skype/plasma puzzle

[pwabrahams]

I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 on two different machines. On each of them I have skype 2.1.0.81-1ubuntu5 installed. On one of them, starting Skype causes a small icon to appear in the panel at the bottom of the screen, as it should. But in the other one, the icon does not appear and there's no way to access Skype. Since the Skype version is the same on both machines, I wonder if the difference might be related to something in the plasma configuration. Any guesses as to what might account for the difference, and how I can get the icon to appear on the machine where it now does not appear?

The one difference between the installations that I can think of is that the one that has the icon was installed from scratch, while the other one is the end result of a long series of upgrades.

[GreyGeek]

Re: skype/plasma puzzle

On the one that doesn't work:
1) uninstall
2) sudo apt-get autoremove
3) reboot
4) install Skype.

If that doesn't work then I'd do steps 1 to 3 again, then go out to the Skype website and download the debian version for Ubuntu 8.4+ or higher (either 32 or 64 bit version as needed) and use gdebi to install it.

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-32
http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-64

or, to avoid missing or conflicted libraries you can install the static binary:

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-static

[pwabrahams]

Re: skype/plasma puzzle

I tried the steps you suggested, but it made no difference. I think the reason is that plasma is somehow involved in all this -- either a system call within skype that doesn't work with something in my installed plasma, or possibly a plasma or panel configuration setting that's incompatible with skype.

I haven't heard of anyone else with this problem, which in itself may be useful information as to the cause.
And that's consistent with the fact that skype works properly on my other system.

[pwabrahams]

The problem is in .kde

Progress!! By relocating .kde temporarily, I determined that the problem lies somewhere within .kde, since with the default .kde I get the little symbol in the panel. (Actually, I get a slightly different symbol -- it's not blue -- but it does the right thing.) Any ideas on how I can isolate which part of .kde needs to be changed? There's a lot of stuff in .kde.

[ubuntuku]

Re: skype/plasma puzzle

You can try removing the following files located in ~/.kde/share/config:
plasma-appletsrc
plasma-desktop-appletsrc
plasma-desktoprc
plasmarc

then restart plasma:

kquitapp plasma-desktop
plasma-desktop