Oculus Rift Headsets Are Offline Following a Software Error (polygon.com)

Polygon reports that Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets around the world are experiencing an outage. The outage appears to be a result of an expired security certificate. "That certificate has expired," said the Oculus support team on its forums, "and we're looking at a few different ways to resolve the issue. We'll update you with the latest info as available. We recommend you wait until we provide an official fix. Thanks for your patience." Polygon reports: One place where users experiencing the issue are gathering is on the Oculus forums. Last night user apexmaster booted up his computer, tried to open the Oculus app and was greeted by an error indicating that the software could not reach the "Oculus Runtime Service." That same error is cropping up on computers all around the world, including several devices here at Polygon. Once it has appeared, there's no way to restart the Oculus app, which renders the Rift headset unusable.

Comments

Ouch

[Anonymous Coward]

It sounds like The Cloud bites again!

gridlock

[PopeRatzo]

Oculus Rift Headsets Are Offline Following a Software Error

This, except now imagine that it's your self-driving, no steering wheel car. Will the manufacturer give you a note telling your boss that you couldn't make it to work because of a buggy software update?

Re:gridlock

[sheramil]

Buggy software problem? Have you tried turning the horse off and on again?

Re:gridlock

[msauve]

It's not buggy software. The software seems to be doing exactly what it was intended to do. This is a fucking specification problem - some idiot decided that proper behavior is to shut down the system when a cert expires, instead of simply warning the user and asking if it was OK to continue. Or alternately, creating an infrastructure which ensures certs get updated as necessary.

On a deeper level, who the fuck would ever pay for an Oculus product going forward when this just proves you can't actually buy one to own and they can shut you down at any time (CRL, anyone?).

Re:gridlock

[Dutch Gun]

Yeah... it's sort of hard to believe the bumbling that would allow a certificate to expire before realizing that it would shut down every single one of their users. I mean, I understand bugs slip through, but this is sort of astoundingly bad.

More to the point, as you indicated, what the hell is an expiring certificate doing in their software anyhow? A normal code-signing certificate expires after a time, but the software that was signed with it does NOT expire. We now know that their device-critical software has a time bomb in it that only they can periodically reset, and they were already slipshod enough to miss the deadline once.

Re:gridlock

[vtcodger]

Can't access it? Security feature. It's undeniably secure.

Just wait until Ford or Toyota or VW inadvertently lets a certificate expire and a few hundred million vehicles glide silently to a stop ... wherever they may happen to be,

Re:gridlock

[WaffleMonster]

More to the point, as you indicated, what the hell is an expiring certificate doing in their software anyhow? A normal code-signing certificate expires after a time, but the software that was signed with it does NOT expire. We now know that their device-critical software has a time bomb in it that only they can periodically reset, and they were already slipshod enough to miss the deadline once.

This is what I don't get. If anyone who has a Rift not working check signing date of: c:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-runtime\OculusAppFramework.dll

From explorer right click select digital signatures and the signing date should be there.

My system works even though DLL was signed with the same now expired cert however my Rift was firewalled and runtime hasn't been updated in ages.

Found this post about release notes on the 5th starting to wonder whether problem is they actually did sign this thing using a cert expired at the time they signed it.

https://forums.oculusvr.com/co...

One of the reasons firewalled my Rift other than obvious Facebook stalking is Facebook has no discipline and can't manage software releases. Their software updates are forced on everyone AND often break shit. They routinely rush out patches to fix whatever they broke this time.

Re:gridlock

[Megane]

This is also why the OS X 10.10 install disk does not work unless you set your clock back before installing. For some brillant reason, the inner disk image was signed with a certificate that expired in 2015 or so, and it aborts the installation with a cryptic error if the clock is set past that date. Fortunately, the installer environment has a sufficiently functional system to change the clock, so you can set it to 2014 and continue with the install.

Re:gridlock

[Actually, I do RTFA]

This is a fucking specification problem - some idiot decided that proper behavior is to shut down the system when a cert expires, instead of simply warning the user and asking if it was OK to continue. Or alternately, creating an infrastructure which ensures certs get updated as necessary.

Or, alternatively, let me use my hardware/software without an internet connection. Almost as though I owned it....

What an utterly amateurish thing to do

[gweihir]

Pathetic. First, a single-point-of-failure like that is not acceptable in anything except things that need a high security level. And second, if you put in something like that, then you make damn sure something like this does not happen. Obviously, these people are either completely incompetent or do not care at all about their customers once they have the money.

What do I do now?

[RespekMyAthorati]

Slashdot is broken.
My Oclulus Rift is broken.

What the hell do I do now?
I guess I'll have to go play with my kids or talk to my wife.

If things get any worse I might end up going outside.

I hear thier next software update

[bobstreo]

Is the inclusion of the exciting new software: .Blipverts

More proof that Oculus was definitely not the way

[Khyber]

A certificate expiry takes your entire fucking VR gaming rig down?

That's what you get for using a Facebook company.

Problems everywhere

[SuperKendall]

If things get any worse I might end up going outside.

Man, I went outside last August and it turned out even the SUN was broken!

Although they claimed it was a regularly scheduled patch. Even so!

Breaking News! Fix released

[CeasedCaring]

To resolve the "Can’t Reach Oculus Runtime Service" error, please follow these steps:

If you currently have the Oculus app installed:

Go to https://www.oculus.com/rift-pa....
Click Download Install Patch to download OculusPatchMarch2018.exe.
Open OculusPatchMarch2018.exe.
If Windows asks you if you’re sure you want to open this file, click Yes.
If Windows Defender prompts "Windows protected your PC", click More info and then click Run anyway.
If your antivirus software restricts the file from opening, temporarily disable your AV and continue.
Select Repair and confirm you would like to repair the Oculus software.
Allow the repair process to run, download and install.
Launch the Oculus app.

Shortly after the repair you will be prompted for an update. Please complete the update. The download and update may take up to 10 minutes depending on network connection.

If you uninstalled the Oculus app from your computer:

Go to https://www.oculus.com/setup.
Click Download Oculus Software to download OculusSetup.exe.
Open OculusSetup.exe and follow the onscreen instructions to install the latest version of the Oculus app.

Source - https://support.oculus.com/217...