Use old Skype version after 01.08.2014

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saintless
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#41 Post by saintless »

Glad the read it works, ETP :)

Mike, the result could change in no time. First loophole for skype 2.2.0.35 was closed in less than a week. I hope someone with real programming skills will join for searching linux old skype login fixes.
All old Skype versions from here are removed already.

The good news is at least one Russian programmer is working hard on this and the result is much better there. Some questions for linux versions are posted already. Much useful information is available to help us further. There is hope...

Toni

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mikeb
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#42 Post by mikeb »

Ah yes the hide old version boogie...I usually end up looking on third party sites for such . (For java I joined their dev thing by saying I was an airline pilot :D )... the big boys seem to have a vested interest in pushing new software and it must be more than just a support issue...so whats in there MS? Bit like flash grew to 5-10 times the size with no obvious significant functionality changes...whats the extra code for then?

Well good one for being stubborn and having your own mind...they hate that :)

mike

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viber

#43 Post by mcewanw »

greengeek wrote: I think there will be other skype alternatives for Linux soon. Maybe a development of Linphone, or various other alternatives.
Actually, viber is becoming very popular. My partner is now using it more than Skype and it seems to be a very good product from a user's perspective at any rate. Particularly good for mobile to mobile use, but desktop versions are also available (which neatly sync with the corresponding mobile). However, it is another commercial product and the Linux version appears to be for 64bit Linux only:

http://viber.com/products/linux

If open source is to produce competitive products they would have to also work seamlessly from a desktop or a mobile platform.

William
Last edited by mcewanw on Sat 23 Aug 2014, 13:08, edited 1 time in total.
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#44 Post by mcewanw »

Sorry, posted in wrong thread. Moved it.
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l0wt3ch
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#45 Post by l0wt3ch »

Instead of Skype, you might be able to use this.

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#46 Post by mcewanw »

Yes WebRTC based apps seem to offer the potential of a Skype killer, open-standards, browser-based communications application, but who knows how long it will take before we no longer need Skype (or Viber come to that).

William
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technosaurus
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#47 Post by technosaurus »

I use linphone + a free phone number from ipkall
Wish I had found this a long time ago.
http://chrisbrasington.tumblr.com/post/ ... ice-number
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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ETP
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Talky

#48 Post by ETP »

Thanks go to forum member l0wt3ch who has made available a Firefox pet for testing.
His real find however is “Talky
Attachments
talky.png
Talky.
(64.5 KiB) Downloaded 1108 times
metro_with_talky_icon.png
Talky tile on Blue Pup V4.
(162.57 KiB) Downloaded 1059 times
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: Talky

#49 Post by saintless »

ETP wrote:(Tested with 32.0.1700.107) :D
If you can run this version of Chromium on your hardware I see no problem to run latest skype 4.3.0.37 also. What is the point to change Skype with Talky then (unless just for the idea boycotting Skype)?
Firefox and Chrome do almost the same as Skype - no support for older versions and new plugins and services do not work on older versions.
Try running Talky with Firefox 3.6. This is what I use on PIII 600Mhz with 256 Mb Ram + Swap file. Then you will see there is no plan B with Talky.
Yes, I know I can get newer hardware and it is not a problem for me fortunately, but I do not want to do it just because someone decided to stop support for older versions.
Unfortunately there are many people in the world who can't buy new hardware and can't use Talky or similar alternative as plan B.

BTW - Ekiga works pretty well on old hardware like mine. Much lighter than Skype 2.2.0.35. The problem is all my contacts from Skype do not use Ekiga or other sip program.

Toni

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ETP
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Talky

#50 Post by ETP »

Hi saintless,

You make some very valid points. My testing was done with Blue running on a Pentium D945 which dates from 2006. I suspect that anyone with lesser specified kit is going to struggle with any form of video communication.
The main attraction of “Talky
Regards ETP
[url=http://tinyurl.com/pxzq8o9][img]https://s17.postimg.cc/tl19y14y7/You_Tube_signature80px.png[/img][/url]
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Re: Talky

#51 Post by saintless »

Hi, ETP.
I have no problem making video calls with Skype-2.2.0.35 on my machine as long as Skype is the only running application at the moment. But opening IceWeasel at the same time freezes the Skype video. Anyway Skype 2.2.0.35 is still fully functional on such old hardware.

Pulseaudio as root - no problem to run pulseaudio as root in puppy, debian or any linux. There will be warning you are running as root but pulsaudio is working without issues.

The problem with Talky, Ekiga and any other alternative - they use the same audio and video devices as Skype. This means all my contacts addicted to Skype must close skype first just to have a call with me. Most of them have Skype at work and can't install, create accounts or register anything else on the computer there. Maybe Talky has best chance to work in such case but with newer hardware only. I really hope Skype will continue the same way in the future forcing more people to search for open source alternative.

Toni

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#52 Post by mcewanw »

technosaurus wrote:I use linphone + a free phone number from ipkall
Wish I had found this a long time ago.
http://chrisbrasington.tumblr.com/post/ ... ice-number
This would be really handy with google voice, though last time I checked, google voice numbers could not be obtained outside of US.
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#53 Post by technosaurus »

mcewanw wrote:This would be really handy with google voice, though last time I checked, google voice numbers could not be obtained outside of US.
thats why you sign up for the ipkall number
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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#54 Post by greengeek »

How to use Skype 4.2 on Slacko 5.6
.

*** EDIT 2 ***
****As from 20 September 2014 it is necessary to use a slightly different procedure. Go here ****



Hi saintless, thanks for the work you have done with skype4.2
I have used your debs to make a pet suitable for use with Slacko 5.6 and then I found that it wouldn't run due to lack of Qt4 and gstreamer libs so I made another pet to provide them also.

