Annoying ibus dependency in zoom .deb files

I don’t quite understand how it can be a support request.

The page you linked to confirms my observation: That the .deb file which is provided to install zoom on Debian or Ubuntu includes ibus in its dependencies. I’m asking that ibus is dropped as a dependency.

Is it Zoom Support who prepares the .deb files for installing zoom? In that case you are right and I am wrong. Please clarify.

Happy to clarify, @gunnarhj ! You’re right in that our support does not prepare the .deb files for installing Zoom. However, our support will work with the team that does and either provide alternative options or place a feature request on your behalf. If you would like to directly provide your use case as a feature request to be considered for a future release, I recommend submitting your ideas to Feedback - Zoom.

I hope this helps to clarify.

Thanks for your clarification, @donte.zoom. I chose to submit it as a support request here:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/requests/14162807

Thank you for updating us @gunnarhj!

Regards,
Donte

Hi again, @donte.zoom. The support request path proved to be a dead end. First I was pointed to the email address developersupport@zoom.us, but using that address just resulted in yet another support request:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/requests/14175992

But now some Michael Harrington has closed that with this motivation:

This support service is available for accounts on Pro plans or higher. I’ll be closing this ticket, but we encourage you to post your question on our Developer Forum: https://devforum.zoom.us.

Needless to say I’m very disappointed at Zoom’s way to respond to my request so far. Is there or is there not a way to get in touch with the folks who can actually take a stand on my proposed change?

On top of it I received a message with the subject “How would you rate the support you received?”. Sorry, but I see that question as a bad joke.

/ Gunnar

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First, sorry for the experience with support. Support service is available for accounts on Pro plans or higher, which is why the ticket was closed. That aside, we appreciated the feedback! I do not believe that dropping ibus from the “Depends:” list in the zoom .deb files will be prioritized for our product at this time. However I invite you to add it to our feedback board, if it arouses the curiosity of many users then we could potentially consider it in the future:

Note:

  • That feedback form seems to be intended for Zoom users. I’m not a Zoom user.

  • I’m working with the maintenance of a tool (im-config) used in Debian and Ubuntu to facilitate the configuration of input methods, e.g. IBus. It’s in that role I have received complaints about the ibus dependency in the Zoom .deb file, and it’s in that role I’m here.

  • I take it that your double negation is a typo, and that you intended to say that my request is not prioritized. Hmm… Drop a line in the packaging configuration. Not prioritized. Okay.

  • I’ll keep helping Debian/Ubuntu users work around the issue some of them run into due to the redundant dependency. And I’ll keep telling them: “Don’t blame us, blame Zoom.”

Goodbye.

/ Gunnar

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Action needed: drop ibus from “Depends:” stanza in the source code of debian/control.

This is osamu@debian.org (my official Debian contact address) who is a core member of maintaining ibus package for Debian. (Gunnar is another core member too. He is heavily involved in Ubuntu side.)

His request is not a mere “user request”. This should be considered a demand by the GNU/Linux distributions to ZOOM.

If Zoom provide package for Debian/Ubuntu (deb-packages) with technically sound contents, ZOOM should listen to us.

Please raise this issue to the engineer who made DEB package.

Osamu

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Who creates the zoom .deb package? Can’t you forward this request to that person? Shouldn’t be hard to edit the debian/control file and remove the “Depends:” line mentioning ibus, or moving it to the “Recommends:” section. It seems that Zoom is able to run without having ibus installed, and not requiring it would help a lot of users that don’t have/want ibus installed. And it would help the Debian maintainers and open source developers who maintain ibus and other a packages for free who need to spend time helping users who trying to work a problem in your product.

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Actually moving it to “Recommends:” wouldn’t help much. Also packages in “Recommends:” are pulled by default when installing a package. What’s needed is to either move it to “Suggests:” or not include ibus at all as a package relationship.

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@eberhard_beilharz, @osamu.aoki , @gunnarhj ,

Reaching out to internal resources for further guidance. More to follow as updates become available.

