Open Beta
After almost 9 months of development, rumours, frustration, hope, absence of hope, resurrection of hope and killing of hope again I’m somewhat happy to announce the arrival of Skype for Linux 1.3.0.30 beta!
Since it is a beta its main purpose is to collect a lot of feedback from you, folks. Come and get it [here](http://skype.com/download/skype/linux/13beta.html). I’ll briefly list major changes below, and feel free to tell me about anything that doesn’t work as expected, or even at all 
### ALSA
Well, you certainly know about this – this was the main reason for launching 1.3 and it became its main issue. It’s now pretty stable and therefore possible to show it to the world finally. You will find a selector to switch between ALSA and OSS in the Options menu, Sound Devices tab. Switching between ALSA and OSS might require a restart of Skype, switching call device in ALSA and OSS should be effective immediately (just don’t think it will work inside an active call — it will not).
]]>### Public API
The dbus support haven’t grown much since last time, we’re still with good ol’ 0.23 — this is sad. On the bright side, parsing of many commands has been improved and some nasty bugs fixed. We also have X11 API now, and I will prepare a demo application that shows how to use it soon.
### Graphics and sounds
Latest-greatest emoticons as well as flags are supported in this release. The graphic look of the program itself was refreshed, it looks a bit more sharp now. New sounds are in place, but due to a small bug they might click at the end — please test and tell if they click for you or not.
### Mood messages
Mood messages are now supported, you can set your own in the profile editor (under Full Name) and you can view others’ ones in profile viewer (right click on contact -> View Profile).
There are many smaller bugfixes in the [change log](http://skype.com/download/skype/linux/changelog.html), and even smaller ones that didn’t make it into the list
All in all it’s a major milestone. It will relieve many and grieve some, but I’m optimistically waiting for your feedback.
Enjoy!
The sound clicks alright.
The only new feature i actually noticed so far is that it doesn’t take 2 minutes for the gui to show after the programm starts.. good work.
And of course the long overdue alsa… seems to work fine so far..
ALSA is working great.
I found a bug : when showing a user’s profile, clicking the window instantly moves it to top left corner (i use debian sid, gnome 2.14)
It’s a pity that user’s mood message and picture doesn’t appear in main window…
I forgot the most important point : WHERE IS VIDEO SUPPORT ?????
This version don’t work under 64-bit Ubuntu. I was previously using “static version” and it worked fine…
I hope I will see 64-bit builds soon…
When we could expect you to add video support?
A few bugs/missing features.
1) Ring PC SPEAKER marked as fixed on changelog still doesn’t work.
2) It just beeps once and stops.
3) Ringing in a different device is gray so we can not select.
Can not select subdevices for alsa.
I can’t cancel a call, killing an application helps
I can’t call anyone using ALSA due to problems with the sound device. (Ubuntu 6.06)
Alsa works fine but WHY? I DON’T have option to use my USB webcam microphone as input device? I have only one call options withou input and output selection of devices.
I installed the previous Skype for Linux version.
As a result, my sound support for Linux by ALSA-PROJECT went wrong. I hate Skype!!!
http://lovelywdf.freehostia.com/phonetic/
Thank you very much, I don’t care about video, I know I am never going to use it
Alsa works great, and that’s all I care about currently.
Thank you indeed again, but I advise you not to make Linux users wait 9 month for the second bugfix-release
Thanks! It’s great to finally see ALSA support in Skype, even while I don’t really do voice or video chats…
Bugs:
* I hear a click after “sent message” sound, just like you described
* Chat dialog headers cycle colors (grey-cyan-blue) insanely
* those same headers aren’t very well-formatted. I can send a screenshot with that from home
* Animated smilies consume quite a lot of CPU cycles
It would be nice though to have interface more similar to what we have in windows. I’m talking about mood messages mostly (and i’m not sure if it’s impossible, but if it is, it would be nice to be able not to see contact groups).
Also, it would be great if you allowed us to send file by dragging and dropping it on a chat window, like in windows.
That’s probably all, for now… Keep up your work!
Hello
I’ve tried the beta version on DEBIAN SARGE: everything is ok.I can finally use skype with alsa.
And I’ve tried the beta version on DEBIAN ETCH (testing). I can’t use it with the alsa support. But with the alsa oss emulation, it’s ok.
In the two cases, I don’t hear a click after “sent message” sound.
Ive only one BIG disappointment: Where is video support ???
But however, it’s a good job, go on ( and add the video support in the next version please ).
Being able to select separate input and output devices for calls would be nice. E.G. What it I have a USB microphone and speakers on my soundcard? At the moment I have to modify my /etc/asound.conf to combine the microphone and the output into one device.
After waiting for ages, Alsa appears to be working well.
I would like to have “call forwarding” option now …
Very nice, but we want the video!!
