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Raul Liive
Today is the day.
I'm glad to write to you about Skype 2.2 beta for Linux. The major new features of the Skype 2.2 for Linux are:
- Skype Access
- Support for call waiting and holding
- Improved audio/video quality in calls
We recommend to all our Linux users to
upgrade to this version. Start
downloading it now. Though please remember that this is a beta version, which means that it has a few known glitches in.
Please let us know what you think about this release by discussing matters on our
forum - and in case anything unexpected should happen, please let us know by raising an issue report on our
public issue tracker.
The new features and improvements:
Skype Access
Skype Access is a nifty addition to Skype which lets you connect to paid WiFi hotspots around the globe easily and to pay for them with Skype credits. No need to hassle with credit cards or subscriptions - and you pay by minute, so you will pay for the time you actually use the service and you don't need to buy a voucher for a full hour in case you just want to make a 5 minute Skype call or send a few emails.
Support for call waiting and holding
Skype for Linux now supports call waiting and holding. It's especially good if you are hosting a conference calls and people are calling in. In addition we have also included a support for
easy conference call hosting.
Improved audio/video quality on calls
We have updated the underlying libraries to the newest version available, which should enhance audio and video call quality and reliability.
In addition to these bigger changes we have introduce numerous small improvements and bug fixes.
The full release notes for Skype 2.2.0.25 are:
Features:
* feature: Skype Access.
* feature: Support for call waiting and holding.
* feature: Improved audio/video quality on calls.
Improvements:
| Category | Description |
| Account creation | Improve advice on the account creation password error messages. |
| Add contacts | Add Search again button and make search user dialog more user-friendly. |
| Calling | Don't play ringing out sound on a conference call. |
| Calling | Easy Conference calling support via Skype links |
| Calling | Add a contact to call via drag and drop |
| Contact list | Add possibility to drag and drop multiple contacts to a contact group. |
| Hotkeys | Add "Full screen video" keyboard shortcut. |
| Instant Messaging | Add call button to chat window. |
| Instant Messaging | Improved quote message usability. |
| Instant Messaging | Add 'Last 6 Months' and 'Last Year' under chat history dropdown. |
| Misc | Quick online status changing possibility from tray icon. |
| Options | Support for multiple text sender IDs under SMS options. |
| Options | Add small label next to Sound Setup instructing users that PulseAudio settings are held outside of Skype. |
| Profile | Added start/stop Screen sharing button to contact card. |
| Profile | Add Last Seen item in profile viewer. |
| Send contacts | Add possibility to send contacts via drag and drop on the contact list. |
| Video | Dynamic update video devices list when it changes. |
| Video | Support for receiving differing aspect video correctly both in window and fullscreen |
| Call Phones | Country selector is now more user friendly. |
| Instant Messaging | Improved IM selection and copy functionality. |
| Options | Improved SMS sender number verification. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Desktop setting style is now the default one for new clean profiles. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Improve experience when using Oxygen style. |
Known issues:
| Category | Description | Workaround |
| Installation | Skype fails to be installed on Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 | Visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/712377 for the suggested fix. |
| General | Logging out and then in, intermittently causes Skype to crash | None available |
| General | On Debian amd64 version Skype crashes on startup with the message: "Inconsistency detected by ld.so: dl-open.c: 623: \_dl_open: Assertion `_dl_debug_initialize (0, args.nsid)->r_state == RT_CONSISTENT' failed\!" | This seems to be Debian only issue with 32 bit PulseAudio libraries being installed even if PulseAudio is not active, a workaround can be:
- Debian Lenny: sudo chmod a-r /usr/lib32/libpulse{-simple.so.0.0.1,.so.0.4.1}
- Debian Squeeze: sudo chmod a-r /usr/lib32/libpulse{-simple.so.0.0.2,.so.0.8.0,common-0.9.15.so} |
| General | On some amd64 distributions avatars are not showing, this is a problem with 32-bits emulation Qt library. Qt tries to find its image format plugins, but finds a 64-bits version instead and fails to load it. | A workaround is to specify a plugin path when launching skype like this:
- Ubuntu 64 bit: install ""ia32-libs"" package and launch Skype with: QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib32/qt4/plugins skype
- Arch 64 bit (with 32 bit chroot installed in /opt/arch32): QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/opt/arch32/usr/lib/qt/plugins skype
- Other distributions might have a different path. |
| Options | When PulseAudio is enabled in the audio settings, only that specific entry will be available. | To change PulseAudio settings, use the PulseAudio manager tool that is bundled with your distribution. |
| Video | Your video capture might show seldomly green, scrambled or black image. | Please install one additional package which might solve your problem:
- Ubuntu 32 bit: install ""libv4l-0"" package and launch Skype with: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l2convert.so skype
- Ubuntu 64 bit: install ""lib32v4l-0"" package and launch Skype with: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l2convert.so skype
