How to run latest Zoom in Bionic64? - (SOLVED)

[mow9902]

I use bionic64 frugal install.
For quite some time (many months, many versions of zoom) I have been using Zoom successfully by simply downloading the .deb file from the Zoom site and running it with the command /opt/zoom/ZoomLauncher.
The downloaded package contains two folders:
opt
usr

I simply add a wrapper script to add the library path - and then execute ZoomLauncher

WHEREAMI="$(cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd && echo)"
LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$WHEREAMI":$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
##
exec $WHEREAMI/opt/zoom/ZoomLauncher

This has worked perfectly without any issues at all up until version 5.3.472687.1012

BUT - each version since then has a problem. When I launch the app as usual with /opt/zoom/ZoomLauncher the login screen is displayed as it should be, but none of the input fields can be seen - they are all hidden by a grey screen.

I do notice that these later versions contain the file libQt5WaylandCompositor.so.5.12.9 (and associated links). I'm not sure whether this might be part of the problem since these files were not in the earlier versions.

To illustrate - I've attached a shot of what it looks like with the latest version Version 5.4.53350.1027

All comments appreciated.

[peebee]

It does seem to have sprouted an unannounced Qt5 dependency ..... Bionic64 has Qt5 I believe but presumably too old a version .... Qt5 components seem very version sensitive....

You could try installing:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lxpup/ ... s/download

but do it in a pristine frugal install first to see if it works .....

No mention of Qt5 in:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205759689

[mow9902]

Thanks peebee - unfortunately that did not make any difference.

Interestingly I also found this appimage of the current version (downloaded from here) - https://appimage.github.io/Zoom/ and it also produces the same 'greyed' out dialog boxes.

I'm stumped on this one ..but sure would like to know!

[mikewalsh]

@mow9902 :-

Mm. O-kayyy....

This could be specific to a given version of Puppy. I run Zoom in Xenialpup64, and also in jrb's 'lite' spin of BK's Quirky April 7.0.1, from a chrooted Xenial64 'jail'. I also run it in Fossapup64.....but I don't use Bionicpup64 very much these days, as it has networking issues with my fast Ethernet chip on the new hardware.

Zoom is, of course, self-contained, but even if you specify to only look in the Zoom directory for Qt stuff, Qt will still look around for any other versions of itself that may already be on your machine.....and Qt moans like a bitch if it finds any others. It absolutely refuses to play ball if more than one version is found.....and the version of Qt5 in the self-contained Zoom directory is newer than that available via the PPM.

You may have other versions of Qt5 installed that you don't even know about, if you've installed stuff via the PPM...

It's worth investigating. (You & Peter are both right, actually; I hadn't noticed the addition of the WaylandCompositor module, but.....there it is.)

Mike.

[mow9902]

Thanks for taking a look Mike.

I don't particularly want to muck around too much with my qt5 setup - I'm worried about the potential impact on other apps, and I don't have enough knowledge personally to fix everything which might get stuffed up!

However - I did try this to try to understand a little more of what might be happening.

(a) I copied the Appimage executable into a separate folder
(b) I created a symlink to it called Zoom
(c) Copied the contents out of the qt5-5.15.1-64.sfs which peebee provided earlier
(d) Created a short wrapper script which was my attempt to override default library with the one in this directory
(e) Ran the wrapper script from the CLI and captured the output in the attached txt file

Means nothing to me, but might contain some clue for anyone with enough knowledge.

[Grey]

If you run with...

Code: Select all

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/zoom
cd /opt/zoom
./zoom

...then among other things we find out:
qt.svg: :/images/wechat.svg:10:6: Could not resolve property
It seems to be swearing at QtSvg, which is a rendering library for .svg images. And libQt5Svg needs libQt5CoreQt >= 5.12, which is in the program folder, but is not registered in the system.
You can try to impudently substitute for fresh libraries from other distributions, but this does not always work and is not technically attractive.
Therefore, so far only through a snap or a flatpak, which, of course, are complete ... mmm ... not beautiful for a small Linux distribution.

[mikewalsh]

@mow9902 :-

We-e-elll, now; it gives me the same problems in Bionic that you're having yourself. Although I no longer use Bionic on a regular basis - too many things that worked under previous Pups stopped working here, yet inexplicably started working again in later Pups! - I still keep a basic copy of it around to help others out with troubleshooting.

Doesn't appear to make any difference whether I use the .deb package or the AppImage. The AppImage gives the same greyed-out login screen, plus the identical terminal output you got yourself; AppImages always give a lot of terminal output, since they're unpacking and setting-up in /tmp.

