How to join Teams meetings from Linux client?

Jonas Andradas Arias 51

When using Teams in Windows or the mobile app (iOS and Android), following the Teams link found within the meeting invite will open a browser, than then offers to join the meeting using the Teams application.

In Linux this is not the case. If the browser is not supported (e.g. Firefox), an unsupported browser error appears suggesting using other browser (such as Chrome). If a supported browser is identified (e.g. Chrome), it just joins the meeting using the browser, and not offering the Teams Linux application, which has more features.

Is there a way to force using the Teams application? It would be nice if the meeting invite-link could be introduced in the application somewhere (e.g. a menu item "Join Meeting..." that then asks for the meeting link)

LORRAIN Stéphane 91 Reputation points

2021-03-11T01:18:01.757+00:00

Microsoft, THIS IS A BUG. Can you fix it please? Thank you.
AngiePin 16 Reputation points

2021-03-12T16:40:44.977+00:00

PLEASE FIX THIS. It is incredibly annoying
Jose Ureña 36 Reputation points

2021-03-25T16:22:01.3+00:00

You need to edit /usr/bin/teams, and move the "$@" as follows:

nohup "$TEAMS_PATH" "$@" --disable-namespace-sandbox --disable-setuid-sandbox > "$TEAMS_LOGS/teams-startup.log" 2>&1 &

This way will work with the last version of Teams.
Wolfgang Lemmermeyer | PsyPrax GmbH 21 Reputation points

2021-03-26T05:29:14.207+00:00

Thank you very much! It works again
Mai Thanh Minh 1 Reputation point

2021-03-26T08:42:31.67+00:00

This work perfectly!
N_Stewart 1 Reputation point

2021-03-26T12:32:47.3+00:00

Worked for me too - many thanks!

Remember to log out as user and log in again to be sure it works.
Andreas Wolff 1 Reputation point

2021-03-30T09:25:31.563+00:00

Thanks, works on Ubuntu 20.10
Alberto Gómez Marín 1 Reputation point

2021-04-15T14:41:54.763+00:00

is it gonna be inside the app itself so no needs to workaround this?
Rifro 1 Reputation point

2021-04-22T19:18:15.497+00:00

On my system, the file /usr/bin/teams appears to be correct, yet joining a teams meeting with URL does not work.
In Firefox I am asked to choose the application, but then nothing happens. A running instance of Teams does not even come to the foreground as others have experienced.
In Chromium, after clicking Open your Teams app, I get a dialog to grant permission to open xdg-open, then nothing happens.

System: Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon
Kernel: 5.4.0-65-generic
Teams 1.4.00.7556 (not the insiders version)
Chromium 89.0.4389.128~linuxmint1+ulyssa
Firefox 88.0+linuxmint1+ulyssa

Why can't I simply join a meeting from within the desktop application? I should be able to paste the URL in there somewhere.
Viktar Chemko 1 Reputation point

2022-03-26T20:19:07.33+00:00

You can use the below commands to solve the problem with joining online meetings

mkdir -p "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/applications"
cp -a "/usr/share/applications/teams.desktop" \
"${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/applications/teams.desktop"
sed -i -e 's,teams %U,teams %U --disable-seccomp-filter-sandbox,' \
"${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/applications/teams.desktop"

Taken and slightly corrected from here https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/teams

13 answers

Jim Hunziker 46 Reputation points

2020-12-15T13:37:01.427+00:00

I found a workaround for this. When you open the Teams link in a web browser, there will be a link on the page that says "join the meeting". Copy this link. From a command line, run teams URL but (and this is important) change the https part of the URL to msteams. I imagine it would be easy to make a wrapper script for Teams that changes URLs it receives to start with msteams and launch Teams.
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9 people found this answer helpful.
Ján T 1 Reputation point

2021-01-05T08:36:13.533+00:00

Thanks! This seems to work for me.

Theo B 1 Reputation point

2021-01-13T20:06:27.043+00:00

@Jim Hunziker : is there some additional configuration which is not default in the .deb package installation? I.e., ~.config/... or such? I am unable to launch a meeting in my LinuxMint 20 system,
Microsoft Teams - Preview, version 1.3.00.30857,
~.config/mimeapps.list:
x-scheme-handler/msteams=teams.desktop

Don't have .local/share/applications/teams.desktop file and the mimeapps.list is empty there
Copied /usr/share/applications/teams.desktop to .local/share/applications/ and .config/ with no improvement.

All I get is the "You're not on Teams yet..." screen. Ideas @Rudolf Tomori ? I can certainly send logs...

Mike Berkley 51 Reputation points

2021-03-10T17:38:36.663+00:00

With the 1.4.00.4855 version of teams, xdg-open is no longer able to open a teams meeting.
In addition, the new version version of teams does not take a URL on the command line.

Looking at the teams.desktop file, it looks like /usr/bin/teams is supposed to take a URL as an argument. With the new version of teams, URLs on the command line do NOT work.

I downgraded to 1.3.00.30857. Now /usr/bin/teams takes a URL on the command line and xdg-open works as expected.

LORRAIN Stéphane 91 Reputation points

2021-03-11T02:32:55.983+00:00

I have the same problem. With the 1.4.00.4855

Anonymous

2021-03-11T07:08:52.847+00:00

I have the sane problem with 1.4.00.4855 (64-bit) on Debian.

Petera, Karel 1 Reputation point

2021-03-11T16:58:49.183+00:00

Me too, 1.4.00.4855-1 on Centos 7.6.2009.

