Light Weight Distro For Dedicated-Zoom Virtual Machine

[Sherri is a Cat]

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their patience with me! I've been hell bent on installing a virtual machine AND I was determined to use the terminal to do it. (I found out that I was actually successful doing it that way.)

I freely admit my stubbornness!

Virtual Box has been successfully installed! So now I'm looking around for a light weight distro to install in vm. A few people have told me they use Zoom without all of the issues I have. Those people do not use LM 22.1 (I have the same problem with 21.3 on my laptop)

If you use Zoom and don't experience issues would you mind leaving the name of your distro here? I believe @Mike-W0BTU told me he uses Zoom and doesn't have the problems I was having.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I know you won't listen to me, my method is not what you're use to, but if I'm tasked with something like this my choice would be:
KVM/QEMU with virt-manager, and for guest system it would be Debian.

Is it easy? probably not since you're used to VBox, but QEMU is standard VM for Linux and that's why I prefer it.

VBox is only about shiny UI, but otherwise it's 1 VM I'd never use.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

KVM/QEMU with virt-manager

I've only ever anything about Virtual Box. I know there are others out there, I just didn't know anything about them.

And Virtual Box is already installed. It was a lot for me and now that it's done... Well I'm at least going on a few dates. I'm ready to get married yet!

and for guest system it would be Debian.

I was just looking at Debian. Someone around here said they had audio issues using Zoom in Debian. But then I can make more vm's and delete them if they don't work out. This is part of why I want a virtual machine.

Is it easy? probably not since you're used to VBox

I've never been able to use VB. Windows put a lot of barriers in my way. By the time I finally got around them all life happened and I had to put that project away. I've heard good and bad about VB. Since it seems to be the one I see mentioned most often I figured I would have more chance of getting help if I need it.


You may have mentioned all of that in the first thread I started when I was trying to decide what route to go. Conversation went off in a different direction so I quit watching. After I decided what I was going to do, I started a new thread.

Thanks!

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@CaffeineAddict

Please allow me a little leeway regarding terminology. I'm still learning about Linux and how to translate from Window's speak.

One of the things I would like to continue is learning the terminal. I was under the impression that Ubuntu and Debian, while related are different enough that other Linux systems are built on one or the other. Looking at the distro website I see this.

"Debian is the Base for many other Distributions. Many popular Linux distributions, like Ubuntu..."

So... If Mint is built on Ubuntu and Ubuntu is built on Debian, does this mean that commands for terminal are universal?

I'm just now beginning to understand the terminal. I'd like to continue with what ever distro I go with.

 

[Mike-BTU]

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their patience with me! I've been hell bent on installing a virtual machine AND I was determined to use the terminal to do it. (I found out that I was actually successful doing it that way.)

I freely admit my stubbornness!

Virtual Box has been successfully installed! So now I'm looking around for a light weight distro to install in vm. A few people have told me they use Zoom without all of the issues I have. Those people do not use LM 22.1 (I have the same problem with 21.3 on my laptop)

If you use Zoom and don't experience issues would you mind leaving the name of your distro here? I believe @Mike-W0BTU told me he uses Zoom and doesn't have the problems I was having.

Glad to help.

First, let me point out that the bugs in Zoom are very likely to be in Zoom, rather than in the OS.

I mostly run Zoom in Manjaro. It doesn't have any audio issues. And a month or so ago, it wasn't so aggravating to use.

The real issues in Zoom only raised their ugly heads in the last couple of months. So, before my next Zoom meeting, I am going to install an older version that was more bug free.

The problems, in the last few updates, are (to name a few) are:

- Can't bring up the participants list window.
- Can't raise my hand.
- There are two Raise Hand buttons.

If I poke around with the mouse, sometimes the participants window opens. Then, I can raise my hand from the "..." Menu in the LRHC. After that, the problem goes away, but only for the rest of the session.

AND, it depends on the configuration of the host! In other words, not every Zoom meeting I join has the same problems!

Sometimes, a keyboard shortcut works.

I installed the latest version hoping that the bugs were fixed. And what's installed now is the Zoom AppImage. Same darned issues and bugs!


I would happily run Zoom in Debian again if my installation (started at 12.4, now at 12.10 IIRC) didn't have audio issues (intermittent dropouts). It's not just in Zoom. It's in every app that produces sound out the headphone jack; VLC, an SDR radio receiver program; YouTube in Firefox; you name it. I'll be asking for help about that here before long. To make a long story short, not many Debian users experience that issue.


As for the Zoom Arch (Manjaro is based on Arch) issues described here, I couldn't help but wonder if some devs at Zoom were trying to play games and mess with Arch and Manjaro users. Not likely the case, of course.

Have to go for the evening, hasta-la-bye-bye.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

The problems, in the last few updates, are (to name a few) are:

• Can't bring up the participants list window.
• Can't raise my hand.
• There are two Raise Hand buttons.

• Pinning participants
• Missing host tools
• Suddenly freezes. Not just Zoom, my entire system. I have had variations of issues here, some times I can here people but not the Zoom UI, anywhere, can't open up or close anything....

