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M
Explorer
macdabby
Explorer
December 6, 2021
Question

Screen sharing not working on Debian testing

  • December 6, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 66 views

I am on debian testing and when I try to share my screen I get the message:

 

"Can not start share, we only support Wayland on GNOME with Ubuntu 17 and above, Fedora 25 and above, Debian 9 and above, ......" "If your OS is not on the list, please use x11 instead".

 

I am on testing which is forward from Debian 11, so it should be supported. I am using gnome/wayland. It sounds like it might just not be recognizing the version number?

 

v5.8.6

      4 replies

      M
      Explorer
      macdabbyAuthor
      Explorer
      December 6, 2021

      I have confirmed this is the issue. I added a line to /etc/os-release : 

      VERSION_ID=12

      This is reflected in `lsb_release`:

      $ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Debian Description: Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid Release: 12 Codename: bookworm

      Now that screen goes away, but I do not have the option to share a full screen, only a selected portion of the screen.

        F
        Newcomer
        frigaut
        Newcomer
        December 11, 2021

        I am having the same issue on arch (sway/wayland), even though, as in your case, the OS is listed in the green list. Investigating, thanks for your tips.

          F
          Newcomer
          frigaut
          Newcomer
          December 11, 2021

          OK, I got it working by forcing:

          XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11 zoom

          same as you, I can now share windows (I'm happy with that), not the entire desktop.

          I realise this is not really addressing the initial "distro not recognized" problem, but this for solves my issue 🙂

           

            Z
            Newcomer
            zbrown
            Newcomer
            December 23, 2021

            Same issue as https://community.zoom.com/t5/Meetings/Wayland-screen-sharing-broken-with-GNOME-41-on-Fedora-35/m-p/22539

              E
              Newcomer
              es-kyra
              Newcomer
              January 18, 2022

              For more context, Zoom incorrectly implemented their screensharing on modern gnu+linux distributions which use Wayland. Zoom did not introduce Wayland support until March 1, 2020 version 3.5.361976.0301. This was broken upon release because they did not use the correct API (gdbus-org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast) which has been available since early 2018: https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/releases/tag/0.10. This resulted in issues for multi-monitor setups, problems with HiDPI screens, unusable performance, and other glitches from the beginning, and now it is broken completely.

              Many users are switching to affordable, reliable, backed-by-open-source options like https://8x8.vc, powered by Jitsi (plus, they didn't lie to their users about end-to-end encryption and get sued). The screenshot API exists only for the system to take screenshots (of course). It is very inefficient for video but what's worse is it is also completely insecure because in order for it to be publicly enabled, applications have full access to record your entire screen without explicit permission.

               

              The correct API was designed for video, and gives the user control over sharing specific windows/apps or the entire screen, so no app gets to spy on your screen without your permission. So when Zoom created their  implementation they used the wrong API, and for the almost two years since then Zoom still didn't update, ignored the users with issues, did not monitor for deprecating APIs, and did not test upcoming gnu+linux distributions like Fedora to see that the API they use was incorrect, long been deprecated, and imminently disabled. This left many users and developers to do the testing and investigation for them, but still took nine months to be recognized. Finally, they are working on this now, so we will see how long the fix takes.

                W
                Newcomer
                waioefjwaeiofj
                Newcomer
                January 21, 2022

                Same issue here on Slackware x86 and x64 Stable 14.2 and Current   - Please fix and support wayland!  Thanks

                W
                Newcomer
                waioefjwaeiofj
                Newcomer
                January 21, 2022

                Here to report similar issues occurring  with Slackware x86 and x64 Current and OpenSUSE 😞 - wayland support is becoming very important since most distros enable it by default in 2022-  better support would be much appreciated. 

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