Zoom Support for Raspberry Pi 4 and Ubuntu Server 19.01 Desktop

[sandkiller]

Try a different approach as I said in some other thread

viewtopic.php?f=91&t=267946&start=50

It would be better to get Zoom working on a Pi under Chromium if we could. It seems to work to some degree for some but not all. Would be nice to know why and fix that.

I'd personally use Windows where it seems to work just fine if I wanted a different approach and that's much easier than faffing about with an Android phone. Especially as all mine have one camera, on the back, not the front.

I find Zoom doesn't work well under linux anyway. It could just be the way I use it (in the web browser), but some one needs to find what makes linux and zoom disagree (I'm afraid I'm not good enough to do that) .

Well, I have a dell laptop running linux mint and zoom works perfectly, no issues and no noticeable difference between linux mint and windows 10.

I too was planning on using a spare rapsberry pi for my kid's online school lessons... however, the arm architecture seems to be the challenge here. No luck so i had to "give" him my old work laptop. At least he's running Linux only!

[dockvickers]

Thank you to the poster about the Zoom issues. I have students using the Rpi 4 for their study computer. They would be very excited to be able to use the most popular conferencing app and not have to switch machines. Thanks to Ubuntu 20.04 and a little configuration tweak, I am getting these into the hands of many students.

[graf_eberstein]

Can someone please adapt the Zoom app to the Arm processor in the Raspberry Pi 4 for Ubuntu Server 19.01 Desktop?
just please do this.

It appears the source code is actually available. That is rare for a Windows app.

Your best bet is to probably use the Zoom Chrome app. It ought to work fine without a hassle.

The other option would be to compile the electron app, but if you want a easy and reliable way to do it, I would just stick with the chrome app.

I just started looking at this thread, so please bear with me:

#1) My partner is an educator, and they are required to use Zoom (for now anyway). Given the lack of a Zoom plugin for the armhf and aarch64 architecture, I was forced to use the Chrome-based method to get this working. At the risk of repeating something others may have posted and which I haven't gotten to:

• Starting it is a bear: Zoom causes an xdg-open prompt to appear. Clicking that does nothing so you must then use the "click here if nothing happens" option. That results in another xdg-open prompt and the appearance of a new link underneath the one just clicked.
• After canceling the second xdg-open request, clicking the new link brings up the web-based plugin. Once things are underway, you can join/start a meeting with video. However...
• It takes a while for the blue "connect" button to become active. Except for video being off when you join (no big deal), all is well until...

#2) The keyboard and mouse locks up as soon as video comes up, and the video itself freezes up. Fortunately there is an easy fix: Execute the following setpci command:

Code: Select all

sudo setpci -s 01:00.0 0xD4.B=0x41

I put that into a shell script so it's easier to remember. Of course it's still a nuisance, easier or not, so the ultimate fix is to have it execute on user login (especially if sudo requires a password!)

#3) With the freezes taken care of, outgoing audio and video works nicely, as does incoming video. However, audio is a problem that can be best understood by Dr. Who fans: People sound like hesitant Daleks.

Any suggestions for fixing #3?

[Botspot]

#2) The keyboard and mouse locks up as soon as video comes up, and the video itself freezes up.

You running a Pi4? Fake KMS enabled? Sounds like GPU trouble.

Fortunately there is an easy fix: Execute the following setpci command:

Code: Select all

sudo setpci -s 01:00.0 0xD4.B=0x41

I put that into a shell script so it's easier to remember.

I've never heard of setpci before. That helps? I'd be interested to know what that command does, and why you thought to try it.

#3) With the freezes taken care of, outgoing audio and video works nicely, as does incoming video. However, audio is a problem that can be best understood by Dr. Who fans: People sound like hesitant Daleks.
Any suggestions for fixing #3?

No idea. But as everyone else has found out, the website-based video chat is very inefficient.

