Installing Skype

by dcr226 — last modified Jun 19, 2011 08:10 PM

This howto covers setting up the skype repo and installing skype.

Applicable to Fedora Versions

Fedora 10-15 ( rpm )
Fedora 7 (rpm)
Fedora Core 5, 6 (rpm)

Requirements

A desire to use VoIP calling from your Fedora machine using the Skype network.

Doing the Work

All that needs to be done is setup the repo for skype. Skype has been nice enough to setup a yum repo so installing and staying updated is very easy.

1. Import or Download GPG Key

Download the GPG key and then export it to the expected place:

su -c "gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 0xD66B746E"
su -c "gpg -a -o /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-skype --export 0xD66B746E"

2. Setup Skype Repo

In this step, be sure to adjust for the version of Fedora you are using. In the example we list the most current repo which is for Fedora Core 5. This repo may also be used for Fedora Core 6 until skype releases a Fedora Core 6 rpm. Skype has not updated their software since FC5 - but they did rename it once. It has many bugs. Add the following to /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo:

You may also download the repo file here.

[skype]
name=Skype Repository
baseurl=http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/fedora/updates/i586/
#gpgkey=http://www.skype.com/products/skype/linux/rpm-public-key.asc
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-skype
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

3. Install Skype

Install skype with yum: (x86_64 bit arch requires the 32-bit versions of some libraries). The beta version appears to be unsigned. The repo version is signed, but older.

wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-fc10

# Fedora users:
yum install libXScrnSaver.i?86 libX11.i?86 libXv.i?86 libv4l.i?86 alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i?86 qt-x11.i?86;yum localinstall skype-*.rpm --nogpgcheck

4. Add alias to .bashrc

If you use another shell, substitute the appropriate startup command

 alias skype='LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype'

Troubleshooting

How to Use Skype

The install should add Skype to your "Internet" menu in gnome. You may also run the following command to start skype:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype

Common Problems and Fixes

If your webcam is not working, please make sure that you have preloaded the v4l1compat library. This can be done either by completeing step 4 or prepending the Skype menu item with the above LD_PRELOAD statement.

Currently there are no known issues. Check the skype support site for any issues with skype itself.

http://support.skype.com/

More Information

Any additional information or notes.

Disclaimer

We test this stuff on our own machines, really we do. But you may run into problems, if you do, come to #fedora on irc.freenode.net

Added Reading

Skype maintained repo listing http://skype.com/download/skype/linux/repositories.html
Skype Support http://support.skype.com/
Skype's (lack of) privacy policy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#Privacy
Fedora Talk - Free and Open alternative - http://talk.fedoraproject.org/usage

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