If you want a hint of how fragile our tech-reliant world is, look no further than the Oculus Rift. Yesterday, Rift owners the world over discovered that their expensive virtual reality headset had become a paperweight overnight.
It seems as though Oculus forgot to issue an updated Windows certificate. As Microsoft’s decade-old primer puts it: “Digital certificates function similarly to identification cards such as passports and drivers’ licenses”.
When the certificate expired, Windows stopped recognising Oculus Runtime Service and thus stopped allowing it to run. For end users this manifests as an opaque ‘Can’t reach Oculus Runtime Service’ error message.
The good news it this should be a relatively easy fix. The hardware is fine. Nothing is actually broken here. Oculus needs to issue an updated certificate, and then there’s a good chance users will need to manually download the it. Why? Well, since Oculus’s software won’t run (due to the expired certificate), it’s likely it can’t auto-update either. The process won’t even initiate.
Windows certificates are a pretty basic part of modern software, and it’s embarrassing for a company as big as Oculus – with the backing of Facebook – to let this happen. As Reddit user TrefoilHat pointed out, Oculus’s certificate was generated in 2015 prior to the Rift’s actual public release, when the company was a lot more rough and tumble than it is now. But it’s still embarrassing, especially if the manual update premonition comes true.
In any case, this serves as a decent reminder of the fragility of the digital ecosystem. Someone forgets to check a box, and suddenly millions of devices break. For now Oculus has only said it’s “aware of an issue” but there is a temporary workaround: If you set your PC back to an earlier time, pre-7 March, Windows will recognise the certificate again. User beware, tampering with your PC’s clock can wreak havoc with other Internet-connected programs.
UPDATE: A fix is now available, and Oculus is giving anybody who used a Rift since February 1 a $15 Oculus Store credit within the next seven days. Here’s Oculus’ instructions:
”To patch your Oculus software, you’ll need to download ‘OculusPatchMarch2018.exe’ at https://www.oculus.com/rift-patch/. Run the executable, and select Repair. When the update is finished, launch the Oculus desktop app to continue the update process. Once the update is complete, you’ll be able to use your Rift.”
IDG News Service
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