[graf_eberstein]

Zoom works ,for me, without any issues on Android /iOS/ Windows. Tried it on Raspberry Pi 4 ,using various distros, and there is NO joy yet even on Ubuntu 20.04 :cry:

Click the xdg-open the first time, then the "click here", cancel the xdg-open, and then go to the new link that appears below the "click here". Only be prepared for a Dalek invasion...

[graf_eberstein]

It would be better to get Zoom working on a Pi under Chromium if we could. It seems to work to some degree for some but not all. Would be nice to know why and fix that.

I'd personally use Windows where it seems to work just fine if I wanted a different approach and that's much easier than faffing about with an Android phone. Especially as all mine have one camera, on the back, not the front.

See my post about the gyrations to get all but inbound audio going. If someone can troubleshoot that, we'll have a thorough working method...

[graf_eberstein]

#2) The keyboard and mouse locks up as soon as video comes up, and the video itself freezes up.

You running a Pi4? Fake KMS enabled? Sounds like GPU trouble.

Yes, that's on the same Pi4 you were helping me try to get Flash working on. And as a reminder, it's running Ubuntu 19.10. Not sure about the Fake KMS bit since raspi-config doesn't exist under that distro. Will assume it's not enabled.

I've never heard of setpci before. That helps? I'd be interested to know what that command does, and why you thought to try it.

I actually found that solution in a different google search (but unfortunately I can no longer locate its URL), so I cannot take credit for it. There is a manpage for setpci online

No idea. But as everyone else has found out, the website-based video chat is very inefficient.

Yeah... and I just realized that the extension everyone has been discussing is not the Zoom extension that the school district required; it's a different Zoom-authored extension called Zoom Scheduler. Still, except for inbound audio it's a bit more reliable than is being discussed in this thread. I did try to install the named extension, but the download aborts. I'll try again later in case it's a Zoom-side problem...

[zooropean]

The extension I tried to get to work is not the scheduler.

[Botspot]

For anyone interested in my Zoom support ticket (the request for them to fix their chrome app), I received an email from them this morning:

As our world comes together to slow the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the Zoom Support Center has continued to operate 24x7 globally to support our customers through this unprecedented period. Given increased usage from businesses small and large and exponentially growing demand from the education and healthcare sectors, we have experienced an unexpected surge in support requests.

For the months of May and June, the following temporary changes will be in effect:
For all Free account holders, we will only be able to offer unrestricted access to our Online Resources.

We will continue to offer web support to owners and administrators of Pro accounts.

We will continue to offer web, chat, and phone support to owners and administrators of Zoom Business and Enterprise accounts.
Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to your open tickets at this time. We encourage you to leverage our Online Resources. If you are a part of a corporate account, and need advanced technical support beyond our Online Resources, please contact your Zoom account administrators.

We understand that some of these changes are challenging, and we appreciate your patience as we scale up our support to meet the dramatic influx of customer demand. Together, we will help tackle one of the largest and most disruptive crises we have faced in our lifetime.

Thank you for choosing Zoom to stay connected and safe in these uncertain times.
Zoom Support Team

I checked my support ticket, and now the status is "solved", with no comments. Nothing.

Not impressed, Zoom.

[graf_eberstein]

For anyone interested in my Zoom support ticket (the request for them to fix their chrome app), I received an email from them this morning:

As our world comes together to slow

...corporate drivel removed for brevity...

Thank you for choosing Zoom to stay connected and safe in these uncertain times.
Zoom Support Team

I checked my support ticket, and now the status is "solved", with no comments. Nothing.

Not impressed, Zoom.

Here's hoping every business requiring the use of Zoom switches to another platform...

[zooropean]

They don't respond on Twitter either.

I am interesting in seeing if Google Meet will work better.

I know Hangouts and Duo both work well, but they are not the same as Zoom or Meet.

