ZOOM 'portable' - currently @ v5.16.6.....with updater!

[paulski]

The updates and the fixes were working okay for a while. Now on version 5.14.0.1720 the updater does its job but after updating Zoom doesn't start.

More I dig into it, there appears to be a new dependency that is not included in the bundle and not on most puppies out of the box:

Code: Select all

zoom: error while loading shared libraries: libgssapi_krb5.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Something went wrong while running zoom, exit code is 127.

...and it was all going so good.

EDIT: Fixed it - at least for Fatdog 811:
Downloaded and installed http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/packag ... 6_64-1.txz
and it worked!
Hopefully other puppy flavours have krb5 kerberos in the repo.

[pp4mnklinux]

It's possible this post "break" you comments, excuse me, but I'm used to Jitsi Meet and I think is a powerful and flexible video conferencing platform that offers several advantages over Zoom, specially enhanced security, cost-effectiveness, customizability, scalability, and ease of use.

What are , in your oppinion, zoom advantages when talking about puppy software?

[mikewalsh]

@pp4mnklinux :-

It's not a case of "advantages", at all. Jitsi Meet is MY preferred video-conferencing tool of choice, as well. But I provide a portable for Zoom because for some people, they HAVE to use it.....in much the same way that some people HAVE to use Skype, because friends & family won't even consider anything else.

We haven't yet reached the stage where any video-conferencing app will "talk" to any other video-conferencing app. They're all still very much proprietary, in that respect. So that's why I provide packages for both.....because at the end of the day, I believe in providing a choice.

Choice is good..!

Mike.

[pp4mnklinux]

Aha, it's (me or less) what happen with WhatsApp and Telegram.

I prefer Telegram over WhatsApp , because overall ( customization, groups, limits, servers...) Telegram is a more secure and private messaging app that offers more features and customization options than WhatsApp, however, WhatsApp has a larger user base and is more popular in many regions so I must use the second one because of its users and distribución.

Thanks for this info.

[vtpup]

Thank you Mike for making this, and keeping this available. I just downloaded it for my daughter's and my Bionic64 laptops, , did the update process, and it works perfectly - unlike any other attempts we've made to get Zoom working on these boxes.

While I'm also not a fan of Zoom as a platform, it is required for many of her school educational communication requirements. You made these possible within Puppy linux, rather than forcing a change of OS.

And the portable and updater processes made it easy to get going.

Thanks again!
Steve

[mikewalsh]

@vtpup :-

Thank you Mike for making this, and keeping this available. I just downloaded it for my daughter's and my Bionic64 laptops, , did the update process, and it works perfectly - unlike any other attempts we've made to get Zoom working on these boxes.

While I'm also not a fan of Zoom as a platform, it is required for many of her school educational communication requirements. You made these possible within Puppy linux, rather than forcing a change of OS.

And the portable and updater processes made it easy to get going.

Thanks again!
Steve

That's what I like to hear. Happy Puppians!

Like I said further back, I try to provide as big a choice as possible. I'm not a fan of Zoom; it's a heavy old app, especially since they inexplicably added Electron into the mix some months back. But, as you've proved yourself, organisations have now "defaulted" on it, in much the same way as many have insisted on Skype.

If people want certain apps, I'll try to see what can be done with them. Simple as that.

Me, I like Jitsi Meet. I just wish more folks would consent to at least giving it a try.....because I believe they would be very pleasantly surprised. The audio clarity & video smoothness are second to none - it's the one video-calling app I know that lets my Logitech c920 perform to its full potential! - yet it remains one of those little-known curiosities. Admittedly, until a couple of years back, it entailed installing a thousand and one tiny little packages; frankly, it was a PITA to work with. But the release of the AppImage, with its built-in auto-updater that does its thing completely in the background without even bothering the user about it, has completely transformed its ease-of-use......

Take a look here, if interested:-

viewtopic.php?t=3799

.....and here, for the latest AppImage:-

https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-electron/releases

I've only linked that because the uploaded portable is several versions behind now. It'll auto-update inside 24-48 hrs, but some folks don't want to wait that long.....

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Right, gang.

Here's a "re-write" for y'all.

When I first put this together, I was creating all the config stuff within the portable's self-contained directory, then sym-linking everything out to where the app would expect to put things HAD it been installed as a traditional package in the normal way.......followed by deleting all those sym-links again at shutdown.

At the time, it was the only way I knew of for how to do this. Fast-forward to today.....and with many heart-felt thanks to @MochiMoppel , I now know how to make a 'portable' truly "self-contained". One where the app looks no further than its own directory for its configuration files.....because by specifying $PATHs via the use of the XDG protocol, it now thinks that its own directory IS the user's $HOME directory. So that's where it looks to create and write this stuff.....and, conveniently for us, very tidily keeps everything together in the same place. And that's what we want.

The 'new' build can be found at the usual location in post #1. You won't need to update this as far; it's at v5.15.2, and the current version is at v5.15.5.....and all seems to be working beautifully.

Enjoy!

Mike.

[Mercedes350se]

@mikewalsh

I really need to installl Zoom - MIL's funeral

I am using a frugal install of BionicPup64, specifically installed Firefox 119 and tried on numerous occasions to download your Zoom portable without success.

Simple question: What do I need to do to install Zoom successfully?

[ozsouth]

Mike's portable works well for me. Perhaps a different download location will help.
I could not get any other version running in bionicpup64. Zoom now have a quarterly update cycle, in which they make older versions redundant.

LATER: I made a .pet of mikewalsh's 5.15.2. (Use at own risk).

