Wayland screen sharing broken with GNOME 41 on Fedora 35 | Community
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I
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intrlocutr
Newcomer
November 4, 2021
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Wayland screen sharing broken with GNOME 41 on Fedora 35

  • November 4, 2021
  • 94 replies
  • 7 views

Hi,

 

I recently updated to Fedora 35 with GNOME 41. This GNOME release restricts the screenshot API which Zoom has used for screen sharing on Wayland, so the screen sharing functionality no longer works (see here on Ask Fedora).

 

I require screen sharing for school, and I'm sure many others have a similar requirement/system configuration. With Wayland increasingly becoming a de facto standard on Linux, it is crucial that Zoom support Wayland screen sharing.

    Best answer by dalewe

    It's not a bug in xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, so I'm not going to create a pull request to add code that does nothing (if the client is behaving correctly...). There's already work on supporting to share only a region of the screen (https://github.com/emersion/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr/pull/156) which should coincidentally also fix Zoom.

     

    Simply running Zoom with "env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME /usr/bin/zoom" should be enough to make Zoom think it's on Gnome while still keeping dbus working.

     

    Edit: This should not be marked as solution! If any, https://community.zoom.com/t5/Meetings/Wayland-screen-sharing-broken-with-GNOME-41-on-Fedora-35/m-p/67283/highlight/true#M35878 provides a workaround for the issue, which has to be fixed by Zoom!

    94 replies

    I
    Newcomer
    ICD-12122
    Newcomer
    November 14, 2021

    it is a zoom issue, obs survived into gnome 41 just fine without any patches. since zoom just recently integrated into pipewire better, it seems like they installed some software lock on the gnome version or something even more stupid like static dependencies bundled up...

      I
      Newcomer
      intrlocutrAuthor
      Newcomer
      November 14, 2021

      Any integration Zoom has with pipewire was for desktop audio sharing. OBS uses the XDG portal, so it has no issues; Zoom uses a nonstandard, GNOME-specific, private API, which is now restricted to internal use by GNOME, therefore it doesn't work anymore. This is also why screen sharing does not work under Wayland compositors other than GNOME.

       

      Personally, this problem does not affect me very much because I know how to switch to an X session. But there are, for better or worse, more people nowadays who are using Linux for the first time. They will have no idea what "Wayland" is, but they will no doubt be using it because it's the default on most mainstream distros now, again for better or worse. It will be a bad look for Zoom when these same less technically inclined users notice that OBS, firefox, chromium, etc. support screen sharing, and Zoom doesn't--not to mention the inconvenience of an essential feature missing.

        S
        Newcomer
        specialK
        Newcomer
        November 16, 2021

        Thank you! This is the first time someone has explained the underlying issue.

         

        Zoom, if you're listening, Screen Sharing is a crucial feature for many Linux users.  We'd love it if you sorted out your Wayland support.

          H
          Newcomer
          hoeze
          Newcomer
          November 18, 2021

          +1 on that. Zoom was the only reason why my university had to change back to X11 as default after updating to RHEL 8.
          This probably won't be possible any more soon as all major distros run on Wayland now.

           

          @51 This issue is known since quite some time now.
          Please solve it, there is no chance for others to fix your proprietary client for you.

           

          https://community.zoom.com/t5/Meetings/Linux-screen-sharing-broken-in-new-client/td-p/3067
          https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/hr14sm/zoom_screenshare_on_wayland/

            D
            Newcomer
            despdx
            Newcomer
            November 22, 2021

            Hmm, just got caught by this.  I teach, so this is nonfunctional for me.  I guess I could switch to X11 desktop, as others are using as the workaround, but I'll have to install one.

              I
              Newcomer
              intrlocutrAuthor
              Newcomer
              November 22, 2021

              You don't need to install a new desktop to use X11, you can continue to use GNOME if you prefer. Log out, select your user, click on the circular button in the lower right, and select "GNOME on Xorg." Then just log in as normal and you should be on X. Once you select X it will remain the default so you won't have to select it every time.

              GNOME should behave the same on X except for missing multitouch gestures.

