How do I get WebEx working with audio on Ubuntu?

Question

There is no one guide that I have tried that results in a fully working WebEx on Linux. Typically audio is the feature hardest to get working. How do I get WebEx working with audio on Ubuntu?

Answer 1

2019 update: WebEx through Chrome on Ubuntu works fine for me with screen sharing (even in personal rooms) and the ability to start meetings. You should use the url with "meet" in it not "join" for personal rooms eg. abc.webex.com/meet/xxx

The steps below may not work anymore.

The following steps should work (tested on Mint 18 based on Ubuntu 16.04 and Mint 19 based on Ubuntu 18.04):

1. Remove 64 bit Firefox if installed:

   sudo apt-get remove firefox
   

2. Install 32 bit Firefox 52 (or earlier version). Go to download and extract the 32-bit Firefox ESR installer. Make sure it doesn't auto update by changing the update settings in preferences.

3. For Firefox 52: Launch Firefox and type about:config in the location bar.

4. For Firefox 52: Accept the risks and then add a key (right click mouse → New → Boolean)

5. For Firefox 52: Call the key plugin.load_flash_only and set it to false

6. For Firefox 52: Add a Firefox extension for switching the user agent e. g. User-Agent Switcher or edit the general.useragent.override string property.

7. For Firefox 52: Set the user agent to an earlier version of Firefox on Linux e. g.

   Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i586; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0
   

8. Close Firefox

9. Download the .tar.gz 32-bit JRE package for Linux on www.java.com and store the file in the folder Downloads in your home folder (i. e. ~/Downloads). It will be of the form: jre-8u161-linux-i586.tar.gz.

10. Then do the following to extract the JRE in a shell:

    sudo mkdir -p -v /opt/java/32
    cd ~/Downloads
    tar -zxvf jre-8u161-linux-i586.tar.gz
    sudo mv -v jre1.8.0_* /opt/java/32
    

11. Now the Java needs to be linked to Firefox. In a shell:

    mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins/
    cd /opt/java/32/jre1.8.0_161
    ln -sf $PWD/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/
    

12. Launch Firefox and WebEx should now work.

13. If it doesn't work and the wrong Java plugin appears to be loaded e. g. IcedTea, then remove them in a shell:

    sudo apt-get remove icedtea-plugin icedtea-8-plugin icedtea-netx icedtea-netx-common 
    

14. If Firefox 32 bit or Java or WebEx don't work, there may be missing dependencies. Try:

    sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-0:i386 libasound2:i386 libdbus-glib-1-2:i386 libxt6:i386 libxtst6:i386 libcanberra-gtk-module:i386 libcanberra-gtk3-module:i386 topmenu-gtk3:i386 libpangoxft-1.0-0:i386 libxft2:i386 libpangox-1.0-0:i386 libxmu6:i386 libxv1:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386
    

Answer 2

Another and probably the simplest way is to use ( Chrome web store > Extensions > Cisco Webex Extension )；I have just tested it on Ubuntu 16.04 with Chrome version 60.3 and everything but screen sharing (which is not available) works perfectly well.

Please, keep in mind that this is a Chrome based application, not a browser plugin. You'll need to open that application and use it instead of pasting the URL directly to Chrome.

mid 2018 Update: webex with screen sharing works perfectly fine on Ubuntu 16/18 on latest Chrome and Firefox using dedicated plugin for screen sharing

early 2018 Update: Website app has been updated. Now it's possible to connect easily with all versions of webex so dedicated webex app is not really usefull anymore. Screen sharing on Ubuntu is still not possible though. Tested with chrome.

Answer 3

WebEx in VirtualBox

It might be wise to run WebEx inside a virtual machine such as VirtualBox. Without this security measure, the WebEx software will have unrestricted access to your system.

1. Install VirtualBox:

   sudo apt install virtualbox
   

2. Download a 32-bit (i386) Ubuntu ISO and optionally verify the ISO

3. Install the 32-bit Ubuntu in VirtualBox and run these (and all following) commands there:

   sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-{dkms,utils,x11}
   sudo apt update
   sudo apt full-upgrade
   sudo apt autoremove
   sudo apt install libpangox-1.0-0
   

   Then reboot the guest OS.
   This enables host/guest shared clipboard, updates the software, and installs a WebEx dependency.

4. Install Java

   • Alternative 1: OpenJDK

     sudo apt install icedtea-8-plugin
     

     To remove warnings about missing "Symantec Class 3 SHA256 Code Signing CA" certificate, get the certificate, save it as x.pem, and run:

     sudo keytool -importcert -file x.pem -keystore /etc/ssl/certs/java/cacerts -storepass changeit
     

   • Alternative 2: Oracle Java
     Oracle Java can be installed via the Web Upd8 Java PPA:

     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
     sudo apt update
     sudo apt install oracle-java8-installer
     

5. Try a WebEx test meeting

6. Check whether all dependencies are met:

   ldd ~/.webex/*/*.so | grep -i not
     libjawt.so => not found
     libjawt.so => not found
     libpangox-1.0.so.0 => not found
   

   libjawt.so can be ignored. The libpangox-1.0-0 package mentioned earlier should take care of libpangox-1.0.so.0.
   How to find packages containing any other missing files:

   sudo apt install apt-file
   sudo apt-file update
   apt-file search libpangox-1.0.so.0
   

Notes

Tested with Ubuntu 16.04 host and guest OS. Audio was only tested with Oracle Java.

libjawt.so is not shown as missing with this command:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH='/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-i386/jre/lib/i386:/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-i386/jre/lib/i386/server' ldd ~/.webex/*/*.so | grep -i not

Screenshot of the WebEx test meeting

Answer 4

Background

On my system I have previously installed 64-bit javaws from icedtea-netx package.

