Updating Zoom in the terminal

Question

Like many people around the world, my life has moved entirely online through videocalling platforms like Zoom.

Most of my software updates automatically through the terminal when I run

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

However, it seems that Zoom is not updated this way, and it keeps periodically asking for manual installation of updates.

Is there a way update Zoom automatically through the terminal, e.g. by adding the right repository? Even the 'terminal' instructions in their Help Centre ask for a manual download for every update.

Solution 1

Zoom is not available in Ubuntu repositories. It also doesn't appear that the software can be installed via PPA, at least not officially, from the page you linked.

apt and your GUI software center only deal with packages that can be updated via sources in /etc/apt/sources.list or PPA sources or snaps.

There is a zoom-client snap in the snap store, but it appears that you did not originally install the software using this method, so you will need to follow the manual installation and update/upgrade instructions from the developer of the software via the link that you referenced.

Solution 2

At the moment, there is no official PPA for zoom, but there is an unofficial snap. However, last time I tried, the zoom-client snap did not keep my local preferences every update. It was also behind on updates at times.

If you want to use apt-get, apt or the GUI upgrade-manager, the following script will set a local repository for zoom, which will auto-update every time apt-get update runs:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

url=https://zoom.us/client/latest/zoom_amd64.deb
debdir=/usr/local/zoomdebs
aptconf=/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/100update_zoom
sourcelist=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/zoomdebs.list

sudo mkdir -p $debdir
( echo 'APT::Update::Pre-Invoke {"cd '$debdir' && wget -qN '$url' && apt-ftparchive packages . > Packages && apt-ftparchive release . > Release";};' | sudo tee $aptconf
  echo 'deb [trusted=yes lang=none] file:'$debdir' ./' | sudo tee $sourcelist
) >/dev/null

sudo apt update
sudo apt install zoom

Alternatively, you can use the following script to update zoom:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

url=https://zoom.us/client/latest/
file=zoom_amd64.deb
cd ~/Downloads

wget -qN $url$file
downloadedVer=`dpkg -f $file version`

dpkgReport=`dpkg -s zoom`
echo "$dpkgReport" | grep '^Status: install ok' > /dev/null && \
  installedVer=`echo "$dpkgReport" | grep ^Version: | sed -e 's/Version: //'`

if [ "$installedVer" != "$downloadedVer" ]; then
  sudo dpkg -i $file
else
  echo "Zoom is up to date"
fi

Both methods will continue to work as long as Zoom keeps updating the same location and file.

Solution 3

You can install an unofficial snap package that is lagging behind a little but ads the ease of updating through terminal.

If you have Zoom install by any way other than snap you must first uninstall. Try uninstalling via apt-get

sudo apt-get remove <zoom package name>

then you can reinstall it via snap. Do so either in Terminal:

sudo snap install zoom-client

or by use of the snap-store which can be installed with

sudo snap install snap-store

then updating all snap packages is done by

sudo snap refresh

Solution 4

To automate zoom updates on Ubuntu I wrote this tool.

It's a install/uninstall script for a systemd timer/service that checks daily whether there is a newer version of zoom available on the website than the one that is installed locally. If there is a newer version, it downloads the Linux .deb package from the zoom website and installs it. No guarantees I'll maintain this but for me this solution works for now.

Solution 5

There is an unofficial Zoom apt repo available here: https://github.com/mwt/zoom-apt-repo

The repo downloads the latest package from Zoom every 12 hours, checks the gpg key on the deb file and adds it to the repository.

To install, just run the following commands:

Step 1: Add the GPG certificate to your keyrings folder. This does not automatically trust the key for anything.

sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/mwt.asc https://mirror.mwt.me/my/gpgkey

Step 2: Add this to your list of repositories. This step tells apt to use the key to check the repo.

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mwt.asc by-hash=force] https://mirror.mwt.me/my/deb any zoom" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mwt.list'

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Comments

[totalynotanoob]

how did you originally install zoom?

[Remy]

I'm not entirely sure; I imagine it was probably a download from the official Zoom website.

[totalynotanoob]

according to zoom's download and update page the only officially supported way is manually. so unless someone else goes out of their way (and propably against zoom's will) you will be out of luck. sorry. see the page at: support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/…

[user535733]

The 'zoom-client' snap is available in the snap store. Happily, the OP recalled how they installed Zoom.

[niry]

Instead of cron job to download, I suggest to use apt hooks.

[fixit7]

Zoom is in my synaptic package manager. @Nmath

[totalynotanoob]

@JRodrigoF the snap is unofficial and lagging behind a little. but you get the ease of updating through terminal instead of re-downloading the official installer of every version.

[maxadamo]

what is the boot time for this snap? 10 seconds? Snap is useless crap.

[Community]

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[Admin]

This is the best alternative to an official deb repo or a PPA.