Skype HOWTO
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| This article has been reviewed! The content complies with community quality guidelines and is based on the approved Wiki Style Guidelines. Do not make major edit until it has been moved to the new wiki by the 'administrators'. Last changed: 19:26, 9 February 2010 (UTC) |
| This article is about getting skype to work in openSUSE. There is no denial that Skype has managed to create a cross-platform program with superb sound quality and firewall traversal capabilities. However, please note that skype is not free and open source software. |
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Installation
Preparation
For 32-bit installation of openSUSE
You will need at least these packages before installing skype.
For 64-bit installation of openSUSE
You will need the corresponding *-32bit RPM packages, since skype is only offered in 32-bit.
For 64-bit openSUSE-11.2
Package libqt4-x11-32bit is not available on the 11.2 installation media; you will have to add the "openSuSE-11.2-Standard" repository: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/11.2/standard. Starting YaST software management and searching for "qt4-x11" will list the needed package (libqt4-x11-32bit); select, install and continue as described below.
Installing skype
- Go to http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose/ and download the openSUSE RPM from the openSUSE 11+ section.
- If everything goes well, your web browser will start YaST to install this package.
When your web browser does not say that it can be opened with YaST (or with another package manager you are using as default), download the file and then open the file in your file browser by double clicking on it. YaST will be started to install this package.
- Alternatively, you can install the skype package by command line:
- After the installation, a menu entry will be created whereby you can launch skype:
- In Gnome it will appear under Internet->More Applications
- In KDE, skype appears under Internet -> More Programs
Configuration
Sign-in (or sign-up) and then make a test call to "echo123". Follow the instructions and it will record your voice and then play it back. Chances are that you will have to configure the microphone volume level. You do this through the Volume Control, available in Gnome at Multimedia->Volume Control->Volume Control or in KDE at Application -> Multimedia -> Sound Mixer
Privacy and security
A lot of people do not want to run skype because it tries to collect data from your system which it shouldn't do. It tries to read your Mozilla profile for whatever reason.
To avoid such things you can use AppArmor to protect your system.
Copy this apparmor profile to your /etc/apparmor.d/ directory to jail skype.
Skype has to be installed as RPM to make this work.
| On openSUSE 11.1 with this profile settings, skype may not work. The following message is displayed in console: "No protocol specified". |
Using high resolution with webcam
By default, skype only supports video with resolutions up to 320x240. If you have a good web cam (e.g. from Logitech, e.g. UVC_Webcams) which can do much more for you, here's how to configure skype to make use of it.
After you configured your web camera for use with skype, open ~/.Skype/SKYPENAME/config.xml with a text editor. (Replace SKYPENAME with you skype login name, ~ is short for your home directory.)
Search for the <Video> section. It probably only contains <AutoSend>1</AutoSend>.
Add three lines, so your <Video> section looks as follows:
<Video> <AutoSend>1</AutoSend> <CaptureHeight>480</CaptureHeight> <CaptureWidth>640</CaptureWidth> <Fps>15</Fps> </Video>
You can also set higher resolutions (800x600 or even 960x720) or higher frame rates if your camera supports that (and you have enough light to avoid getting completely noisy video). Note that the data rate and the CPU load increase and skype may scale back the resolution again.
Troubleshooting
If you are behind a proxy
If you use skype and are behind a proxy server or firewall, you may have problems connecting to the Skype network. Skype may not even start and will hang immediately.
Skype apparently reads the proxy settings from the Opera or Firefox configuration and reads the environment variables http_proxy and https_proxy.
These environment variables have the format:
http_proxy=myproxyname:myproxyport https_proxy=myproxyname:myproxyport http_user=myname http_passwd=mypwd export http_proxy https_proxy http_user http_passwd
Often myproxyport is 8080.
However, setting these does not always allow skype to connect correctly. (At least it didn't work for me). Skype seems to hang on the first login, and does not allow you to go any further.
If this happens for you as well, you may need to set a default gateway for your system:
# route add default gw proxy.ip.address
Note that proxy.ip.address need not be an actual network gateway; Skype just needs this setting.
Windows Workaround
There is another workaround that can be done:
1) Log into skype on a windows machine, using your skype name and password, and setting the proxy options. You can also do this with WINE and the windows version of skype if you are lucky enough not to have a Windows machine available
2) Copy the file "shared.xml" from the Windows machine or from WINE to the Linux skype version, using a command something like:
(you will have to change, <username> to match yours)
3) Start up skype, and hopefully it will start
ALSA microphone problem with some sound chips
Use command line tools (not GUI tools) to reset configuration and capure the microphone
alsamixer
On some platforms you will also need to enable "capture" in the mixer
Example
No microphone input to skype
When you have checked that the sound system is working, both microphone and speakers but skype, using the test call, does not play back your microphone input, you should change the Sound In setting in skype from Default device to another setting. This may solve this problem.
Webcam shows jitterish
On some systems openSUSE might have library loading problem and webcam doesn't show anything sensible. Try to use preload command when loading skype (works with kopete also)
Skype conflicts with pulseaudio
Starting with openSUSE 11.0 (With the exception of openSUSE 11.2 with KDE desktop) pulseaudio is shipped and enabled by default. Some users report problems with getting skype to work with pulseaudio enabled, mostly regarding no sound input/output, glitches in sound playback/recording and delays in audio transmission. If you experience any of these problems and suspect that it is due to pulseaudio, refer to Pulseaudio and Perfect Setup for proper configurations.
See also
External links
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This page was last modified on 9 February 2010, at 07:08. This page has been accessed 127,005 times.