                D
                Newcomer
                despdx
                Newcomer
                December 15, 2021

                Thank you, yes, this is very convenient and should be available for all installs of Fedora.  Nice; I had forgot about that.  This is a much better option than global.context.unsafe_mode=true, unless you want to turn it off/on every time and only when you need to screenshare.

                M
                Newcomer
                MindlessDistanc
                Newcomer
                November 24, 2021

                I’d like to add a request for this as well.

                 

                I just used Zoom on Linux for the first time, running Fedora 35. Zoom is the only app on my computer which won’t share my screen under Wayland.

                 

                I tried using the browser version of Zoom instead (which does support screen sharing, although participants can’t see your cursor), but it squashes my video feed into a square, so it’s not useable.

                 

                I’ve got a bunch of video interviews for jobs over Zoom and I’d really love it if this worked out of the box. My mouse and touchpad don’t work properly under X11, so Wayland screen sharing support would be a big win. Please could Wayland support be added?

                 

                Thanks in advance

                  L
                  Newcomer
                  leclairm
                  Newcomer
                  November 25, 2021

                  I second all of what was previously said, just adding my voice to make numbers bigger. I need screen sharing for teaching and working with colleagues. Maybe there's a threshold in this company passed which they get a notification. But clearly the threshold is not time related, given the time since this issue was first raised.

                    U
                    Newcomer
                    umermian
                    Newcomer
                    June 12, 2022

                    Hi 

                    I second what was all recently said, simply adding my voice to make numbers greater. I want screen sharing for educating and working with associates. Perhaps there's a limit in this organization passed which they get a warning. However, obviously the limit isn't time related, since its getting late since this issue was first raised.

                    Regard:

                    new condos mississauga

                    T
                    Newcomer
                    torsten1
                    Newcomer
                    November 25, 2021

                    Me too.

                    I
                    Newcomer
                    ICD-12122
                    Newcomer
                    November 25, 2021

                    The thing is zoom is just ignoring the topic. Since pipewire became the official supported way for screen captures it is so dead easy I could write a screen recorder in a few minutes. And zoom could do it too, especially since they don't even need to use their own brain much, obs has it implemented and they would just need to take it as a reference (https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/blob/09b5290c7b3909a3086958986973740da44a42c2/plugins/linux-capture/pipewire-capture.c)

                     

                    Their screenshot API they wrote for wayland right now was way more work and actually wasn't good at all. Sharing with a slideshow is absolutely not a standard you want to go for if you value a fluid experience for your viewers.

                      tumbleweed
                      Newcomer
                      tumbleweed
                      Newcomer
                      November 25, 2021

                      The workaround of switching to X is not acceptable when you're working with HiDPI screens, at least in mixed resolution setups. It's just unusable on X, while wayland does it quite well. After all, wayland is where the mainstream Linux distros are heading/have migrated to, so support is a must-have.

                       

                      For professional users, be it in education or private enterprises, it is not feasible to temporarily switch to a different window server every time you wanna show something to a colleague.

                        J
                        Newcomer
                        Joho
                        Newcomer
                        November 26, 2021

                        Not only screen sharing is broken on new Linux distros, but also sharing a single application window is not working under Wayland at all. @Zoom should step up and fix this if they would like to keep the market-share.  Alienating all of the new Linux users is not the best strategy.

                        And not only Fedora. Ubuntu already made several pushes for making Wayland the default. When it happens, Zoom will have no option, but to fix this. And if they would like not to angry loads of users in the meantime, they should start working on this pretty soon.

                         

                          rouhim
                          Newcomer
                          rouhim
                          Newcomer
                          December 1, 2021

                          Check this issue at gitlab how to workaround: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/4665

                           

                          Imagine the client would be open source and others could fix your crap.

                            M
                            Newcomer
                            mnasledov
                            Newcomer
                            December 11, 2021

                            Thanks, that works! Unfortunately GNOME then displays a lock icon with a warning next to it up in the status bar. I don't think I want to just leave that enabled all the time.

                             

                            I hope that Zoom plans on fixing this soon. Until this workaround I've just been switching to Slack and I am lucky I haven't had to do any presentations lately

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