Use old Skype version after 01.08.2014

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OscarTalks
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#21 Post by OscarTalks »

I can confirm I have Skype 2.2.0.35 working in Racy 5.5
Thanks Toni for bringing us this workaround.

I believe the lines of code in the skype launcher script for the old workaround would now break the new workaround so I have removed them and re-uploaded skype-2.2.0.35-new keeping the package name the same. People can now use it if they use 4.3.0.37 first to create the config files in /root/.Skype and add the <SavePassword>1</SavePassword> line.

Remember, the version 2.2.0.35 is a static build so does not need any Qt libraries.
Oscar in England
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greengeek
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#22 Post by greengeek »

mikeb wrote:since microsoft are now doing their dirty stuff with skype (ie using it to sell newer windows and attack linux use) perhaps we need a serious look at alternatives....new thread perhaps.
Hear hear. I applaud the excellent work being done to keep Puppy skype accessible, but I also would like to see a different solution developed so that people could be set free from reliance on a corporate 'man in the middle'.

I wondered if it was possible to have some form of 'real time double ended ftp' connection running - so that a local puppy and a remote puppy could transfer audio and maybe video in real time without any need for special protocols controlled by the ISP or companies like microsoft.

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mikeb
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#23 Post by mikeb »

Hmm yes the masses will do as they are told and carry on as is (or will they...migrate to aomething on an android or ipud perhaps??) ...the joy of hotmail, facebook, skype and other microsoft products ..I wonder if they will add malware spreading abilities like they did with other software?

Hmm voice and video chat... well I suppose you could do such things with msn and yahoo so in someways this has been around for years... broadband simply opened it up. Skypes only bonus bunny is its land line connectivity but hey is that such a bonus?

michael

phredo
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#24 Post by phredo »

Just to give a Slacko 5.7 report: I've got skype working, both 4.3 and "2.2", but because my audio wasn't set correctly, I kept trying different things, so I'm not sure what was actually necessary. But here's what I did.

I followed the instructions, loading on-the-fly skype-4.3.0.37-slacko14.0.sfs and making the modifications to update and autologin, and noticed that I had no audio at all. Then I added the skype executable from skype-2.2.0.35-new.sfs as instructed and changed the xml file. When I started "skype22", it logged in and I had audio but no mike. So, after quitting skype, I added pulseaudio-2.0-i486-w5.pet, and in the terminal typed "pulseaudio --system", then opened another terminal and typed "skype22". Now my audio settings showed pulseaudio to be the sound device (it didn't do that when I had just typed "pulseaudio", maybe "pulseaudio --start" would have worked too, but I'm just walking in the dark on all this). My mike wasn't working still, so I opened Retrovol and started experimenting.

It turned out that my settings didn't have "capture" and "digital" checked, and that made the difference. So now I can start skype 4.3 from the menu or type skype22 from the terminal, and both work, with 4.3 using pulseaudio and skype22 not. In Retrovol, I have Mic set at bout 65%, Capture and Digital at 50%, and that seems to give me clearest mike with good volume. I haven't actually talked to anyone, but have been using the "Echo/Sound test service" for all this testing.

My presumption from all this is that 4.3 would have worked by just adding pulseaudio, and that "skype22" would work without having installed pulseaudio. Maybe all this is "old hat" to everyone else, but it was a learning experience for me. I wish the rest of the world was using Jitsi, because it seems like it probably has a lot more good features, but that's life. :?

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saintless
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#25 Post by saintless »

phredo wrote:My presumption from all this is that 4.3 would have worked by just adding pulseaudio, and that "skype22" would work without having installed pulseaudio.
I guess all needed to have Skype 2.2 mic working (before installing pulseaudio) was to choose the right device from Options -> Sound Devices -> Microphone
I never tested Skype 2.2 with pulseaudio and I don't think I ever will, so you experience give us the information without having the same troubles :)

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greengeek
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#26 Post by greengeek »

phredo wrote: I wish the rest of the world was using Jitsi, because it seems like it probably has a lot more good features, but that's life. :?
Ah yes - Jitsi looks interesting. Might have to give that a try.

