Ubuntu – How to get WebEx working with audio on Ubuntu

16.0418.04firefoxmintwebex

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?

Best Answer

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