Prior to PCS 8.0 / Pulse Secure Desktop client 5.0, SAML authentication is not supported when you log in directly to Pulse Secure Desktop client and the Realm is configured to use a SAML authentication server instance (Authentication > Auth. Servers). If the Realm is configured to use a SAML authentication server instance, it is supported with Pulse Secure Desktop only if you first log in via a web browser and then launch or auto-launch Pulse.