Once downloaded, click on it in ROX-Filer & wait a minute till installed.
Then MUST go to /opt/Zoom-portable & click Menu-Add. Will then put an entry in Network menu.

UPDATE: It will be redundant in June 2024, so withdrawn. Zoom can be accessed via https://app.zoom.us/wc/ (must login).

[mikewalsh]

@Mercedes350se :-

O-kay. I know some people have "issues" downloading from MEGA.nz, so.....I've updated the Zoom-portable, and have uploaded it to my MediaFire a/c. You can find it here:-

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/705vie ... video+chat

.....which you shouldn't have any problems downloading from.

Now; you may be in for a "double-whammy" here, I'm afraid. I hope you've got enough bandwidth available! The Zoom-portable doesn't work properly under Bionicpup64; not for lack of trying, either. Oh, it'll run.....but the video stream is scratchy, jumpy, choppy, and very 'glitchy'; it's barely usable here. It's those Qt5 libs again, unfortunately; Bionic64 just has problems with these, and frequently refuses to "see" them, even when they're staring it in the face.

IF you're otherwise happy with Bionicpup64, my recommendation would be to download the original Fossapup64 9.5 ISO, and just use this as a 'Live' session Puppy.....running it when you need to use Zoom, and running Zoom from the 'portable'. This combination has always worked 100% for me, on the odd occasions when I actually use the thing. (Most of the time I use either JitsiMeet or Google's "Meet" - the successor to Hangouts).

Do be aware that Zoom-portable is now a BIG package; unpacked, it's almost 650 MB in size! This is almost entirely due to the Zoom team re-writing it to use the Electron platform on top of everything else it was already using. Why, I have no idea.....but it IS now pretty "chunky".

-------------------------------------

You'll find the original Fossapup64 9.5 ISO here:-

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/puppy-fossa/

Many here will recommend that you use the newer F96CE, the 'updated' version of Fossapup64 9.5. It's your decision, of course, but the newer Pup uses PulseAudio, and I simply don't know how Zoom's audio stream will work with PA; I've never tried it. I DO know the older Pup's usual ALSA audio does work fine, so.....it's up to you.

But Bionic64 is not the Puppy I would choose to use Zoom with.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

@ozsouth :-

Hell. Are you telling me that from next February, even Fossapup64 won't be able to run Zoom any longer? (Not that I use the thing but once in a blue moon, but that's kind of annoying. It'll certainly p**s a few people off I know who DO rely on it....)

Where did you stumble across the info, Oz? I'm *all agog* here...!

(I also don't quite get that. According to this support page:-

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articl ... acOS-Linux

.....Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" is still supported, and that was using a 3-series kernel!)

Mike.

[ozsouth]

@mikewalsh - The quarterly cycle info is here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articl ... cle-Policy
When a date is hit, you get a message telling you to update & no further progress.
I don't think that stops Fossapup64 working with zoom, but maybe some future update (at their great pace) will.
(Sounds like my clumsy expression struck again.)

[mikewalsh]

@ozsouth :-

Ah, sorry Oz; my bad.....I'm with ya now!

The article is talking about minimum app versions. Mention of 5-something or other, I thought you were talking about the kernel version..... My mistake!

That makes more sense. With the portable's supplied updater script I've packaged along with it, it's no problem to keep it current.

[geo_c]

@ozsouth :-
With the portable's supplied updater script I've packaged along with it, it's no problem to keep it current.

Yes, I use this portable weekly for music lessons, and I update it every couple of weeks, works perfectly. I updated this past Monday as a matter of fact.

[mikeslr]

@Mercedes350se, regarding Mikewalsh's suggest to use the original Fossapup64_9.5 when you need Zoom, you might also try ozsouth's Fossa64-Mid, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 956#p94956. Under it, Zoom-portable's LAUNCH script opens the GUI without complaints on my 'somewhat' modified Fossa64-Mid. That's as far as I can go: Have no meetings to join, nor start.

[ozsouth]

Re- Fossapup64-Mid - I used mikewalsh's portable & tried starting a zoom meeting - failed (as did anydesk), as the cut-down selection of libraries means no video - camera light comes on, but no picture. Best to use original Fossapup64-9.5 for these. (Bionicpup64 works but very grainy picture).

[Mercedes350se]

@mikewalsh
@ozsouth
@mikeslr Thank you all for your input.

To explain a bit further we will be passive viewers - no camera, microphone.

I have FossaPup (frugal install - not sure as I type this which version) so will download and install to it.

[Mercedes350se]

@Mercedes350se :-

O-kay. I know some people have "issues" downloading from MEGA.nz, so.....I've updated the Zoom-portable, and have uploaded it to my MediaFire a/c. You can find it here:-

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/705vie ... video+chat

.....which you shouldn't have any problems downloading from.

Mike.

Sorry mike - no cigar, download failed on mediafire as well.

Just tried to download ozsouth's version - it too failed.

I cleared out all of the junk zoom files from the downloads folder but still no joy.

What is going on?

[ozsouth]

@Mercedes350se - seems like you have a network issue.

[Mercedes350se]

@mikewalsh
@ozsouth

My BookwormPup64 shares the same partition as Fossapup64 so used it to download the mediafire upload of mikewalsh that I tried originally and used FossaPup to install. I now have "Join a Meeting" and "Sign In" messages.

Thank you both.

PS. I wonder if my adblocker affected my ability to download the file? BookwormPup64 - at the moment does not have one ....

[zedzone]

How to log in to Zoom using a Google account? I'm using chrome, the xgd-open window pops up, but the authorization data is not transferred to zoom. I tried to write xgd-mime , but it didn't work