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technosaurus
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#27 Post by technosaurus »

saintless wrote:http://skype-open-source.blogspot.com/
Help is welcome there if someone is interested.

Toni
That sounds very similar to what I did with the flash plugin (changed the version string), you just need to find the corresponding area in the linux version with a hex editor (though I used `strings` and `sed`) ... a recent version of minimum profit text editor has a nice hex editor (requires a command line flag IIRC)

-- I don't use skHype though, so can't help much more than that.
Check out my [url=https://github.com/technosaurus]github repositories[/url]. I may eventually get around to updating my [url=http://bashismal.blogspot.com]blogspot[/url].

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mikeb
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#28 Post by mikeb »

Hacking would be nice and neater than running 2 versions..... wxhexeditor is a bigger but friendly tool.
Micky is a smaller (fltk?) editor.

mike

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saintless
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#29 Post by saintless »

20.09.2014 - Patched versions blocked from today.
The workaround on the first page setting up the account with 4.3.0.37 for autologin still works.



Some packages uploaded for testing.

This is Skype 4.2.0.13 only.
Before testing uninstall any other versions of Skype you have and rename and backup /root/.Skype directory.
Let Skype create new /root/.Skype We need confirmation it works for everyone without need to setup the account with latest Skype first (it works for me without troubles).

Load the sfs and run Skype with and without autologin. Sign out and login in different accounts. Test usual things you do with skype without thinking about any workarounds. If your contacts are not visible from the first login, sign out and login again in the same account and they will appear.

It is recommended to disable automatic updates to prevent auto-install newer version when it is available.

Testing versions of OscarTalks's sfs files:
Edit: Links removed. Doesn't work anymore.

Please, test this magnet link if it works for you:
Edit: Links removed. Doesn't work anymore.

It contains all packages. If you read "About Skype" information you will see we need some safe and secure way to share some files in the future.

Still searching for similar solution about Skype-2.2.0.35 but it seems more difficult than I thought. It will work sooner or later...

Toni
Last edited by saintless on Mon 13 Oct 2014, 19:01, edited 3 times in total.

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cimarron
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#30 Post by cimarron »

Thanks saintless! Your precise sfs works very well for me, in OBPrecise. No need to sign in with 4.3, all my contacts came up right away.

Not sure what to do with that "magnet link," sorry...

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666philb
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#31 Post by 666philb »

thanks saintless .... precise version is working straight away for me in tahrpup
Bionicpup64 built with bionic beaver packages http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=114311
Xenialpup64, built with xenial xerus packages http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=107331

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saintless
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#32 Post by saintless »

Thank you for testing, Cimarron and 666philb!

I'm glad it works for you too and I have no doubt all files work the same way as precise sfs. The changes are the same in each one.

I have one 100% upload from the magnet link and seems it is working too.
Just for information starting Transmission and marking the magnet link in my post and then opening File --> Open URL is enough to download it. Or using simple copy (Ctrl+C) / paste (Ctrl+V) in File -> Open URL

Toni

mcewanw
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Progress?

#33 Post by mcewanw »

mikeb wrote:
Hmm voice and video chat... well I suppose you could do such things with msn and yahoo so in someways this has been around for years... broadband simply opened it up. Skypes only bonus bunny is its land line connectivity but hey is that such a bonus?

michael
Truly it is technologically pathetic that voice and video and all multimedia is still not seamlessly built in without having to think about it or configure anything.

CU-SeeMe, video chat without voice, was around in 1992, twelve years ago and with voice by early 1994. And credit to Microsoft for Netmeeting with video/voice/chat of late 1996, which even had white-boarding built in (and it was only a few MB download).

http://www.packetizer.com/ipmc/history- ... ferencing/

also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InSoft_Inc.

I gave a presentation of video chatting using Netmeeting with whiteboard from New Zealand to Scotland back in 1999! And in the same year I used to telephone my dad back in Scotland, from New Zealand, via Internet telephony to his landline via one of the several free services that allowed that back then. Yet still we struggle with what is available... Bring back morse code - at least it was reliable.