[ronnih]

Better, try it with openSource and Linux friendly software

https://meet.jit.si/

and

https://riot.im/app/

you have all freedom and you can build you own server all is possible. Sometimes i think zoom and other big companies are not interested that their software works good on opensource OS, so its better you ignore there products.

[Botspot]

Update on my Zoom experience:
I did an online chat with Zoom customer support and explained why a Raspberry Pi client was very important.

They informed me that the developers are all working on the security side.
BUT, he also said that one of the most popular feature requests is ARM support, and he added my info to it.
Towards the end of the chat, he gave me a link to the Zoom developer forum: https://devforum.zoom.us/
Interesting. I signed up and made this post. Let's see how it goes!
Edit: If you want to support the effort, please consider signing up and clicking the of my post.

[graf_eberstein]

Better, try it with openSource and Linux friendly software

https://meet.jit.si/ and https://riot.im/app/

you have all freedom and you can build you own server all is possible. Sometimes i think zoom and other big companies are not interested that their software works good on opensource OS, so its better you ignore there products.

All that is well and good... until someone else (i.e. your boss) tells you what platforms you must use to get your job done! LOL

[graf_eberstein]

Update on my Zoom experience:
I did an online chat with Zoom customer support and explained why a Raspberry Pi client was very important.

They informed me that the developers are all working on the security side. :evil:
BUT, he also said that one of the most popular feature requests is ARM support, and he added my info to it.
Towards the end of the chat, he gave me a link to the Zoom developer forum: https://devforum.zoom.us/
Interesting. I signed up and made this post. Let's see how it goes!

That's fabulous, and I also posted there. Thank you! :-)

Meanwhile, I have an update of my own: I finally vanquished that bloody Dalek living inside my partner's Raspberry Pi. And after implementing this this solution, I realized that it was something I had done before waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when. It's actually a pretty simple fix:

Open /etc/pulse/default.pa in your editor of choice (emacs, nano, pico, vi, etc.; I'm a vi guy myself, but whatever) and locate the following statement:

Code: Select all

load-module module-udev-detect

. Change that statement to read:

Code: Select all

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

. Save the file and reboot. The stutter/choppy audio/resident Dalek will be gone.

Incidentally, except for an occasional crash of the Chromium tab hosting the web-based Zoom session (fixed by reloading it and going back in), running conferences that way appears to work okay (though we've yet to do so with more than two people in the conference). Methinks we'll get this working flawlessly after all!

[Giga_Pi]

Update on my Zoom experience:
I did an online chat with Zoom customer support and explained why a Raspberry Pi client was very important.

They informed me that the developers are all working on the security side.
BUT, he also said that one of the most popular feature requests is ARM support, and he added my info to it.
Towards the end of the chat, he gave me a link to the Zoom developer forum: https://devforum.zoom.us/
Interesting. I signed up and made this post. Let's see how it goes!

That's fabulous, and I also posted there. Thank you!

Meanwhile, I have an update of my own: I finally vanquished that bloody Dalek living inside my partner's Raspberry Pi. And after implementing this this solution, I realized that it was something I had done before waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when. It's actually a pretty simple fix:

Open /etc/pulse/default.pa in your editor of choice (emacs, nano, pico, vi, etc.; I'm a vi guy myself, but whatever) and locate the following statement:

Code: Select all

load-module module-udev-detect

. Change that statement to read:

Code: Select all

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

. Save the file and reboot. The stutter/choppy audio/resident Dalek will be gone.

Incidentally, except for an occasional crash of the Chromium tab hosting the web-based Zoom session (fixed by reloading it and going back in), running conferences that way appears to work okay (though we've yet to do so with more than two people in the conference). Methinks we'll get this working flawlessly after all!

Did a zoom call with loads of peeps. Was fine. No problems, and no Darleks

[Giga_Pi]

They don't respond on Twitter either.

I am interesting in seeing if Google Meet will work better.

I know Hangouts and Duo both work well, but they are not the same as Zoom or Meet.

