Help! Zoom Starting on Version 7.0.0 does Not Start on MX-23.6!! (How I Fixed It)

 

I run MX-23.6 on the computer at my workplace.  For meetings, we are using Zoom.  Zoom version 6 was working without any issues, but I tried upgrading it to version 7 before the app told me to update in order to have access, as Zoom usually does. I did it right before an important meeting.

Bad luck!  Zoom did not start! I tried downloading and installing again, but the result was the same.

I had to connect via Web and so I attended the meeting.  When it finished, I downgraded Zoom to version 6.7.5 and it worked fine.

Today I saw that Zoom was at version 7.0.5. "Maybe the new version will solve the problem," I thought and proceeded with the download and installation of the update. 

No dice. The app did not start.

Then, I thought that maybe I could fix this myself. I could also bork my system, but I had to try.

First, I tried opening Zoom as root on the terminal. This is what I got:

Zoom path is: /opt/zoom
cmd line: 
Start subprocess: /opt/zoom/zoom sucessfully,  process pid: 9846 
Can't load/root/.config/zoomus.conf
/opt/zoom/zoom: error while loading shared libraries: libOpenGL.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Something went wrong while running zoom, exit code is 127.
ZoomLauncher exit.

Well, it gave me a nice hint! LibOpenGL was not present.  Should I try searching for it and installing it?

I opened Synaptic and looked for it. It told me the package libopengl0 was not installed but it was available. So, I installed it and tried to open Zoom.

There it was!  The app opened fine. I tested video and audio; everything worked like before.  Hey! I feel accomplished now! 😅

Cheers!

 

 

 

Looking for Windows Drivers and don't Know Your Hardware? TUX will Help!

Some time ago, a colleague asked me to find the drivers for her XP laptop. She didn't have the rescue discs, her recovery partition didn't work, and her knowledge of the computer's hardware was equal to zero.

The driver hunt took me some time...especially because first I had to find out what hardware that computer was using and the owner of the pc didn't help.

Today at the Mepis Forum, a fellow Mepis user named Uncle Mark posted a similar experience. However, he had a better idea than just going the painful "Windows way": He used Linux!

He booted a Mepis 11 Live DVD, and once on Mepis, he opened the command line and typed:

lspci

Following that, in his own words:

"And there it was, pretty as you please, a list of all the hardware with vendor names and model numbers. Copied it to a text file, then onto a thumb drive, and went back to my desktop."

Back in my Windows days, if I had witnessed someone doing anything like that, I'd have told that person: "forget about Windows and install that magic system instead, please!" :P

Too bad too many people in the same situation won't notice and will go with the Win installation anyway...

Still, this is a very fine trick I'll make sure to remember! Thanks, Uncle Mark; thanks, Tux!

A couple of useful? tips I've learned...

This is just a short list of useful and not so useful bits of knowledge I've managed to collect this week:


1. Configuring GRUB
Some Linux distros come with a GUI that lets you configure GRUB (the menu at the start that lets you choose which system to boot.) Mepis doesn't include that GUI. However, it is easy to configure GRUB manually with Kedit (as root). Just go to /boot/grub/menu.lst and cut and paste the system you want to boot as default right below the line "gfxmenu /boot/grub/message" (see the illustration).


You can also edit the language of the menu by editing the lines beginning with the word "title." To edit the boot menu timeout, simply change the value after the word "timeout."

2. Virtual command shells
In the case you want to go from a graphical session to a text session, simply press CTRL + ALT + F1. That will open a virtual command shell that will let you pass commands...and it may be a great boss key, too! :P To return to a graphical session, press CTRL + ALT + F7 (your windows and programs will be unaltered!) Also, in the case of frozen windows (I've never experienced such case on Mepis), you may press CTRL + ALT + Backspace instead of rebooting. I've heard it helps sometimes.

3. Fun with Konsole
Open your terminal and enter the following commands:

$ cal -3 : It will display a pretty nice and handy calendar

$ uname -a : It will display some useful info about your system (the kernel, the OS, the processor) and also the date and time

$ date --date='xx yyy' +%A (xx represents a number and yyy represents a month) : It will tell you which day your birthday will be this year! Mine will be on a Thursday! :P