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’m eagerly awaiting the 64 bit version since I can not get the avatars to work. On my system (Linux Mint 7) the path is: QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib3d2/qt4/plugins/ ./skype, but adding it makes no difference. No avatars. Other than that 2.1 works great.
I am completely depending on Skype in my job. If there’s no Linux version I have to run another OS, so please keep the Linux port going!
I’m eagerly awaiting the 64 bit version since I can not get the avatars to work. On my system (Linux Mint 7) the path is: QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib3d2/qt4/plugins/ ./skype, but adding it makes no difference. No avatars. Other than that 2.1 works great.
I am completely depending on Skype in my job. If there’s no Linux version I have to run another OS, so please keep the Linux port going!
I have a pretty bad white noise problem. I dont think this is really discussed hear but this is basically the problem.
Sometimes I will call a friend and everything is going alright, but if i have to disconnect the call and call back later, for whatever reason (afk, bathroom etc.) and i call back later all they can hear is a bad white noise coming from the mic.
To test it out i call the skype call testing service and lo and behold i dont get my voice back but a horrible ungodly white noise.
Before this, i had the problem in the earlier version of skype where the error was something about audio playback. I fiddled around with the audio input output settings and then i think i got it to work, but i think that there was another problem with it that made me switch to this the beta version.
I think that when i was using firefox and skype at the same time one of them had no audio. Either skype couldnt make calls or firefox couldnt playback audio. If someone could tell me how to get back to the old version for now ill give it a try and see how it works.
Thanks
@akber-khan Are you using pulseaudio? There’s a tip for this up there.
I just wanted to say that the workaround for the clicking noise is not working for me: “disable AGC – uncheck the [x] Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels checkbox on sound options page.”
will still result in the noise. The only way to remove it is to close skype, restart the soundserver (>rcalsasound restart) and start skype again.
But then another problem remains. after talking a while (~5 min) sound just stops working. I guess it has to do with the pulseaudio too.
Just want to say again that this new version of skype works brilliantly, especially compared to the last version. No problems on both my work and home PC. Sound much better than the last skype version. Both sound and video worked immediately with no configuration. A huge improvement.
Keep up the good work. And I look forward to screen sharing in skype at some point.
The new version (2.1) is an improvement but why doesn’t the linux version (fc10 specifically) have the look and features of the windows version? I have to use the windows version on a laptop and after using it and reverting to the linux version i find the lack of functionality frustrating. when will the linux versions catchup with the windows version? I am trying to get away from MS operating systems but this type of problem is causing me to still have windows available to use.
Hi
I’m using skype on a 64 bit system through a 32bit chroot (debian testing/unstable).
With the 2.6.26 kernel, and the gspca module, there is no problem with the webcam. But with the 2.6.30 kernel (gspca module is integrated in it), I can’t use the webcam.
This is a skype problem: all the applications that use v4l2 API work fine with my webcam. But skype seems to use v4l1 API.
I’ve seen this solution: set: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so, but it doesn’t work with the chroot.
So my question: when will skype use v4l2 API instead of v4l1 API ?
Hi,
I have the same/similar problem as yanlot above. (Debian sid with 2.6.30-2-amd64)
Using LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype
does not help.
The camera does not work and I am also testing the v4lsink of gstreamer.
In skype just a green screen apears with some noice.
Both camera and
v4lsink ‘videotestsrc ! ffmpegcolorspace ! V4l2SinkLoopback’
works with mplayer ( mplayer tv:// -tv device=/dev/video1 )
and gstreamer-properties (the videotest)
Reference :
http://code.google.com/p/v4lsink/
http://code.google.com/p/v4l2loopback/
Another vote for a native 64bit version!
Using Gentoo compiled with multilib and the statically-linked Skype with KDE4.3, I have everything mostly-working most of the time, but not in a hugely satisfactory way.
Video: works (UVC module), but in normal size and double-size view I get some distortion. The top part of the picture is repeated again in a horizontal bar running from the right edge of my camera image to the right edge of the picture; thus I can’t see the bottom 1/4 of the other person’s image. In full-screen it’s OK, until I pull up the menu to return to windowed video, when the distortion appears.
Additionally, no matter what I do, I can’t get 640×480 video working.
Audio: fine.
Messaging: well done for reimplementing SMS! I have a problem with chat windows in that they ignore input-methods. I regularly need to send messages in Chinese, using scim and scim-bridge. In all other applications, I can switch input methods between English and 中文 freely, however Skype ignores it and only displays the English characters.
