Some explanations
Of course, after we released Skype 2.1 for Linux, there were many different questions. Here I’ll try to debunk a few myths and explain what happens and why it is so.
Myth: There is a 64-bits version of skype available for download.
No, there is not yet. However, we assembled a “helper” package which will pull corresponding 32-bits libraries. This is made entirely for your convenience, so you don’t have to go and hunt for these packages yourself. This brings some compatibility issues with some (especially video) libraries. Check the forum for more details.
We are working on providing a native 64-bits version of Skype.
Myth: Skype now requires PulseAudio.
No, it does not. If you run ldd on skype binary you will not see any references to libpulse, because we load it at run-time. This means two things:
1) If you do not have pulse installed, skype will happily work with alsa.
2) If you have pulseaudio autospawn enabled (default on most distros), even if you shut down pulseaudio manually or remove it from autostart menu, it will be launched once skype attempts to play a sound.
Myth: You cannot control devices output when using PulseAudio.
You can. Just install padevchooser package and you’ll have a nifty tool that will allow you to select where skype streams should be played to or recorded from.
Question: Why do I see only “PulseAudio Server (local)” in my devices list?
This is because you have pulse installed and it was either already running or was autospawned by skype trying to access it. To use ALSA-only you either need to remove pulseaudio or stop it from auto-spawning. To disable auto-spawn, edit or create the file ~/.pulse/client.conf and add a line containing “autospawn = no” there.
There’s also a way to use pulse server running on another machine in your network, for this you need to specify PULSE_SERVER environment variable. This is mostly interesting for thin clients, so they can run skype on a more powerful machine, but use this machine’s playback and record equipment.
Typing something like “PULSE_SERVER=192.168.0.101 ./skype” should work. Check sound options page – you should see devices called “PulseAudio Server (192.168.0.101)”. I’d be interested to hear about your experience with this, especially the latencies and overall sound stability.
You might ask, why don’t we support showing you normal ALSA devices alongside with pulseaudio server? Answer is simple: by default pulseaudio opens hardware ALSA device exclusively, which means no other applications can access it and they either have to go through pulse or give up. If we see pulse running – we don’t even try to muck with it.
Question: What to do if I’m using pulseaudio and other side can hear only clicking noise?
I believe this is due to the bug in skype volume controls which sometimes causes crashes and sometimes this nasty noise. I hopefully fixed it in internal version and we’ll make a beta update after we’ve tested some more fixes in-house. Current workaround is to disable AGC - uncheck the [x] Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels checkbox on sound options page. Don’t forget to press Apply button.
Question: Doesn’t skype use qt4? It doesn’t look like my KDE desktop.
There’s a default cleanlooks theme used in skype. To make it look like your distro’s style dictates use –disable-cleanlooks command line option.
Question: On my x86_64 distro avatars are not showing.
This is a problem with 32-bits emulation Qt library. It tries to find its image format plugins, but finds a 64-bits version instead and fails to load it.
Specify a plugin path when launching skype like this:
QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/opt/arch32/usr/lib/qt/plugins ./skype
Finally: a productivity tip
In the contact right-click menu you now have “Edit Labels…” item. Choose it and enter multiple comma separated tags you want to assign to the contact. Now you can use them in quickfilter to quickly find someone. I often use russian keyboard layout, and if I accidentally type info quickfilter while using russian, I get weird letters and nothing is found in the contact list. Now, edit labels and type in whatever comes out when you are typing in russian layout to the tags field. Voila, even if you start typing into quickfilter in the wrong layout you will still be able to find this contact!
I would love for the developers to include a “flip video” checkbox for those of us who have upside down cameras. The application “cheese” has this feature and fixes flipped video instantly.
Skype 2.1 32bit (Fedora10+ download)was not able to get a video picture from my camera on my 64bit Fedora 11, however I was able to fix it by making it pull in an extra libary;
Documented it here,
http://www.fedoraguide.info/index.php?title=Main_Page#How_to_install_Skype_with_Video_on_64bit_Fedora
Which basically is — install the _32bit_ version of v4l;
su -c ‘yum -y install libv4l-0.6.3-1.fc11.i586′
The launch skype from command line (or modify your menu to do the equivalent of);
env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype
There’s a really obnoxious problem of lag, either the fault of skype or pulseaudio, that has been surfacing the last few months.
Bugzilla entry here:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=554929
I have a paying skype account and can’t even use it right now because of this.
Skype + video + ubuntu 9.10 32 bits
Just use the command:
$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype
You can change it on the menu.
It solves the green test video problem.
Regards…
Skype + video + ubuntu 9.10 32 bits
Just use the command:
$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype
You can change it on the menu.
Dónt use the path /usr/lib32/libv4l/ on ubuntu. It doesn’t exists!
It solves the green test video problem.
Regards…
Skype + video + ubuntu 9.10 32 bits + system solution
Instead of running skype with a command line, this is a solution for all the system and for all users.
$ sudo cp /usr/bin/skype /usr/bin/skype.real
$ sudo touch /usr/bin/skype
$ sudo bash -c ‘echo -e “#!/bin/bashnexport LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.sonskype.realn” > /usr/bin/skype’
#—
Or create manually the script /usr/bin/skype with:
#!/bin/bash
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so
skype.real
#—
$ sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/skype
Then, if you run skype from the menu, the green test screen will desapear and works fine!
We’d suggest a much shorter explanation. Skype-Audio under Linux is a mess. Every update (now trying 2.1) audio is more or less functional. With pulseaudio it is (as the single application on the – Gentoo – system) not functional at all, when killing pulseaudio, playback works, but no microphone.
