Skype on CentOS

1. Skype on CentOS-6

(This section is maintained by YvesBellefeuille.)

The Linux version of Skype 4 is available. However, there's no binary RPM for CentOS. You can install the static version by following these instructions. The instructions assume that you already have the packages included in a default Desktop installation:

[root@host]# yum groupinstall Desktop

The available generic Skype binaries are 32-bit, so if you're running a 64-bit system, you need to make sure you have various 32-bit libraries installed.

First, update the packages that are already installed:

[root@host]# yum update

Then, install the new packages you may need:

[root@host]# yum install glibc.i686 nss-softokn-freebl.i686 alsa-lib.i686 libXv.i686 \
libXScrnSaver.i686 libtiff.i686 glib2.i686 libSM.i686 libXrender.i686 fontconfig.i686

Some users have reported that they must also install the following packages for sound to work:

[root@host]# yum install pulseaudio-libs.i686 alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686

All these packages are in the Base and Updates repositories, which are enabled by default.

1.1. Installing Skype

Installing to /opt (modify as desired):

[root@host]# cd /tmp
[root@host]# ## wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-static  ## Use the following command for now instead
[root@host]# wget http://download.skype.com/linux/skype_static-4.0.0.8.tar.bz2
[root@host]# cd /opt
[root@host]# tar xjvf /tmp/skype_static-4.0.0.8.tar.bz2
[root@host]# rm /tmp/skype_static-4.0.0.8.tar.bz2
[root@host]# ln -s skype_staticQT-4.0.0.8 skype

You need to replace the version number to match the one downloaded. At the time of writing (September 2012), the latest version is 4.0.0.8.

Set up some symlinks (the first is required for sound to work; the second is needed to avoid the error "libtiff.so.4: cannot open shared object file"; the third is optional).

[root@host]# ln -s /opt/skype /usr/share/skype
[root@host]# ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3 /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4
[root@host]# ln -s /opt/skype/skype /usr/bin/skype

Note: Use "Sound Preferences" to select the correct input/output audio devices.

1.2. Skype video with CentOS x86_64

If you're running a 64-bit system and video doesn't work with Skype, install the 32-bit libv4l package:

[root@host]# yum install libv4l.i686

Then, to run Skype, load the 32-bit v4l1compat.so:

[user@host]$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /opt/skype/skype

1.3. Skype and NFS

If you're using NFS, see the comment from sipan_ dated 19 June at http://blogs.skype.com/linux/2012/06/skype_40_for_linux.html

1.4. Conflict between Skype and Wine

There's a conflict between Skype and Wine (more precisely, between Skype and pulseaudio-libs.i686, on which Wine depends).

This conflict has at least two consequences:

• Skype's sound quality is very poor.
• One cannot choose different devices for "Ringing" and "Speakers", for example loudspeakers for "Ringing" and a headset for "Speakers".

The work-around is to remove pulseaudio-libs.i686. Of course, this will also make Wine unavailable.

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2. Skype on CentOS-5

The current version of Skype will not work in CentOS-5. You can download an older, statically linked version of Skype which will work in CentOS-5 from http://download.skype.com/linux/skype_static-2.1.0.81.tar.bz2 Then substitute this tarball into the directions for CentOS-6

See the README file at /usr/share/skype/README and the documentation from the Skype Website for instructions on how to use skype.

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3. Skype on CentOS-4

This guide assumes you already have CentOS-4 installed and that you have audio (both speakers and microphone) working on your CentOS install.

The rpm versions of Skype available from Skype.com are compiled for Fedora. They require qt4, which is not available on CentOS-4.

Since qt is a major component of the system and the released version is required for the proper operation of KDE and many applications, the recommended way to handle the installation of Skype on CentOS is to use the statically compiled version.

Here are the steps to get Skype installed and working on CentOS:

3.1. Download the Latest Skype Static for Linux

You can get the latest static version of Skype from here. Please replace the versions below with the version found here. You can also get it with this command from the command line:

[user@host]$ wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-static

(at the time of this Howto, the current version of Skype is skype_static-2.1.0.81.tar.bz2)

3.2. Untar the static file

Use this command to untar the skype_static tar ball that you downloaded (substituting the version of the file you downloaded for <version> ... at the time of this Howto, the version was 1.4.0.118):

[user@host]$ tar -xvjf skype_static-<version>.tar.bz2

Once you have untared the file, you will have a directory named skype_static-<version>. Change to the new directory with this command:

[user@host]$ cd skype_static-<version>

List the files in the directory with the following command:

[user@host]$ ls -l

This is the result for the latest version available at the time of this Howto:

[user@myth skype_static-1.4.0.118]$ ls -l
total 18428
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group     4096 Sep 27 11:39 avatars
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user group      424 Nov 12 01:42 diff
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group     4096 Sep 27 11:39 icons
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group     4096 Sep 27 11:39 lang
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group    15628 Sep 27 11:39 LICENSE
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group     3173 Sep 27 11:39 README
-rwxr-xr-x 1 user group 18753060 Sep 27 11:39 skype
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group      453 Sep 27 11:39 skype.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group      161 Sep 27 11:39 skype.desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 user group     4096 Sep 27 11:39 sounds

3.3. Move the files into place

If this is an upgrade from a previous version of Skype which was installed using this howto, you will want to backup the previous version of Skype so you can move back to it if there are problems with the upgrade. Perform the following actions prior to copying the files into place to create this backup (need to become root here):

# Begin upgrades only section #
[root@host]# rm -f /usr/bin/skype
[root@host]# rm -f /etc/dbus-1/system.d/skype.conf
[root@host]# rm -rf /usr/share/skype.bak
[root@host]# mv /usr/share/skype /usr/share/skype.bak
# End upgrades only section #

Now you are ready (for upgrades and new installs) to copy the currently downloaded Skype files into place. You should still be inside the untared directory above and the command ls -l should show the above file list. Use these commands to enable skype:

[root@host]# mkdir -p /usr/share/skype
[root@host]# cp -a * /usr/share/skype
[root@host]# cd /usr/bin/
[root@host]# ln -s /usr/share/skype/skype .
[root@host]# cd /etc/dbus-1/system.d/
[root@host]# ln -s /usr/share/skype/skype.conf .

3.4. Adding skype.desktop to Desktops

If you want to have skype.desktop to show up on users desktops, you need to edit the file /usr/share/skype/skype.desktop and search for the line that says:

Icon=skype.png

and change it too

Icon=/usr/share/skype/icons/SkypeBlue_48x48.png

then copy the skype.desktop file into the user(s) Desktop with the command:

[root@host]# cp -a /usr/share/skype/skype.desktop ~<username>/Desktop
[root@host]# chown <username> ~<username>/Desktop/skype.desktop

3.5. Running Skype

You can run the skype program (as a normal user) from the command line with the command:

[user@host]$ skype

Also, if you installed the skype.desktop file above, you should be able to double click it from your desktop.

See the README file at /usr/share/skype/README and the documentation from the Skype Website for instructions on how to use skype.

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4. More information

You can find more information regarding the Linux version of Skype on the Skype forum at:

• http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/bd-p/Linux

This wiki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.