Clean Access Agent and OS 10.6, College Campuses?

[bbotte]

So those campuses running Cisco Clean Access Agent for their wi-fi access and having many freshman coming to class with OS 10.6. What are you doing to let these Macs on the network? The College I am at, Clean Access Agent 4.1.3.1 runs fine on OS 10.6, I just get an error when I try to login and it says "Clean Access Agent is having a problem contacting the server, the operating system is not supported."

Funny 10.5.8 fixed all the airport issues with Cisco networks. Now 10.6 is just not a supported OS, the application works in 10.6. So is it just an update that needs applied to the network or can they just allow 10.6 to connect and deem it an acceptable OS? What are some college campuses doing with this wi-fi application and Snow Leopard?

 

[slimer525]

My campus runs Clean Access Agent 4.5 and as of right now Resnet is telling all students with snow leopard that they are out of luck regarding network access. Apparently Cisco is "working" on a fix, but ETA is unknown (anywhere from 3 - 90 days a network guy told me). Pretty ridiculous considering developers have had access to snow leopard for quite some time...

 

[bbotte]

My campus runs Clean Access Agent 4.5 and as of right now Resnet is telling all students with snow leopard that they are out of luck regarding network access. Apparently Cisco is "working" on a fix, but ETA is unknown (anywhere from 3 - 90 days a network guy told me). Pretty ridiculous considering developers have had access to snow leopard for quite some time...

I know, with Macs being the no 1 laptop on campuses, this is stupid, the software is junk anyway.

 

[Prospekt]

This is so annoying. I've always hated the cisco agent too. they need to update it ASAP

 

[bbotte]

This is so annoying. I've always hated the cisco agent too. they need to update it ASAP

90 days is gonna suck for some freshman....

 

[SHADO]

Well Cisco sucks anyways, so I wouldn't expect anything less from them.

 

[scottyevo]

Hey dudes.. I know I had the same problem, But I googled around and found a solution:

1. Quit Cisco Clean Access Agent.
2. Open the Terminal application.
3. Enter the following three commands in Terminal, pressing return after each line. Do this by copy/paste to avoid typos. Supply your password when requested.

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo cp SystemVersion.plist SystemVersion.plist.bak

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set roductVersion "10.5.8" ' SystemVersion.plist

4. Restart CCAA and login. It should let you on as usual.

5. (IMPORTANT) Immediately restore your original SystemVersion.plist by entering the following two commands, one at a time, in Terminal:

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo mv SystemVersion.plist.bak SystemVersion.plist

6. Failure to do Step 5 above may leave your computer unable to reboot! (Forcing you to boot into Single User Mode in order to carry out Step 5.)

 

[Prospekt]

Hey dudes.. I know I had the same problem, But I googled around and found a solution:

1. Quit Cisco Clean Access Agent.
2. Open the Terminal application.
3. Enter the following three commands in Terminal, pressing return after each line. Do this by copy/paste to avoid typos. Supply your password when requested.

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo cp SystemVersion.plist SystemVersion.plist.bak

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set roductVersion "10.5.8" ' SystemVersion.plist

4. Restart CCAA and login. It should let you on as usual.

5. (IMPORTANT) Immediately restore your original SystemVersion.plist by entering the following two commands, one at a time, in Terminal:

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo mv SystemVersion.plist.bak SystemVersion.plist

6. Failure to do Step 5 above may leave your computer unable to reboot! (Forcing you to boot into Single User Mode in order to carry out Step 5.)

Do you have to do this every time you restart your computer?

 

[brickchard]

Solution

90 days is gonna suck for some freshman....

Solution found

READ NOTES BEFORE USE

OK, so this is a very rough and temporary solution, but at least it somewhat automates the process.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place both SystemVersion.plist.rep & SystemServices.plist.bak into /System/Library/CoreServices/
Run replace system version script, supply credentials
log in
Run restore system version script, supply credentials
Quit AppleScript

NOTE: This will work on 10.6, but it will replace system version with 10.6.1 - USE CAREFULLY, i recommend to edit the SystemVersion.plist.bak file according to your system version.