Keep up the good work! It’d be nice to have a native 64 bit version, even if it has a 32 bit binary blob in the middle, just so that it plays well with the rest of the system.
You guys make an amazing application, and sadly the lack of a 64 bit version means that in order for me to get skype routed through jack on my Slackware64 13.0 System, I have to compile separate 32 binaries of all the apps that depend and interact with it (alsatools,libsnd,libsamplerate,jack,etc)… now my system is quite the mess some in /opt/32 and some in /usr/bin and it all hinged on this application.
It is likely that I will be installing a 32 bit OS so that I don’t have this mess of parallel installations. I can’t believe its been so many years and the reality of a full 64 bit OS and software stack still isn’t there yet.
I really wish it wasn’t like that because this application is the only one that is missing for me to be native 64 bit. Now I have to wipe everything out and start again.
Hi,
for all of fou running 64bit Debian testing/Ubuntu (maybe other distro also): try to run skype with LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l2convert.so – note the name of lib – it’s not the v4l1compat.so (there are two libs in my /usr/lib32/libv4l/). I got it working on Ubuntu 9.10 64bit with gspca driver (Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX). All you need is to install lib32v4l-0 package.
greetings,
I’d also would love an UI more similr to the windows one.
Anyway, I’ve a more important question:
Is Skype for linux able to make use of WMM (802.11e) for traffic priority over WiFi ?
The new beta is definitetly a step in the right direction and sound works a lot better for me now. I do have though some stange problem with video. Playback of the video stream from the person I’m calling works fine, so does my own video when using the test function on the options page *but* when I’m talking to someone my video only shows and sends the upper right 1/4 corner of the video my camera is capturing.
Any ideas?
Here’s hoping we get to see more frequent releases from now on. Come to think of it it’s closing in on two months since the first beta came out, I’d say it’s time for the next public beta release by now.
Forgot to mention that I’m on Ubuntu Linux 9.04 on a 1,5 year old Sony SZ notebook.
@berkus Please add qtcurve look in skype. It is a set of widget styles for Qt4/KDE4, KDE3 and Gtk2 based apps. So you have unique look for all apps.
This is problem on 64-bit linux, I need to compile qtcurve lib32.
http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=40492
Thanks
Should I assume Skype for linux does not support WMM/802.11e ?
“Myth: You cannot control devices output when using PulseAudio.”
Yeah, right – I can switch ALL the sound to a different sound device, and that only if I know its PA-internal alias. Great, indeed.
What I am using in 2.0.0.72 is different devices for different programs and for Skype, different device (with headphones connected) for calling than for ring/notifications (speakers here).
No, I _can’t_ uninstall PulseAudio, because some GNOME stuff depends on it in Fedora. Stupid? Maybe, but it never bothered me since no other program insisted on using PA whenever _installed_ (with the exception below).
No, I _can’t_ disable autospawn, because I lose basic volume control shortcuts in GNOME. That’s another stupidity of Fedora, but again, PA constantly running only to serve as a volume control never bothered me before (it doesn’t lock devices or anything).
“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”
Not here. Besides, even if it does open one of my devices for playback, I still have 2 other ALSA playback devices free. And, before you ask, PA doesn’t come pre-enabled with the option to play on all the sound cards at the same time. It can only lock one at a time.
I fully understand the move to PA since Linux distributions are forcing it on users. I also get that for many non-technical people the sole existence of the options dialog is a disturbance. OK – disable the “sound devices” completely for them. But PLEASE, give me a command-line option to go back to ALSA.
===================== WORK-AROUND =====================
set PULSE_SERVER to 127.0.0.1 and run Skype. PulseAudio doesn’t listen on TCP by default, so 127.0.0.1 is a good choice for most users – it will get an instant connection refusal and fallback to ALSA.
You can also add a shortcut in GNOME to do this instead of using the command line. Drag-copy Skype to your panel, then in its preferences use a command:
/bin/sh -c “PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 skype”
Probably worth noting in some FAQ/HOWTO. This is much better option than uninstalling PA completely.
Now if only the ringing speaker worked when set to anything other than the device used for calls… http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=411431&view=findpost&p=1898451 contains a work-around for ringing. Not the same, but somewhat helpful.
Oh, and BTW, thanks for the great video quality in this version. That’s the reason I don’t want to go back to 2.0.0.72
Should I assume Skype for linux does not support WMM/802.11e ?
I apologize for my double post above, don’t know what happened with my browser.
Does the upgrade from 2.0 to 2.1 delete chat history? And is there any way to backup these history files? Thank you.
