topic Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux in Webex Meetings and Webex App

How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

thesun — Sat, 22 May 2021 02:55:15 GMT

I am familiar with Zoom but had my first Webex meeting today and was disappointed to be unable to figure out how to get a virtual background. I have an actual green screen behind me, so a virtual background is vital. I've scoured the documentation and am not finding anything about how to set a virtual background with Linux. Is this just not available? Or am I missing something. I don't have an active Webex session going and apparently can't call myself, so if there are settings I need to adjust during an actual call that might be why I'm missing it. But ideally, I'd like my profile to pull up a virtual background right from the start so the green screen isn't seen. Please help if you can. On a plus side, I had only minutes to get Webex for Linux running and it worked great. (The actual .deb app, not the web-based version.) I was impressed! Thank you in advance for any help.

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

Fritz_H — Sun, 23 May 2021 11:47:31 GMT

@thesun
You need at least a free Webex-Account to host a meeting e.g. without participants to get familiar with the video-options.
As far as I know, Webex does not (yet?) offer a chroma-key feature but I guess a green (unicolored) background may help the algorithm to easier and more cleanly separating the attendee from the background when using a virtual background image.

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

Fritz_H — Sun, 23 May 2021 12:03:36 GMT

Update to my previous posting:
in my testing-environment (Virtual box + Ubuntu): the virtual background-options are not shown in Webex.
Either because the virtual machine does not meet the technical requirements OR the feature is indeed still missing.

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

thesun — Sun, 23 May 2021 13:24:25 GMT

Thank you @Fritz_H for the thoughtful response. I am logging in with my free account when I do this, and simply see nothing that allows me any virtual background options. I thought perhaps this was because they were default "off" in the admin section (there was a post somewhere about admins being able to turn off virtual backgrounds for all participants). I am not using VirtualBox but that's a good thought: sometimes virtual machines are less robust for video and audio. But would you mind relating the steps you would take to adjust your virtual background? I am unable to find a simple Log In > Choose "Settings" > Video Settings > Virtual Background type instruction, so I am holding out a thin sliver of hope that perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong place or doing something dumb.

But if not, is there any way to send a "urgent feature request" to the Webex team and see if they can implement this? In Zoom, virtual backgrounds require an actual green screen but work fine once you have one -- I've modified my room so there's a large hanging green fabric behind me but until suddenly being asked to use Webex I hadn't realized how ugly it looks if I DON'T have a virtual background. Would be very nice to have it.

Thank you again for the help. If anyone else out there has actual Linux (not via Virtual Box) and is using a virtual background I'd love to know what you did to get it working!

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

Fritz_H — Sun, 23 May 2021 20:31:37 GMT

@thesun
Since Webex still does not offer to change the language of the user-Inferface, I can only provide Screenshots in german, sorry.

This is how it works on Windows:

(settings:)

(during a meeting:)

I think, if a system does not meet the requirements for a certain feature, Cisco does show the options greyed out instead of hiding them completely. That makes me guess, that this feature is missing in the current version of the Linux-Release of the Webex-Client.
This support-article seems to confirm my guess: https://help.webex.com/9vstcdb/
(virtual background not mentioned in feature-list of this first public release of the Webex-Client für Linux)

As a temporary work-around you may try to use some virtual webcam-software which provides this background-removal feature.

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

thesun — Tue, 25 May 2021 17:01:27 GMT

I really appreciate your help, @Fritz_H and no worries with the German screenshots. It's still helpful, and yes, on my Linux version there's simply those two tickboxes, with nothing below for changing the virtual background. Oh well. Hopefully in a new release they'll get to that. For now, my Webex meetings have a lovely bright green background...which means I'll be using Zoom whenever possible instead!

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

Fritz_H — Tue, 25 May 2021 20:49:44 GMT

@thesun
Well, perhaps the green background will become your trademark? ;--)

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

nnils — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 10:21:07 GMT

Virtual Backgrounds for Linux are on the feature list for a long time, but does anyone know a more precise time frame for when it is available in Linux?

Re: How to use Virtual Backgrounds with Linux

linuxm — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:57:54 GMT

Cisco Webex for linux developed quite well. Our company has licenses for a while - lot's of colleagues, especially our ITK-colleagues, waiting for the features for virtual backgrounds in linux. Enclosed you'll find a screenshot of a german linux user, where we probably find this function in nearest futures.