share screen linux wayland broken

[franciscolucas]

Hi, I just installed Zoom client 6.1 on openSuSE and screen sharing is not showing any option anymore on Basic, but only under Advance tab, and there in this one I can only select Screen Portion, but also cannot confirm the screen sharing. Please fix it or let me know how to downgrade to previous version. Thanks in advance!

[justifru · Accepted solution]

WORKAROUND :

I had the problem that zoom crashed after stopping the screen share using Debian trixie and gnome.

After installing cinnamon (which comes with pulseaudio instead of pipewire) and switching the login manager to lightdm instead of gnome it finally worked!!

apt install cinnamon
apt-get install lightdm

[jmrodri]

Upgraded to 6.1.6 (1013) and it still crashes when I try to stop sharing. Also using Arch LInux and Pipewire 1.2.

[tomcho]

Coming here to report the same: screen sharing works on the latest version, but stopping the share crashes zoom. Cmon zoom people, can you prioritize this please?

[kueblernetes]

@MGSR - I'm sure that support and the devs are up to their eyeballs in logs, but is there something that we can be posting or sending that would be helpful at this point?

[MGSR]

Hello @kueblernetes, We appreciate your patience. It would be great if you could submit a ticket. 
Kindly include the meeting ID, brief description of the issue and attach the logs.

[Salgir]

I tried this, but, as mentioned before here, the ticket got auto-closed. I've attached all the relevant logs.

[B-Digital]

Any updates on this? Wayland screen sharing breaks every other release. I am able to share the first time, but if I stop sharing or join a new meeting, the screen share is blank for all following sessions until I restart zoom

Fedora 40
Gnome
Wayland

[jmrodri]

@B-DigitalI've found that when Zoom crashes after stopping to share, I had to kill the aomhost process that was left behind. Then I could get virtual backgrounds to work again and sharing. This is not sustainable but in a pinch it helps.

[noblehays]

I'm on KDE Neon (which is ubuntu) with plasma 6 which is running 6.1.5.871 that is still getting the only support GNOME message.

[OleksiyF]

Hm. It's weird. I'm on KDE Neon 6 and all works fine with 6.0.12. The newer versions broke the sharing, but even zoom 6.1.6 don't require Gnome.
Here you can download and check https://zoom.us/client/6.0.12.5501/zoom_amd64.deb

[noblehays]

Downgrading to 6.0.12 seems to allow share to attempt, and i get the prompt to choose a screen or window, but i don't think its actually sharing (zoom doesn't disappear and i don't get the shared screen version of controls).

[noblehays]

If i switch Neon to X11 it works. I guess my workstation (only place I use zoom anyway), will need to stay X11.

[megian]

The world is moving away from X11. So this is no long term option.

[megian]

Still crashes after stoping a screen share with Zoom 6.1.6 on Arch:

$ pacman -Ss pipewire | grep installed
extra/libpipewire 1:1.2.2-1 [installed]
extra/libwireplumber 0.5.5-1 [installed]
extra/pipewire 1:1.2.2-1 [installed]
extra/qemu-audio-pipewire 9.0.2-1 [installed]
extra/wireplumber 0.5.5-1 [installed]

I can't work right now with Zoom and it's hard to downgrade on Arch. Please fix this as soon as possible.

[pure]

It would be great to get some communication on this; there were 2 different releases which we were told to solve the problem, neither of which did so, and it has been nearly a month since the July 22nd fix. I don't mind so much that stuff like this breaks(it happens), but it is quite frustrating when there is no communication about when/if something will be fixed. If the previous releases weren't going to fix this bug, then it would have been great if we could know beforehand so that we can make informed decisions on what to do.

It seems that you are planning on fixing it, so I would just like to know what has been causing such a big delay in fixing this, and what can we expect moving forward on this issue?

[Rogergn]

In my case with Zoom 6.1.10 under Fedora 40 KDE 6.1.4 the symptoms are different. "Use system desktop capture" and "Use system window capture" both do the same thing and result in a prompt from KDE to allow remote control. On agreeing to this a share of the entire desktop (three physical displays) starts. Trying to edit what is shown a window titled "Select a window or an application that you want to share" opens. Moving the mouse pointer over the preview in this achieves nothing despite the "Hover over preview to edit" prompt. The Share sound and Optimize for video sharing options are unselectable. On the plus side, Zoom doesn't crash when I stop the share.

[sorrymint]

I am in the same boat.

[kenbauer]

I have the same issue (3 screens on the desktop device). On my laptop it is more workable but this is still really frustrating. It was working *great* earlier this year, then they broke it.

[GaneshKomma]

The Share sound and Optimize for video sharing options are unselectable. I am also facing the same issue when I am playing a webinar. How to fix this?

[sorrymint]

I have been stuck using an older version of zoom until the fix it.

[B-Digital]

Can you share which version you are using, I will have to do the same

[sorrymint]

Version 5.17.11 (3835) how i downloaded it was just manually typing it in the URL. https://zoom.us/client/5.17.11.3835/zoom_x86_64.rpm (for fedora/red hat).

