Skype 2.1 Beta for Linux
I’m glad to announce to you Skype 2.1 Beta for Linux.
Many Linux users have been patiently waiting for it over the past few months.
Start downloading it now. Please remember that it is a beta release of software, which means that it can sometimes have its own way of doing things. If you see it doing its own thing then please let us know about it in our forums or just comment this blog post.
With this new release we have worked a lot on catching up with Windows and Mac client with the main features. In this version you can take advantage of High Quality Video calls, Sending SMS, Skype’s own Silk audio codec, edit and remove chat message and typing notification. Last, but not least importantly for many Linux users we have introduced a support for PulseAudio, what you have been asking from us.
In addition to these mentioned bigger new features you will see there also a lot of smaller things added. More importantly, many behaviours have been fine tuned and polished to make your life easier when using Skype.
See also the full list of changes and known issues of the newly released build 2.1.0.47 below:
]]>Known issues:
* General
* Logging in and out with a different user name may cause Skype to crash.
* Options
* When PulseAudio is enabled in the audio settings, only that specific entry will be available; to change the settings, use the PulseAudio manager tool that is bundled with your distribution.
* Contact list
* Newly added contacts are not found by QuickFilter until Skype restart.
* Newly bookmarked chats are not found by QuickFilter until Skype restart.
* It is not possible to drag multiple contacts to a group.
* Chat
* When two users write a message in a chat at the same time, your own message may not be shown immediately; it will appear again when the next message is posted.
* “Find in chat” options are not honored.
* Timestamps are not formatted according to local settings.
* If a chat message arrives out of order, it can cause Skype to crash in some circumstances.
* If a chat message arrives out of order, the day divider can be misplaced.
* Calls
* When making calls without enough credit, the error message may not indicate this correctly.
* Making calls with PulseAudio 0.9.10 works, however with reduced quality. We recommend updating to 0.9.15 or higher.
* Making calls with a bluetooth headset and BlueZ 3.xx works, however with reduced quality. We recommend upgrading to BlueZ 4.xx. See the BlueZ website for proper configuration.
* If PulseAudio crashes during a call, Skype will also crash after some seconds.
* Calls that use PulseAudio may occasionally send noise from our side, removing Mic Boost and/or moving recording levels may fix the issue.
* File transfer
* Refusing multiple files at the same time may not always work.
* Video
* Accepting screen sharing from Mac/Windows clients might cause Skype to crash.
Release Notes:
* feature: High Quality Video support.
* feature: Skype’s SILK audio codec.
* feature: PulseAudio support.
* feature: SMS sending support.
* feature: Chat messages editing/removing support.
* feature: Contact groups support.
* feature: Typing notification in chat.
* feature: Chat picture support (add/change/remove) for group conversations.
* feature: Mood messages are visible in contact list and tooltip.
* feature: Video/Mobile icons are visible in contact list.
* feature: Bookmarked Chats are visible in contact list.
* feature: Contact labels/tags.
* improvement: Right-clicking on the user name in the chat will open contact menu.
* improvement: A day divider is added to the chat. Timestamps are shorter for old messages.
* improvement: Clickable links in mood message.
* improvement: Enlarged tray icon, also showing number of missed events.
* improvement: Flag button is replaced by button showing number of missed events.
* improvement: Updated ALSA device detection, nicer to USB headsets.
* improvement: Birthday reminders are now displayed 24 hours before birthday.
* improvement: New events panel size adaptive to new events count.
* improvement: Quick Filter speedup optimization for contact list.
* improvement: Popup button to clean the quick filter.
* improvement: Added “Away/Not available since” tooltip for contacts.
* improvement: The menu key can also be used on a contact list to display the contact’s menu.
* improvement: Calling phone numbers of a contact can be done using context menu.
* improvement: Added flags to all country selection drop-downs.
* improvement: Your own chat message author’s name is shown with slightly darker color.
* improvement: Show reason of leaving the chat to other members.
* improvement: Warning dialog when cancelling file transfer.
* improvement: A chat event is opened only when double clicked in the event panel.
* improvement: Links are now clickable in about me window.
* bugfix: Make “/alertsoff” command really silent. Only hint at new messages is that the chat moves to top of events history.
* bugfix: Qt4.4+: Two way video call did not work.