- Other distributions might have the same library, but may have a different path. |
| Video | Webcam problems when trying to send video from a Logitech camera and/or the error message 'Failed to query UVC control' in the console and syslog. | Visit [http://www.quickcamteam.net/documentation/faq/logitech-webcam-linux-usb-incompatibilities] for the suggested fix. |
| Video | How to make video working on Logitech Quickcam Messenger [0x046d:0x08f0] | Visit for suggested workarounds:
- http://www.kuhrti.de/index.php/linux/logitech-quickcam-messenger-on-linux/
- http://www.kuhrti.de/index.php/article/logitech-quickcam-messenger-on-ubuntu-9-04/ |
Bugfixes:
| Category | Description |
| Calls | Call transfer did not work |
| Calls | Call windows showed sometimes undisclosed_pstn xxxx for caller. |
| Calls | Video was not restarted always when switching from screensharing to video. |
| Calls | Myself preview was not rendered if user did not have XVideo support. |
| Calls | Myself video was not displayed correctly after remote user stopped sending his/her own video under fullscreen. |
| Calls | Call window was not properly updated when call was autoanswered. |
| Contact List | SkypeOut contact would disappear from groups after renaming. |
| Contact List | Infrequent UI rendering issue when using quickfilter when contact groups were enabled. |
| Crashes | Crash when clicking Apply button in SMS/Call Forwarding tab on options. |
| Crashes | Crash when opening options while signing-in. |
| Crashes | Crash when adding an incoming call to conference. |
| Events | Pressing enter on a birthday event did not open an IM. |
| Events | Unwanted missed call event when declining incoming call. |
| Events | There were no default text for outgoing authorization requests. |
| Events | Incoming new chat event closed the myself and my services areas. |
| Events | Skype played a notification sound when message was received on active conversation. |
| Events | Open receiving directory option was incorrectly displayed for pending incoming file transfers. |
| Events | Sometimes authorization events were not cleared after clicking on them. |
| Instant Messaging | On some distributions mouse cursor did not change while hovering on top of chat links. |
| Instant Messaging | Returning from fullscreen didn't correctly resume video. |
| Instant Messaging | Chat participants text size was too narrow when a small system font was in use. |
| Instant Messaging | The date separator was missing on chat events. |
| Instant Messaging | Editing multiple messages concatenated them in edit box. |
| Instant Messaging | The conversation view scrolled when adding a person to a conversation. |
| Instant Messaging | Typing indicator was cropped when a small font is in use. |
| Instant Messaging | Instant Messages on group conversations were sometimes wrongly ordered when messages were delivered with a delay. |
| Instant Messaging | Edit and Remove message options were too close. |
| Options | Test video button was enabled even if there weren't any supported webcams connected. |
| Options | No video devices found error message was not displayed correctly. |
| Options | When changing a default directory for received files, Skype sometimes asked for permission to overwrite a file. |
| Options | Video preview froze when saving video options. |
| Packages | Fix dependencies list in SUSE and Fedora rpms. |
| SMS | SMS message cost was shown incorrectly after first SMS was sent. |
| SMS | Invalid numbers could lead to empty SMS windows. |
| SMS | SMS input area was not automatically cutting pasted text if it was too long. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Some dialogs were not automatically closed on user signout. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Contact card's label was wrongly set in some cases. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Newly added contacts were not found by quickfilter. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Skype showed 0 byte size for incoming files bigger than 2 GB. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | "More emails" button under edit own profile did not always work correctly. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Invalid Phone number label error was displayed after opening Phone contact profile. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Start conference call dialog was not closed when pressing escape. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Show avatar' button was displayed on authorization dialog even if there was no avatar to show. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Editing own profile window was sometimes too narrow to accommodate scrollbar. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Sometimes incoming file transfer info was missing or inaccurate. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Start call option on contact card was mising after being removed from a conference call. |
| UI rendering/generic issues | Auto-accept file sending did not work when transfer window was closed while user status was Do Not Disturb. |
| Localization | Order Countries and Languages list in a locale aware manner. |
| Localization | Echo123's language depends on own profile's language and not from UI's language. |
Updated languages:
* Brazilian Portuguese (Fabio Roselet)
* Bulgarian (Nikolay Filipov & Nikolina Filipova)
* Estonian
* European Portuguese (Francisco Miguel Ferreira)
* French (Cédric Lamouche)
* German (Claudius Henrichs)
* Italian (Marco Cimmino)
* Japanese
* Korean
* Latvian
* Lithuanian (Viktoras Kriukovas)
* Polish (Karol Szastok)
* Romanian (Péter Henning & Monika Henning)
* Russian (Pavel Shevchuk)
* Simplified Chinese
* Spanish
* Thai
* Traditional Chinese
* Turkish (Ömer Emin Dede)
* Ukrainian (Oleh Nykyforchyn)