@ jcrcarter Upgrade does not touch history. You can backup your ~/.Skype/ directory to have chat history backup.
@ olujicz There’s style selection in skype that will be enabled in the next release. It will also use your desktop style by default now.
@ ook4mi To answer your question I need vendor and model of the camera, as well as graphics card model.
What is going on? Today is 28.October and it is exactly 2 Months after skype 2.1 Beta release. Were there no problems found? Still mixing 32 and 64 bit libraries? We have for example in Debian PulseAudio version 0.9.19 now.
What is JIRA devZone? I found there for example
https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCL-520
and it looks very interesting – Calling and ringing is going to different soundcards.
How can I disable the tray icon ?
I found another bug.
System: 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10
When ever I call someone with a web cam, the video window becomes transparent. I have checked that my window manager (compiz-fuzion) is not making it that way, and even tried switching window managers, and it appears to be Skype’s problem.
And, 2 months is a long time for only one beta..
hi berkus thank for the info
DOES IT NOT strike skype as a company that this info “Just install padevchooser package”
should be placed on thedownload page FOR ALL TO SEE
otherwise NOTHING works on 9.10
please add info to download page if possible
shantiq please leave message on my skype page if you can
Hi,
P4 Intel 3Ghz with new ATI Grapics card & proprietary driver (as supplied by Ubuntu).
On my old(er) Ubuntu 9.04 set-up with Skype 2.0 from the repos the sound worked but as soon and I could see incoming video but as soon as I enabled outgoing video I lost outgoing sound & incoming video froze.
I removed Skype2.0 & downloaded 2.1. This would not work for me because I couldn’t set it to my webcam – everything in the set-up showed as “Pulse”.
I note the advice given to install “padevchooser” but before I could try it Ubuntu 9.10 came out and I did a clean install of that, installed the various “restricted-extras” and after adjusting the volume of my Technika Webcam/mic via the sound preferences in 9.10 (it detected the Technika) everything worked!
The only thing is the pic-in-pic view where the inset video (sitting bottom right) within the video-in picture blurrs/distorts the part of the incoming video in a band to the right of it.
A fix for this would leave everything working pretty much perfectly.
Thanks
Please at least or finally make this product usable for 64bit users.
Nothig more
Is it possible with pulseaudio to select a sound device for events and an other for voice?
Thanx!
@jmlapointe Sure, but not in the released version yet The next version which is due out very soon will allow you to do that.
Great! Thanx!
My video used to work flawlessly on Skype – but all I get is green hash on the screen with Ubuntu 9.10 Any hints?
My video used to work flawlessly on Skype – but all I get is green hash on the screen with Ubuntu 9.10 Any hints?
An other question,
Is it normal that now that I’m on 2.1 beta in Ubuntu 9.10 wich uses 0.9.19, there is now a delay in my voice when I talk in Skype.
Thanx!
Sorry, I meant PulseAudio 0.9.19
I install Skype 2.1.0.47 on Ubuntu 9.10 but the font of my list is not clear. I want to change to another font. How can I do it ? Somebody help me, pls. Thanks !
@Berkus
I am glad to report that skype 2.1 beta works well with Ubuntu 9.10 using the default pulseadio 0.9.19. There are however two issues that severely limit the functionality of Skype. There is no call waiting and you cannot specify a separate device for ringing. I guess they are both well known problems by now but I am wondering if there is plan to provide fixes and when.
Keep up the good work and congratulations to Skype for choosing to release the product on open source
@Berkus
Hello, I’ve been using the new beta from the day it has been rolled out, and it worked almost flawlessly. But now I’m encountering two problems.
* In big public chats, when I’m off-line for long period many messages get generated by other participants, and when I come online they, of course, are downloaded – but, beta crashes almost immediately.
So I have to run old version (2.0.0.72) to download those messages, quit it, and only then I can use the new version. That’s annoying, but okay (after I’ve figured out this workaround).
* The real problem with this new version is – I can’t change keyboard layout!
Strange, but this problem appeared several days ago and only on my home machine (Debian Lenny amd64) I can’t remember fiddling with anything that can be connected to this issue.
The KDE Keyboard Tool applet indicates layout change, but in Skype chat and contact list latin symbols (from US International layout) are typed – does not matter whatever keyboard layout is activated at the moment. All other qt4, KDE4, qt3 and KDE3 apps work as they should.
Second interesting part is that my home and work computers have identical configuration except of some hardware (video card, CPU). At work I also have Debian Lenny amd64 arch.
