Prevent Zoom from consuming all your CPU on Linux

https://gist.github.com/abraithwaite/1d78a946f90be478faedb5ca4db6d62e

by nixcraft • 5 years ago

63 54 5 years ago

gist.github.com

de6u99er• 5 years ago

Now do this for MS Teams on Linux (wasn't my decision).

Try https://teams.microsoft.com. 99% of the app functionality - basically no virtual backgrounds. No install. Works as a PWA too.

kristopolous• 5 years ago

I had issues so now I do it in microsoft edge on linux and it's been fine. Yeah, microsoft's browser is on linux, wild times... it's their first browser on *nix since IE 5.0 SP1 in 2001.

I remember having a Sparc Ultra 5 that I used remote X with to run IE5 on my linux system at the time for those sites that absolutely insisted that I used IE and wouldn't work with NN. Fun times ... actually no, that kinda sucked.

echlebek4• 5 years ago

I don't permit Zoom to run on my Linux desktop, too sketchy. Instead I use their web ui, which runs in the relative safety of my firefox container.

alvarlagerlof• 5 years ago

How do you use the web UI?

prussian• 5 years ago

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zoom-redirector/fm...

I just use this. I'm assuming that is what you're asking about.

echlebek4• 5 years ago

When you get a link to a zoom call, instead of permitting it to open a handler program or clicking Join Now, click the link that says

Having issues with Zoom Client? Join from Your Browser

cwojno• 5 years ago

They use dark patterns to hide the web version so that you download the client. I fear they'll yank the plug on the web version one of these days...

gbrown4• 5 years ago

I found the video quality and responsiveness to be far worse, and I have to teach and work over Zoom. I tried running the desktop client virtualized as well, with similar results.

So… sketchy it is. I find myself wondering what it’s doing with 15% CPU when not in a meeting. Feelsbad.

echlebek4• 5 years ago

I ran it under strace and after that it was never allowed to run again. I don't know exactly what it's doing, but it's nothing I want it to be doing.

If you get an AMD GPU then the web experience is a bit more performant, the Intel iGPUs are not quite potent enough.

eikenberry• 5 years ago

Why run it when not in a meeting?

KennyBlanken3• 5 years ago

Have you tried running the desktop client in a container? Lots of options for this on Linux.

There shouldn't be any significant virtualization penalty. My guess is that it uses hardware video codec acceleration and that wasn't accessible in the VM you had set up? If the guest was Windows, looks like nvidia has supported this since host driver version v465 or later.

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5173/~/g...

HTH!

tagrun• 5 years ago

That's not really a container though, Firefox by default has a wide-range access. As someone who has to use Zoom, I use firejail, which is a true container, super easy to use and comes with a profile for Zoom out-of-the-box.

To set it up, just create a symlink once

   # ln -s /usr/bin/firejail /usr/local/bin/zoom

and you should be all set (assuming that in your PATH, /usr/local/bin comes before wherever the real zoom binary is, more details on firejail: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/firejail#Using_Firejail_by_...)

In my case, I also have a ~/.config/firejail/zoom.local file with the contents

   whitelist ${HOME}/Documents/Zoom/
   noblacklist ${HOME}/Documents/Zoom/

to fine-tune access for storing chat logs under the default path.

It is also very easy to sandbox X11 access with firejail (which uses Xpra or Xephyr), but I only have Zoom running when I use it, and I often need share my screen, so I don't enable it.

Ozzie_osman• 5 years ago

If I run Zoom on Mac, I find that once a week, I have to reset my PRAM. If I don't, my Mac freezes for a few seconds whenever I use the volume up/down buttons, or whenever I screen share on Zoom.

jeffbee2• 5 years ago

I don't know if it still does this but Zoom used to just preemptively murder coreaudiod at startup. Which was not ideal, to say the least. I assume this is also why it sketchily reads all process names at startup on Linux: it is trying to find and destroy pulseaudio.