I won't host a meeting without those tools. We are frequently visited by the trolls. I especially need to be able to pin people before they un-mute. That's when the unleash whatever it is they are going to do. Turning video on and off moves them around the screen. If I pin them before they un-mute kicking them out is no big deal.

 

[The Duck]

Virtual Box has been successfully installed! So now I'm looking around for a light weight distro to install in vm.

I don't use Zoom or anything like it although here's a light weight Linux disto.

It's been awhile since I used this although it's Debian based so rock solid.

Q4OS - desktop operating system

www.q4os.org

Q4OS - desktop operating system

www.q4os.org

Q4OS - desktop operating system

www.q4os.org

 

[Mike-BTU]

• Pinning participants
• Missing host tools
• Suddenly freezes. Not just Zoom, my entire system. I have had variations of issues here, some times I can here people but not the Zoom UI, anywhere, can't open up or close anything....

I won't host a meeting without those tools. We are frequently visited by the trolls. I especially need to be able to pin people before they un-mute. That's when the unleash whatever it is they are going to do. Turning video on and off moves them around the screen. If I pin them before they un-mute kicking them out is no big deal.

I have had those also, EXCEPT the last one.

It's been years since my computer froze like that.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

It's been years since my computer froze like that.

It only ever happens if Zoom is open.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I'm too tired now to read up on all the distros and then make a choice. For now I'm going to use LM xfce. It's lighter and familiar. I want to get this and then start checking out more OS's.

We'll see how it goes. About to install....

 

[theLegionWithin]

Bodhi or AntiX are supposed to be lightweight distros.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I figured out what the missing steps were.

 

[The Duck]

I figured out what the missing steps were.

View attachment 25343

Those can make all of the difference when dealing with video of any sort.

Take a break don't burn yourself out.

 

[wizardfromoz]

We'll see how it goes. About to install....

A tip for after it is installed, regarding Virtualbox itself.

Don't run it from Terminal (particularly with sudo) - that generates messages in the underlying console that will distract you and get you running off on tangents.

Run it from your Menu, or else you can right-click in the Menu and Add to Panel, after which you can click a launcher icon.

That will save you problems in the long term.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I was under the impression that Ubuntu and Debian, while related are different enough that other Linux systems are built on one or the other. Looking at the distro website I see this.

"Debian is the Base for many other Distributions. Many popular Linux distributions, like Ubuntu..."

So... If Mint is built on Ubuntu and Ubuntu is built on Debian, does this mean that commands for terminal are universal?

Almost all terminal commands are universal and will work on any distro, even if not Debian based.

The only commands that are Debian specific are packaging commands, e.g. apt, apt-get, apt-file etc. these commands will also work on Debian derivatives like Ubuntu.

But non Debian distros have their own package formats and their own commands for packages.
Every other command is distro agnostic so you should not worry what you learn won't work on other distros.

 

[Mike-BTU]

It only ever happens if Zoom is open.

Ah, ok.

I'm trying to narrow this down.

It happens on my computer but not on my wife's.
I don't have a paid subscription, she does. Do you?
Maybe if we pay, all these problems go away?

Also, at some point weren't you using Windows when Zoom exhibited this behavior?

 

[MikeWalsh]

As for the Zoom Arch (Manjaro is based on Arch) issues described here, I couldn't help but wonder if some devs at Zoom were trying to play games and mess with Arch and Manjaro users. Not likely the case, of course.

@Mike-W0BTU :-

Nah. Very unlikely.

Zoom is, of course - like every other major piece of software on the planet! - primarily written with Windows users in mind. Porting stuff like this to lesser-used platforms is often something of an afterthought, so doesn't receive the same amount of effort.

I gave up using the Zoom desktop client when it ballooned from ~300MB to almost 700MB. Even prior to that, the experience was rather like a rollercoaster ride; some releases, everything worked flawlessly OOTB.....others, there were regressions back to non-functioning status all over the shop.

Ever since the massive size increase - which makes it bigger than Puppy itself!! - I've used the webapp.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Prior to the last year, Zoom's webapp was really, really crap. There's no other word for it. Audio input often wasn't recognised; video was really slow, juddery & 'laggy'.....basic functionality was definitely something of an afterthought. I'll give 'em credit where credit's due, though; in the last 12 months, every one of these issues has been addressed, and, as I've said elsewhere, because the Electron stuff exactly matches the code-base (in the Chromium-based browsers, at least) the experience between webapp and client is identical. You CANNOT tell where one ends & the other one starts....

If that was me, I'd install a featherweight distro in that VM, just install the Chrome browser, and use the Zoom webapp.

Sorted.


Mike.

 

[Mike-BTU]

Thanks, I pretty much agree.

Do you have a link to the Zoom Webapp handy? Nevermind, I can Google it. That sounds interesting.

Perhaps @Sherri is a Cat would be interested also. It's easy to sandbox a browser with Firejail.

For today's family Zoom meeting, I'm just going to run Debian, and put up with the occasional audio dropouts. (Who knows, maybe today's Debian updates solved that.)

 

[The Duck]

Do you have a link to the Zoom Webapp handy?

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0064261

Might be helpful.

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[Sherri is a Cat]

that will distract you and get you running off on tangents.

Ya'think?