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!
Another question: I use OSS, and skype don’t recognize it.
Yes, my avatar works in 64bit skype now.
This is great, however it still doesn’t explain why my video playback stops every time skype makes a sound :/
I don’t get how this workaround with the plugin path is supposed to work. where do I edit this?
With –disable-cleanlooks command line option Skype doesn’t use my Qt4 default theme, but a ugly one.
How can I fix the issue?
Ah, I forgot: I use Skype on Archlinux x86_64.
@fabioamd87 There’s no OSS support in this beta yet. OSS3 will be back in the final release.
@egr-negr I guess you’re using totem or some other video player that uses PulseAudio. In the beta version notifications streams have “phone” (higher priority) stream type, that’s why the playback is being paused. This is fixed in the next internal version.
@sebastianh05 Just enter it in the command line like shown.
@garret88 Are you using a static Qt version? On Arch64 I installed 32-bit libs and use dynamic build. (Run yaourt -S lib32-qt to pull necessary libraries from community repo).
> 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.
I installed this package and played with its options, but still during calls mike input level stays the same. Can you give more detailed instructions please?
well okay but the path shown below doesn’t exist on my ubuntu system. in usr/lib there’s a qt3 and a qt4 folder, which path should I enter?
@sebastianh05 Enter the path to your 32-bits qt4 plugins folder.
@dmalinovsky There’s a little bug with input level control in this beta, it will be fixed in the next release.
Thanks for great article, Bercus! Now I’m more happy than before.
@berkus sorry for my n00bness, but how do I know if the plugins are 32 or 64 bit (I use 64bit ubuntu)
@berkus: I have lib32-qt-4.5.2-6 already installed on arch x86_64. I installed the aur-package bin32-skype 2.1.0.47-5 ( http://u.nu/5hc63 ).
This is how I see the program launching it with “skype –disable-cleanlooks” -> http://u.nu/6hc63
I use gnome but I have some kde4 apps and they look with the right theme.
@sebastianh05 You should have 32-bits compatibility libs installed. You can either list contents of lib32-qt package (or however it is called on your distro) and find the pathname from that listing, or just search your harddrive for libqjpeg.so and then run “file” command on it, it will tell you if the file 32 or 64 bits. If you found a 32-bits file, figure out the full path to it and keep only part up to and including “/plugins”. Use this path when starting up skype.
@garret88 I just checked the AUR package and it seems to be ok. Can you try running qtconfig from the 32-btis qt package and verify it has proper settings for styling?
@berkus: Hmmm but I don’t know the command to run qtconfig from the 32-btis qt package.
Maybe is possibble use a command line option that uses oxygen style? I tried the command “skype –disable-cleanlooks -style oxygen” but Skype remains always the same.
skype –disable-cleanlooks =cant run skype with this option after SAVE SESSION in kDE4
usr/share/applications/skype there i had write option and after run skype by icon it go with disable-cleanlooks .. no more comand line, but making SAVE SESSION KDE4 with running skype Dont start skype with this option..
@garret88 Hmm, weird. Mind if I ping you on skype and we can check this out in private?
@hc_ftk disable-cleanlooks is now default in the new internal builds, so wait for a new release, should fix the styling for you.
“…package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)…”
What about Debian “squeeze” amd64?
There is at the moment no working Skype for Debian “squeeze”?
I tried package “Debian Lenny” – “…package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)…”
Package “Ubuntu 8.10+ 64-bit” is installable but on skype start:
Inconsistency detected by ld.so: dl-open.c: 623: _dl_open: Assertion `_dl_debug_initialize (0, args.nsid)->r_state == RT_CONSISTENT’ failed!
I tried also “Dynamic Static package” but it gives same as Ubuntu package:
Inconsistency detected by ld.so: dl-open.c: 623: _dl_open: Assertion `_dl_debug_initialize (0, args.nsid)->r_state == RT_CONSISTENT’ failed!
I have solved it with installing an old 32bit version of skype on my 64bit system:
“sudo dpkg -i –force-architecture skype-debian_2.0.0.72-1_i386.deb”
The hardest part was to find this package, because it is not more downloadable official.
This problem is already announced:
https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-510
I’m getting very happy hearing about a native x86_64 version is on its way.
Will follow this to hear any news regarding the x86_64 version…
@berkus:
Thanks for the hint on the avatars issue. I was a bit confused that I kept on trying to change my avatar without success on Debian Squeeze/amd64. On my Ubuntu/i386 the avatar would show up, however. So I was very puzzled .
Now, if I only can get it to work properly on Ubuntu 9.10 and pulseaudio 0.9.16.
Adrian
thank you for this posting
about my usb-mic: in my OS (jaunty 32) pavucontrol didn’t work, but installation of gnome pulseaudio applet solved the problem, so I can use skype like before or even better. Thanks!
thank you for this posting
about my usb-mic: in my OS (jaunty 32) pavucontrol didn’t work, but installation of gnome pulseaudio applet solved the problem, so I can use skype like before or even better. Thanks!
thank you for this posting
about my usb-mic: in my OS (jaunty 32) pavucontrol didn’t work, but installation of gnome pulseaudio applet solved the problem, so I can use skype like before or even better. Thanks!
sorry, I didn’t want to post it 3 times
“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.”
Is it so difficult to support Phonon? KDE’s framework.
A simple check which environment is running and then deciding to load either phonon or pulseaudio?
