Skype

[tomp01]

I have just upgraded to 12.04 from 11.10 and miracles do happen. Skype is finally working again! Of course I had to turn up the volume on the USB microphone but that's just a minor quibble.

[Qqmike]

That's an encouraging note, tomp01! A[nother] motivator to implement 12.04. Thanks for the info.

[tomp01]

That's an encouraging note, tomp01! A[nother] motivator to implement 12.04. Thanks for the info.

One other thing though, Skype still has a tendency to crash several times before finally working. That's not specific to Kubuntu as it happens in KDE Mint 12 and Zorin OS 5.2 as well. It would be nice if somebody could explain why that is. I should also say that I was prompted for an upgrade so you ought to see the same thing.

[Qqmike]

Interesting. Frankly, I have no experience with Skype but have an important need (actually, a few needs) to get on-board with it soon (like yesterday). I still use 8.04.3 because it works flawlessly for me, for what I do and have intended to upgrade (finally) to 12.04, mainly to do Skype. I think I need to get on the stick, install a quick instance of 12.04 on some partition, and try to run Skype. Been procrastinating! Thanks for your input re your experience with it.

[GreyGeek]

Skype is working well in Precise for me also.

[Powerbob]

Skype is working well in Precise for me also.

+1 for me as well

[GreyGeek]

I forgot to add (with my mind in its current condition I am lucky to remember) that I improved its audio performance signficiantly by removing pulseaudio and all of its subsidiary programs (which didn't ask to remove my desktop) and using KMixer. All of the sliders that used to show up on KMixer came back, including the elusive "Digital" slider. and my volume on Skype was louder, and fuller.

[tomp01]

Does anybody know why you have to unmute the microphone, this has been a perennial bug for several years now?

[GreyGeek]

Does anybody know why you have to unmute the microphone, this has been a perennial bug for several years now?

mmm... I have never experienced that "bug" on any version of Kubuntu I've used, nor on Mandirva, orPCLinuxOS.

I just checked Sype's options and could not find any that muted or unmuted the microphone, and the mic mute button on the video panel has never come up muted.

And, I could not find any mic settings in ~/.Skype/ config.xml or other files. Is your sound mixer pre-set to mute the mic?

[tomp01]

mmm... I have never experienced that "bug" on any version of Kubuntu I've used, nor on Mandirva, orPCLinuxOS.

I just checked Sype's options and could not find any that muted or unmuted the microphone, and the mic mute button on the video panel has never come up muted.

And, I could not find any mic settings in ~/.Skype/ config.xml or other files. Is your sound mixer pre-set to mute the mic?

The sound is muted in KDE not Skype, do you use a USB mike? This is a well known problem that I've seen in Kubuntu, KDE mint and Mepis.

I don't suppose you know why Skype tends to crash several time before it stays up? That bug has also been around for many moons and distros.

[GreyGeek]

...I don't suppose you know why Skype tends to crash several time before it stays up? That bug has also been around for many moons and distros.

That is a problem I have seen.

When I first installed Skype it crashed two or three times before it would stay up.
After some updates of the i32lib library files the crashing ceased, but the cure could have been other files I didn't notice or didn't know would affect Skype.

~$ apt-cache rdepends skype
Reverse Depends:
skype-bin:i386
skype-bin:i386
skype:i386
jerry@jerry-Aspire-7739:~$ apt-cache depends skype
skype
Depends: <skype-bin>
skype-bin:i386
Conflicts: skype:i386
:~$

When I check with Muon I find that both 'skype' and 'skype-bin (i386)' are installed on my box. skype depends on skype-bin. skype is the 64b version, skype:i386 is the 32 bit version. It looks to me like the 64b version of skype is just a wrapper around the 32b version.


It could be a problem with /etc/dbus-1/system.d/skype.conf punching through the D-BUS security, which could mean that your dbus system is flaky:

<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN" "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>
<!-- ../system.conf have denied everything, so we just punch some holes -->
<policy context="default">
<allow own="com.Skype.API"/>
<allow send_destination="com.Skype.API"/>
<allow receive_sender="com.Skype.API"/>
<allow send_path="/com/Skype"/>
</policy>
</busconfig>

Anyway, perhaps an update will solve that crashing problem as well, as it did on mine.

[tomp01]

One further observation, I removed Pulse Audio from my Linux Mint KDE 12 install and set the sound device to AK5370 USB audio device and the mike now works. En passant, the Skype crashing problem which also used to happen in Mint has apparently gone away.

[marco07]

One further observation, I removed Pulse Audio from my Linux Mint KDE 12 install and set the sound device to AK5370 USB audio device and the mike now works. En passant, the Skype crashing problem which also used to happen in Mint has apparently gone away.

Hello Folks:
Could you please elaborate which pulse Audio packages needs to be removed? In my case, my webcam's mic is not picked up by skype. I get a message that I have pulse audio available and evidently it wants me to change it. I searched for pulse audio in moun and got a number of packages listed out. I could not decide which one to remove. BTW, I am using Kubuntu 12.04 fully updated and performing very well.
Thanks in advance!

[GreyGeek]

I searched for "pulseaudio" and then selected "purge" for each installed pulse component, EXCEPT for those which wanted to remove part or all of my KDE desktop.

[marco07]

I searched for "pulseaudio" and then selected "purge" for each installed pulse component, EXCEPT for those which wanted to remove part or all of my KDE desktop.

Thank You! It helped.
I just removed the very first one on the installed list. I believe it was pulseaudio-utils, then I tested skype and it was now OK picking up my webcam mic. I did not remove anything else since all was working well.