Skype and camera issues ----------------------- It has been pointed out by a lot of users that Skype has problems with some cameras, in most cases this leads to green screen or no video at all. This happens because V4L API (legacy) has been dropped from newer kernels, and pixel format decoding has been pushed to user space. Moreover, V4L2 does not support kernel space decoding. Since Skype supports only V4L, easiest way to get it working is to preload it with V4L compatibility library, and call Skype like this: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype If you are still having problems, try adding the following as well: XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 Included with this package is an alternative desktop file modified to include those variables. For easy use, just copy it to your home directory: cp /usr/doc/skype-4.3.0.37/skype-alternative.desktop \ ~/.local/share/applications Skype and pulseaudio dependencies --------------------------------- With the introduction of Skype 4.3 series, all built-in ALSA support has been completely removed. What this means is that we now have one more dependency to deal with, and for 64bit Slackware users this makes things even more complex, because they have to build 32bit counterparts and use convertpkg script to make them installable on their systems. At the time of writing this, pulseaudio also requires json-c and speex dependencies, so if you are on a 32bit system, it should be enough to build these and installpkg them. For a 64bit setup, you will have to build all three dependencies, and in the end you will end up with a total of six packages, three for each platform. To do this, you will obviously need multilib packages from Eric Hameleers, so make sure you check README that comes with them. After 32bit packages are built, convert them like this: convertpkg-compat32 -i json-c-0.11-i486-1_SBo.tgz -e tgz convertpkg-compat32 -i speex-1.2rc1-i486-3_SBo.tgz -e tgz convertpkg-compat32 -i pulseaudio-5.0-i486-1_SBo.tgz -e tgz And installpkg resulting packages as usual. Skype and pulseaudio dependencies (addendum) -------------------------------------------- It turns out, all of the above can be skipped by using apulse to wrap around Skype binary. Naturally, for 64bit users this makes things a bit harder, and a 32bit apulse compat32 package is required instead. In any case, it's still a bit cleaner then having a whole pulseaudio installed and interfering with the rest of the system, and only to serve Skype. Find apulse SlackBuild at the usual awesome place, the slackbuilds.org Website. Thanks goes to Andrzej Telszewski for pointing it out! Skype with a grain of salt -------------------------- Running binary-only applications might give open source literate people a certain dose of unease. Even more so when this application runs at computer start up, has constant outbound network access, becomes a super node when open ports from the internet are detected, effectively accepting random connections from other users on the internet. If you are not scared enough already, think about access to your sound card, camera, and precious files after reading the above! Sure, some will argue that privacy is a thing of the past, and not to run such applications if you don't want to, but sometimes you simply don't have a choice. Whether it's your long distance family members or coworkers and friends, price is the same, you are left with an ugly written app (just look at that 64bit support) that is probably full of horrible holes, intentional or not (really :^) While safest thing, of course, is to avoid using it, and probably turn off your computer for good, right before you put on that tin foil hat or bury your head in a hole somewhere, we wont be exploring those options in this awesome README! Instead, we will start from the obvious, firewall unused ports on your computer, in most cases it's fine to close them all down. Next in line are also obvious things, if you do not trust that little light on your camera, unplug it when your haircut is not presentable to the world. Same goes for your microphone, and if it's an integrated one, take it from the pro's in the police department that use adhesive tape to cover it up :-) Now that manual labor is out the way, we come to a much more fun part, protecting your precious files in $HOME. For this we take advantage of multi-user environment, and simply run Skype under another user with basic access. Without further ado, create another user and group with: groupadd -g 666 spyke useradd -u 666 -d /home/spyke -m -s /bin/bash -g spyke spyke Optionally give this user access to hardware: usermod -G audio,video,pulse -a spyke If you previously had Skype set-up that you wish to keep, move it with: cp -a $HOME/.Skype /home/spyke chown -R spyke:spyke /home/spyke/.Skype Allow group execution: echo "%spyke ALL=(spyke) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/skype" \ >> /etc/sudoers.d/66_spyke Add your user to this new group: usermod -G spyke -a USERNAME Finally, run it like this: xhost +local: \ && sudo -u spyke /usr/bin/skype Attention, due to lack of goofiness in this README, anagrams were used to fill that void. Together with some number crafting, level of Slack has peaked, and the trumpets were blown.