Screen sharing not working

[Gabor-B]

Describe the bug
Screen sharing does not work on an Ubuntu 24.04 system (Lenovo T14 Gen1 Intel laptop). Screen sharing was working correctly until approx 2 weeks ago (mid Oct).
Starting screen sharing with the Mozilla test page does work. https://mozilla.github.io/webrtc-landing/gum_test.html

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start Teams, start a meeting
2. Click on 'Share'->'Screen, window or Tab'
3. See error (screenshot)

Expected behavior
Screen sharing does work correcly

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS
• Installation package snap
• Version: teams-for-linux 1.11.1 691 latest/stable ismaelmartinez -

Debug
see attached files

Additional context

teams_console.log
teams.microsoft.com-1730185135219.log

[Paulorg95]

I have the same problem, any solution?

[Andrew-Cha]

Same issue - annoying.

[MarkJaroski]

I have this too, and am trying everything I can think of to debug it, but so far I haven't collected any useful data.

[MarkJaroski]

I decided to check the webrtc demo page, and got this result. This is in the electron instance launched by teams-for-linux. I got here by running this in the console:

location = 'https://mozilla.github.io/webrtc-landing/gum_test.html'

Then I clicked "Screen Capture".

[oneilonline]

I decided to check the webrtc demo page, and got this result. This is in the electron instance launched by teams-for-linux. I got here by running this in the console:

location = 'https://mozilla.github.io/webrtc-landing/gum_test.html'

Then I clicked "Screen Capture".

How do you get to the teams-for-linux console?

[MarkJaroski]

How do you get to the teams-for-linux console?

In the system-tray menu there's a debug item. That opens the dev tools.

[MarkJaroski]

I tried running from source and sharing works fine there. So I guess this has to do with the snap sandbox.

[MarkJaroski]

I tried reinstalling the snap with --classic, but it didn't help.

[IsmaelMartinez]

snap installations sometimes are a pain and can have this side effects. I would recommend using one of the many other packaging systems we provide.

[MarkJaroski]

snap installations sometimes are a pain and can have this side effects. I would recommend using one of the many other packaging systems we provide.

I tried the .deb first, but it doesn't seem to be compatible with the locally installed ffmpeg.so.

So far I'm having the best luck with npm run start. But I haven't worked out where to put the config.json file.

[Gabor-B]

Wasnt aware that a deb package is available too. Then ill ditch the snap version, deb seems to work.
MS should cut politics and maintain their own linux version though..

[MarkJaroski]

MS should cut politics and maintain their own linux version though..

They did for a long while, but they weren't nearly as responsive as @IsmaelMartinez.

[Gabor-B]

Yes, they 'did', exactly

[IsmaelMartinez]

If you do npm run run start --logConfig={} it should print where is trying to read the config file from. Otherwise you can edit the config values in the config folder

[MarkJaroski]

FWIW, it turns out that my issue with the debian package was #1426.

I spent a little time working on an apparmor policy for it, but then just ran it with --no-sandbox.

🤷

[samuel-hopko]

Using deb package solved the issue on my side, thanks.

[RobLW]

Running on Fedora 41, install from Flathub. I find I can screenshare only to a single person in a 1-to-1 meeting.
If I try joining a pre-arranged meeting, or have multiple people in the call, screensharing just shows them a blank white screen.

[jijojosephk]

snap has this issue. If native package works fine, good for now. or may be flatpak can be worth try.

[Alfagiovanni56]

I have exactly the same problem, but not since a month or so - as seems the case for Gabor-B - but since Ubuntu 22.04 with Wayland as default. I have always used Teams for Linux as a snap package. Screen sharing works if one switches from a Wayland session to Xorg, which I tried to do whenever participating in a Teams meeting.

The impossibility of screen sharing is / was a known Electron issue with Wayland for other applications too. I had problems with the Electron Jitsi Meet app for instance (both as deb and as appimage), but the problem has been resolved months ago. I thought that this was an indication that it would also be resolved soon for Teams.

Now that I read that this problem could be a specific snap issue, I have tried to install the flatpak package and, indeed, the problem does not occur. Screen sharing is perfectly possible, also within a Wayland session.

This reinforces the conclusion that it is a specific problem of the snap package, but still in combination with Wayland, since the problem does not occur when the snap is used within an Xorg session. I hope that this conclusion could help to better identify the nature of the problem and to find a solution to it, perhaps in collaboration with the snap people of Canonical. I would welcome such a solution and certainly continue to use the snap.

[Alfagiovanni56]

I have no (explicit) technical competence in this matter, but could all this be an indication that the snap package has a problem with access to Pipewire?

[muei]

I use archlinux, and install the latest git version, and also can't share screen. The screen all is white

[Alfagiovanni56]

Just to know more about the problem I have also tried to install the snap version of Zoom (zoom-client) and tried the screen sharing function of that application. It also failed to share the screen and I got a message that I had to choose between two options: (a) install xdg-desktop-portal and xdg-desktop-port-kde or (b) start an Xorg session. xdg-desktop-port-kde seems not to exist. Must be a spelling error for xdg-desktop-portal-kde. Anyhow, even after installing this on my Ubuntu 24.04 Gnome machine, screen sharing didn't work. I have and sometimes use Zoom, especially to participate in meetings organised by others, but as a deb package. In this format it does everything, including screen sharing, both within Wayland and Xorg sessions. Last but not least: I have also tried the screen sharing function of another snap package I have, namely Signal Desktop. I remembered that just a few days or weeks ago there was a new version with the message that a bug for Signal with Wayland had been solved. The Signal snap functions as it should!! This means that: (a) some snap packages don't work with Wayland while their Flatpak and/or Deb counterparts do and (b) that some snap packages do function regularly with screen sharing also within a Wayland session and others don't. From a non technical user point of view this could be an indication that there is a solution for the problem of the snaps that don't work. Perhaps the producers of snaps that do function well could share with the snap community as a whole what they did to solve the problem, in order for others to try and replicate.

[IsmaelMartinez]

@muei , I think your issue might have #1485 . Microsoft had some sort of issue yesterday.

@Alfagiovanni56 there some sort of driver access problem. I am not sure how signal snap works, but I will see if there is something on their solution that we can use. Do you happen to have a link to the version (or even better, the PR) that fixed this? Thanks for reporting.

[Alfagiovanni56]

The Signal Desktop snap is being developed by Snapcrafters. I have no personal contact with any active contributor or maintainer of the snap, but I saw that one of them happens to be a co-national of mine, staff member of the Ghent University. Ghent is my native city and a have studied at this university. I could try to send him a mail and ask him to share his experience with us concerning the screen sharing function. When in Signal in a Wayland session one presses the screen share button, this starts the regular screen which asks the user to choose between one particular window to share or a full screen. Exactly the same screen that is shown in your Teams for Linux Flatpak. See annex.

I let you know his response.

[IsmaelMartinez]

This seems to be the release that fixed that https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/releases/tag/v7.32.0

The fix they might be referring is this one signalapp/Signal-Desktop@a88b6de , but I might be wrong and/or might not work for us.

Thanks for the tip and lets see if it does (hopefully) help !

[Alfagiovanni56]

That indeed should be the version. The latest version of the snap is 7.33!!