Discussion around issues in Catlina MacOS

[michael_brado]

There has been a lot of chaos on Catalina MacOS and its interaction with networks that have deployed Ruckus products for wireless service.  Issues are being seen in current Catalina MacOS that did not appear in earlier releases of MacOS: Mojave, High-Sierra, etc.

TAC managers have asked that we share information with our customers.

It is recommended that Macbook users use 10.15.4 who wish to use Catalina OS or have got an relatively older version of Catalina MacOS: namely 10.15, 10.15.1, 10.15.2 or 10.15.3. Apple has fixed a variety of bugs including but not limited to Wi-Fi, Safari stop responding when attempting to use Apple Pay, HSTS enhancement etc.

Apple has released beta version of 10.15.5 and it will soon be available officially on their website.

Some of the useful URLs on issues encountered with Catalino OS are:

-> https://www.techradar.com/news/macos-catalina-10154-gets-a-stability-update-but-reports-claim-its-br...

-> https://macreports.com/mac-catalina-wi-fi-problems-fix/

-> https://www.switchingtomac.com/tutorials/osx/macbook-pro-constantly-dropping-wireless-connection

-> https://osxdaily.com/2014/04/24/fix-mac-disconnect-wifi-sleep/

 

Please note that Catalina is true 64-bit operating system and Apple has asked all the users to use 64-bit version of those applications. Please read the following URLs for further information:

-> https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/12/20908567/apple-macos-catalina-breaking-apps-32-bit-support-how-t...

 

Quotes on 32-bit applications:

“Apple first announced that it would ultimately wind down support for 32-bit apps more than a year and a half ago, when it began pushing alerts to macOS High Sierra users that 32-bit software was “unsupported.” The apps still worked, but with Catalina’s official unveiling back in June at WWDC, Apple made the eventual discontinuation official. With the launch of Catalina, 32-bit apps no longer function.”

[chris_downing_g]

I don't believe this to be the case either... I think this is more a case of poor documentation than poor support... I'm currently being supported by Ruckus TAC for Apple devices running 10.15.6 and 10.16 (and iOS 14).

[chris_downing_g]

Quick update so that this makes sense to those reading it later.

I've asked Ruckus TAC to close this case as we are no longer experiencing this problem on clients running 10.15.4, 10.15.5 (and newer).

The fix seems to have been AP firmware upgrade to 5.2.1.0.698.

[tony_heung]

AFAIK, it is not the case.

[chris_downing_g]

Just to put it out there... over the last couple of months, we have seen a sharp reduction in the number of macOS clients exhibiting this problem (having changed nothing in our main wireless config). To the point now that I am finding it hard to reproduce the problem for Ruckus Support.

Two possibilities could explain this (somewhat obviously, seeing as this problem requires both macOS clients and Ruckus AP's). The first thing that has changed is that macOS clients have moved from 10.15.5 to 10.15.6 and now 10.15.7. The second thing is that we have applied two updates to our Ruckus controllers (Virtual SmartZone controllers - vSZ-E) - from version: 5.2.0.0.699 to 5.2.0.0.5527 and now 5.2.1.0.515.

More importantly (I believe) is that these firmware bundles included AP firmware updates. We were running version: 5.1.2.0.373... which updated to 5.2.0.0.1412 and now 5.2.1.0.698.

Now, in the hope that this helps others, I'm planning on downgrading a 2015 MBA to 10.15.5 (or earlier) and testing to see if the problem returns, but it may be that Ruckus have fixed the issue (either inadvertently or knowingly).

If it's as simple as now updating AP firmware, hopefully this helps you.

[liliia_reshytni]

Chris, nice logic! Let us know how it went with the test to get the theory confirmed.