* bugfix: No visual feedback when holding fullscreen video call.
* bugfix: Removed double size video window for small screens.
* bugfix: Fix for sound event being played over PSTN pre-answer sound.
* bugfix: Make sure that the answer button is enabled in the call window, if call popup is disabled.
* bugfix: Change call button label.
* bugfix: Tooltip for DTMF dialpad button now changes appropriately.
* bugfix: SkypeOut Contacts avatar now displays a country flag.
* bugfix: High CPU usage when using ALSA “null” plugin as soundcard.
* bugfix: Undisclosed number display in popup event.
* bugfix: Disable unusable chat elements when we leave or are removed from a chat.
* bugfix: Animated emoticons now work better with Qt4.5.
* bugfix: Remove white background and borders in emoticon selector.
* bugfix: Start group conversation/sending file with/to multiple phone numbers is allowed.
* bugfix: Chat text selection issues on Qt4.5. Improved text selection.
* bugfix: Links with Cyrillic characters are truncated.
* bugfix: Chat doesn’t render properly when enabling or disabling emoticons.
* bugfix: Open chat window on current virtual desktop.
* bugfix: Name identical to your own is not repeated in chat.
* bugfix: Undelivered icon disappears if you retrieve chat history.
* bugfix: Popups for opened chats don’t raise chat window.
* bugfix: Update HashLinkURL to allow letters and hyphens being checked.
* bugfix: Status and avatar tooltips in chat window not localized.
* bugfix: Old chat synced messages are shown out of order.
* bugfix: Triple click in a chat should continue to mark lines.
* bugfix: When copy and pasting from chat window, replace “…” with author.
* bugfix: Visuals change when user joins a chat directly.
* bugfix: “Add to chat” window should have contacts ordered by name only.
* bugfix: Double click should select words in chats, triple click should highlight whole message.
* bugfix: Percent characters in URIs are converted
* bugfix: Right-click menu is being featured in the chat.
* bugfix: Chat 20x resize (text wrap) speeds up optimization.
* bugfix: Chat resizes memory leak.
* bugfix: Further speed-ups when loading previous history.
* bugfix: Contact list doesn’t have a window class.
* bugfix: Double click opening a chat is now a default action.
* bugfix: Missing visual feedback when hovering over “Add a phone number” link.
* bugfix: Context menu is not updated for authorized contacts.
* bugfix: Blocked contacts are not added immediately to the opened options window.
* bugfix: Unblocking more than one SkypeOut numbers from option dialog doesn’t work.
* bugfix: Display a message when Quick Filter search does not return any result.
* bugfix: Popup’s status icon is wrong when adding a contact
* bugfix: Close authorization request popup after action has been taken.
* bugfix: Contact card drag operation starts with first click.
* bugfix: Changed names/tooltips of buttons in File Transfer dialog.
* bugfix: Does not create missed events for files transferred while in “Do Not Disturb” mode.
* bugfix: File sending progress was incorrect after removing/cleaning up sends.
* bugfix: When sending a single file to a person doesn’t show the size.
* bugfix: Ctrl+W doesn’t work for file sending window.
* bugfix: Clear authorization request events always after user action.
* bugfix: Pressing enter/return or double clicking on a birthday event triggers the default action.
* bugfix: Birthdays in the event list are not ordered.
* bugfix: Remember the previous status of recent events when returning from history view.
* bugfix: Added a length check for all profile fields of a contact.
* bugfix: Improved layout of the sign-in window.
* bugfix: Improved layout of the main window.
* bugfix: Buttons in options dialog are now highlighted when hovered.
* bugfix: Buttons in “Say Hello to…” dialog are highlighted when hovered.
* bugfix: Improved pressed button appearance with Qt4.5.
* bugfix: Background is no longer brightened when buttons are highlighted.
* bugfix: Gray buttons were sometimes only partly drawn.
* bugfix: The user profile window was partially hidden on netbooks.
* bugfix: Close button did not work correctly on send contact window.
* bugfix: While restoring the Skype application from a system tray, it was not restoring in front of other windows.
* bugfix: Auto sign-in checkbox in the Change Password dialog doesn’t work.
* bugfix: In FVWM2 and Fluxbox, profile window doesn’t open.
* bugfix: “–dbpath” and “–pipelogin” don’t work together from terminal.