The latter problem is very, VERY annoying, because when I type in Russian, I have to type in some other program – like kwrite, or even KDE launch dialog – then cut and paste into skype chat…
Thank you for your time.
With respect,
Alexandr.
I’m experiencing some huge resource problems with the 2.1 release on Ubuntu 9.10 on conference calls. This worked flawlessly in the previous Linux version on 8.10. It seems that Skype can take up to 50% CPU on a dual core Dell machine, and in the same time create one/two seconds of delay on the line. How come? This makes Skype really unusable for me. Else, much better now with letting the user select which input/output device to use by using the sound preferences in Linux. However, could be nice if the ringing could be heard on standard PC speaker while voice could be heard on the headset, dunno how to realize that one though….
Hege
Everything works perfect for me, but (there always is one) video.
People can see me, but whenever they their they camera on the call window get kinda of transparent, and no video at all..
any suggestions?
Hi,
I’ve just upgraded my Skype installation to the 2.1.0.47 version on my Ubuntu 9.10×64 machine. I’m appalled at the lack of facilities in the sound set up. Skype has never been good on Ubuntu and this version is the worst. I can’t route any sound at all to the USB headset. I installed padevchooser but that does not give me the control I need, which is to have all sounds except Skype calls routed to the main sound card speakers. I now have a lot of credit with Skype that I can’t use. I’m VERY annoyed and wish to express this to the company. I use Skype for business, it’s not a toy, so please stop messing about with it!
Could you please explain in detail HOW to get the avatars working?
All you said was…
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
You assume people know what you’re talking about… How about a bit of detail – like HOW one does this?
Hello,
I am very confused…
I just received my USB VOIP SKYPE to RJ11 Home/Cordless Phone Adapter B2K Yealink Telbox yesterday, so I tried to use it under Ubuntu 9.10 and 9.04; for both the result is the same: the sound is coming out only from the speakers, not from the DECT phone plugged on the box. From the phone I can dial a number but I cannot speak and hear anything. But I am not very suprised because on the sound preference of skype I cannot choose the VOIP USB in the menu for the speakers and microphone. I can only choose my internal audio card (Pulse Audio Server (local)).
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel – HDA Intel HDA Intel at 0xe1280000 irq 16 1 [default ]: USB-Audio – VOIP USB Phone
Yealink Network Technology Ltd. VOIP USB Phone
I tried to disable auto-spawn, edit or create the file ~/.pulse/client.conf and add a line containing “autospawn = no”: sound still coming fron my speaker.
I tried also to set up pulse audio: Default source , I choose other and put alsa_output.usb-Yealink_Network_Technology_Ltd._VOIP_USB_Phone-00.analog-mono.
Default Sink I choose other and put alsa_input.usb-Yealink_Network_Technology_Ltd._VOIP_USB_Phone-00.analog-mono.
The result is the same: sound coming out from speaker.
Any help please, I really would like to make this box working. Thanks in advance!
Hi again,
I just solved my problem, by creating a file named asoundrc in my home folder and adding the following lines:
pcm.skypeout
{
type plug
slave.pcm « dmix »
}
ctl.skypeout
{
type hw
card 0
}
pcm.skypein
{
type plug
slave.pcm « input »
}
ctl.skypein
{
type hw
card 0
}
And it works!
Hopes that it can help some people.
Regards,
@scott.onanski You could post this question on the forum and guys will be happy to explain any missing details.
Is there an rss feed for 64bit ETA?
@macabro22 Yes, here: http://np.madfire.net/feed/64bit/atom.xml
edited link
Well, I actually got the beta to at least come up without using Pulse with the PULSE_SERVER= hack. But….
The dmix device that the old skype was able to use for playing ringing sounds no longer works. No other device works for ringing, either. This PC has 4 distinct sound cards, and the only one ringing ever works on it the one I use for audio. It seems that it wants to have all output directed to one device only in ALSA mode. That just won’t do!
And, in fact, I would LOVE to use a MIX of pulse and non-pulse devices. My headset is not a pulse device, pulse is specifically forbidden to grab it by configuration.
I’d like to have ringing through pulse, and the headset through ALSA. Alas, Skype, in their infinite wisdom, have decreed that such configurations shall not be made possible.
I will therefore eagerly await the open source version, where I can hack out that braindead restriction!
@melanie_t It would be a lot more braindead to let skype try to open an alsa device, interfere with pulse and fail the worst way possible. Just upgrade to pulse 0.9.21 and let it manage all your devices, it works much better this way.
Oh, and thanks for insulting me.