Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Skype video with Ubuntu 9.10

I had to reinstall Kubuntu, for a reason that I will write about later, so I needed to reinstall skype.  When I downloaded and tried  the 2.1 beta, I wasn't able to get video to work.

I was able to use the instructions on this page to get video working.  You need to launch skype with the following command line:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv41/vl1compat.so skype

4 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Thanks for this info. I'm totally new to the linux world. After my XP packed up, I just decided to give it a whirl, but I need Skype to talk to my parents and others who are unliklely to use anything else.

    So, I'm on Kubuntu 9.10 which I really, really like, but only just beginning to work out how to use.

    The LD_PRELOAD from the command line worked nicely (Quickcam connect).

    But , if you have time could you possibly indicate (for an absolute beginner) what it is I'd need to edit so I don't have to use the command line every time to open Skype?

    Many thanks
    Matt

    ReplyDelete
  2. What I did was rename the skype binary, and then replace create a script with the old name.

    For example,

    sudo mv /usr/bin/skype /usr/bin/skype.real
    cat > /usr/bin/skype <<EOF
    #!/bin/bash
    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv41/vl1compat.so skype
    EOF
    sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/skype

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the tip mate, worked like a charm!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice joke PWESTBRO !
    It is neverending loop, if your script is calling himself.
    The right comandis this:

    #!/bin/bash
    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype.real

    Bye !

    ReplyDelete

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