Zoom Issues

[cottfcfan]

Hi. I'm in a situation were because of Covid, I'm forced to use Zoom on a regular basis. I've been using Ubuntu & derivatives including Mint. 2 problems keep reoccurring. 1. For no seeming reason, Video freezes & a few seconds later I crash out of the meeting, totally at random. 2. Audio just seems to disappear, Others can hear me, but I can't hear them. Again seemingly at random. So I'm wondering whether to install LMDE, in the hope that being on a different base it might resolve my issues.
So is anyone using Zoom on LMDE? And/or do either of the issues I've mentioned occur?
ps. I do realize that it may be that Zoom on Linux is just poorly packaged by the developers & that might be the problem. I'm just desperate not to go back to Windows.
Thanks.

[wallyUSA]

I have used Zoom for six months with no issues.
What is your desktop?
What is your source for Zoom?
You should start by telling us about your system.

"[5] Details! Details! Details!
Include the version and architecture (32-bit, 64-bit) of Linux Mint.
List any relevant hardware or software specifications. 'inxi' is a useful terminal command for listing this. Use inxi -h for help. Generally it suffices to type the following in terminal and include the output in your post -> inxi -Fxxxrz
List what Display Environment you are using if relevant (Cinnamon, KDE, XFCE, MATE, etc).
If you have output errors, list them in their entirety.
When posting output of commands use the "Code" tags if it is more than 2 or 3 lines long - this makes it more readable. The button that inserts these tags is marked </>".

[cottfcfan]

Sorrry. It's a HP Pavilion G5370UK Desktop. i3.550 Dual core processor with integrated HD Graphics, i915 driver using modesetting.
Zoom was installed as a deb package from the Zoom website.
Hope this helps.

[wallyUSA]

Sorrry. It's a HP Pavilion G5370UK Desktop. i3.550 Dual core processor with integrated HD Graphics, i915 driver using modesetting.
Zoom was installed as a deb package from the Zoom website.
Hope this helps.

I also use the .deb for install. Looks like your system could be up ten years old? You may not have enough resources to do a good job with Zoom. I am not a techie but you need to provide more details re: your system.

Please provide your hardware and software info. Post the results of the following command

Code: Select all

inxi –Fxxxrz 

from the command line in between code tags (see button above the text box of your post, next to quote mark).

I expect some others will advise you after that!

[cottfcfan]

You are correct, my desktop is about 10 years old, however Zoom runs perfectly well on Windows 10 on the same computer, even screen sharing HD video without an issue.
Here are my specs:

Code: Select all

 System:    Host: xfce Kernel: 5.8.0-43-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: G5370uk v: xxx0204GRxxxxxxxx0 serial: <superuser/root required> 
           Mobo: MSI model: 2A9C v: 1.1 serial: <superuser/root required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 6.16 date: 03/18/2011 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3 550 bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           Speed: 1383 MHz min/max: 1200/3200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1235 2: 1267 3: 1284 4: 1305 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics (ILK) v: 2.1 Mesa 20.2.6 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.0-43-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 
           IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: 6c:62:6d:ea:af:06 
           Device-2: Ralink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe driver: rt2800pci 
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: 68:a3:c4:63:64:8b 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 233.17 GiB (25.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST31000528AS size: 931.51 GiB 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 19.10 GiB used: 7.21 GiB (37.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: /home size: 438.11 GiB used: 225.96 GiB (51.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 34.1 C mobo: 11.1 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 1300 fan-2: 970 fan-3: 0 
Info:      Processes: 209 Uptime: 6h 56m Memory: 11.38 GiB used: 1.23 GiB (10.8%) Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.38 

[mikaelrask]

hey i would suggest you go back to the 5,4 kernel based on your 10 year old computer, the 5,8 is for newer hardware. don't know about the harddrive but if that have been used for 10 years consider replacing that with a ssd. and zoom is available from the software store might wanna try that version out instead of the .deb from zoom homepage if that can help you out.

[cottfcfan]

Hi.
I've actually jumped from the 5.4.xx kernel to 5.8 in the hope that would resolve my problems, unfortunately not. Hard Drive is fine although 10 years old, though an upgrade could be in order. As I said though the issues only appear in Linux not on Windows. I posted this in the LMDE forum, to see what other users are experiencing rather than on Ubuntu based Mint. If no one has any issues with Zoom on LMDE, then I'll give it a go. I've only used Zoom on 20.04 based distro's at the minute so was wondering if that could be the problem.

[wallyUSA]

Hi.
I've actually jumped from the 5.4.xx kernel to 5.8 in the hope that would resolve my problems, unfortunately not. Hard Drive is fine although 10 years old, though an upgrade could be in order. As I said though the issues only appear in Linux not on Windows. I posted this in the LMDE forum, to see what other users are experiencing rather than on Ubuntu based Mint. If no one has any issues with Zoom on LMDE, then I'll give it a go. I've only used Zoom on 20.04 based distro's at the minute so was wondering if that could be the problem.

My 5.4 kernel works under Ubuntu 20.04. Not sure about your 5.8? I'll look at VBox site.

[cottfcfan]

update..
It looks like I'm not alone with the Audio issue. It appears to be a Zoom issue on Linux.
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=317369&p=1975503#p1975503

[wallyUSA]

@cottfcfan,

Sorry you are having problems. Not sure I can help but I am sure someone will come your rescue!

Mine works great but I can not advise how to fix yours.

Good luck!

[cottfcfan]

Thanks wallyUSA.
It doesn't look like it's a solvable problem. As I suspected it's an issue at Zoom's end. As is normally the case not as much effort goes into testing the Linux version as it does the Windows version. Hence the glitches. I'll keep checking the Zoom updates to see if the issue gets resolved. Till then I'll be better off using Windows.

[Tenebris_Umbra]

Heres a shot in the dark, but try the non-free intel gpu drivers >>> sudo apt-get install i965-va-driver-shaders intel-media-va-driver-non-free

[br1anstorm]

Seems to me there are several variables here, any of which might be reasons for the problem. Age and spec of hardware. The choice of Mint version and/or kernel. The desktop environment. Or the version and configuration of the Zoom package downloaded and installed.

For what it's worth, I have a laptop that's about 10 years old. I'm running Mint 19.1 XFCE, with the 4.15.0 kernel. I've been using Zoom without any issues for almost a year. I decided to go for the Zoom AppImage on the grounds that because it comes as a bundle with all dependencies and doesn't need to be installed, just made executable, it was likely to run smoothly. So it has proved.

Of course YMMV. But rather than go down the road of changing kernels, or moving over to LMDE, which are fairly major steps, why not first give the Zoom AppImage a try on the existing system?

[Aztaroth]

Don't know if Zoom developers had to modify the code of the app (and eventually create bugs or hickups) after this :
Zoom reaches $85 mln settlement over user privacy, 'Zoombombing'
https://www.reuters.com/technology/zoom ... 021-08-01/