Anonymous

2021-03-11T18:38:06.45+00:00

Here you can find the solution. You need to adjust /usr/bin/teams

Rifro 1 Reputation point

2021-04-22T20:12:52.72+00:00

Hi, your workaround looks very genius, obviously you get paid too little by your boss ;-)

Today I had a skype meeting with a recruitment agency. But I could only join from within a browser. The video worked (output of virtual cam from Webcamoid), but the microphone didn't. So they decided to call me by phone instead. Obviously,this is NOT acceptable for online meetings/interviews with end their clients, my potential new boss...

Is there a way to test your hack with an expired link? Or is there any link that can be used for testing purposes?

Thanks

Rifro 1 Reputation point

2021-04-22T20:13:52.477+00:00

In the past I had teams working on Ubuntu on my laptop, but there were other issues: webcam could not deal with too dim light and fan made noise like a jet fighter taking off. So I prefer to use my new desktop PC. I have an excellent mic from Fifine and a crappy webcam with huge fish-eye distortion, but it works reasonable with Webcamoid (OBS crashes...)

When I use your hack on expired? link:
teams msteams://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%....

teams indeed opens, but it does not show me as attending a meeting, does not show my face, I don't see a message about waiting for others to join or how many are present etc

This could be because the meeting is in the past and possibly expired...
So how can I test your hack, preferably not last minute when I have an interview?

Rifro 1 Reputation point

2021-04-22T20:14:05.04+00:00

It is beyond me why many companies choose to work with MS crap-ware while many also use Linux. Now MS says to embrace Linux. They must have been under lots of pressure to get their tool working induring this covid period, but it still doesn't.

Rifro 1 Reputation point

2021-04-22T20:16:11.68+00:00

I can't edit posted messages. Of course I meant teams meeting, not Skype.

raboof 1 Reputation point

2021-11-10T11:12:47.943+00:00

Great find, thanks so much for sharing! This works for me even without opening the Teams link in a web browser, using the link 'directly' with msteams instead of https.

(This is on Teams 1.4.00.26453 on NixOS)

Maxim Yaromich 1 Reputation point

2023-02-22T09:14:20.3533333+00:00

Hi, I am using next /usr/bin/teams edition:

#!/bin/sh SCRIPT=$(readlink -f "$0") USR_DIRECTORY=$(readlink -f $(dirname $SCRIPT)/..) TEAMS_PATH="$USR_DIRECTORY/share/teams/teams" TEAMS_LOGS="$HOME/.config/Microsoft/Microsoft Teams/logs" mkdir -p "$TEAMS_LOGS" LINK=$( echo "$@" | sed 's/https/msteams/' ) #nohup "$TEAMS_PATH" "$@" --disable-namespace-sandbox --disable-setuid-sandbox > "$TEAMS_LOGS/teams-startup.log" 2>&1 & nohup "$TEAMS_PATH" "$LINK" --disable-namespace-sandbox --disable-setuid-sandbox > "$TEAMS_LOGS/teams-startup.log" 2>&1 &

It isn't opened automatically pressing 'join meet' in the outlook. The meeting still opens teams in the browser. But at least I can copy a meet link and past it in terminal without manually changing 'protocol' like this.

teams https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/blablabla

Huy Le 0 Reputation points

2023-02-23T00:44:11.6333333+00:00

Thank you so much for this workaround. I almost give up on it.

I guess it is too hard for Microshit to have a box that says "Join meeting id".
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Rudolf Tomori 401 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2020-01-10T16:01:41.62+00:00

Unfortunately this experience is not yet fully supported. But we have only today released new teams-insiders package version 1.3.00.958. If you install this version and try joining a meeting by pasting it into the firefox browser - the desktop app should launch and join the meeting. Can you confirm this works for you now?
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2 people found this answer helpful.
Wolfgang Lemmermeyer | PsyPrax GmbH 21 Reputation points

2021-03-25T13:17:30.743+00:00

Rudolf,
for me (with Linux Mint 19.3) it works the last months perfect - but not today (current version 1.4.00.4855). Is there a new bug?

If I open the link in a browser (Firefox, Google Chrome), only Teams is merely brought to the foreground

AAKIF AKHTAR 1 Reputation point

2021-03-26T03:42:43.62+00:00

Rudolf,
Same is the case with me just that the OS is Ubuntu 20.04.2

Rifro 1 Reputation point

2021-04-22T19:22:25.057+00:00

System: Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon
Kernel: 5.4.0-65-generic
Teams 1.4.00.7556 (not the insiders version)
Chromium 89.0.4389.128~linuxmint1+ulyssa
Firefox 88.0+linuxmint1+ulyssa

On my system, teams doesn't even come to the foreground.
Nothing happens, whether I use Firefox or Chromium.
See more details above Rifro-4877 replying to JoseUrea-0396
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BB 6 Reputation points

2021-03-12T04:12:08.153+00:00

Same issue with Fedora 33. Literally makes it impossible to join a Teams meeting. How did this bug even get through testing? I would suggest that a large number of Linux users do not belong to organisations that use Teams internally and therefore would be having this problem.
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Tighe, Carlos 5 Reputation points

2023-03-15T09:56:41.6033333+00:00

3 years later and this is till an issue.

Teams downloaded and installed using linux .deb file.
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JimmyYang-MSFT 48,706 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2020-01-13T06:32:49.61+00:00

I did a test in my environment. I installed the teams-insiders package version 1.3.00.958.If I paste the conference link in Firefox browser, it will launch the desktop app normally. But in Google browser,it was the same as before.
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