Skype webcam test stopped working - 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem?

[pwabrahams]

I had the webcam test in Skype working a few weeks ago, but now it doesn't work. I update my system faithfully, so the problem is almost certainly caused by a recent update. Now, when I click on the Test button in Options/Video, nothing happens. If I click on it repeatedly, I get an all-grey screen that I can clear with Esc.

I suspect some problem with 64-bit vs. 32-bit software, but I'm not sure. Following a suggestion in another thread, I attempted to preload v4l1compat.so, but got this:

pwa@Asus-laptop:/usr/share/guile/1.8$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype
ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.

I have two different cameras hooked up now. Both work in cheese and neither works in skype, so the problem is unlikely to be with the camera itself.

Ideas, anyone?

Update: there seem to be two places where v4l1compat.so is to be found: the path cited above and the same path with /usr/lib replaced by usr/lib32. If I use the copy in lib32, I get a segfault when I try to test the webcam.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Skype webcam test stopped working - 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem?

Not that it helps you at this point, but I've had no trouble using my Logitech C200 with 64bit and Skype.

Have you tried un-installing all the camera drivers and skype/cheese, renaming your .skype and .gconf/apps/cheese folders (to hide your current settings) and re-installing?

[pwabrahams]

uninstall still misses something

I tried doing a complete uninstall of skype (including config files) via Synaptic and then reinstalling it. I even did locate skype to catch anything I might have missed (after updatedb). Still, when I reinstalled skype and started it up, it somehow remembered my identity! Any idea how to catch what's still left, other than reinstalling Kubuntu itself?

As to the camera drivers, aren't those in the kernel?

[ubuntuku]

Re: Skype webcam test stopped working - 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem?

locate Skype :

rm -r ~/.Skype

[pwabrahams]

Not just one machine

Thanks for the suggestion on .Skype -- that did get rid of the login history. But it didn't help solve the real problem.

I tried Skype on another machine also running Kubuntu 10.10. Different hardware, different history (it started with a fresh install of 10.10), different webcam. And the same problem! I'll probably try running it from a virtual machine with a fresh install and an immediate invocation of Skype, but I'm not very optimistic.

Where do you report bugs like this? I don't think Ubuntubugs handles it since skype doesn't come from the Kubuntu project. I've tried contacting skype.com, but all they can suggest is reinstalling Skype from the website -- which helps not a bit. The only version they have is a two-year-old beta, and the Windows version won't run at all in a virtual machine under VirtualBox.

The two clues I have is that the problem arose only after an update (or several), and that there are both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of lib4l installed. I can't remove the 32-bit version because there are too many packages dependent on it.

[ubuntuku]

Re: Skype webcam test stopped working - 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem?

The following link might be useful: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SkypeWebCams

[pwabrahams]

Webcam probably not the problem

The following link might be useful: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SkypeWebCams

I now have two webcams attached for testing purposes: the built-in one and an external one. The external one is on that list (Pluscom 8MP Webcam (UC480-2), code 1e4e:0100) -- and it works no better than the internal one. Skype recognizes them -- they're listed on the video test page. It even turns on the built-in one, since the light on my laptop comes on when I press the Test button. But no image.

The biggest clue I have now is that a few weeks ago the video test was working, so almost certainly it was killed by a recent update, possibly to libv4l. I've tried both the repository version of Skype and the one from skype.com, with identical results. Cheese and xawtv both work fine. So there must be something wrong in the dependent packages. But what?

[pwabrahams]

Defective update to libv4l, I think

The lib4vl package was updated at Launchpad on January 27. I think that date is the dividing line between when Skype video worked for me and when it didn't. How can I obtain the prior version of libv4l to check this out? I tried using Force Version in Synaptic, but it gave me an error when I attempted to update libv4l.

[ubuntuku]

Re: Skype webcam test stopped working - 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem?

You can try libv4l from this ppa: https://launchpad.net/~libv4l/+archive/ppa

[pwabrahams]

Re: Skype webcam test stopped working - 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem?

You can try libv4l from this ppa: https://launchpad.net/~libv4l/+archive/ppa

I went there, but it had the same versions I had already installed. It had a list of versions, including the earlier ones, on the right side of the page, but there was no way to retrieve them -- clicking on them did nothing.

[ubuntuku]

Re: Skype webcam test stopped working - 64-bit vs. 32-bit problem?

Huh .. click View Package Details - click the link below Completed Builds xx succesfull. Here ya go:
https://launchpad.net/~libv4l/+archi...ld_state=built

[pwabrahams]

Working with a clean system solved it

I finally gave up on determining the source of my Skype video problems. So I created a clean Kubuntu 10.10 system in another partition -- and in that system, the Skype video test works. As a further test, I created another user in the first system -- and that other user had the problem also. So the problem does not lie in any of the per-user files.

Now I have to figure out how to reinitialize my system without losing the customizations I care about. And just preserving /home isn't sufficient.