Firefox will not launch Zoom from a zoommtg URL

1

I have a requirement to run Zoom in a SSO single sign on mode to access launch official meetings. When I sign in, I am prompted for my organization. This launches a window in Firefox that says

“Sign in with SSO…Zoom should launch in a few seconds. If not, please click button”

So it doesn’t launch and I click the button. Nothing happens. Zoom is set to be the handling application in Firefox for zoommtg URLs, so I don’t know what else to change. If I try to log in with the meeting ID, I get sent back to the SSO screen.

Zoom works fine if I can enter a meeting ID and password.

Tom

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Btw Zoom Is Not Secure And Trustworthy… :sweat_smile:

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To make a hacker watch one of our work meetings would be a fitting punishment. A good reason for helping to fix this. I’m guessing you don’t have a fix for me…

4

Zoom is perfectly fine as long as you use it correctly (not a public meeting, host accepts attendants etc, in other words just use common sense). Yes they overlapped their data with LinkedIn. Bad boys. But terrible in any way. LinkedIn and Teams are Microsoft owned sure they share some data as well.

I don’t think any other company that jumps 2B in rev in a month would not face scrutiny.

Back on topic: Zoom does launch when I click on a Zoom link in Firefox on MacOS. I can test Ubuntu 19.10 later.

5

I have also submitted a help ticket to Zoom. Will share whatever I get bace from them (if anything)

Tom

6

Most of these issues had already been fixed some time ago (apparently).

They were actually very responsive and fixed most within days. The reality - most software we use likely follows similar patterns and issues.

To me one of the biggest things is how the company reacts when things come to light. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

1 Like
7

Quick question, I am wondering if you have the xdg related tools installed.

Do you have the following installed?

snapd-xdg-open/focal,now 2.44.3+20.04 amd64 [installed]
xdg-dbus-proxy/focal,now 0.1.2-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xdg-user-dirs/focal,now 0.17-2ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xdg-user-dirs-gtk/focal,now 0.10-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xdg-utils/focal,focal,now 1.1.3-2ubuntu1 all [installed,automatic]

If you run apt search xdg | grep installed you should be able to see. There might be a few other things that return on that result - but the above are what come to mind for me.

Also - I am assuming it is the default installed Firefox and not something from one of the alternate package formats?

8

Some of them are installed.
Looks like snapd-xdg-open is not installed

Here is what I get back from "apt search xdg | grep installed

as-installed tests for flatpak-xdg-utils
libcanberra0/eoan,now 0.30-7ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libfile-basedir-perl/eoan,eoan,now 0.08-1 all [installed,automatic]
python3-xdg/eoan,eoan,now 0.25-5 all [installed,automatic]
sound-theme-freedesktop/eoan,eoan,now 0.8-2ubuntu1 all [installed,automatic]
xdg-dbus-proxy/eoan,now 0.1.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
filtering D-Bus proxy - as-installed tests
xdg-user-dirs/eoan,now 0.17-2ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xdg-user-dirs-gtk/eoan,now 0.10-3 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xdg-utils/eoan,eoan,now 1.1.3-1ubuntu2 all [installed,automatic]

It is the default installed Firefox. I have mostly been using Chromium for work reasons.

UPDATE : I installed snapd-xdg-open and now I can get Firefox to launch Zoom from a browser, but it still does not work with Chromium, even if Zoom is already running.

So apparently, Budgie does not install snapd-xdg-open. I saw another posting mentioning a similar problem involving snapd-xdg-open here - https://askubuntu.com/questions/831666/xdg-open-from-within-a-snap

Tom

9

Does it mean your Zoom client is a snap ?

You may prefer its original .deb package provided here : https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting

On 19.10 though, Chromium-browser is provided only as a snap and this packaging method has many drawbacks user-side :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/snapd/+bug/1776873


so am afraid Zoom will not work with that snap Chromium.

( google- ) Chrome is still available as a .deb but I assume if you use Chromium, it’s purposely not to use ggl-chrome…

There are dirty methods to install Chromium as a .deb coming from Debian repository, but I really don’t know if it’s safe in the long run, see video.

Yes I am suggesting to avoid snap any time possible, as they require much more attention than good old APT/.deb packages.

But if you love snap be aware of https://snapcraft.io/docs/interface-management & other documented sections.

10

My Zoom client is not a snap. Downloaded from Zoom and installed. Sounds like I should uninstall Chromium and reinstall Chrome from deb.

UPDATE : I have installed Chrome and uninstalled Chromium and Zoom is launching properly. However , a “chromium.launcher” task is still running with a child “sleep 60” task. Reported here
https://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com/msg5758839.html

Killed tasks…hopefully won’t restart if I don’t restart chromium

Tom

11

Great Got It… :slightly_smiling_face:

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The message on the screen also mentions the “xdg-open” software hook. So, I am running the Budgie minimal, not the totally stripped down version. Install the xdg-open package and DON’T use the Snap version of Chromium. (the release Chrome version seems faster anyway) and Zoom launches via the browser are working.

Tom