How to install/configure Pulse Secure client in debian/Ubuntu

1.- Download Pulse Secure latest client:

ps-pulse-linux-9.0r4.0-b943-ubuntu-debian-64-bit-installer.deb

2.- As root, run:

dpkg -i ps-pulse-linux-9.0r4.0-b943-ubuntu-debian-64-bit-installer.deb
cd /usr/local/pulse/

2.1.- When running bullseye (debian 10) edit the file /etc/debian_version and add a 9 at the end of the line:

bullseye/sid 9

3.- Still as root, run:

./PulseClient_x86_64.sh install_dependency_packages

(It will fail to install some dependecies in debian 10 that will be installed manually later)

4.- Add new directories:

mkdir /usr/local/pulse/extra
mkdir /usr/local/pulse/debs

5.- Download additional files:

cd /usr/local/pulse/debs

wget -c http://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/i/icu/libicu57_57.1-6+deb9u2_amd64.deb
wget -c http://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/w/webkitgtk/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0_2.4.11-3_amd64.deb
wget -c http://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/w/webkitgtk/libwebkitgtk-1.0-0_2.4.11-3_amd64.deb

6.- Extract *.deb files in the directory /usr/local/pulse/extra/

cd /usr/local/pulse/extra

dpkg -x ../debs/libicu57_57.1-6+deb9u2_amd64.deb .
dpkg -x ../debs/libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0_2.4.11-3_amd64.deb .
dpkg -x ../debs/libwebkitgtk-1.0-0_2.4.11-3_amd64.deb .

7.- As a normal user, in a terminal run:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/pulse/extra/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/

7.1.- To make this change permanent add previous line to .bashrc config
file

8.- Still as a normal user, in a terminal run:

/usr/local/pulse/pulseUi

9.- In Gnome/Cinnamon edit Pulse Secure menu entry, and correct it to:

/usr/bin/env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/pulse/extra/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu /usr/local/pulse/pulseUi

10.- Go to https://your_vpn_server.domain.com, export the site certificates and copy it in:

/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/

11.- Run:

sudo update-ca-certificates --fresh

And that would be it. I hope this helps my fellow DEVs and remote sysadmins.

Sources:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1135065/ubuntu-19-04-libwebkitgtk-1-0-so-0-missing

https://kb.pulsesecure.net/articles/Pulse_Secure_Article/KB43927