Skype

[GreyGeek]

When I installed Skype on this 12.04 PulseAudo would not let me raise the mic volume high enough to be heard without going into a feedback squeal, even when Skype was controlling the volume on the mic. When I removed PulseAudio my volume came back to normal and Skype controlled it normally. The only proviso was that the Capture button had to be checked and its slider set to above 80 or so. If I unplug my headset/mic the internal mic and speakers take over automatically, and the reverse is also true.

[claydoh]

Before I remove Pulseaudio-utils, as I mentioned above, I did as claydoh, i. e., in phnoun settings I gave preference to my Logitec webcam mic, but still it did not reconized my mic, though everthing else including video was working well. But by removing pulseaudio-utils I got the option of selecting my mic in the skype settings page. Prior to removal, skype settings page gave me only one choice for selecting mic and that was pulseaudio.

Skype not recognizing the mic, or Phonon? I completely ignored the settings in Skype, as the only choice is pulseaudio. I did a couple of test calls to make sure I had the priorities set the way I wanted in the right sub-category in Phonon and was good to go in mere minutes.

I guess I am just lucky these days hardware-wise.

[marco07]

This is what PulseAudio is supposed to do -- take care of dynamically changing audio situations. I suspect you wouldn't achieve this without PA. I don't use Skype, so I can't check; alas, the only voice-ish thing I run is Twinke to access my employer's VoIP. Twikle is old (Qt3) and appears not to integrate with PA correctly -- it wants to talk directly to the audio hardware.

Before I remove Pulseaudio-utils, as I mentioned above, I did as claydoh, i. e., in phnoun settings I gave preference to my Logitec webcam mic, but still it did not reconized my mic, though everthing else including video was working well. But by removing pulseaudio-utils I got the option of selecting my mic in the skype settings page. Prior to removal, skype settings page gave me only one choice for selecting mic and that was pulseaudio.

[SteveRiley]

I can unplug my headset during a call and it switches to the webcam mic if it is plugged in, and switches to the internal speaker, else it uses the laptop's mic if I unplug the webcam.

This is what PulseAudio is supposed to do -- take care of dynamically changing audio situations. I suspect you wouldn't achieve this without PA. I don't use Skype, so I can't check; alas, the only voice-ish thing I run is Twinke to access my employer's VoIP. Twikle is old (Qt3) and appears not to integrate with PA correctly -- it wants to talk directly to the audio hardware.

[claydoh]

I just moved back to Skype after a period of running Yahoo messenger on my ancient laptop. Video quality on the Y was terrible, and caused the ancient hardware to overheat sometimes. My lovely redhead Aussie had pity on the old lappy and we agreed to give Skype a run so I could use my newer Kubuntu system.

My install and setup was quite uneventful. I used Muon to install it, and the only configuration I did was to use Phonon's settings to give first preference my Plantronics usb headset and mic in a couple of places, followed by my Logitech HD webcam's mic as secondary mic preference, and then my laptop mic as third. I can unplug my headset during a call and it switches to the webcam mic if it is plugged in, and switches to the internal speaker, else it uses the laptop's mic if I unplug the webcam. All my notification sounds go through the laptop speakers. I have not messed with or removed Pulseaudio, and don't even fiddle with Kmix or Veromix. As Skype's ringtone is a notification sound, I hear that through the speakers regardless, which is much better than it going through the headset and me missing a call as I usually have my headset plugged in to my laptop dock since I use it every day (redheaded Aussie ).

[GreyGeek]

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.

No, I use a headset that plugs into the mic and speak jacks. I forgot to mention that since I removed PulseAudio any time my Skype mic input is low, even with the KMixer mic slide at near the top, when I slide the "Capture" button up to 80 or 90% I get my mic volume back. (It has to be checked as well).

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.

When I was running a 32 bit system (before 10.04) Skype never crashed on me when I started it up. BUT, with the 64bit version of Kubuntu 10.04, and for a couple months of the 12.04 alpha-beta, Skype would crash once or twice before it would stay in my system tray. I believe it is because of the fact that Skype is written in 32 bit code which wrapped to run on a 64bit platform. However, about a month before 12.04 was released updates stabilized Skype on my box. It runs without problems.

I am gradually moving over to Google Voice+. I have switched to Chromium and with it I don't have browser upgrades breaking Voice and requiring a re-install. Plus, Google Voice is offering screen sharing, along with everyone in a hangout sharing a youtube or other video. Screen sharing was THE major reason why I was using Skype. It made assisting new Linux users who are not within commuting distance easier to help. I can watch their mouse move and direct it to the proper button or what ever. Also, I can paste Konsole commands into the chat box. Now that Google offers that capability I don't need Skype. Just as well. As I said before, I doubt that MS will make any efforts to improve the Linux version at all.

[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.

[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]

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!

[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.

[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]

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]

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]

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

[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.