Edit: Due to the fact that this article is old, the installation instructions may not work anymore. In order to successfully install the latest version of Skype, please access the skype tag and open the latest article (the one on top).
The latest installation instructions for Skype
Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, Skype 4.3 has been recently released, coming with a new user interface and improvements for the Skype client. Among others, it got support for cloud-based Group Chat, the file transfer support when using multiple devices at once got enhanced, support for PulseAudio 3.0 and PulseAudio 4.0 has been added while the support for Alsa has been dropped and the accesibility for blind and visually impaired users has been improved.
The latest version available is Skype 4.3, which has been released a while ago.
In this article I will show you how to install Skype 4.3 on Arch Linux and Manjaro systems.
Follow the instructions for your system and architecture exactly, in order to get a successful installation.
How to install Skype 4.3 on Arch Linux and Manjaro:
Instructions 32 bit systems:
Install the pulseaudio libraries:
$ sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa pavucontrol
Stop and start pulseaudio:
$ sudo pulseaudio -k
$ sudo pulseaudio --start
Install pacman from the default repositories, so that the dependencies get fixed:
$ sudo pacman -S skype
Download Skype 4.3 dynamic and extract the archive:
$ sudo wget download.skype.com/linux/skype-4.3.0.37.tar.bz2
$ tar -xjvf skype-4.3.0.37.tar.bz2
$ cd skype-4.3.0.37
$ sudo rm skype-4.3.0.37.tar.bz2
Create the Skype Launcher:
$ sudo cp -r avatars/* /usr/share/skype/
$ sudo cp -r lang/* /usr/share/skype/
$ sudo cp -r sounds/* /usr/share/skype/
$ sudo cp skype /usr/bin/
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/skype
Instructions 64 bit systems:
$ sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa pavucontrol lib32-libpulse
Stop and start pulseaudio:
$ sudo pulseaudio -k
$ sudo pulseaudio --start
Install pacman from the default repositories, so that the dependencies get fixed:
$ sudo pacman -S skype
Download Skype 4.3 dynamic and extract the archive:
$ sudo wget download.skype.com/linux/skype-4.3.0.37.tar.bz2
$ sudo tar -xjvf skype-4.3.0.37.tar.bz2
$ cd skype-4.3.0.37
$ sudo rm skype-4.3.0.37.tar.bz2
Create the Skype Launcher:
$ sudo cp -r avatars/* /usr/share/skype/
$ sudo cp -r lang/* /usr/share/skype/
$ sudo cp -r sounds/* /usr/share/skype/
$ sudo cp skype /usr/bin/
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/skype
I upgraded to version 4.3.0.37 because version 4.2.0.13 was not allowing me to login anymore with the error “Can’t connect”.
Unfortunately for me after hours of trying I could not get pulseaudio to work on my system, only ALSA is working so I downgraded back to 4.2.0.13
To solve the login error I spoofed the version number 4.2.0.13 to the latest 4.3.0.37 version and login was working again, problem solved.
To spoof 4.2.0.13 to version 4.3.0.37, exit Skype and run this command:
sudo sed -i ‘s/\x34\x2E\x32\x2E\x30\x2E\x31\x33/\x34\x2E\x33\x2E\x30\x2E\x33\x37/g’ /usr/bin/skype
I did exactly all the steps (you have omitted an instruction “cd skype-4.3.0.37” before your text “Create the Skype Launcher”).
But Skype does not starts and as usual with skype-4.3.0.37, when starting from CLI, there is a message:
$ skype
interrupted
I have just found that skype 4.3 uses SSE2 and my CPU does not serve this instruction, so it is probably the real issue š
Here are last lines resulted from command:
objdump -d /usr/lib/skype/skype
where you can see that skype 4.3 uses SSE2
http://pastebin.com/zKbu6CG9
Now a questions to Mikelinux:
– Are you using the last version of Skype 4.2.0.13-4 or else ?
– I tried to spoofed the version number 4.2.0.13 but there is some strange result (error?) and I can not login. Can you check it?
$ sudo sed -i ās/\x34\x2E\x32\x2E\x30\x2E\x31\x33/\x34\x2E\x33\x2E\x30\x2E\x33\x37/gā /usr/bin/skype
sed: e expression # 1, question 1: unknown command: `ļæ½’
omg, the pastebin code is in assembly :O š š š , but I do not know what it means :))
It only means that Skype 4.3 uses SSE2, so Skype 4.3 on computers that do not serve SSE2 will NOT start š
all you have to do is:
$ sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa pavucontrol lib32-libpulse
and:
yaourt -S skype! and voila! skype up to date