The .deb; same greyed-out screen, but absolutely NO clue in the terminal at all. Now, for some reason, that rings a bell.....we had exactly the same issue with earlier versions of Skype. Wouldn't run, and wouldn't give any reason, either. Hmm....it's possible Zoom have started to build-in the need to use systemd login verification with this release - it was either Peter or Phil who figured-out something called 'elogind' was needed, plus sundry dependencies.

Later 'buntu Pups come with this by default.....but then, that doesn't explain why it still runs fine for me under Xenialpup64. I'm stumped, mate; I really don't know what else to suggest!

Mike.

[norgo]

@mow9902
please try this

Code: Select all

export QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software
./Zoom-5.4.54779.1115.glibc2.17-x86_64.AppImage

of course you have to change the version number to your version

[mikewalsh]

@norgo :-

I thought I'd just give this a try.

Works OK for me (modified for the .deb package instead of the AppImage) - for some reason, although I've d/l'ed it half-a-dozen times, Bionic keeps insisting the Zoom AppImage doesn't exist, even when it's pointed straight at it. Weird.

That lets the app fire up. And now we have another problem.....all of a sudden, Zoom no longer detects my camera! GuvcView detects it just fine, but under Bionic, the latest Zoom no longer 'sees' the c920 HD 'Pro'. Strange.....

Mike,

[mow9902]

Thanks Norgo - this does work for me, and does allow the sign-in screen to open and the app to launch. But - I confirm the mikewalsh experience ie the integrated webcam stops working. It works fine in other apps and previous versions of zoom - but not with this one.

..but clearly we are getting closer to an answer.

[mikewalsh]

Hm. Curious.

Two completely different sets of hardware, running two totally different cameras - one integrated, one USB - neither of which can be 'seen' by this version of Zoom, running under the same OS.

So; it begs the question, doesn't it? Is it Zoom.....or is it Bionic? I have to confess, here, that this particular Puppy has given me no end of issues ever since I started using it a couple of years ago, not only on this new hardware, but also on the old Compaq tower, too. I don't hold Phil responsible in any way; he can only work with the material he had to begin with, and the sources as supplied by Canonical.....and did his usual remarkable job.

(This version of Zoom runs flawlessly under Fossapup, and also in a Xenialpup64 chroot 'jail' from where I have it running in Quirky 'April' 7.0.1 'lite' from jrb.....and that's Tahrpup-era. However, under Xenialpup64 running on bare metal, although it logs in OK, and the camera feed comes up, it's all 'jerky' & 'flickery'.....so it's doubly odd the same version of Puppy runs it flawlessly from within a 'jail'.)

If anything, I think the problems lie with the source material and repositories, because I've read no end of blog and forum posts where Ubuntu users, too, have had issue after issue with Bionic Beaver......and those same users have also experienced what I have, viz, the fact that stuff that's been giving them grief has started behaving itself again under Focal Fossa. I can only surmise it comes down to a particular combination of dependencies & system runtime routines.

We're getting closer, though..!

Mike.

[peebee]

With Zoom 5.4.6 (56259.1207)
I found that I had to switch from nouveau to modesetting graphics driver with my Nvidia graphics board.....
May apply to others....

[mow9902]

thanks for the interest peebee ...but this is beyond my experience. How does one do this? I'm interested to try it out.

[wiak]

With Zoom 5.4.6 (56259.1207)
I found that I had to switch from nouveau to modesetting graphics driver with my Nvidia graphics board.....

I am greatly ignorant about nvidia graphics card though understood there is nvidia proprietry drivers (though apparently deprecated for newer X???) and also open-source nouveau. However, I also find your above comment confusing because from wikipedia nouveau seems to require KMS (Kernel Mode Setting):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/nouveau

Kernel mode setting (KMS) is required by the Nouveau driver.

So what do you mean "switch from nouveau to modesetting graphics driver"?

The only info I have come across seems to be concerned with not using nouveau driver (instead using propriety nvidia driver) and turning modesetting off at grub kernel line (or in /etc/modprobe.d) using the likes of:

nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0

(the laptop with nvidia I'm talking about does work fine if I put the above nomodeset instructions on grub kernel line, but then I just get plain VESA with lowish resolution of 1024x768 max, but at least no graphics artifacts on desktop... maybe I can later set up nouveau better, I don't know... since checked card is Nvidia G73M (GeForce Go 7600) - I don't know if I can compile proprietry nvidia driver for that which would work with recent Xorg and not a high enough priority for me to try for now.

I have one very old laptop that has some old nvidia graphics (sorry don't have it here to check card type exactly) and with some distros it has problems such as memory seeming to leak such that parts of screen get messed up. I have never taken time to investigate the issue further since I just resort to using any distro on it that turns out to work out-of-the-box on it okay.