NOTE2: If CCAAgent is not running when you execute the first script, you will get an error.I added the killall line because on my machine, CCAA starts up automatically. This has been tested and works with CCAA 4.1.3.1 and OSX 10.6.1







Download this file


http://www.2shared.com/file/7977136/253b2809/SysVerReplace.html

 

[simpleleap]

Which college campuses do you guys attend? I was just curious. Also thanks for the workaround I will try this out

 

[scottyevo]

Do you have to do this every time you restart your computer?

Yes you have to do that everytime!! but at least it works!.. Just copy and paste it into a text folder and have it handy on you everytime your on campus

 

[drumpb5]

I'm at Marist College, and we have CCAA 4.5.0.0. None of the work arounds work with this and no one knows when there will be an update if ever. Cisco was no help, i called them today and the guy said he didn't even know if they had a development department or how to reach them.

I tried to uninstall 4.5 from my computer and install 4.1.whatever but i get a message saying that there is a newer version already installed on the disk. I deleted the 2 files from the library and dragged the package contents to the trash and even restarted but this still comes up. Anyone know how to get rid of this? I can't even revert to leopard cause i just got my laptop today with it preinstalled =/

 

[bobrien]

easy solution

This applies to institutions which allow Linux access without CCAAgent. That is to say that the browser login page -where Mac and Windows computers can download CCAAgent- automatically allows Linux computers access without any software.

Please only use this if you are abiding by network rules (antivirus installed, latest security updates, etc.) (Not that Macs pose an immediate risk)
Change your browsers user agent to a linux user agent line, then quit CCAAgent so that it doesn't interrupt the connection, then log in to the Cisco webpage that you are redirected to. This will give you unlimited access without any further checks or software. (this can be automated with Greasemonkey plugin, User Agent Switcher and an apple script) Even without automation it's much easier than the above workaround.

If you don't know what I am talking about (or are to lazy to google) you probably should wait until your institution updates it's server with the fix.
This worked for me, and it also worked for my ipod (after jailbreaking it)

 

[wimpss]

Hey there guys. This is a reply to Scottyevo

After a lot of fiddling i finally got into my account through normal startup. I then restarted and the computer automaticall shuts down after the grey screen appears, and after multiple restarts it refuses to open with my DVD Installer Disc. Any suggestions?

PS. I am currently at the Genius Bar trying to install Snow Leopard from their External Drive and have a little while to go. I did a Disk Utility scan and everything seemed to be OK, which means my hard-drive is fine!! Will update as soon as computer is up and running. Seems that the only way is to go our favourite Genius Bar and let them help (even though you wait a VERY long time).

_Will

Hey dudes.. I know I had the same problem, But I googled around and found a solution:

1. Quit Cisco Clean Access Agent.
2. Open the Terminal application.
3. Enter the following three commands in Terminal, pressing return after each line. Do this by copy/paste to avoid typos. Supply your password when requested.

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo cp SystemVersion.plist SystemVersion.plist.bak

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set roductVersion "10.5.8" ' SystemVersion.plist

4. Restart CCAA and login. It should let you on as usual.

5. (IMPORTANT) Immediately restore your original SystemVersion.plist by entering the following two commands, one at a time, in Terminal:

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo mv SystemVersion.plist.bak SystemVersion.plist

6. Failure to do Step 5 above may leave your computer unable to reboot! (Forcing you to boot into Single User Mode in order to carry out Step 5.)

 

[zach]

not that anyone's posted here looking for a solution recently, but as this comes up as one of the top hits on google I figured I might as well post. I wrote a little automator app that automates the process scottyevo posted. it quits CCAA, pops up a window that prompts you for your password for sudo, runs the first part of the script, reopens CCAA, and runs the second part of the script. it's attached if anyone would benefit. no guarantees, but it has made my life considerably easier. note, you SHOULD only need to run this every time you reboot, but as those of us who use CCAA know it's really ******, so in case it's giving you a hard time, just run the app again.

 

[SHADO]

I just installed CCAA and then uninstalled it and I've been surfing on 10.6 ever since.