Enabling Smart Virtual Backgrounds for Linux

Account owners and admins can force enable the Smart Virtual Background (VB) feature in Linux plugins. Smart VB has the ability to perform face recognition to create the mask used to composite a background image behind a participant.

This article covers:

• How to enable Smart Virtual Backgrounds
  • Edit the ZoomMedia.ini file
  • Configuration file locations for VDI Release Version 5.8.0 and higher
    • New file locations
• Additional requirements for Smart Virtual Backgrounds

How to enable Smart Virtual Backgrounds

You can use an override for the Smart VB feature to force the feature, even if the VDI client being used is not on the allow list. Note that the results may vary. The override capability requires editing the ZoomMedia.ini file and is only recommended for testing.

The location of the ZoomMedia.ini file depends on your operating system. Please refer to the section below for Configuration file locations to locate the ZoomMedia.ini file for your installation.

Edit the ZoomMedia.ini file

You must edit and save the following changes in the ZoomMedia.ini file to enable Smart Virtual Backgrounds:

1. Open the ZoomMedia.ini file.
2. Locate the section marked [FEATURE].
3. Find the entry for SMARTVB.
4. The default value is SMARTVB=0.
5. Change that entry to SMARTVB=1.
6. Save the file and restart to pick up the changes.

Configuration file locations for VDI Release Version 5.8.0 and higher

Please note that the location of the ZoomMedia.ini file was changed in version 5.8.0. If you have edited the ZoomMedia.ini file in the past, the new locations for each platform and path information for the plugins are provided below.

For more detailed path information, please visit this Support article on configuring the Zoom VDI Linux plugin with ZoomMedia.ini if you are using a version older than 5.8.0, as the directory path is different.

New file locations

Ubuntu

Citrix/VMware/AVD plugin: /etc/zoomvdi/ZoomMedia.ini

Centos

Citrix/VMware plugin: /etc/zoomvdi/ZoomMedia.ini

ThinPro 

Citrix/VMware/AVD plugin: /etc/zoomvdi/ZoomMedia.ini

IGEL 

Citrix/VMware/AVD plugin: /etc/zoomvdi/ZoomMedia.ini

Elux 

Citrix/VMware plugin: /setup/elux/.config/ZoomMedia.ini

Additional requirements for Smart Virtual Backgrounds

For more information, please visit the support article on requirements for Smart Virtual Backgrounds for Linux.