Really, there's no reason to permit the Zoom application to get anywhere near your computer. Just run it in a web browser.

mijoharas2• 5 years ago

I recently uninstalled the desktop version due to how broken it is on Wayland.

To give credit where due, their web client has improved a lot over time, so now it is a legitimate replacement. (Apart from the nag screen to use their desktop version. It would also be great to have it as a separate PWA though rather than a tab, I should look into that)

chrismorgan2• 5 years ago

I unset WAYLAND_DISPLAY when running Zoom’s desktop client, to make it use X (thus XWayland). This fixes the crash-on-meeting-join problem it’s had for some months now, theoretically at the cost of screen sharing, but as a Sway user that was already not working, as they only support GNOME rather than using xdg-desktop-portal like everyone else.

mijoharas2• 5 years ago

Brilliant! I hadn't been able to find a solution for that one! (I'm still gonna stick with the web version for now since that way I can screenshare, but good to know there's a solution to one of my issues)

anm89• 5 years ago

Best way to do this is to keep their software of your machine and use the web client

noahtallen• 5 years ago

I’d love to do this, but the web client is (as of a month or two ago) missing “grid view,” which makes it useless to me for team meetings. Seeing everyone at once is very nice

curt15• 5 years ago

Grid view works in Chrome but not Firefox.

jeffbee2• 5 years ago

This is a hell of a long way to just say `taskset -c 0-4 ZoomLauncher`.

t-writescode2• 5 years ago

Oh cool! So, does that update this file, too, so it always does it this way? Or?

I'm definitely not familiar with the tricks they're doing here. Looks like an ini file!

throwaway09223• 5 years ago

It's: taskset <arguments> <command to run>

So to run `ls ~` on only cpu0 you would run:

taskset -c 0 ls ~

Run it each time you want to invoke the command.

10000truths• 5 years ago

It doesn't just set CPU affinity, it also defines a memory usage ceiling for the application beyond which it gets throttled.

jaimex22• 5 years ago

Like everyone else here, I refuse to run Zoom.

Web client if it cant be helped.

asddubs• 5 years ago

my main gripe with zoom on linux (besides being forced to use it at all) is that it sets my microphone volume to 0 every time i join a new meeting or breakout room

erikschoster• 5 years ago

This happens to me all the time too. Seems to happen even when just muting / unmuting.

drdec2• 5 years ago

I had this problem as well. I eventually found a setting to title which for zoom to leave the mike alone. Check you settings...

legerdemain• 5 years ago

To title which for zoom did you setting to leave the mike alone?

trissylegs• 5 years ago

I had that. Under Settings -> Audio there's a setting "Automatically adjust microphone volume". It used to happen to me on Windows as well.

champtar• 5 years ago

PSA: AllowedCPUs only works with systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1. Until Docker 20.10 you needed unified_cgroup_hierarchy=0, and Ubuntu just switched in 21.10.

xarope• 5 years ago

Can someone enlighten me on what actually happens? I run zoom (desktop client) everyday for short standups and hour+ long architecture/tech discussions and code reviews, and I've never really noticed the CPU usage?

(Linux Mint 20 with 5.14.12-xanmod1 on a t480s, which reminds me I need to reboot since I have 5.14.18 installed and waiting...)

staticautomatic• 5 years ago

I wish I knew. When I run Zoom on a Windows i5 with 8gb of ram it tells me I need to close other applications in order to free up resources.

chrismorgan2• 5 years ago

For platforms where you are running things via the command line rather than via the .desktop files, you could run this in a few different ways:

  gtk-launch Zoom

  gio launch ~/.local/share/applications/Zoom.desktop

  systemd-run --user --slice=zoom.slice /opt/zoom/ZoomLauncher

Perhaps alias `zoom` to one of these, or create a shell script that execs one of those and add it somewhere higher in your path than /usr/bin.

Prevent Zoom from consuming all your CPU on Linux

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