Skype 1.3.0.53 setup guide

[stoichyu]

It took me quite a while to setup Skype properly on my system so here's a guide to help set it up.

I use VL 5.8 RC2 and my soundcard is a builit in Intel ICH5 but it will probably work elsewhere.

By default, skype uses the "default" device on alsa, this resulted in an error in alsa's dmix plugin. AFAIK, the proper device for recording is plug:hw, but skype doesn't support choosing devices. So we need to create a new ALSA device whose playback dev is "default" and capture that is "plug:hw". To do this, we put the following in /etc/asound.conf

Code:

pcm.skype {
   type asym
   playback.pcm "default"
   capture.pcm "plug:hw"
}

We override this using skype_dsp_wrapper http://juljas.net/linux/skype/
Compile it with CFLAGS=-DHAVE_ALSA then put libskype_dsp_wrapper.so to the where skype is.

Then in your /usr/bin folder make a script named skype:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
cd <path to skype folder>
HIJACKALSA=default ALSADEV=skype LD_PRELOAD=./libskype_dsp_hijacker.so:/lib/libdl.so.2 ./skype

And then you're done. 

[MikeCindi]

Oddly enough I just unpacked it as directed on skype's website, created a desktop link and it worked fine for me (using VL 5.1.1 SOHO). I also have an intel sound chip (ICH4 variety). Perhaps there is something with 5.8rc2...I have rc1 loaded on another machine but will get rc2 this weekend and try out skype under the new release of VL.

[stoichyu]

I think it works in SOHO because KDE is used and KDE has it's own sound module but maybe I'm wrong. The error I got when running Skype without the above fix is with alsa's dmix plugin.

[MikeCindi]

Ahh, you're probably correct...KDE changes a lot of things doesn't it?