Hi!

A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft released a preview version of Microsoft Teams for Linux (see references). Since that day, I was hoping to have a chance to play around with this version, mostly in a Raspberry Pi.

Those days I also had this conversation with my best half (who is a very smart person):

• Why do you need to do this? You already have a very powerful MacBook, an amazing Dell laptop and a gaming PC. So, why do you need to install Microsoft Teams in a not so powerful device at home?
• Because …

There is no logic answer for this, however I learned a lot in the process. Let me share, because it all start with the official download page for Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams Versions

Besides the official download page for Microsoft Teams, there is an interesting page which describes all the possible client scenarios for Desktop, Web, and Mobile. And for Desktop it includes, Windows, Linux and Mac: Get clients for Microsoft Teams (see references).

In the Linux section, we have the option to review the packages DEB and RPM repositories

• DEB https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable main
• RPM https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/ms-teams

This is also interesting, because browsing the repositories, you may find the Release and the Insiders versions.

Raspberry Pi 4 64-bits kernel

The Raspberry Pi 4 has a 64 bits kernel, however the current Raspbian distro are not using the 64-bit kernel capabilities of the device. There is an entry on the RaspberryPi forums which explains how to enable the 64-bit kernel: Pi4 64-bit Raspbian kernel for testing – Focus on Pi4 (see references)

Add to config.txt

arm_64bit=1

and Run

sudo rpi-update

And done, in a NON OFFICIAL or NON SUPPORTED way, my device is running on X64.

This process took some time, at least 10 minutes.

Note: I’m 99% sure that this is not supported. So, all of this is mostly a testing and learning experience.

Add AMD64 architecture to Raspberry Pi.

Back to Microsoft Teams. After checking the available versions, I realized that AMD64 is the only supported architecture in Linux. The Raspberry Pi uses an ARM CPU, which uses the ARM instruction set. That is a different instruction set than that used by i386 and x86-64/amd64. So, there is no way to install an AMD64 package on a Raspberry Pi 4

However, I found an interesting command: dpkg –add-architecture

And I started to read about the command (some links in references).

dpkg –add-architecture is meant for CPUs that support multiple instruction sets. I think it was mainly introduced for x86-64 (i.e. 64bit) CPUs, which also support i386 (i.e. 32bit) instructions. This allows you to install packages compiled for i386 on a system that otherwise uses x86-64 packages.

So, even if it won’t work, I tried to add AMD64 in my RPi 4 with the following command:

#sudo dpkg --add-architecture {architecture name} && sudo apt-get update
sudo dpkg --add-architecture amd64 && sudo apt-get update

So, after this, I have the AMD64 architecture instructions installed. They are not going to work, but I can install an AMD64 package now.

Installing Teams

If you are running your Raspberry Pi with a desktop interface, just double clicking on the file: teams_1.2.00.32451_amd64.deb. This will start the installation. And, of course, it will fail!

So, it was time to read and learn, and I found an alternative and amazing tool to install DEB files: GDebi (see references)

Gdebi is a tiny little app that helps you install deb files more effectively by handling dependencies. Learn how to use Gdebi and make it the default application for installing deb packages.

It’s very easy to install, just 2 commands

sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
sudo apt-get install gdebi

Note: It should work with the 2^nd command, however, I needed to add the core option 1^st.

Now I got GDebi, and I can open the package with the tool, and I got a dependency problem with the libasound2 library.

Even so, I can start the installation with the command

sudo gdebi teams_1.2.00.32451_amd64.deb

and, the app won’t work, but I’ll see the shortcut access in the [Sound & Video] folder

Again, the app won’t launch, but in the personal side, I spend some good time here learning a lot about Linux, processor architectures and more. So, I’m 100% cool now!

Happy coding and Happy New Year!

Greetings @ Burlington

El Bruno

References

• Microsoft Teams, Get clients for Microsoft Teams https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/get-clients
• Microsoft Teams, Downloads https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads
• Microsoft Teams available on Linux, and this is the right way to install it https://elbruno.com/2019/12/11/raspberrypi-microsoft-teams-available-on-linux-and-this-is-the-right-way-to-install-it/
• Pi4 64-bit raspbian kernel for testing – Focus on Pi4 https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=250730
• StackOverflow, Installing amd_64 or i386 packages on raspbian (arm hf) https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24316854/installing-amd-64-or-i386-packages-on-raspbian-arm-hf
• GDebi, https://launchpad.net/gdebi
• Use GDebi for Quickly Installing DEB Packages in Ubuntu https://itsfoss.com/gdebi-default-ubuntu-software-center/

My Posts

My posts on Raspberry Pi

Dev posts for Raspberry Pi

• How to grant permissions to a folder after git clone, to perform dotnet restore on a Raspberry Pi
• How to install .Net Core 3.1 in a Raspberry Pi 4
• Installing Visual Studio Code in a Raspberry Pi 4, run as root, fix black screen
• How to install .Net Core in a Raspberry Pi 4 and test with Hello World
• Build and Run C# NetCore projects in a Raspberry Pi 4 with Visual Studio Code
• Let’s do some Git dev in Raspberry Pi 4 (GitHub and Azure DevOps!)
• Install OpenCV
• Install Python Virtual Environments in Raspberry Pi

Tools and Apps for Raspberry Pi

• Where is my Task Manager in RaspberryPi? Let’s try htop
• Multi-monitor in Raspberry Pi 4 rocks !
• Double Commander on RaspberryPi4, because files are important
• How to install Docker in a Raspberry Pi 4
• Installing Visual Studio Code in a Raspberry Pi
• Installing Visual Studio Code in a Raspberry Pi, run as root, fix black screen (Updated)
• 6 commands to install OpenCV for Python in a Raspberry Pi 4

Setup the device

• 1st Setup without monitor: auto connect to WiFi, enable SSH, update and more
• Setup without monitor: enable VNC
• How to enable auto start with HDMI safe mode
• Running a Python script in a Python Virtual Environment on reboot / startup

Hardware

• Ice Tower, the best cooler for your device! From 70C to <40C in a 60 minutes process running at 100% in all 4 cores
• Intel Neural Stick 2, Performance differences in Face Recognition using OpenVino