William
github mcewanw

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saintless
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#34 Post by saintless »

To have real Skype alternative it has to be:

1. Easy to install and use on any OS.

2. Possibility to work with Skype started at the same time using the same audio/video devices. This is needed to make easier for Skype users to test the alternative without loosing communication with their Skype contacts. Even adding second camera aind mic is not an option here - no one will agree to test it this way.

3. Search option to find other users by name or e-mail like in Skype.

4. Option to send files like in Skype.

Without all this included we can not think of real Skype alternative unfortunately... Struggling is our only option at the moment.

Toni

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greengeek
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#35 Post by greengeek »

I understand there are three main ways to achieve what Skype does. The first is the way skype does it (which I can't remember the name of at the moment). Second is the way google does it (webRTE or something) and third is SIP which requires an SIP server in the middle.

I think there will be other skype alternatives for Linux soon. Maybe a development of Linphone, or various other alternatives.

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mikeb
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#36 Post by mikeb »

Nice one on the hacked skype :)

google is jabber or am I way behind the times on this one...jabber always has had the potential to do all this but has never fully grabbed the moment.... still tends to be seen as a geek backwater.

mike

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ETP
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TESTING

#37 Post by ETP »

Thanks saintless! Your precise sfs from your post dated 20th Aug is working well in Blue Pup with the addition of a couple of libs. I started by converting it to a dotpet then uninstalled the inbuilt version (skype-4.2.0.11-wheezy).
Having done that, I searched for and then eliminated all remnants of Skype & rebooted before installing the new pet.

It worked fine but a dependency check revealed a missing lib:

Code: Select all

libQt3Support.so.4
That was resolved by installing the following via PPM:

Code: Select all

libqt4-designer_4.8.5+git192-g085f851+dfsg|Qt 4 designer module
libqt4-qt3support_4.8.5+git192-g085f851+dfsg|Qt 3 compatibility library for Qt 4
Blue is based on Quirky Tahr version 6.0.5 k3-12-6 and 666philb might find the same.

Whilst I do not use Skype myself, I had often wondered why they did not provide a decent video echo test. The answer is revealed if you double left click on the small webcam image in Video settings! (press esc to exit)

Thanks go to everyone who has contributed to these Skype threads and have saved numerous puppies from the pound.
Last edited by ETP on Fri 22 Aug 2014, 08:23, edited 1 time in total.
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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saintless
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Re: TESTING

#38 Post by saintless »

20.09.2014 - Patched versions blocked from today.
The workaround on the first page setting up the account with 4.3.0.37 for autologin still works.


Thank you for sharing this information, ETP. It will be useful for others.
ETP wrote:...then uninstalled the inbuilt version (skype-4.2.0.11-wheezy).
I will try to save some troubles for you and others with Skype-4.2.0.11 already installed.
Download this (Edit: Link removed. Doesn't work anymore). Extract the archive and replace old skype executable with the one from the archive. It should be enough. If you decide to test it, please, post here the result.

I made also deb package (Edit: Link removed. Doesn't work anymore). - for DebianDog and any Ubuntu or Debian distro using dpkg/apt-get/aptitude for fixing missing dependencies.

If someone knows download link for skype 4.2.0.11.sfs for puppy that is useful and works on most versions I can rebuild it the same way.

Magnet link for (Edit: Link removed. Doesn't work anymore).

Toni
Last edited by saintless on Mon 13 Oct 2014, 19:03, edited 2 times in total.

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ETP
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TESTING

#39 Post by ETP »

Thanks once again saintless! I am pleased to report that your Skype-4.2.0.11-executable.zip works fine.
This is a far easier approach, obviating the need to wipe any remnants of the current version and avoiding possible lib & dep problems associated with moving to another version.
I will package the binary up as a fix dotpet for Blue Pup. :D
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
[url=http://tinyurl.com/kennels2/]Kennels[/url]

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mikeb
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#40 Post by mikeb »

Hey you realise this is
Saintless 1 , Microsoft corporation and billions of dollars 0


mike

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