[wiak]

I've now checked /var/log/Xorg.0.log on my WDL_Arch64 system and see it is in fact loading modesetting_drv.ko (which I guess is the one you were referring to regarding Zoom in Bionic64) because I had forgotten to install xf86-video-nouveau (duh). I have now installed the latter and my system is working fine via nouveau driver.

[mow9902]

Solved at Last!

Previously norgo suggested this:
export QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software

This fixed the error of the greyed out login screen but the integrated webcam stopped working.

I have now resolved both problems by replacing "export QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software" with "export QT_XCB_FORCE_SOFTWARE_OPENGL=1"

After more investigation myself regarding the potential use of the LD_PRELOAD command and the QT_QUICK_BACKEND command I came across an unrelated problem discussion in 2018 about software rendering (https://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/ ... 0481.html), so I decided to try this with zoom since I thought maybe it would solve the inital greyed out screen problem whilst not interfering with the builtin web camera. It works!

PS.
The day after I posted this I also found that the following parameters will also work:

• export QT_XCB_FORCE_SOFTWARE_OPENGL=0

• export LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1

Other than knowing that these have something to do with using/not using the native video driver and/or using/not using OpenGL ..I have no idea what these parameters actually do. I have started reading on these topics but I confess that most of it is way above my understanding. Perhaps someone with more knowledge in this area can explain?

[mikewalsh]

@mow9902 :-

Yup; I can confirm this works nicely in Bionic64.

I wonder if I can set-up Bionic so it doesn't give issues? Let's see; since Ozsouth compiled the wireless driver for me to try, auto-connection is OK now (still can't get my head round using wireless in a desktop, but.....ah, hell; if it works, who cares? )

So; Zoom - OK. Skype - OK. Chrome - no probs. (And that gives me Google's "Duo".....o-kay.)

DeaDBeeF; non-functzione. DogRadio - installed but needs Conky.....still got to install pWidgets, so that'll take care of that. Mmm......

We're getting there. Slowly... Trouble is, I got so many other marvelous Puppies that ALL clamour to be played with, too.... Oh, well; "softly, softly, catchee monkey", y'know?

Mike.

[mow9902]

Thanks for the confirmation mike.
Yes - actually - my bionic64 is almost totally functional. I'm surprised that deadbeef won't work for you. What output do you get with that? maybe I can play with it.
For me, the only 1 small thing which does not work is slimjet ...which is supposed to work with spot but never did for me. Another forum topic I think.

[mikewalsh]

Thanks for the confirmation mike.
Yes - actually - my bionic64 is almost totally functional. I'm surprised that deadbeef won't work for you. What output do you get with that? maybe I can play with it.
For me, the only 1 small thing which does not work is slimjet ...which is supposed to work with spot but never did for me. Another forum topic I think.

@mow9902 :-

Perhaps I should clarify here. It's not playing tracks that's the issue; where it's falling flat is in playing a .pls 'stream' from my RadioTunes a/c. As a 'free' listener to the site, you get ads every 15 minutes & are restricted to the site's built-in player.....which is so-so. When you subscribe monthly, you do get a number of, frankly, quite practical 'perks'. One of these is the ability to download a file containing what's called your 'Listen key' (I guess this identifies you to the site's servers), which permits you to access your 'Favorite' channels in the form of a .pls stream, and to play this on any audio player of your choice, ad-free, for as long as you want.

I prefer DeaDBeeF for this because its equalizer gives it a better 'sound' - in my opinion - than most others. The older DeadBeeF packages usually support this ability, but I guess it's possible Phil didn't add this option to the mix at build-time; not everybody wants this ability. My second choice for this would be SMPlayer running as an audio player, except it has to 'buffer' every time you switch channels.....and the equalizer, though OK, is not quite as good as DeaDBeeF's is.

(I'm not an audiophile, but I'm 'fussy' when it comes to how my music sounds.....especially in the lower registers. I prefer my bass to have a warm, 'rich' tone, reminiscent of the old valve radios/amplifiers....)

Mike.

[mow9902]

Maybe this will help. It is a static version of the latest stable 1.8.5. You will also find a test.pls which I randomly downloaded from the web. Some entries work, some don't.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/r1du2k ... uppy_Linux

[mikewalsh]

@mow9902 :-

Thanks for the link to the static DeaDBeeF, Geoff.

I'll have a look at that tomorrow, and see if it solves my issue in Bionicpup64. If it does, you'll be the first to know!

Cheers.

Mike.