WebEx in Fedora 15 (64 bit)

At one point, I thought WebEx was working natively in 64-bit Linux.  Either I am mistaken or it no longer works on 64-bit.  So, I decided to dust off my old 32-bit hack where you install 32-bit versions of Java and Firefox to make it all work.

Earlier, I had thought I would use my regular 64-bit installation, and I had posted my hooking Java up to Firefox for WebEx.  I was rightly corrected on troshlyak’s blog.  The 64-bit will work, but you can’t share your desktop or view another’s desktop.  So, I am back to the old way.  So, here’s what I did…

I downloaded the two programs:

I created a directory in ~/bin/webex to hold it all.  Under that, I put the Java SDK under the “jdk1.7.0_01” directory.  Then, I put Firefox under “firefox”.

Environment Script:

I created this script in ~/bin/webex/env.sh:

#!/bin/sh

export WEBEX_HOME=~/bin/webex
export JDK_HOME=$WEBEX_HOME/jdk1.7.0_01
export JAVA_HOME=$JDK_HOME/jre
export FIREFOX_HOME=$WEBEX_HOME/firefox
export MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=$FIREFOX_HOME/plugins
export PATH=$FIREFOX_HOME:$JAVA_HOME/bin/:$JDK_HOME/bin/:$PATH

To make sure you have it right, you can check it like this:

[skp@pecan bin]$ . ~/bin/webex/env.sh
[skp@pecan bin]$ which java
~/bin/webex/jdk1.7.0_01/jre/bin/java
[skp@pecan bin]$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_01"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_01-b08)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 21.1-b02, mixed mode)

Now, you can link in the Java plugin like this:

mkdir $MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH
ln -s $JAVA_HOME/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so $MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH/libnpjp2.so

Now, fire up firefox.  Note you may be asked to create the WebEx profile.  Make sure you create a profile with the same name you use on the command line so it won’t ask you again.

firefox --no-remote -P WebEx http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp

This should give you a successful Java applet working on the test page.  You also should see the architecture as i386.

Java Test Successful and shows i386

Finally, I created a ~/bin/webex.sh script to launch webex easily for me.

#!/bin/bash

cd ~/bin/webex
. ./env.sh
firefox --no-remote -P WebEx

And you should be good to go.

10 thoughts on “WebEx in Fedora 15 (64 bit)

  1. Fantastic idea…I’ve been beating my head against a wall on this one for a few days now.

    Can you expand on how you:

    a) put the 32-bit JDK under the “jdk1.7.0_01″ directory (its an RPM…did you use “rpm –relocate” or something?), and

    b) how you put the 32-bit firefox under its directory (its a tarball…did you just add -m32 to the CFLAGS in the Makefile or something since its a 64bit machine?)?

    Thanks!

    -Marc

  2. Never mind…I’m making it too hard on myself!

    Just realized binaries are packaged within the tarballs, of both.

    Very nice!

    -Marc

  3. Thanks, I managed to use the same tricks under 64bit (L)Ubuntu 11.10.

    I can share and see shared desktops which is good. I cannot however see or create Whiteboards nor see powerpoints uploaded to Webex. Something that we do quite often.
    Have you seen the same?
    I guess we need the full openoffice in 32 bit for that…

    Ruben

  4. @Ruben

    Honestly, I haven’t experimented with Whitboards or Slideshows. I am good if I have desktop sharing. I keep meaning to try out the new beta version, but I haven’t had a chance. I’ll keep you updated if I do.

    Thanks,

    Stephen

  5. I was able to get Webex nearly completely working with my 64 bit Ubuntu 11.10, but w/o video support. I got stuck using your method, but used Swiftfox as described here… Am wondering if you’ve been successful getting video to work? My webcam(s) are otherwise working fine under Ubuntu.

  6. Kenny,

    No, I haven’t gotten video to work yet. It hasn’t been a requirement yet for me, and I guess I have been lazy. I’ll let you know if I do get it working.

    Thanks,

    Stephen

    1. Video just plain won’t work…Audio does. I’ve given up for now and have setup a Windows laptop next to my main machine that I’m controlling via Synergy when I need to do this…

  7. hello, i’m trying to do something similar in fedora 17 x64 but i hit this error:

    $ firefox –no-remote -P WebEx http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp
    XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/guzu/bin/webex/firefox/libxpcom.so:
    libxul.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    Couldn’t load XPCOM.

    any idea what can i do to fix this?

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