Web Conferencing software and QUbes

[Buck Smith]

I need to hold web conferences to demo an app I am developing.  I tried installing mikgo which comes as a tar.gz file that you extract to get Linux executable.   This has worked fine for me in the past with Blender 3D modeling software that I run from Downloads folder.  But when I try to run

gnome-open mikogo

 

I get 

Error showing url: No application is registered as handling this file

or if I run 

mikogo

I get 

bash: mikogo: command not found

ls -l shows the file is executable

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user user 6936124 Jan 16  2012 mikogo

-rwxr-xr-x 1 user user 4902476 Jan 16  2012 sessionplayer

Thanks for any ideas or help on this

Buck

[Andrew David Wong]

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Hash: SHA512

Try:

./mikogo

- --
Andrew David Wong (Axon)
Community Manager, Qubes OS
https://www.qubes-os.org
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[Buck Smith]

Thanks for the quick response. Whne I run 

./mikogo

 I get 

bash: ./mikogo: No such file or directory

Before I saw your reply, I had moved mikogo  file to /use/lib and created a sym link following a procedure from stackoverflow.   I know that it will be gone when I reboot from template ;)  

Now when I run 

mikogo

it runs and returns the command prompt, but does not launch the window it  is supposed to.  Here is the link for Mikogo web conferencing

https://www.mikogo.com/download/

If there is another web conferencing app that works better for qubes I would be happy to try it.

buck

[Chris Laprise]

On 05/21/2016 10:30 AM, Buck Smith wrote:
> Thanks for the quick response. Whne I run
>
> ./mikogo
>
> I get
>
> bash: ./mikogo: No such file or directory
>
> Before I saw your reply, I had moved mikogo file to /use/lib and
> created a sym link following a procedure from stackoverflow. I know
> that it will be gone when I reboot from template ;)
>
> Now when I run
>
> mikogo
>
> it runs and returns the command prompt, but does not launch the window
> it is supposed to. Here is the link for Mikogo web conferencing
>
> https://www.mikogo.com/download/
>
> If there is another web conferencing app that works better for qubes I
> would be happy to try it.
>
>
> buck
>

I looked at the mikogo site and it seems their Linux version is 5 years
old: they recommend Ubuntu "11" or Fedora 14.

https://mikogo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200453103-Does-Mikogo-run-with-64bit-Linux-

The above page also states that 64bit Linux is a bit of a problem (their
app is 32bit). For the best chance of success, follow the above
instructions for installing 32bit libraries in either a Debian template
or an Ubuntu HVM.

Chris

[raah...@gmail.com]

why not just use skype?

[Manuel Amador (Rudd-O)]

On 05/20/2016 09:20 PM, Buck Smith wrote:
> I need to hold web conferences to demo an app I am developing. I
> tried installing mikgo which comes as a tar.gz file that you extract
> to get Linux executable. This has worked fine for me in the past
> with Blender 3D modeling software that I run from Downloads folder.
> But when I try to run

./mikogo while in the same directory with the terminal.

Later you can install it in /usr/local/bin or (in the template) /usr/bin.


--
Rudd-O
http://rudd-o.com/

[J. Eppler]

Hello,

If there is another web conferencing app that works better for qubes I would be happy to try it.

https://tox.chat/
- you will find the clients here: https://tox.chat/download.html
- I would use qTox or uTox for desktop systems

or another one:

https://jitsi.org/

Best regards
  J. Eppler

[raah...@gmail.com]

Does TOX have video? if so how is the quality of the connection?

[Franz]

qTox and uTox do have video, but for using them in Qubes we have to deal with the usual webcam issues, which means that a USB controller should be assigned to a conference VM. I find this even more difficult now that the current Xen version does not let me to assign one USB controller to  sys-usb and the other to a conference-VM anymore, because the two controllers share some resources, which is a security issue. So both controllers must go assigned to the same VM.

Otherwise one may think of making a script to hot assign USB controllers form sys-usb to conference VM and then back again, but I have a feeling that it would not work that way, rather need a reboot, then conference, then a reboot again to come back to the starting setting, which seems too much for me.

I also thought of putting an additional USB controller into the expresscard slot, bought two of them rated as working with linux, but none really worked with my Qubes.

I reverted to using another non-Qubes computer for conferences. But obviously this is a very serious limitation.

So, writing this  I wonder if it may make sense to use sys-usb as a conference VM. Sys-usb is red and should be considered compromised, but it may be better to have a compromised conference than nothing. Certainly my sys-usb is much more secure than the other non-Qubes computer that I am using now. What do you think?

