This is what may come out when trying to run an older version of TeamViewer on Ubuntu 18.04:
Error
Init...
CheckCPU: SSE2 support: yes
XRandRWait: No value set. Using default.
XRandRWait: Started by user.
Checking setup...
Launching TeamViewer ...
Launching TeamViewer GUI ...
The console freezes and the GUI does not start. Most solutions out there will recommend to install the latest version, but there are several reasons why you would still use TeamViewer 12, 11 or even 10 on Ubuntu 18.04. One of them might be that you have upgraded the OS and you already have a license for an older release of TeamViewer that you wish to continue using.
Upgrading to version 13 is also not an option if you need the meeting function of TeamViewer, as this one is not available, since the current release is only a "preview" version.
Here is what you should do to install an older release:
Step 1 - Remove all user files from the previous setup
Make sure there is no more configuration left from previous install
sudo rm -rf /home/user/.config/teamviewer*
sudo rm -rf /home/user/.local/share/teamviewer*
Step 2 - Download the portable version of TeamViewer
Older versions can be found here or gotten directly by using one of the links bellow:
Unpack the downloaded archive to the desired location, then open a console and navigate to the unpacked directory.
Step 3 - Run tv-setup checklibs
Inside the directory there is the executable for TeamViewer as well as an executable for the setup. Run ./tv-setup checklibs to get a detailed list of the dependencies that TeamViewer requires to be installed on the system. This is what I received, for example:
apt-get install libdbus-1-3:i386 libasound2:i386 libexpat1:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libjpeg62:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libsm6:i386 libxdamage1:i386 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3:i386 libxinerama1:i386 libxrandr2:i386 libxrender1:i386 libxtst6:i386 zlib1g:i386
Install the missing dependencies using root privileges.
Step 4 - Extend the wine lib of TeamViewer
After digging around, I found this tip here by browsing the community forums.
It is required to download and uncompress libfreetype6_2.6.1-0.1 (the file can be uncompresed by using the Archive Manager). Inside you find another archive called data.tar.xz. Open the archive and copy all files from /./usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ to ./tv_bin/wine/lib which is located in the directory where TeamViewer was extracted.
Step 5 - Start Teamviewer
Start the application in the console by using ./teamviewer
Conclusion
This solution works for TeamViewer 10, 11 and 12. In my tests, I've made sure that the GUI is starting and I've checked if the meeting function is working as expected. Therefore, I've started a meeting and connected to the presentation using the browser version of TeamViewer (this version only allows you to assist on an existing meeting):