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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 aswell:
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 dependacies
--------------------------------
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 dependancy 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
dependancies, 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 dependancies, 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 with a grain of salt
--------------------------
Running binary-only applications might give open source literate people
a ceritain dose of unease. Even more so when this application runs at
computer start up, has constant outbound network access, becomes a
supernode 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 burry 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 mircrophone, 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 labour 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 enviroment, 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 goofyness 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.
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