* bugfix: Search friends initially returns an incomplete list with clean profile.
* bugfix: Doesn’t show dotted focus rectangle where unnecessary around UI elements.
* bugfix: Avoid double-sign-in issue causing unexpected UI behaviour (like calls not working or doubling call windows).
* localization: Translate Norwegian dialects “nn”/”nb” to “no” as well.
* localization: Making a few more strings locale-aware.
* localization: Updated languages: Brazilian Portuguese – Fabio Roselet, Bulgarian – Nikolay Filipov, Estonian – Marit Mesipuu, French – Cédric Lamouche, German – Claudius Henrichs, Italian – Marco Cimmino, Lithuanian – Viktoras Kriukovas, Polish – Karol Szastok, Romanian – Péter Henning, Russian – Pavel Shevchuk, Turkish – Ömer Emin Dede.
Cool! Well done. Looks like you guys fixed a lot of bugs
Are there any updates to any API calls?
Very well.
After testing I confirm I am now able to use Pulseaudio-in with my Logitech Pro 4000 USB Webcam on Fedora 11
So now I can finally use Skype with other sound producing applications
There is nothing more to wish for me from Skype
Big Thanks to all the hard working programmers
I’ve installed on 2 linux boxes, one has a hda-intel card and works as expected.
The other has a atiixp card and doesn’t; basically, I hear (and video works) but my mic volume is too low to be heard. I’ve played with a mixer to raise the mic levels, but this has no effect. I’ve also tried the various choiced for the sound device.
This works automatically with 2.0.0.72.
No commandline-only client yet?
do you have any plans on impelement tabbed chat windows in the linux client? I became *very* sad when i installed the beta and it wasn’t implemented
Comments on Skype 2.1, Fedora 11, Pulse Audio
After Installing Skype I was having problems with the microphone;
I discovered that in order to make the Logitech Microphone
work or to make the headset microphone work I had to go
to the Pulse Audio Volume Control Configuration Tab and
set the Internal Audio Profile to ‘Output Analog Stereo +
Input Analog Stereo’. At that point I was able to use my microphone
of choice by going to the Pulse Audio Volume Control Input Devices
and choosing whichever microphone I wanted by disabling the one
I didn’t want and enabling the one I did want. So, the issue appears
to me that Skype 2.1 is not interfacing with Pulse Audio in a manner that
allows Skype to know what sound options are available and to then set
the Pulse Audio options automatically. I do not know if this is a problem
with Pulse Audio, Skype or both but one cannot expect casual users to
be able to figure this out by themselves. It seems to me that Pulse Audio
should scan the sound devices, build a list of possible options and then
allow an application like Skype to query the options and choose the ones
that it supports and then set the Pulse Audio Options.There is also the
issue having multiple sound devices, for example a USB Headset along with
a BOSE plugged into the analog port so that Skype can be used via the USB
headset and Music could be coming out of the BOSE.
Congratulations!!!!!!
Thats are goods news!!
So many implemented features and bugfixes, one year of work and still no 64bit Version? Could you explain where the problem is?
recently updated skype 2.1.0.47
I love the new features that are on the windows client
able to edit / remove your own text
change pictures for the title box
see when people are typing
it seems like skype crashes whenever it wants to…
especially when im not receiving or typing any text or making or receivin any calls
is there a database that i can dl the “working skype version” till this one is fixed of bugs?
besides the random crashing
the skype calls are choppy Never had this problem with the other versions of skype
im using pclinuxos 2009 .2
with dbus 1.2.4.4-3pclos2009
qt3 3.3.8-5pclos2007
libalsa2 1.0.21-1pclos2009
Er…. i would debug.. but dont know how?
Thanks for this new, shiny version!
Greetings from Poland
Sound is working much better for me than under 2.0, but whenever I try and receive video (or sometimes when trying to send), Ubuntu Jaunty logs me out instantly. I’m on a Thinkpad x200 running Ubuntu Jaunty 32 bit, with the server kernel so I can have PAE enabled. Any known issues or workarounds?
The new skype beta looks awesome. However, having some problems with audio input on Ubuntu 9.04 with a Logitech USB webcam.
In System –> Preferences –> Sound –> Devices tab I have set the correct USB device as my preferred Audio conferencing Sound Capture device and when using the Ubuntu test button, it works fine. However, Skype just records white noise.