As a bug report, I had a problem on my Mandriva 2006 with kde3.5: clicking on a url pointing to an internet radio station, ALSA crashed. I had to logoff and re-login to have skype working again )problem with sound device).
Thanks for your efforts
> Being able to select separate input and output devices for calls would be nice.
Tweaking ALSA configuration may help. See:
http://juljas.net/linux/skype/
Well, skype is fine for current registered user but when I try to create new account with this beta, It couldnt by saying Logging failed. Hope to be fixed with final release.
I am using Fedora Core 6 (beta) with 2.6.16.20 and I have a problem that in the middle of a call I can hear the other party but at some random part of the call they suddenly they cease to hear me. I have to exit and restart to make it work again. I tried OSS and ALSA.
Finally I downgraded and the old version worked fine. The only problem with the old version is that after a call it starts to think that it can’t access the sound device until I quit and re-start it.
Thankyou I’ve been waiting soooo long, but finally arrived.
Been playing for a couple of hours and nothing to really comment on (except for the clicking!)
Just a suggestion to provide an option for animated text smileys like in the gmail chat function – i am a firm hater of stupid yellow faces (except the simpsons – like them) and think that a good text smiley is fine … but even better if animated.
Thanks again!!
At last – I have been waiting for this release for so long…
It has been working fine for few days, without the illness of OSS emulation, however, when I try to initiate my 2nd call (the first works fine), I get 100% CPU utilization caused by Skype. Restarting the application solves the problem for one call.
This behaviour starts as soon as I press the “call” green button, and continues until hangup. No special behaviour occures when not during a call.
Debian unstable.
common guys, where is the native AMD64 support? you know you want to do it, give it, dont resist that feeling, let the compiler spit out a good AMD64 binary , in your next release, its just one good compile away.
Peaceout.
Hello. I want (need) linux 64 version. There are many lot 64 bits pc architect in the world, then, why don’t you have 64 bits version? Its absolutely necesary, and linux is really. Windows is a second option for my, I am preffered linux SO for surfing in the web, without viruses and spyware (or WinWare ). I pay for skype, and I want use skype in linux, then, why do I must use windows (very expensive and bad) if exists linux, free and stable (but, without need for speed, halo, games, games … etc.)?
Alsa runs great ! I am so happy that I can listen to my music and then recieve a call. Thank you for your hard work!
When someone contacts me the first time my computer happens to hang up. I’m unable to move the mouse or press any buttons. Not even Strg+Alt+Backspace lets me restart the X-Server. It seems as if every process is being stopped, every sounds (from CPU, hard drive or whatever) is interrupted. Most of the time everything normalizes after a few secons/minutes but I had to do a complete hard reset twice.
This is great news!
I know everyone’s asking about video, but that doesn’t bother me much…
What about Web Presence? Both Windows and Mac support web-presence, why not Linux?
Since Skype 1.3 beta my buddies log in for about 15 min. Then they seem to log off for about 15 min. Then log in for 15min., log off for 15 min. again all the day. Not all buddies show this behaviour. Calling such “seem to be logged out”-buddies works perfectly and in this moment they suddenly appear as “logged-in”.
Sound quality in the 1.3 BETA on my system is significanty lower than in 1.2.0.18. I like the animated emoticons in the text chat but due to lower sound quality I returned to the 1.2.
When another party is speaking slownly, I hear scratching on the beginning and the end of the words. My returned voice from echo123 is very poor. Same behaviour with ALSA and OSS.
Everything is fine with 1.2.
P3 500 MHz, 256MB RAM, Gentoo, Kernel 2.6.17.6, ALSA 1.0.11, KDE 3.5.2
I was commenting — and complaining — in another Skype blog about us Linuxers being abandoned for so long by the Skype company but — only after pushing the post button — I saw the link to Linux.
Great news I hear here. It won’t be the “commercial” OS version with the bells and wistles but will be better than the last sound jumpy version I have to use-
Old Skype echoes and lost sound a lot when talking to MS Windows Skype users — which have a much better version — even if they ear me loud and clear.
Hope ALSA will solve all this anying stuff and hopping also that you had video t it soon soon.
Thanks a lot.
Kubuntu 6.06, with default settings 1.2.0.18 worked roughly ok, but no one could here me on 1.3.,0.30 not even after a bit of fiddling.
Hi,
I have Kubuntu 6.06, and sound is OK, Skype finally works for me. But when I try to shutdown Kubuntu with Skype running, it will not let me do it … I have to close / quit Skype first and only after that I can shutdown my PC. With other stuff like Gaim, Firefox, Ekiga … Kubunut can close them for me … but not Skype .
Thanks, looking forward to final 1.3. version .
Samy
Great. On kanotix works fine. My vote for video support
Hi.
Has anybody ever pointed out, that if Contacts scroll box grows longer “suddenly” ( closing some yellow startup notices, opening services -> minimizing window -> restoring window -> closing services section ) there are some visual artifacts in the grown part of scrollbox? Was like this in previous version, still exactly the same in this version.
