The video conferencing tool Zoom - zoom.us - is now in pretty widespread use.
Although I swear it used to, it currently will not work on my machine.
If joining from browser it simply says
Your browser is preventing access to your microphone. Learn how to grant access to your microphone
Where the learn link points here -
https://zoom.us/wc/support/mic
Zoom is, very definitely, set to allow (see
https://projectsstatic.bentasker.co.uk/MISC/MISC39/zoom_audio_allowed.png)
I've done some initial investigation in a Twitter thread -
https://twitter.com/bentasker/status/1269897361486229510
You can't use Incognito mode, or Developer Tools when trying to join the call: Zoom detect it and change the experience. It
is possible to open Developer Tools once in the call though.
I've tried in:
- Chromium
- Chrome
- Firefox
Same end result. All have been updated to the latest in the repos
Activity
2020-06-08 09:02:06
2020-06-08 09:02:06
2020-06-08 09:06:20
On Friday I needed Zoom so figured I'd just install their software in a Ubuntu VM as a quick fix. No luck, the deb got to 100% install and then just failed silently - guess there's some post-flight script that fails.
That's almost certainly unrelated to these browser woes though, and given the choice I'd rather not have their software on my machine at all.
2020-06-08 09:08:41
With a link to here provided - https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/09/autoplay-policy-changes#webaudio
So, I went into the site settings and set "Sound" to
No luck
2020-06-08 09:17:15
(When joining their test meeting).
I mean, it is right, they're serving up a cert not valid for that name
ben@milleniumfalcon:~$ echo | openssl s_client -connect rwcprod.zoom.us:443 -servername rwcprod.zoom.us 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -noout -text | egrep -e "CN = |DNS:" Issuer: C = US, O = DigiCert Inc, CN = DigiCert SHA2 Secure Server CA Subject: C = US, ST = California, L = San Jose, O = "Zoom Video Communications, Inc.", CN = *.sc.zoom.us DNS:*.sc.zoom.usI think that's just a screwup in their test meeting (https://zoom.us/test) though - I don't see it when joining others. Accepting the cert in another tab doesn't make any difference (at all) when then refreshing the meeting - I still get no audio
2020-06-08 09:19:46
2020-06-08 09:32:39
Hmmm, but, if I launch it with
I've a feeling there are some dodgy, dodgy hacks lying within Zoom's codebase. I guess the other possibility is they're doing some kind of A/B testing and don't have anything in place to go "Oh, I fucked it".
2020-06-08 09:41:27
They seem to be referring to loopback audio rather than audio input - but I wonder if perhaps Zoom is trying to capture that?
2020-06-08 09:43:28
2020-06-08 09:46:29
You know, looking back at that Chrome output, and when it appears, I suspect the issue might actually relate to
That seems to get printed out a split-second before the "Join audio by computer" button appears.
Zoom is specifically called out for those loglines here - https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=245505
2020-06-08 10:03:42
It generates a lot of lines, but we don't really gain much from what I can see
If we just look for errors in the file (and exclude the Paint finishes)
We don't really get much more.
2020-06-08 10:08:48
https://browserleaks.com/webrtc reports WebRTC is active, but similarly reports that audio isn't doable.
I've already tried running Chrome with sandboxes disabled with no effect, but I'm definitely leaning more towards this being some kind of sandboxing issue
2020-06-08 10:39:07
Perhaps I'm getting old and cynical, but the fact they're so damn keen to get you to install the fat client makes me all the more suspicious of it.
2020-06-08 11:23:03
So I did. And almost immediately got a notification saying they'd closed it, because I've not got a Pro account and they've very busy because of COVID-19
I assume the initial contact was probably a bot they've not turned off.
2020-12-04 10:24:41
- https://test.webrtc.org/ now works
- https://browserleaks.com/webrtc
Zoom also now appears to work and doesn't complain about audio not being allowed.
I guess there was something under the hood that was misfiring - I'm inclined to point to PulseAudio given its propensity to screw up simple things, but it's just a gut feeling.
2020-12-04 10:24:46
2020-12-04 10:24:46
2020-12-04 10:24:49