Use WebEx with Linux

WebEx allows you to control a computer's desktop over the network, even using proxies through firewalls. There is a possibility to use a free trial: http://www.webex.com.

Set it up

Using default installation with IcedTea Java and FireFox 29.0. The first start of WebEx fails but I find a folder .webex in my home folder and it shows which dependencies are not met:

tweedleburg:~/.webex/1224 # ldd *.so | grep "not found"
        libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 => not found
        libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 => not found
        libatk-1.0.so.0 => not found
        libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 => not found
        [...]

Ok, so I install all missing packages, in this example for SUSE:

yast -i libgtk-2_0-0-32bit libpangox-1_0-0-32bit libXmu-devel-32bit libpng12-0-32bit libXv-devel-32bit

With the exception of jawt that I cannot find:

tweedleburg:~/.webex/1224 # ldd *.so | grep "not found"
        libjawt.so => not found
        libjawt.so => not found

and it works :)

old stuff

SLES 11 x64

I could use WebEx under SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 x64 on 2010-12-14 with Firefox 3.6.12 and Java 1.6.0. Later on, after I applied the latest updates, I had to downgrade java to sr8. Here is all I did:

• open a console
• install java 1.6:

yast -i java-1_6_0-ibm

• downgrade java to sr8 as to be seen in the screenshot below:

• install the java plugin

• for every user (in this case root)
  • make sure the Mozilla plugin directory exists:
  mkdir -p /root/.mozilla/plugins
  • link the plugin from java to mozilla:
  ln -s /usr/lib64/jvm/java-1_6_0-ibm-1.6.0/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so /root/.mozilla/plugins/

• restart your firefox twice
• test if it works by surfing to about:plugins

SUSE Linux 11.4

You will have to uninstall icedtea-web and install Sun's Java plugin.

Debian

ln -s /opt/j2sdk1.4.2_04/jre/plugin/i386/ns610-gcc32/libjavaplugin_oji.so
 /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins

generic

• find out what your jre directory is. In its lib/amd64 path you will find libnpjp2.so
• find out what your mozilla plugin directory is
• Link libnpjp2.so to from the one directory to the other
• Verify this has worked by surfing to about:plugins

TroubleShooting

keyboard does not work

Symptom: Your keyboard does not work on the remote computer.

Solution: Click on Sharing -> Input Language -> Remote computer settings

Competitors

• http://www.teamviewer.com
• http://www.mymeetingroom.com
• http://www.gotomeeting.com

See also

• cool things
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2184620