck in an endless reboot cycle. It would crash frequently, is my point.

After much troubleshooting and digging, I tracked it down to the Cisco VPN Client (The initial logs didn't mention the vpn client). I removed the client through the procedure described at Macintouch and have had NO crashes since. If you try to manually delete the files that the VPN client installs deep in OSX, it will immediately crash the OS. I had to boot in single user mode, make the drive writable and then remove the files by running a cisco script buried on the hard drive.

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There is no question that the client works on older systems including the MacBook. The question is does anyone have a version working on either the Mac Pro?

The Mac Pro uses 2 Core 2 Duo Xeon processors. None of the other Intel Mac's use the Xeon (Woodcrest) processors. I get the feeling that the problem has to do with the Xeon processor. It might also have problems with the Core 2 Duo's (Conroe) processors.

Anyone?

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We have several new iMac's and MacPro's in our lab. all at speeds > 2.16 GHz.
All these Mac's kernel panic during shutdown.
The problem is indeed the Cisco VPN Client as described by Fredrich including a
temporary fix http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12696

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I discovered this issue the day after I brought home my 20" iMac CD2. It took me about 5 minutes of figuring out what the culprit was (the vpn .kext file that is loaded during startup). The issue didn't happen for me though until I upgraded to Quicktime 7.1.3. I'm pretty sure that if you can rollback to 7.1.2 (which would mean a full reinstall of the system since Apple has not made a uninstaller for 7.1.3), you should be OK.

Of course, you lose the ability to use iTunes 7 though.

Choose your poision!

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I am currently running Cisco VPN 4.9 on a MacBook Pro without issues.

However, last week I did have a problem with crashes after loading iTunes 7 and the new version Quicktime, though it was never related to the VPN. After two hours of head scratching by a Apple Store Genius, he finally recommended a clean install of everything. Though this was a pain, everything is working fine now...iTunes, Cisco VPN, etc.

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From this forum thread, Fredrich Dengel suggests:

There is a reproducible shutdown panic resolved by removing the Cisco VPN kext file. Reinstalling the kext file reintroduces the panic. The VPN works fine, building persistent tunnels and causing no other noticable issues. If you need this VPN for remote access to your enterprise, remove the .kext from your system library extension folder prior to shutdown and slide it back in after a restart. Better yet, never shut down your computer. Cisco tends to move slowly, so don't expect a fix soon

The extension he talks about is

/System/Library/Extensions/CiscoVPN.kext

I just got a Mac Pro that I haven't restarted yet... but I will try this and report back next time I'm forced to restart. Others are encouraged to try it as well.

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Works perfectly on my MBP 2.0 GHz using Cisco VPN 4.9.00/0050

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I connect to my work's Cisco VPN server using Internet Connect.

I don't know if it'll work for everyone's VPN, but if you open Internet Connect, add a PPTP VPN, enter the server and your username and password, it should connect (although it sometimes takes 5 or 6 attempts, but it always does connect for me)

The only caveat is that you can do this only if you've already connected to your VPN with any version of the Cisco client. It seems that's the only time the group name and password is used.

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One of the advantages of the IBM PowerPC 970 (used in the G5s and iMac G5) is that it switch between executing 32-bit and 64-bit executables, on the fly. This capability made it very simple for Apple to support 64-bit applications, as xnu (the kernel) only needed minor changes, and more importantly, xnu and all the kexts could remain 32-bit. So the barrier to entry was quite low, to support 64-bit

However, on EM64-T/AMD64 (PCs) this is not possible, where you can only choose the mode you want at bootup, that is, 32-bit or 64-bit modes. It cannot switch on the fly, like the PewerPC 970 can. So, this limitation has forced Apple to change xnu and all the kexts to be 64-bit, for the first time, on these new 64-bit Intel Core 2 systems. If the xnu (the kernel) runs in 64-bit mode, it can then run 64-bit applications and emulate 32-bit. However, when it comes to the kernel space (ring 0), it and its extensions must be 64-bit. So as others have mentioned, it's quite likely that the reason xnu is crashing on boot is due to installing a 32-bit kext, which of course, won't work.

This is one of the advantages PowerPC has over IA/AMD64.

---
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke

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I saw a report on Macintouch saying that if you run Cisco VPN and Parallels Desktop at the same time, it'll totally hose your system. So word up dudes.

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macosx10_4_8/index.html
(do a search for "Cisco VPN" on that page)

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More info has appeared on the site that UniAce posted about:

Parallels support says the following:

"The problem with Parallels & Cisco VPN on 10.4.8 is that Cisco VPN crashes if you do /System/Library/StartupItems/CiscoVPN/CiscoVPN restart

This command will crash OSX even if Parallels is not installed. Parallels needs to restart CiscoVPN from /Library/StartupItems/Parallels/Parallels after installing Parallels Host-Guest network adapter to get Cisco working afterwards.

If you absolutely need to run both on 10.4.8 and you can sacrifice Host-Only networking mode you can do the following: First install Parallels and edit /Library/StartupItems/Parallels/Parallels script removing Cisco restart command and kextload for Pvsvnic. Now install CiscoVPN client."

Sounds like this is a 10.4.8 and Cisco problem, not Parallels.

Sounds like there is an issue, but nothing as bad as originally posted.

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I've been working with a reader via email on this issue. He has a new iMac with the Core 2 Duo processors. He found that there were no kernel panics for his setup.

So I tried installing the latest VPN client (4.9.00/0050) and so far so good.

Our assumption is that there was something in OS X 10.4.7 that was causing the problem. He was experiencing the same problems I was having with Kernel Panic's. He found a workaround that worked for him and I used it too.

Then Apple released 10.4.8 so he tried the VPN client without the workaround and hasn't seen a Kernel Panic since. I am currently running the VPN client without the workaround too. Haven't seen a panic yet. I don't reboot all that often though, so I might not for a little while. If I do see one and it's the VPN client, I'll pass that info on.

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