How to get Skype

[39otrebla]

Hi everyone. I switched from Ubuntu to Kubuntu 14.04 and eveything was really awesome until I did need to get Skype.

Here is what is happening:

install skype
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 skype : Depends: skype-bin
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

well, then...

install skype-bin
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 skype-bin:i386 : Depends: libqtwebkit4:i386 (>= 2.2~2011week36) but it is not going to be installed
                  Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Seems that Skype depends on Skype-bin, which depends on libqtwebkit4:i386 and libgl1-mesa-glx:i386

I then tried:

install libqtwebkit4:i386
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libqtwebkit4:i386 : Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 or
                              libgl1:i386
                              Depends: libqt4-opengl:i386 (>= 4:4.5.3) but it is not going to be installed

and even worse.....

install libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 : Depends: libudev1:i386 but it is not going to be installed or
                                 libudev0:i386 but it is not installable

So it seems that the most I can do is install libgl1:i386, but nothing more.
Well, I think this is a problem caused by the fact that Skype uses certain libraries that are used by KDE too (qt in general), but it uses a different version, hence the OS prevent me to install newer (or older, havent checked) versions of those libs (qt and mesa) to avoid potential KDE issues.

Well.. my question is.. does anyone have a solution? I need to get Skype Calls working on my laptop (so I can't use neither the Skype WebApp nor the Node-WebKit Unofficial client), otherwise I will obliged to switch back to Ubuntu (a real shame for me).

Thanks.
N.B. I have QT 5 core and tools libraries installed for development

[Rufus]

Hi,

for me this worked: downloading of the .deb file from Skype web site; running the install in kubuntu through installer.
skype works, no problems.

context: fresh kubuntu install, with the partition format and all.

On the other hand, maybe you should purge or autoremove (or such); also maybe apt-get update - from terminal, make sure there are no issues from that - please forgive may language, I am sort of a greenhorn in this coral... And after that try again.

Some tutorials can easily be found on searching the net. One example:

http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/...n-ubuntu-1404/

later edit: I roll with kubuntu 15.10 willy. May be relevant

[Qqmike]

Hmmm. I also use 14.04 as my main OS, and I use Skype (chat and video). I think you know more about this than I do, but I just used Muon Package Manager to install skype (whatever Skype was offered through the usual repositories to 14.04). (You can install Muon Package Manager using Muon Discover etc.).

Maybe repair your apt? Like this:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -f install

and then simply try Muon Package manager to see what happens?

[claydoh]

install skype
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 skype : Depends: skype-bin
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Is 'install' a bash alias for a custom command? If so, what is the command that is actually being run?
Have you run apt-get update beforehand?
What ppas do you have?

Can you try downloading skype directly from their website and installing that?
(Oops that may not be a good idea, updated client broken?- https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/dupli...r_linux_calls/)

[39otrebla]

Unfortunately, I still get the same errors. I really think these deps issues are caused by qt4 libraries that KDE uses to work or with qt5 libraries I use to develop.. I will continue search a solution, will let you know, Thank you for your interest anyway.

[39otrebla]

Is 'install' a bash alias for a custom command? If so, what is the command that is actually being run?
Have you run apt-get update beforehand?
What ppas do you have?

Can you try downloading skype directly from their website and installing that?
(Oops that may not be a good idea, updated client broken?- https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/dupli...r_linux_calls/)

install is an alias of sudo apt-get install. And yes, I've tried with both the skype/skype-bin package provided by ubuntu ppa and the official client released by Skype directly on their web site. Still no deal.

I've just found another user with the same issue, on Ubuntu though. It was an arch issue, he solved by running "sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386", but even with that I sill get the same issue...

[Teunis]

I have a fairly recent install of 14.04.4 and installed the deb from the MS site.

There are some packages that don't install using the Kubuntu's own app QApt but do install using GDebi.
GDebi is better at solving dependencies.