[jmrodri]

Just installed zoom 6.1.11 (1545) and whenever I stop sharing it hangs. I'm using Arch Linux with the following pipewire libraries installed.

$ pacman -Ss pipewire | grep installed
extra/helvum 0.5.1-1 [installed]
extra/libpipewire 1:1.2.3-1 [installed]
extra/libwireplumber 0.5.5-1 [installed]
extra/pipewire 1:1.2.3-1 [installed]
extra/pipewire-alsa 1:1.2.3-1 [installed]
extra/pipewire-audio 1:1.2.3-1 [installed]
extra/pipewire-docs 1:1.2.3-1 [installed]
extra/pipewire-pulse 1:1.2.3-1 [installed]
extra/qemu-audio-pipewire 9.0.2-1 [installed]
extra/wireplumber 0.5.5-1 [installed]

This is what is in the zoom_stdout_stderr.log file at the end of the session when it dies:

*** pw_stream_set_active called from wrong context, check thread and locking: Operation not permitted
*** impl_ext_end_proxy called from wrong context, check thread and locking: Operation not permitted
'this->recurse > 0' failed at ../pipewire/src/pipewire/thread-loop.c:62 do_unlock()
zoom was exited due to a handled signal: 9
ZoomLauncher exit.

[megian]

Same here. Please prioritize this. I have currently to tell that MS Teams is working better than Zoom.

[Silvio-Ginter]

Dear Zoom Team,

you really must think the worst about us Linux users, don't you?
I really could not imagine how the situation could get any worse, but yet here we are. With Update 6.2. not only the incompatibility issues with Pipewire 1.2.x have not been addressed at all, but now the little fraction screen sharing that was working for me (full desktop with crash once I stop sharing) is also broken, since half of the screen is blurred with the latest update. 

You have been made aware of the incompatibility, almost 3 months ago. The Pipewire team claims v1.2 to be fully ABI/API compatible with former 1.x releases.

I mean, I even don't get why you break the somewhat working sharing solution from the 5.x branch on purpose. But that you're unwilling of fixing a show stopping bug, that basically locks out all users not running an ancient Debian release, that is truly beyond my understanding.

Thank you for your great work.

[Ray_Harwood]

Greetings, all!

Zoom dropped version 6.2.0 today. Check the Release Notes for information.

The format of the Release Notes has recently changed. The current set of notes is in a table format, and the multiple documents (one per OS) have been consolidated into one, with a column indicating which OS each change applies to. 

I have no details or inside information about it and I’m not a Linux user – just a helpful messenger!

[sorrymint]

6.2.0 does not fix any problems I am having. It still only shares all screens instead of only one screen or window. For now I am still stuck on Version 5.17.11 (3835). But thank you for sharing I will be back to try 6.3 or what ever version is next.

[kueblernetes]

I appreciate the heads up! It's unfortunate, but this actually took a step in the wrong direction. I don't know what's going on there, but I don't think that they care very much about Linux users. I've not really dug too deep into it yet, but it appears that it's only allowing me to share both monitors as a single workspace.

This wasn't the case before. 
It's really bad because even if I wasn't using Linux on the desktop, there are many instances where people want to share a Linux host so they can show cloud native apps, Kubernetes, Automation examples, etc. It's breaking well established workflows and it impacts the way people do their jobs.

I'd be willing to work with any dev team who cared even a little bit to help fix this problem. Maybe I'll have to open another ticket and see what happens.

[takluyver]

It is frustrating at times, but they care enough about Linux users to release multiple packages for different flavours of Linux, and AFAIK we get new versions at the same time as other platforms.

Linux is a challenge to work with because it's so diverse. Different distros, different desktops & window managers, Wayland vs X, Pipewire vs. Pulseaudio vs. ALSA vs. ... It's a lot of work, but it's also a different way of thinking compared to Windows/Mac, where you can test on a reference system and assume it will work on almost any similar/newer system. And it carves an already small slice of users into so many tiny slices. Let's not make that worse by being stereotypical angry Linux users as well. 😉

Zoom people: we can often piece together a lot of what Zoom is doing on Linux, even without the source code, and we may be able to figure out ways that it could work better for more people. Is there any channel where we can pass ideas through to your developers working on Linux support? I'm sure you don't want them overwhelmed with outside input, but there are times when collaboration could be useful.

[JML9]

---

@takluyver wrote:

Linux is a challenge to work with because it's so diverse. Different distros, different desktops & window managers, Wayland vs X, Pipewire vs. Pulseaudio vs. ALSA vs. ... It's a lot of work, but it's also a different way of thinking compared to Windows/Mac, where you can test on a reference system and assume it will work on almost any similar/newer system. And it carves an already small slice of users into so many tiny slices. Let's not make that worse by being stereotypical angry Linux users as well. 😉

---

I agree with this sentiment. However, it is counterproductive to erect artificial barriers for unsupported setups. A first good step for Zoom would be to remove these useless checks on WMs, API versions etc. in good faith. If one is running an unsupported setup, by all means go ahead and close support tickets automatically, but please don't force the Linux community to spend time on avoiding these landmines, before even getting to the root cause. I'm sure everybody will benefit if Zoom just did this one thing for Linux users.