Best

Fran

 

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[Chris Laprise]

Mixing usb isolation with the network? I would avoid that if possible.

If there were some Linux-based way to create a virtual webcam device,
with a stream piped unidirectionally from sys-usb, that could be a solid
workaround.

I'm glad you mentioned Qubes' limitation in this context. If it were up
to me, I would define web conferencing as a core use case for Qubes.

Chris

[Franz]

On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 6:16 PM, Chris Laprise <tas...@openmailbox.org> wrote:

On 05/25/2016 05:13 PM, Franz wrote:

On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 2:00 PM, <raah...@gmail.com <mailto:raah...@gmail.com>> wrote:

    On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 1:24:04 AM UTC-4, J. Eppler wrote:
    > Hello,
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > If there is another web conferencing app that works better for
    qubes I would be happy to try it.
    >
    > https://tox.chat/
    > - you will find the clients here: https://tox.chat/download.html
    > - I would use qTox or uTox for desktop systems
    >
    > or another one:
    >
    > https://jitsi.org/
    >
    > Best regards
    >   J. Eppler

    Does TOX have video?  if so how is the quality of the connection?


qTox and uTox do have video, but for using them in Qubes we have to deal with the usual webcam issues, which means that a USB controller should be assigned to a conference VM. I find this even more difficult now that the current Xen version does not let me to assign one USB controller to  sys-usb and the other to a conference-VM anymore, because the two controllers share some resources, which is a security issue. So both controllers must go assigned to the same VM.

Otherwise one may think of making a script to hot assign USB controllers form sys-usb to conference VM and then back again, but I have a feeling that it would not work that way, rather need a reboot, then conference, then a reboot again to come back to the starting setting, which seems too much for me.

I also thought of putting an additional USB controller into the expresscard slot, bought two of them rated as working with linux, but none really worked with my Qubes.

I reverted to using another non-Qubes computer for conferences. But obviously this is a very serious limitation.

So, writing this  I wonder if it may make sense to use sys-usb as a conference VM. Sys-usb is red and should be considered compromised, but it may be better to have a compromised conference than nothing. Certainly my sys-usb is much more secure than the other non-Qubes computer that I am using now. What do you think?

Best
Fran

Mixing usb isolation with the network? I would avoid that if possible.

Why? what may happen in your view? It is only some encrypted conference software that uses the network to communicate with people you trust.

If there were some Linux-based way to create a virtual webcam device, with a stream piped unidirectionally from sys-usb, that could be a solid workaround.

I'm glad you mentioned Qubes' limitation in this context. If it were up to me, I would define web conferencing as a core use case for Qubes.

Yes Chris, which is the sense of using encrypted conference software, if you need to use it on cell phones or some ordinary laptop which you do not trust?

Audio and video communication is already part of common everyday life. I understand it is very difficult to develop a Qubes easy to use  audio and video communication. But there may be some workaround like the unidirectional stream pipe you mentioned, or something else.

Best

Fran

Chris

[Chris Laprise]

On 05/26/2016 06:42 PM, Franz wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 6:16 PM, Chris Laprise <tas...@openmailbox.org
> <mailto:tas...@openmailbox.org>> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 05/25/2016 05:13 PM, Franz wrote:
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 2:00 PM, <raah...@gmail.com

> <mailto:raah...@gmail.com> <mailto:raah...@gmail.com

A usb webcam could attack the host vm used for conferencing, stealing
the keys or contents of the streams and sending them to an eavesdropper.
It could also receive updates to its own malware, and maybe even find
some wireless mice and keyboards to infect.

Best to keep USB and network completely separate.

Chris

[raah...@gmail.com]

I don't only have a problem assigning a usb controller to more then one vm. I also have the issue if I even delete the original usbvm and try to add it to a newly created one. I guess this is also for security purposes. I have to recreate the original usbvm and add it back to get it working again. even after a reboot.

[J. Eppler]

Hello,

Does TOX have video?  if so how is the quality of the connection?

Yes, Tox offers video chats, similar to skype. Tox video communication is peer to peer, therefor your internet upload/download rate
influences the video chat quality.

Remember Tox itself is just a library, whereas uTox, qTox, Antox etc. are clients.

Best regards
  J. Eppler

[Franz]

So the only solution seems to wait for the possibility to "attach" a webcam to a VM as if it was a block device. I am sure our developers will be able to get it some day.

Best

Fran