Ok it's been a while since my last post and I took the plunge to install elementary OS 6 (Loving it by the way and when I find time I'll do a detailed post on that). Today its all about the MS Teams linux client and how to get it working (at least most of the time!)
What works, what doesn't and What to watch out for!
Ok, as you've all figured out by now it's not so straight forward but this is what I have:
What works:
Able to make stable calls, with good quality audio/video and can join long meetings (2hrs plus)
Able to share linux desktop without freezing (little slow on my hardware, but works)
All basic teams features work.
What does not work:
Blurred or virtual backgrounds don't work as they're not supported on the linux client.
Sharing of specific applications (i.e. you can only share full desktop, powerpoint or whiteboard, you cannot share your webrowser window only as example, however sharing desktop is fine for me.. just be careful what you have open before you share :)
Breakout rooms, you can join breakout rooms just fine, but this client has no options to host breakout rooms
Emojis, sorry for those that want to clap or give a thumbs up in the presentation, you can't. This client only allows you to put your hand up if you want to ask a question.
What to watch out for:
1. Get the latest version of teams client
At time of writing I was using version 1.4.00.13653 (64-bit). but there are many different versions out there, each with their own quirks and bugs, so do try to use the latest.
2. Mic Audio Settings
Your audio settings are super important to a good teams experience, so ensure you've done the following.
a. Enable high quality audio on linux (follow this post on how to do that https://adwilson99.wixsite.com/joi-linux/post/high-quality-audio)
b. Set your microphone volume to 20% using pulse audio (don't ask me why, but teams only gives clear audio in linux (at least for me) if my mic volume is set to exactly 20%. Set this using pulse audio not teams and once set, do not change it in the device settings under teams!
For best results I used pulsemixer from the command line (install it with the command below if you don't have it already)
sudo apt install pulsemixerThen simply type pulsemixer to start it on the command line.
To change the mic settings press F2, as you can see below in my setup, I have 2 mics, "Built in Audio" is actually my headphones plugged into the audio jack, "2M front Camera" is the built in mic for my laptop. Set both to 20.
Also take note of the Skype value, this can be set to 100, or whatever volume is appropriate so your audience can hear you, just keep the mic input at 20.
Press esc to exit pulsemixer it will auto save.
3. Screen sharing
This can be a bit tricky and seems mostly linked to what packages your distro is using. Microsoft recommends Ubuntu and an Xorg desktop (most use wayland these days, which is not compatible and crashes teams or worse when you try to share) Luckily Elementary OS 6 is currently using Xorg out of the box, as such teams sharing for me worked out of the box (Note this is not the case for ElementaryOS 5, which uses Wayland, as such it freezes when trying to do screensharing).
4. Network stability.
Keep in mind that MS teams seems to be very sensitive to network quality (and I'm still figuring this bit out myself). When I connect to 1 wifi network I get very choppy audio and when I track the network, I'm getting a lot of dropped packets. However same laptop, same configuration connecting to a different wifi works great, no problems at all, for hours on end.
While I haven't found an answer for this part yet, I have found a great site to help you test your home wifi network quality (https://test.vsee.com/network/index.html )
Simply click on start test, and it will start monitoring your call quality, dropped packets etc in real time. You can save it as an image for reference.
As you can see below, in my case I have 2 very different experiences, the right one, dropped packets all over the place and I could barely hear anyone, where as the left one, hardly any packet loss and crystal clear quality throughout the meeting).
As I said I'm still figuring this part out, but obviously the quality of your network has a big impact on your teams experience.
Hope these tips help, Do share below your own experiences and any other tips, that may help people get a better team's experience via the linux teams client.