[rburch05]

Ok, well it's clear the situation remains unchanged even with 6.2.0.1855.  @MGSR and @Ray_Harwood thank you for your attention.  It truly is appreciated you two are engaged and reading along.

The status is that 6.2.0.1855 still does not raise the window selector, it only shares the entire desktop, with all monitors.  Zoom also freezes when stop sharing is clicked.  All of this is captured in @Salgir 's post here: 

https://community.zoom.com/t5/Zoom-Meetings/share-screen-linux-wayland-broken/m-p/191958/highlight/t...  

wherein he actually opens a ticket, provides the info, and the ticket is automatically closed.  NOT ENCOURAGING!

That said, I have a workaround.  It's insane, and potentially not applicable to everyone, but it "works for me," primarily because it does not rely on the zoom client!

Many of you may know where this is going...

1.  Set up OBS.

2.  Configure a virtual camera (v4l2loopback).

3.  Create a scene with a pipewire based window capture.

4.  Use it to capture whatever window you like.

5.  Stream the scene to the virtual camera.

6.  In zoom, change your camera to the virtual camera.

You are now screen sharing to your zoom meeting.  You can use meeting configs to temporarily spotlight your window, or spotlight yourself if you are the host.

Anyway, it's ridiculous that we have to do this, but this works.  It's a hacky workaround, but we are linux users.  It's what we do.

[Silvio-Ginter]

Well, I already shared my own thoughts on this. The issue for me is, my employer is paying for Zoom, so we expect issues to be sorted out in a reasonable timeframe. 

Nevertheless, I created a support ticket and shared all information about the issue, and also pointed to this thread. They gave me some workaround instructions, which more or less are quite the same as your suggestion. There is only one big difference. Instead of switching the primary camera feed, just use screen share and under the "advanced tab", use "content from 2nd camera". For whatever reason, the screen share will open in full screen, but you can simply double-click on it and tame it back into a normal window.
Important! The OBS virtual camera must be activated BEFORE you start Zoom. Otherwise, Zoom won't recognize it. 

Better instructions can be found here: https://support.zoom.com/hc/de/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0059085

This method for screen share will NOT trigger the Pipewire issue when being stopped. So all in all, this is quite a functional workaround, and we're back to annoyance/inconvenience. 

This just lets us behind with one open question. If the Zoom Team/Devs are aware of the fact, that the OBS guys did the Pipewire screen capture thing properly, why not just look into their solution, and fix the own one? 

[megian]

It's not funny anymore! 6.2.0 did completely broke screen sharing again. Can't work!

Wayland is going to be the standard on Linux. https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/rhel-10-plans-wayland-and-xorg-server

You can't just ignore it!

[sonofgohan]

• Check Zoom Permissions: Ensure Zoom has the necessary permissions to share your screen. You can check this in your system's privacy or security settings.
• Zoom Settings: Open Zoom settings (Preferences > Share Screen) and verify that the correct options are enabled.
• Update Graphics Drivers: Sometimes, screen sharing issues arise due to outdated or incompatible graphics drivers. Check for driver updates via your openSuSE package manager.
• Try Running as Root: If there's a permissions issue, try running Zoom with elevated privileges (root) to see if it resolves the issue.

[MGSR]

Hello Community Members!

I'm sorry for the late response and thank you for your patience.

The technical team is working into possibly fixing the bug that causes Zoom to crash when screen sharing is completed in the next version 6.2.5 release. We don't have an estimated time just yet, but we'll keep you informed.

For now, we greatly appreciate your understanding.

[JoergP]

Today I got an update, to version 6.2.2 (2028) ... the error persists!

[rburch05]

Good to hear @MGSR !  I'll keep an eye out for 6.2.5 for sure.

I do want to point out that "the bug that causes Zoom to crash when screen sharing is completed" is a very important one.  But just as important is the bug in which the window picker fails to appear when sharing is started, and the user selects "Use system window capture."  Currently, zoom tries to share the entire desktop regardless of whether the user selects "Use system desktop capture" or "Use system window capture."

Your developers should know that both of these issues seem to stem from an incompatibility with pipewire 1.2.x, with 1.2.4 being the current as of this post.

[sonofgohan1]

@rburch05 it didn't work bro

[JoergP]

Another update to 6.2.3 (2056) .... another disappointment! Still doesn't work, at least for me.

[JML9]

6.2.5 is supposedly the version that fixes this issue per @MGSR . 🤞

[vHanda]

I've tried 6.2.5, it also has the same issue. I'm just so frustrated by this - We're paying for zoom, and I've spent over 1-2 hours trying every old version of zoom, and different combinations of libpipewire and whatnot to get this to work.

It screams unprofessional, when you as an engineer have technical issues with Zoom.

I'm going to try and convince my current company to move to Google Meet.