Yes, I have the white noise problem too.
Sometimes..
Othertimes it has worked. I don’t know yet when or why.
But I do see WHEN the problem occurs.
The mic is working fine with other apps (sound recorder) and when I view the level using the pulse audio device chooser, it bounces up and down with the level of the sound in the background, or my voice.
Start skype up, call someone…… they answer and WHAM!!!!
recording levels go crazy in pulseaudio…… full on the left (all static) and empty on the right (soft white noise perhaps) …..
what happens!!! ??
It is reliably failing me. It is in fact in worse condition than it was pre-beta.
Skype developers – I appreciate the effort. And when it works, it is working fine.
But I post my experiences so that you can better fix the problem.
Thanks
With the tip provided by ‘n5pwp_tux’ on the skype forums
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=411431&st=80&p=1968371&#entry1968371
that is, after killing pulseaudio, and restarting it with the -vv option (i have yet to read-up what the option is for)
[CODE]pkill pulseaudio; sleep 2; pulseaudio -vv[/CODE]
Then re-adjusting the volume levels again (because they might be askew since the last problems)
and then restarting skype, seems, so far, to fix the problem. After that, I was able to use skype, the regular beta download (non the static archive). I imagine i’d be able to use the static version too.
Will do more tests later.
pulseaudio -vv is “verbose verbose”. Makes it log more.
I’m seeing some pulseaudio problems in the log once I started skype (I see perms problems with BlueZ but that is probably because my bluetooth isn’t configured).
However, the following probably relates to skype:
…. (more of the same left off)
Oct 13 09:37:15 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: alsa-source.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 8.00 ms
Oct 13 09:37:20 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 188 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:37:29 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 579 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:37:38 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 397 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:37:46 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 298 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:37:53 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 487 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:37:58 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 135 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:38:21 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 554 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:38:26 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 25 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:38:50 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 56 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:38:50 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: alsa-source.c: Increasing minimal latency to 26.00 ms
Oct 13 09:58:35 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 15 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:58:40 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 668 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:58:50 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 294 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:58:50 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: alsa-source.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 15.99 ms
Oct 13 09:59:22 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 260 events suppressed
Oct 13 09:59:48 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 71 events suppressed
Oct 13 10:01:53 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 178 events suppressed
Oct 13 10:02:31 port4l pulseaudio[2207]: ratelimit.c: 5 events suppressed
Hi, it works like a charm on my Fedora 11. But, reading the bugfixes, it is suposed that there are animated emoticons in Skype for Linux! I’ve never had (even in previous releases), but I thought they were not implemented. And now I wonder why this feature doesn’t work for me?
I experience the problem
“If a chat message arrives out of order, it can cause Skype to crash in some circumstances.”
quite frequently but only when chatting to my fiancée who uses skype for windows (vista) version 3.8.0.188. It’s only happened when chatting to her, i believe most other people i chat to use later versions on different platforms. Hopefully that might help you debug and fix this issue.
Guys, please, release a new (beta) version ASAP, since this beta already requires some hacks (old SSL libraries) in order to run under Fedora 12 Linux.
Also, that would be nice to have a native 64bit Skype.
Thank you!
Tried it out on a Fedora 12 EeePC 900 but with no success – uninstalled PA and went back to ALSA and it works fine. There are also more device options under Sound devices now (only shows “Default” when PA is installed).
Thanks for the update!
Phil.
A follow up question – I would like to be able to record Skype calls (mainly for retrieving remote answering machine messages) – do you have any suggestions about how to do this with Audacity on this Fedora 12 EeePC 900 setup? I have seen some comments that this can’t be done with (the old) version of Skype and Audacity?
Thanks,
Phil.
Is there anyway to download this previous version of the beta? I installed the new one, which won’t startup, and would like to install 2.1.0.47 but can’t seem to get my hands on it.
thanks!
Hi, with the 2.1 beta, Skype shows me as offline to my contacts and offline on the show my status on the web. This happens even when I am online.
This beta has problem with writing czech characters like ď, ť, ň… – it means characters you write in that way you must firstly type caron and then the char. In this beta you’ll write for example ˇd, ˇt, ˇn, what is uncorrect!!!