It looks like the avatars on 64 bit Karmic work out of the box now. On my Jaunty installation I have this problem but on 64 bit Karmic without doing anything extra all the avatars are showing!
hey thanks for the new version. Sound quality has improved but now when I talk to a person with the latest version i can hear myself so so loudly from their speakers, fed back to me if you like, when before i could not, even when the volume level on their machine is not high, even really low. Even typiong on my laptop is coming back to me after a delay. Surely this feedback should be filtered out?
Here’s one thing I find annoying, particularly when reading this blog: When you click a link that uses the skype protocol in your web browser, it displays a message saying you need to install Skype, even with the latest version, when will this be fixed?
since the avatars work out of the box in 64bit Karmic, which is not too far away from final, I won’t bother trying to figure out this lib problem
*cynic comment mode on* … which shouldn’t be the user (i.e. me) ‘s job anyhow *cynic comment mode off *
keep up the great work, great to see skype working on linux finally!
Berkus,
thank you very much for this post but:
> install padevchooser package and you’ll have a nifty tool that
> will allow you to select where skype streams should be played to
I’m rather a Linux newbie, installed the package but still don’t get it: what should I do so that ring tones go to my speakers and voice / mic to my USB headset?
Alessandro
@plurimedia
Alessandro, if you don’t want to wait until next beta as mentioned in PA forum http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=411431&view=findpost&p=1889131 ,
then go with Brian’s workaround there:
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=411431&view=findpost&p=1898451
@kurisujw
Thanks for the pointer: don’t know how I missed that.
Cheers.
Alessandro
@aliendude5300:
I agree, I find the bug you mentioned annoying as well. It should be reported if it’s not yet. However, I don’t consider it to be very critical.
@berkus:
Skype 2.1 finally works with pulseaudio 0.9.16. It seems to have been a bug in the pre-release version of 0.9.16 I was using on Ubuntu 9.10. Now that pulseaudio 0.9.16 and even 0.9.17 are released as stable, Skype works like a charm .
So, if anyone has problems with Skype on Ubuntu 9.10, just run a system update.
Adrian
Berkus: is there any chance Cleanlooks-by-default would be switched off? I actually thought it’s a bug until I read this article…
Continuing my previous comment, could this option to use Cleanlooks at least be switchable somewhere in the Skype’s preferences?
Please fix the conference call
Skype to phone calls aren’t working . I really hope that gets fixed, as I’ve been waiting a year to use Skype to call regular phones. (https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-527)
And it’s not liking my web-cam (Logitech QuickCam Chat). Work fine with Cheese, so I know the camera is working. (https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-530)
If you are running Ubuntu 64-bit, the 32-bit QT libraries aren’t in /opt/arch32.
I found this worked to get the avatar working:
QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib32/qt4/plugins
It is good to see some progress on the Linux client, but I am having problems when I route the audio through Pulse.
Using Pulseaudio under Ubuntu 8.04 echo cancellation doesn’t work properly. It seems there is too much of a delay between the audio output and the mic input.
Also when the video starts up, the window (box in the lower left) that is supposed to display my outgoing video never works, there is just an empty box.
Thanks for the good work and I am looking forward to have a 64 bits version…
Here is my test:
—————
- My system: Ubuntu 8.10 – 64 bits
- Stable (2.0 version) was working fine. I have just tried this 2.1 beta and I only get one issue with my webcam. My webcam video used to work just fine in 2.0 (and working in Cheese for eg.) but it’s not the case in this new version anymore.
My quite old webcam is referenced in the “lsusb” as: “Bus 002 Device 003: ID 041e:403a Creative Technology, Ltd WebCam NX Pro 2″
Thanks!
News.
By using the command line “LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype” I did fix the issue with the cam that is now working…
Finally: a productivity tip for developers: make a 64-bit working skype finally!!!!!!
btw: dpkg -i –force-architecture skype-debian_2.0.0.72-1_i386.deb was working for me
@berkus:
One minor issue. When choosing a dark color theme in gnome, the tooltips (ie. mouseover text fields) remain light yellow instead of turning dark like for all other apps in gnome (like in the normal color scheme) while the font color turns white. So the tooltips are unreadable when using a dark color theme in Gnome.
Adrian
To straka7066 and others using debian squeeze on x86_64. The problem seem to be that the 32-bit compatibilities libraries include pulse libraries, even if you don’t have pulse installed.
I fixed it by hiding the 32-bit pulse libraries from non-root users:
# chmod o-r /usr/lib32/libpulse-simple.so.0.0.2 /usr/lib32/libpulse.so.0.8.0
# chmod o-r /usr/lib32/libpulsecommon-0.9.15.s
@shinkius Cleanlooks is not the default anymore in the internal builds and you will actually have a selector to choose skype style in the options dialog.
@czarnyckm Please fix the conference call
@davidnruthie I’m using skype to call phones every day. I’m sure I would’ve noticed if that doesn’t work. We’ll look into your specific issue. &@benjamin.cartereau The camera support is still being improved, we hope to have your camera supported by the time we release final version.
@scott_freeland /opt/arch32 is path for Arch Linux. YMMV.
@mckansey Thanks for being constructive!
@genki-adrian Yep, dark color theme support is still ongoing. Luckily, we have a developer who is using skype with dark colors all the time, so this is improving rapidly!
@berkus: Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help figure out what’s causing the problem for me.