PT won't start with VPN enabled - Solved

[jeff markham]

Hi All,
After having detected several hacking attempts on my rig, I got a
VPN (Express VPN). While I like it, Protools will not start when it's
enabled.
I can't tell if it's the Pace iLok stuff, Protools itself, or a plugin that's
trying to phone home and can't.

Anybody else seeing this?

The remedy is to disable the VPN while it starts and then re-enable, but
I'm paranoid that something is going to try to phone home in the middle
of tracking.

jeff

[off the wall]

I work on a VPN to my studio in NYC all the time. No issues. It is the stock Apple VPN client to a Cisco router though, not a service.

[dominicperry]

No problem here with Nord VPN, connected to a different time zone - launch PT, and run the demo song, all fine. I use a physical iLok, not iLok cloud.

I've got plenty of plug-ins, but clearly not used for the demo song.

PT U 2023.12.1
MacOS 13.6.3


You could try installing Little Snitch or similar to see what's phoning home.
Alternatively, try turning the network off completely and then launch PT....

Dominic

[jeff markham]

Originally Posted by off the wall

I work on a VPN to my studio in NYC all the time. No issues. It is the stock Apple VPN client to a Cisco router though, not a service.

Ok . I'm using ExpressVPN .. I wonder if there's something up with that.
It has it's own client.


I get the never ending bouncing PT icon in the toolbar.

I did a spindump and it appears to be stuck here:
Thread 0x3e59df DispatchQueue "com.apple.main-thread"(1) Thread name "CrBrowserMain" 1001 samples (1-1001) priority 32 (base 32)
1001 start + 1903 (dyld + 25631) [0x7ff808fc441f]
1001 ??? (Pro Tools + 23264) [0x10b666ae0]
1001 LaunchProTools + 5608 (ProTools_Red + 86840487) [0x148aa04a7]
1001 Launch_Pro_Tools(char*, bool) + 46 (ProTools_Red + 86834669) [0x148a9eded]
1001 PTLauncher::SetUp() + 224 (ProTools_Red + 86802468) [0x148a97024]
1001 TPACEFusion::IsPACEBaseAuthorized() + 750 (ProTools_Red + 95276452) [0x1492abda4]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 1098679 (ProTools_Red + 106704951) [0x149d92037]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 784187 (ProTools_Red + 106390459) [0x149d453bb]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 734656 (ProTools_Red + 106340928) [0x149d39240]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 825002 (ProTools_Red + 106431274) [0x149d4f32a]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 153397 (ProTools_Red + 105759669) [0x149cab3b5]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 1576387 (ProTools_Red + 107182659) [0x149e06a43]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 6317632 (ProTools_Red + 111923904) [0x14a28c2c0]
1001 OPENSSL_ia32_rdseed_bytes + 6314678 (ProTools_Red + 111920950) [0x14a28b736]
1001 __recvfrom + 10 (libsystem_kernel.dylib + 19510) [0x7ff8092e2c36]
*1001 hndl_unix_scall64 + 22 (kernel + 1269174) [0xffffff8000411db6]
*1001 unix_syscall64 + 480 (kernel + 7860928) [0xffffff8000a5b2c0]
*1001 recvfrom_nocancel + 277 (kernel + 7121701) [0xffffff80009a6b25]
*1001 ??? (kernel + 7122059) [0xffffff80009a6c8b]
*1001 soreceive + 2222 (kernel + 7055166) [0xffffff800099673e]
*1001 sbwait + 274 (kernel + 7094594) [0xffffff80009a0142]
*1001 ??? (kernel + 6712359) [0xffffff8000942c27]
*1001 lck_mtx_sleep + 101 (kernel + 1755413) [0xffffff8000488915]
*1001 thread_block_reason + 192 (kernel + 1830192) [0xffffff800049ad30]
*1001 ??? (kernel + 1838425) [0xffffff800049cd59]
*1001 machine_switch_context + 215 (kernel + 2962183) [0xffffff80005af307]

[jeff markham]

Ok .. I found a work-around .. thanks for the hint . I disabled the ExpressVPN control panel and setup using Tunnelblick using the OpenVPN settings ... and not it's working fine.

Thanks for the hint.