I prefer to do my online work in a live /no savefile session so these pets mean I can run skype with the minimum of fuss. I just boot Slacko 5.6 (and it may work with some other pups as well) then add these two pets.

(The missing libs pet does not contain ALL the Qt4 libs - just the minimum that were required by skype)
Some people may not need the missing libs if they have Qt and gstreamer already installed.

Skype4.2_for_Slacko5.6_ver-1.pet

Skype4.2_Slacko5.6_missing_libs_ver-1.pet

EDIT 1 : No need to install any other version of Skype first, or any other software. Just install the two pets here, then look for Skype in the "Network" menu. It will ask you to click the normal "I agree" installation screen but that only takes a second. Then just type your skype name and password and you're in. Sound all working, and previous contacts, alerts and call history all available.

If anything is not working check the following:
Make sure the correct mic is enabled in the normal mixer settings (test via mhwavedit if necessary). Set volume using tray slider and also mixer settings if required (depends on your sound card). May need to go into Skype options to select/deselect videocam as required. May also need to hover over the skype video window and check that the videocam symbol (that pops up on mouseover) is activated.

*** EDIT 2 ***
****As from 20 September 2014 it is necessary to use a slightly different procedure. Go here ****

.
Last edited by greengeek on Sun 21 Sep 2014, 18:29, edited 4 times in total.

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#55 Post by saintless »

Thank you, Greengeek!

The deb packages are made for debian based system that can auto-install missing dependencies with apt-get or aptitude.
In any existing old pet package or sfs for skype 4.2.0.11 and 4.2.0.13 you can replace skype binary file from the deb packages and rebuild it. It will work.

Toni

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#56 Post by mcewanw »

Hi Toni,

Do you still need to temporarily install the latest 4.3.xxx Skype to get everything working, as your first post in this thread suggests?

William
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Geoffrey
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#57 Post by Geoffrey »

I came across this fix, I haven't tried it but it may work.
Problem

Not all people can upgrade because they're on an older Linux version that is not supported by the new Skype version.
The new Skype version also introduces all sorts of new problems to existing users, as the following posting illustrates:

Solution

You can stick with your old version of skype. I came across and tested (on Skype 4.2 on Ubuntu LTS 12.04) the following solution that spoofs your old version of Skype to version 4.3.0.37. The command below will output a replace command which you could copy and run in a terminal in order to change the version string in your old Skype executable. Your old Skype will then be allowed to connect again to the M$ server. First you have to fill in your current Skype version in the command below, which can be obtained with command: "skype - version".

ver=$(echo "4.2.0.11" | xxd -p | sed 's/.\{2\}/&\\x/g;s/^/\\x/;s/\\x0a\\x//'); echo "sudo sed -i \"s/$ver/\x34\x2E\x33\x2E\x30\x2E\x33\x37/g\" /usr/bin/skype"
Might be able to use this to patch the old binary version :?:
[b]Carolina:[/b] [url=http://smokey01.com/carolina/pages/recent-repo.html]Recent Repository Additions[/url]
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#58 Post by mcewanw »

Yes, I noticed that nifty trick here, Geoffrey:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2240954

I think it was first documented here:

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions ... n-spoofing

I think editing that string is basically the way Toni (saintless) has been doing it. If the sed trick works, I suppose could even use existing old Skype sfs and just run a script with that line prior to using Skype. I'll try it sometime soon. Need to get xxd first which produces a hex dump of file and can recreate the binary file afterwards. So just a more automatic way of editing the text string really.

Mind you, I am nervous talking about it further even though it is already a published method now and Toni had previously published link about changing the version string.

William

EDIT: I don't know where to get a binary for xxd, but this seems to be a clone of the source code:

https://github.com/ThatOtherPerson/xxd

EDIT2: I've since found a binary for xxd as part of Debian Wheezy vim package. Here is xxd from there. Just remove the dummy tar and put xxd in /usr/bin

EDIT3: Just quickly tried the suggested 'fix' with my old Skype 4.0.0.8 (with static QT) but didn't work for me with that one. Maybe I did something wrong. Best to try it on Skype 4.2.0.13 (or 4.2.0.11) I suppose. EDIT4: Aagh... here is why it maybe didn't work for me with version 4.0.0.8 (I'd be overwriting an extra byte):
The version number to spoof from must be in this format X.X.X.XX because we will replace it with 4.3.0.37
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Just remove dummy tar and put xxd in /usr/bin
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#59 Post by saintless »

Hi, William.
mcewanw wrote:Do you still need to temporarily install the latest 4.3.xxx Skype to get everything working, as your first post in this thread suggests?
No, If you use the deb or sfs files from me or pet files from Greengeek (all are linked at top of first post) you do not need to use 4.3.0.37 first.
But for Skype 2.2.0.35 you need to use first 4.3.0.37 (or the working skype 4.2.0.11 or 4.2.0.13) to setup autologin and add one line in shared.xml as it is explained in the first post.

The link from Geoffrey is similar solution to what I did. Unfortunately it works only for Skype 4.2.0.13 and 4.2.0.11.
Skype versions from 2.0 - 4.1 use different way of generating skype version. There is no version number to replace as in 4.2.0.11-13.

If someone finds a similar way to run Skype 2.2.0.35, or 4.0.0.8, or 4.1, please, post the solution here.

Toni

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#60 Post by mcewanw »

Hi Toni,

yes I had just used xxd piped to grep and could not as yet find where the Skype version number for 4.0.0.8 was stored. Though it is in the about message, so must be somewhere, in some form, I suppose.

William
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