Using default modern Firefox 80 the Cisco Webex site provided download with the JNLP/JWS servlet file named CiscoWebExServlet.

The servlet downloaded all the stuff into ~/.webex/T33_TC and then finally show the Cisco Webex Training window.

With default 64-bit javaws from icedtea-netx it did not work correctly - when I click on Use computer audio and then press Call using computer it showed error message The audio is unaccessible now.

Solution

The main problem here is that Cisco WebEx is still a 32-bit application, so we need to get 32-bit Java from Oracle (not OpenJDK) and other dynamic libraries which are needed for WebEx operation.

At first we need to remove the OpenJDK Javaws-related packages:

sudo apt-get purge icedtea-plugin icedtea-8-plugin icedtea-netx icedtea-netx-common icedtea-plugin:i386 icedtea-8-plugin:i386 icedtea-netx:i386
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

Then manually download 32-bit Oracle Java from its official page to get file named like jre-8u281-linux-i586.tar.gz saved in ~/Downloads folder. Or programmatically by using great hack from ArchLinux PKGBUILD:

cd ~/Downloads
wget --no-cookies --header Cookie:oraclelicense=a --no-glob --no-config --continue --tries=3 --waitretry=3 -O jre-8u281-linux-i586.tar.gz https://javadl.oracle.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=244056_89d678f2be164786b292527658ca1605

Then extract it and create symlink for its javaws for example as below:

mkdir ~/Software
cp ~/Downloads/jre-8u281-linux-i586.tar.gz ~/Software
cd ~/Software
tar -xf jre-8u281-linux-i586.tar.gz

sudo ln -sf ~/Software/jre1.8.0_281/bin/javaws /usr/local/bin/javaws

Then install all needed 32-bit libraries to satisfy dynamic linking of libs inside ~/.webex/T33_TC/*.so - with single long command below:

sudo apt-get install libasound2:i386 libatk1.0-0:i386 libc6:i386 libcairo2:i386 libdatrie1:i386 libexpat1:i386 libffi6:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libgraphite2-3:i386 libgtk2.0-0:i386 libharfbuzz0b:i386 libice6:i386 libpango-1.0-0:i386 libpangocairo-1.0-0:i386 libpangoft2-1.0-0:i386 libpangoxft-1.0-0:i386 libpcre3:i386 libpixman-1-0:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libselinux1:i386 libsm6:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libthai0:i386 libuuid1:i386 libx11-6:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxcb-render0:i386 libxcb-shm0:i386 libxcomposite1:i386 libxcursor1:i386 libxdamage1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3:i386 libxft2:i386 libxi6:i386 libxinerama1:i386 libxmu6:i386 libxrandr2:i386 libxrender1:i386 libxt6:i386 libxtst6:i386 libxv1:i386 zlib1g:i386

Finally on next download of CiscoWebExServlet and its launch you will be able to use audio, screen sharing and other functions of Cisco Webex Training.

Notes:

1. you may need to associate JNLP/JWS file single time with javaws by specifying this executable name in Open With dialog of file-manager.
2. the above method was tested on 64-bit Ubuntu MATE 16.04.7 LTS and 18.04.5 LTS.
3. webcam streaming and local recording are not possible using this Java-based application.

Known problems:

1. if you see error like "unable to load resource" "atdnwld.jar" after launching CiscoWebExServlet then launch ~/Software/jre1.8.0_281/bin/jcontrol, click Network Settings and select Direct connection here. click OK.

Answer 5

As others have found, the webex test meeting referred to in their help article worked without sound in an up to date Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS and default firefox 121.0 (64-bit) web browser.

I decided to try the client app as I had previously had success with the zoom equivalent and followed the steps in the Webex App for Linux help article.

Linux distribution support

We support the following distros:

Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04, and 22.04

RHEL 8.2 and 8.3

Release schedule

Since late 2022, we release the Webex App for Linux once every third month. The release schedule and associated version numbers are:

February, version 4x.2 (so February 2023 release is version 43.2)
May, version 4x.5
August, version 4x.8
November, version 4x.11

Under "Known Issues" it states:

Currently only 16-bit depth audio input is supported. Microphones with 24-bit sampling aren't expected to be compatible.

Which made me wonder about the web browser version. The installation instructions are as follows:

Go to  http://webex.com/downloads.html to download the app.

Install the app from the command line:

cd Downloads (they miss this step)

sudo apt-get install ./Webex.deb

There are also instructions to verify the cryptographic signatures.

Rambling account of my eventual success

An icon for the client is added to the desktop favourites which opens the application to a sign in / sign up screen. After creating an account with email verification I could access the app but it was not fully functional (don't ask me how now it was late last night and I was ... tired).
At this point it was off to the webex website where I could log in to the help pages with my credentials but not the main site where my account resides, until I could. By now it was much later. I think I had to recreate the account, but maybe it just takes time for their systems to set up. Anyway I noticed that my user-account had my email as first and second names so I changed this and had a little root around. I may have altered other stuff, I'd been going round in circles for hours by now.
So the test meeting still won't work with sound but low and behold the client app now seems to be fully functional. I now have a webex personal room meeting web address and the ability to start a personal room meeting with audio and video and it's bedtime.

Today I eventually found that I can send email invites (to myself) and my browser can open them on the same pc or a debian gnome tablet in a guest account session as long as the plugin OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc is set to enabled. Though this took several attempts to login and several more to join without crashing firefox, but the feedback effects were fun when it did! Messing with gnome system settings' audio section volumes and inputs seemed to help firefox find the speakers and microphone.

Oh, and the test meeting still has no audio.