WebEx - Notes for use on Linux systems


WebEx is officially released by Cisco for the following Linux distributions:
(as of 04/2024) However, WebEx works on many other distributions.
Information on the release plan, minimum requirements, future improvements and known problems can be found on the WebEx help pages for Linux. 


Known problems

Open Suse Tumbleweed

Issue:
Problems with certificates and therefore no login to the telephony server after successful login to WebEx.
Solution:
Webex searches for the CA bundle under /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt and /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt 
After a sudo ln -s /etc/ssl/ca-bundle.pem /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt Webex also works with OpenSUSE
Please note: This “hack” may be deactivated again with OS updates. In the event of problems, check again whether the entry is still active.

Issue:
After updating Webex, it no longer starts.
Solution:
Webex may be using an incompatible version of the OpenSSL 1.1 library installed on the system. With a ln -s /opt/Webex/lib/libssl.so.1.1 ~/.local/share/WebexLauncher/lib/libssl.so.1.1 you can achieve the use of the Cisco supplied library.
If this does not help, the log files ~/.local/share/Webex/hostLogs/webexhost.txt and ~/.local/share/Webex/current_log.txt should be checked for errors/hints.


Ubuntu

Issue: (Ubuntu LTS 24.04)

If webex is used in ubuntu 24.04 there's an apparmor error logged like this:

audit: type=1400 audit(1713968367.781:343): apparmor="DENIED" operation="capable" class="cap" profile="unprivileged_userns" pid=10844 comm="CiscoCollabHost" capability=21  capname="sys_admin"

This leads to an error in libcef.so and so Webex cannot start.
Since Cisco didn't properly include a repository for Webex, the update relies on the app running. So, this breaks updates and Webex cannot get an update that will probably fix this in the future.

Solution:

You fix this bug by adding a apparmor profile for Webex into a new file here "/etc/apparmor.d/Webex":

abi <abi/4.0>,
include <tunables/global>

profile Webex /opt/Webex/bin/CiscoCollabHost flags=(unconfined) {
  userns,

  # Site-specific additions and overrides. See local/README for details.
  include if exists <local/Webex>
}

Afterwards you need to reload the profiles with

sudo systemctl reload apparmor

Issue: (Ubuntu 22.10 and newer)

The installation of WebEx fails because the required package libgl1-mesa-glx no longer exists on newer Ubuntu versions:

1 The following packages have unmet dependencies:
2 webex : Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx but it is not installable

Solution:
Installing the package from an older version of Ubuntu:

1 wget http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/m/mesa/libgl1-mesa-glx_23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1_amd64.deb
2 apt install --mark-auto libgl1-mesa-glx_23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1_amd64.deb

The libgl1-mesa-glx package is only a dummy package that temporarily refers to other packages, so the use of this package from an older Ubuntu version in a more recent Ubuntu version is not critical. By marking the package as automatically installed, the package is automatically removed again as soon as a newer version of WebEx no longer requires this package.

 

Various distributions

Issue: (e.g. Kubuntu 23.10, Open Suse Tumbleweed)
Under Wayland Sessions it can happen that the login window remains black and you cannot enter your access data.
Solution:
Start the program with the environment variable WAYLAND_DISPLAY.
WAYLAND_DISPLAY='' /opt/Webex/bin/CiscoCollabHost

Issue:
The checkbox for the autostart function is grayed out in Cisco WebEx and cannot be used.
Solution:
It is currently unclear whether this is a bug or whether it does work under certain constellations (distribution/desktop environment).
It is recommended to use the mechanisms of the respective operating system (desktop environment) for the autostart of WebEx.