How to run Blackboard Collaborate on Ubuntu 18.04

Question

Can I run Blackboard Collaborate on Ubuntu 18.04? I need a new laptop and I am thinking about putting Ubuntu on it.

Solution

OPTIONS

You have a couple of options:

1. Launch the meeting.jnlp file locally on your desktop

• This requires you to have Java installed in Ubuntu 18.04
• You do not need a web browser that supports NPAPI

2. Run Blackboard collaborate from within a web browser

• This requires you to have Java installed in Ubuntu 18.04
• You must use a web browser that supports NPAPI
• You need a Java plugin for your web browser

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OPTION 1

This option does not launch Blackboard Collaborate from inside your Web Browser.

Install Java...

If you have Open Java installed from the Ubuntu repositories, remove it

sudo apt autoremove --purge default-jdk java-common

Install Oracle's Java 8...

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt install oracle-java8-installer
sudo apt install oracle-java8-set-default

Install library to support event sounds.

sudo apt install libcanberra-gtk-module

It's a good idea to set your Java environment variables (although I found this wasn't necessary for Blackboard Collaborate)...

cat /etc/environment
echo 'JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle' | sudo tee --append /etc/environment
echo 'JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre' | sudo tee --append /etc/environment
cat /etc/environment

Reboot your machine (to enable the environment variables) and check that Java is installed...

java -version

Run the Blackboard Collaborate application.

1. Go to your Blackboard Collaborate URL
2. Do not select to "Get Required Software"
3. Instead, click "Start Session"
4. This will download a file called "meeting.jnlp"
5. Save the file (in your Downloads folder)
6. Open Files (Nautilis) and navigate to your Downloads folder
7. Click on "meeting.jnlp" to launch the application, and Blackboard Collaborate will open

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Option 2

This option launches Blackboard Collaborate from inside your Web Browser. But you need to install a new web browser that supports NPAPI (Pale Moon).

Install Java...

If you have Open Java installed from the Ubuntu repositories, remove it

sudo apt autoremove --purge default-jdk java-common

Install Oracle's Java 8...

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt install oracle-java8-installer
sudo apt install oracle-java8-set-default

Install library to support event sounds.

sudo apt install libcanberra-gtk-module

It's a good idea to set your Java environment variables (although I found this wasn't necessary for Blackboard Collaborate)...

cat /etc/environment
echo 'JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle' | sudo tee --append /etc/environment
echo 'JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre' | sudo tee --append /etc/environment
cat /etc/environment

Reboot your machine (to enable the environment variables) and check that Java is installed...

java -version

Install Pale Moon web browser...

cd ~/Downloads
wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:stevenpusser/xUbuntu_18.04/Release.key -O Release.key
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key
sudo apt-get update

echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser/xUbuntu_18.04/ /'| sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/stevenpusser.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install palemoon

Add the Java Plugin to Pale Moon...

Make sure libnpjp2.so is in /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre/lib/amd64. (You can find it using sudo find / -name libnpjp2.so).

Create a link to libnpjp2.so in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins so Palemoon can find the Java plugin.

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so

Run the Blackboard Collaborate application.

1. Launch Pale Moon browser
2. Go to Extensions and Addons in the browser settings, and ensure the Java plugin is selected
3. Go to your Blackboard Collaborate URL
4. Do not select to "Get Required Software"
5. Instead, click "Start Session"
6. This will launch the Blackboard Collaborate application from inside your browser.

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REFERENCES

http://linux.palemoon.org/

https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=home:stevenpusser&package=palemoon

Install Java Plugin in Pale Moon Browser

Web browsers with NPAPI plugins support

http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/install-oracle-java-8-in-ubuntu-via-ppa.html

Comments

[Melebius]

gist.github.com/m0g/6363918

[Enterprise]

Melebius, which browser do the instructions, that you linked, work with?