Booting Windooze to make some calls…
I have the same problem of petamem: with Skype Beta installed and PulseAudio installed, the mic doesn’t work. Without PulseAudio, the mic doesn’t work either.
I really don’t know what else to do, moreover I’m new with Linux.
Please, if someone could help..
I Love skype (Beta 2.1.0.81) on linux.
Running 64bit Ubuntu.
Everything works including the video.
It seems even PulseAudio is now working great, allowing me to switch mic or speakers while in the middle of a conversation.
Well done.
I am using Skype 2.1.0.81 (2.1Beta2) on Ubuntu 9.10 with pulseaudio 0.9.19.
Most previous problems are resolved (sound quality, video, CPU cycles, ringing
through the speakers while using a headset) but there is still a problem of
excessive latency. In my case it is 2 seconds which pretty much makes Skype
very difficult to use.
The way to check for latency is
pacmd list-source-outputs
and
pacmd list-sink-inputs
while skype is being used.
This issue seems to be isolated to skype as none of the other audio
applications is exhibiting such a high latency (tried with rhythmbox
and gtalk audio/video though empathy).
Pulseaudio is now on version 0.9.21. Has anybody tested with Ubuntu 9.10
and Skype 2.1beta2? Is it working? Is the latency still there?
Hey?
Could you tell me why does 2.0 version has both PA and ALSA devices in sound options and choosing ALSA devices (smth. that starts with HDA Intel or so) works well even with PA running?
@oldestman Because 2.0 does not support PA.
I am using Ubuntu 9.10 on AMD64 computer. I used to use Kubuntu 9.10 and had no problems with Skype. After getting rid of kde4 now I get [pulse audio server (local)] when I click the sound devices. My video works, I checked it with Cheese, my output is OK I listen to streaming radio. When I click System-Preference-Sound-Input I see that I have [Internal audio digital stereo (IEC958)]. Pulse does not work, I can not make a test call or make a test sound. There must be something I am missing.
Thanks for the help.
Hi,
I do not know what I did or what happened, now Skype works without any problems. So, disregards my previous message. Many thanks.
I am also using Ubuntu 9.10 on AMD64 computer. I just removed my old version of Skype (1. something) because it was developing audio problems and installed Skype using the skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.81-1_amd64.deb package. I can make sounds just fine, but when I try to make a Skype call, the application always suddenly dies (crashes). The error I get is:
symbol lookup error: /usr/bin/skype: undefined symbol: _ZN10QBoxLayout13addSpacerItemEP11QSpacerItem
I understand that Skype for Ubuntu 8.10 would work, but it seems that Skype has removed the download.skype.com website. I only can get access to the most recent version of Skype, which doesn’t work for my system. I’m also disappointed that, because the download site has been removed, I can no longer put Skype in my repositories for automatic update and pgp key authentication, as indicated in the Ubuntu Community skype documentation.
And, I should add that I did try turning off the auto adjusting mixer settings. I still get the crash.
I believe that your Qt version is just too old.
“Question: Why do I see only “PulseAudio Server (local)” in my devices list?
This is because you have pulse installed and it was either already running or was autospawned by skype trying to access it. ..” Sorry, but this isn’t an answer. Surely I should be able to see and choose from available devices whether they are tunning or not? As a Ubuntu amateur, I’m afraid I find this altogether too baffling. I would like to try the proposed solution of upgrading to Ubuntu 9, but unfortunately this 4G eeepc keeps telling me I don’t have sufficient disk space to do the upgrade. It’s a shame to have everything working except Skype, which for me is a “must have” application!
Trying to use SKYPE which works wonderfully in Windows with my mic plugged into the in-line jack. In Linux, however, nothing can see my mic. I feel I’ve tried everything such as playing with all the settings in the volume control preferences. It seems like maybe it’s a driver issue but that would be strange. Do you have any idea as to what the problem might be? And no, the Linux onboard recorder does not recognize the in-line mic either.
I am a newbie and am wondering if you can suggest anything for a problem I’m having. I’m running Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala, on a Dell Precision M6400, laptop. Would be grateful for your help. bigjeff1002@yahoo.com
In Ubuntu 10.04 (64 bit) every time I plug in my Everyman headset again, I have to go to System > Preferences > Sound and select FREETALK for Input and Output – because the system defaults back to the internal sound card as soon as the headset’s unplugged – part of the motherboard that isn’t even hooked up to speakers, let alone a microphone. Is there a way to have it automatically default to the headset just as soon as it’s plugged in? I can solve it for the output by going to System > Preferences > PulseAudio Preferences > Simultaneous Output and checking that, then choosing it in System > Preferences > Sound. But it still requires resetting input for the microphone each time I’m plugging the headset in again.
Skype Audio Lag on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx LTS
ok i don’t understand what this means …Question: Why do I see only “PulseAudio Server (local)” in my devices list?
This is because you have pulse installed and it was either already running or was autospawned by skype trying to access it. To use ALSA-only you either need to remove pulseaudio or stop it from auto-spawning. To disable auto-spawn, edit or create the file ~/.pulse/client.conf and add a line containing “autospawn = no” there.
this is my problem i cannot adjust my mic on skype because it it on auto -spawn , it does not give me any options.. so my question is where do i put the file ?
or where so i make this file .. srry this is new to me.
ohhh and iam using linux mint , it’s either helena or gloria i don’t remember..
@swayndark If you head to Skype for Linux forums your issues could be resolved in no time.