Citrix Error 61 on Mac

Recently, one of our clients updated the SSL certificate for their Citrix remote access website. This proved to be quite an issue for users with Macs running the Citrix Reciever, which didn't want to play ball. Generating the error message SSL Error 61: You have not chosen to trust "<authority>", the issuer of the server's security certificate. Error number 183  when they tried to launch an application.

Doing what all IT Professionals do best, I googled it. Unfortunately, the majority of the results referred to different scenarios, mostly under older versions of the Citrix client (The dreaded ICA!).

After a very long afternoon of back and forth with one of the affected users, I was able to get things working by taking these steps:

1. On a PC, browse to the problem Citrix website with Internet Explorer
2. Open Tools >> Internet Options >> Content >> Certificates >> Intermediate Certification Authorities
3. Find the name of the cert in the error message (Above) and click on it and click Export
4. Click Next >> Select DER encoded Binary X.509 (.CER) >> Next
5. Save as the same name as the original error message. (e.g. COMODO SSL CA) and Finish the wizard
6. Rename the saved file extension to crt and transfer this file to the Mac
7. On the Mac, open Applications/Citrix ICA Client and create a folder called keystore
8. Open the keystore folder and create a subfolder called cacerts
9. Copy the crt file you created into this folder
10. Open Keychain and click logon from the left pane
11. Choose File>>Import items
12. Browse to the crt file and import. Set all permissions to trusted for the certificate
13. Close browser completely and re-open, browse to problem page and open an application, it should now load successfully
 
That's right, you use a PC to fix the Mac. Good Times...

Where Apple goes next

Now that the furore surrounding the departure of the tech industry's favourite CEO has died down, I thought it would be interesting to look at whats next for Apple.

Apple won't change much in the next 2-4 years. You read it here first folks (and if you didn't then someone is clearly ripping me off). Apple has a roadmap like most other tech firms, seeing a revamp of each core product at least once per year around the same time and (unlike most other tech firms) tends to stick with it quite religiously.

The problem is that even Steve Jobs can't predict the future and when I say Apple won't change much in the next few years, I mean that they will still churn out the Samsung/Foxconn made shiny things that some folks queue outside the store all night for but behind the scenes will likely be a different story.

Jobs had a vision (or several, depending on which bio you're reading) of what he wanted technology to move towards but the success he had came from a high degree of luck, forward thinking and being in the right place at the right time.

I'm in no way downing the man's talent, but merely pointing out that Tim Cook and those alongside him now at the helm of Apple are not Steve Jobs and no amount of luck or forward thinking will guarantee them the success of their predecessor.

I see a fragmented future for Apple, with lots of voices claiming to know "what Steve would have done" because at the end of day, no product left Cupertino without Steve's stamp of approval. Expect more products that compete with each other as much as third parties in the marketplace.

This could complete Apple's slow transformation from the tech world's "Little engine that could" into the lumbering juggernaut of the tech world that Microsoft is today - a confused and fragmented organisation which has lost touch with the industry.

Each passing week sees Apple get more aggresive in litigation, patricularly where Android and Samsung are concerned. Would "the good guys" patent a screen unlock? This reminds me of Bill Gates being determined to crush Netscape at all costs a decade and a half ago.

The question I leave you with is simply whether Apple can still be Apple in the post-Jobs era?