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Hi @gunnarhj, @osamu.aoki & @eberhard_beilharz,

Thank you for bringing this up. This forum is for the users of our developer platform rather than an avenue to our engineering teams. I appreciate your time going through the back and forth between Support and that feedback form. While that feedback form @donte.zoom shared might look intended for users, those requests are in fact triaged and reviewed by our core product and leadership teams :slight_smile:

We’ll reach out to our client engineering teams on this. As Donte says, let us get back to you with more details.

FTR I submitted my request at Feedback - Zoom too and reopened this ticket.

Thanks for the update, @gunnarhj !

Any updates on this? Just installed zoom and got this too. This dependency is annoying and worthless, as I already use the keyboard layout switching utility of my choice and this ibus is in conflict with it! And I don’t blame ibus, but I blame zoom messenger for this.

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Same here. Super annoying.

I’m repackaging the deb as described here hashman.ca :: Repack Zoom .debs to remove the `ibus` dependency

It is really appalling Zoom can’t make this one line change and spare all users from having to deal with this.

1 Like

@mpa ,

Thank you for sharing your feedback @mpa. A feature request was placed to drop ibus from the “Depends:” list in the Zoom Client .deb files, however, it looks like it is a required dependency for remote control on a remote machine. Please know we always looking to improve our platform to deliver the best user experience. I will share this thread with our engineers and let them know the pain points resulting from not remove /repacking the ibus dependency. Should you have any additional details or feedback you would like to share, please let me know.

Thank you again for sharing your feedback.

This excuse for “remote control on a remote machine” is pathetically lacking understanding how “Depends:” field should be used for Debian package.

This should be used only for packages which is required under all installation environment. Doing this for a particular environment is considered rude engineering. Normally, for particular use case as mentioned, providing an additional convenience meta-package with all desirable packages is the way to deal it. This way, you get to create full featured custom set-up.

Even if you don’t care to do the right thing, moving “ibus” to “Recommends:” should reduce annoyance. For normal package installation, all packages listed in “Recommends:” are automatically installed. So whoever pushed this solution to be required, he loose nothing by doing this. But for technically skillful users can remove “ibus” without doing repackaging of ZOOM package, if this change is made.

Please make sure to convey this information to the Engineer in charge of making decision.

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Hi folks! Created an account to quickly comment as the author of hashman.ca :: Repack Zoom .debs to remove the `ibus` dependency

I’m a Debian Developer and hence familiar with the conventions and requirements for Debian packages, aka “.deb” files.

As currently defined, the way that the Zoom Debian packages use relationship fields (such as Depends:) violate the Debian packaging policy, outlined here: 7. Declaring relationships between packages — Debian Policy Manual v4.6.2.0

It states:

Depends

This declares an absolute dependency. …

The Depends field should be used if the depended-on package is required for the depending package to provide a significant amount of functionality.

Emphasis added by me. I would not describe screen control functionality as “significant”, since many Zoom users can use the software without using this feature. I have never used this feature despite using Zoom for over five years. Hence, this dependency relationship would more appropriately be declared as “Recommends:” or “Suggests:” …

Recommends

This declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency.

The Recommends field should list packages that would be found together with this one in all but unusual installations.

Suggests

This is used to declare that one package may be more useful with one or more others. Using this field tells the packaging system and the user that the listed packages are related to this one and can perhaps enhance its usefulness, but that installing this one without them is perfectly reasonable.

I would argue that “Suggests:” is probably more appropriate, since it is reasonable to install Zoom without ibus, but “Recommends:” would also be okay.

By declaring ibus as a “Depends:”, it is not possible to install Zoom without repackaging the software to remove the dependency. With either “Recommends:” or “Suggests:”, that will no longer be the case.

Please make my blog post obsolete :slight_smile:

NB: I haven’t volunteered this information previously because I don’t provide free consulting to improve commercial multi-million dollar products, and had hoped my blog provided enough information to get this fixed. If my blog post and forum comment are ultimately helpful to the development team, or if you want to discuss further, please feel free to reach out about my rates.

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