Looks like some pixels ( including backround picture ) of previously last contact line are repeating in every added line in weird diagonal patterns. Resizing window with mouse will normalize scroll box. Looks like something you do in window resize handler should also be done in some other places, where only scroll-box is resized.
Linux ztamd 2.6.15-gentoo-r7 #1 PREEMPT Fri Mar 31 08:50:34 UTC 2006 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
x11-base/xorg-server-1.0.2-r4
x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-1.0.8762-r1
Above (Tuesday, Jul 25) I complained about poor audio quality in 1.3beta compared to 1.2.0.18. Recently I recompiled the kernel with higher frequency of system timer (1000Hz instead of 100Hz), it seems it helped.
Unfortunately, many users are experiencing problems with the ALSA support, and there are several outright bugs. Problems I’ve had or read about include: No audio as non-root, no audio with dmix, only first ALSA device is used, various jitter and latency issues. Also, the error-handling when audio doesn’t work is very bad (it just keeps connecting till eternity).
So, no, I would not consider ALSA support “pretty stable”.
I was looking forward to being able to access all those hidden chat histories through the history tab like I do on Windows but was disappointed to see the Call tab still there. Is there a problem with providing that? It seems like you are otherwise endevouring to make the GUIs all the same. What happened here?
Sound works fine here on Debian/testing. However, the chat has a serious bug: My first message is displayed in the chat window, all following incoming or outgoing messages are not. When I logged in at a later time, I found the chats under “unread chats” in my notification area of GNOME.
For skype to be really useful, it is going to have to be able to use seperate sound devices for ringing and calls. Of course, you are the expert but I wouldn’t think that would be too hard.
Great job and thanks for your hard work.
Would it be possible to consider using gstreamer someday, instead of bare alsa ? If you are planning to add video to Skype Linux, gstreamer can be okey too, that would ease skype development a lot And let use decide the backend easily (he can switch between alsa, oss, jack, pulseaudio … and for video can select between v4l and v4l2)
Whoa…finally proof you havent forgot us linux folks ..tried every web browser i got even downloaded opera–cant skypecast-says “skype” not a protocol. Did an “about:configure” in firefox…no help…would love to skypecast but cant, other than that love it as always keep up the good work! …btw…um…er…video?…pretty please?
Thx for developing also the Linux ver.!
TODO:
I miss the classic ringtones!! please let me download them – either in the package or separately.
I also miss the web presence. One checkbox, shouldn’t hurt
BUGS:
In chat mode, not only the colouring is weird, but if I “click here to see previous messages”, I get all the old messages twice!! (Or sometimes not, but then I don’t get all the recent messages, just the few last. Weird…)
In general, the (click-)disappearing yellow system messages are handled badly. When I close the infobox “Call landlines…” it messes the bottom half of my contact list; when I resize the window, everything is OK again.
Sometimes I also noticed the contact info window “hopping” to the 0,0 corner of the screen on some clicks.
And yes, especially the smileys need much much CPU
Thx for reading my feedback!
Hi, the UI works ok but both beta versions including the more recent 1.3.0.37 doesn’t deliver messages, never connects on phoning or make any sound at all for me so completely unuseable. This is after trying several different versions of alsa libraries however everything else on my system alsa wise or otherwise works great but it is possibly more bleeding edge on some libraries and some libraries may be older. Can you please publish the dependencies this skype binary depends on to work and this would help solve matters greatly as currently it’s the only closed source app I need and the only app that doesn’t work unless I go back to 1.2.0.18 where it would always mess up my sound and if possible I’d like to get this thing working like everyone else.
gentoo 2.6.17, alsa 1.0.12rc1, glibc 2.3.2
Further to my last post, I’ve solved it by running it as root.
Please sort this out as not all of us amateur developers use root on the desktop!
Thanks for the new version.
I was soooo hoping for call forwarding though. Please add it soon.
on ubuntu 6.06 is tested skype 1.3.0.37. i called a landline and my partner complained about the choppy sound, breaks in sound and hearing nothing. i heard him fine. so i cannot use this version.
the thing that’s getting on my nerves is the Skype icon in the system tray, it keeps blinking all the time- I can see, instead of it, the yellow triangle with exclamation mark. I looks as if a warning or something like that. Please do something with it. Thanks.
the thing that’s getting on my nerves is the Skype icon in the system tray, it keeps blinking all the time- I can see, instead of it, the yellow triangle with exclamation mark. I looks as if it’s a warning or something like that. Please do something with it. Thanks.
What is the schedule of video for Skype on Linux ? Is anyone working on it ?
Like someone said earlier we want to use USB Webcam’s microphone.
So two devices for the calling is needed Input/Output. I have broken microphone in integraded soundcard so I can only choose hear or to speak on the same call. :I