Meet? Oh yeh. Definitely.

[Giga_Pi]

It would be better to get Zoom working on a Pi under Chromium if we could. It seems to work to some degree for some but not all. Would be nice to know why and fix that.

I'd personally use Windows where it seems to work just fine if I wanted a different approach and that's much easier than faffing about with an Android phone. Especially as all mine have one camera, on the back, not the front.

I find Zoom doesn't work well under linux anyway. It could just be the way I use it (in the web browser), but some one needs to find what makes linux and zoom disagree (I'm afraid I'm not good enough to do that) .

Well, I have a dell laptop running linux mint and zoom works perfectly, no issues and no noticeable difference between linux mint and windows 10.

I too was planning on using a spare rapsberry pi for my kid's online school lessons... however, the arm architecture seems to be the challenge here. No luck so i had to "give" him my old work laptop. At least he's running Linux only!

Yeah, only recently has zoom started working properly. Strange.

[Botspot]

Yeah, only recently has zoom started working properly. Strange.

I'm assuming you're talking about the zoom website, right? (not the android app or chrome app?)

[Giga_Pi]

Yeah, only recently has zoom started working properly. Strange.

I'm assuming you're talking about the zoom website, right (not the android app or chrome app?)

Yes. Sorry for not clarifying.

[zooropean]

Update on my Zoom experience:
I did an online chat with Zoom customer support and explained why a Raspberry Pi client was very important.

They informed me that the developers are all working on the security side.
BUT, he also said that one of the most popular feature requests is ARM support, and he added my info to it.
Towards the end of the chat, he gave me a link to the Zoom developer forum: https://devforum.zoom.us/
Interesting. I signed up and made this post. Let's see how it goes!

That's fabulous, and I also posted there. Thank you!

Meanwhile, I have an update of my own: I finally vanquished that bloody Dalek living inside my partner's Raspberry Pi. And after implementing this this solution, I realized that it was something I had done before waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when. It's actually a pretty simple fix:

Open /etc/pulse/default.pa in your editor of choice (emacs, nano, pico, vi, etc.; I'm a vi guy myself, but whatever) and locate the following statement:

Code: Select all

load-module module-udev-detect

. Change that statement to read:

Code: Select all

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

. Save the file and reboot. The stutter/choppy audio/resident Dalek will be gone.

Incidentally, except for an occasional crash of the Chromium tab hosting the web-based Zoom session (fixed by reloading it and going back in), running conferences that way appears to work okay (though we've yet to do so with more than two people in the conference). Methinks we'll get this working flawlessly after all!

Did a zoom call with loads of peeps. Was fine. No problems, and no Darleks

I decided to try Zoom again with Ubuntu.

Installed 20.04.

Also modified the default.pa file.

Did a test call with my account so only 2 connections.

Video was laggy as always eventually froze.

I feel like I am missing some steps to getting it working better.

[Botspot]

I decided to try Zoom again with Ubuntu.

Video was laggy as always eventually froze.

I feel like I am missing some steps to getting it working better.

Do you know if Ubuntu's chromium-browser is optimized for RPi the same way as Raspbian's chromium-browser? I think not.

[zooropean]

I decided to try Zoom again with Ubuntu.

Video was laggy as always eventually froze.

I feel like I am missing some steps to getting it working better.

Do you know if Ubuntu's chromium-browser is optimized for RPi the same way as Raspbian's chromium-browser? I think not.

Probably not but I also tried another fix in Raspbian and didn't really do anything.

[graf_eberstein]

Probably not but I also tried another fix in Raspbian and didn't really do anything.

Did you try the two things I suggested in previous posts (the setpci directive and the load-module change)?

[jamesh]

Probably not but I also tried another fix in Raspbian and didn't really do anything.

Did you try the two things I suggested in previous posts (the setpci directive and the load-module change)?

Can you explain what those things actually do? I'm interested!