[HowTo] Install Skype on Puppy

[jhecht]

Hi John, uninstall any skype pets you have installed, and install my version 1.6 combo pet referred to in the post immediately above yours. It has been tested on Slacko 5.7.0 and has been modified to stop all currently running skype sessions and to automatically remove the old /root/.Skype directory. (Be sure to run only the "skypelogin" programme).

This should definitely work for you, or else i'll eat my hat.

If you still have problems after installing the new pet then that would suggest that you have some funny business going on in your savefile (if using frugal) - in which case just hide that savefile so that you can boot into an unadulterated session, then reload the pet and try again.

Not using a frugal install - it's a full install. And given the lack of Skype entries in Puppy Package Manager, can I just drag all Skype-sh!t to the trash and flush twice to uninstall? (grin)

Thanks for your help!

[greengeek]

Yes, flush 3 times

...and if your PC definitely doesn't have SSE2, flush it too.....

[smokey01]

John for a full install try this one:
http://www.smokey01.com/OscarTalks/skyp ... ko14.0.pet

Full installs are good but there are advantages in frugal installs. Using a save file can be restrictive so doing a frugal install with a directory save is a very good compromise. This way you can use SFS files which are very tidy.

Cheers

[jhecht]

Try the following:
Use a terminal to enter the command:
killall skype
Then go to the /root directory and click the "eye" icon to reveal hidden files. Locate and remove the /.Skype directory. Then start the skypelogin programme again and try login.

Did all that - still the same result - Skype 4.2 loads, but I can't login. This is looking in the hard drive itself - sda1. FWIW, when I click on the all-seeing eye, (/mnt/home (all), I see a .Skype directory, not a /.Skype directory. That's the one I deleted. It seems to be recreated when Skype loads if I delete it.

Do you see the skype43 appear for the login phase, then disappear after 45 seconds to be replaced by skype 42?

After deleting the .Skype directory, when I click on skypelogin, I don't get a 4.3 screen first, I get only a Skype 4.2 login screen - but it doesn't work. I can't log in.

[jhecht]

...and if your PC definitely doesn't have SSE2, flush it too.....

Are you saying I can't get this computer to run Skype with Puppy? See my earlier post in this thread for what "cat proc/cpuinfo" showed me.

[greengeek]

Yeah, sounds like the lack of SSE2 is the end for you. Skype 4.2 runs without SSE2 but is not allowed to log in to the Skype server. Skype 4.3 is allowed to log in to the server but wont run without SSE2.

Try opening a terminal and typing:
skypelogin

any error messages?

EDIT : Please also try typing the following in a terminal:
/usr/share/skype/skype43

any error messages?

[jhecht]

John for a full install try this one:
http://www.smokey01.com/OscarTalks/skyp ... ko14.0.pet

Did that - same problem. "Skype can't connect." I have Team Viewer on this Puppy install, and it >does< work. I'm broke - but I'll pay $15 via Paypal if someone can remote in and get this working for me. It's worth a lot more, but work is >very< scarce, and because of that, so is money...

[greengeek]

John for a full install try this one:
http://www.smokey01.com/OscarTalks/skyp ... ko14.0.pet

Did that - same problem. "Skype can't connect."

Seems odd that you get that message with version 4.3

I can understand it when 4.2 tries to connect, but not 4.3

After you loaded that 4.3 pet did the Skype login screen show version 4.3 in the title bar? And make sure you delete the following directory first:
/root/.Skype
(This is a hidden directory, only visible after clicking the "eye" icon on the top line)

[jhecht]

Yeah, sounds like the lack of SSE2 is the end for you. Skype 4.2 runs without SSE2 but is not allowed to log in to the Skype server. Skype 4.3 is allowed to log in to the server but wont run without SSE2.

Try opening a terminal and typing:
skypelogin

any error messages?

No errors - Skype opens a login screen - but it doesn't work. Close the Skype login, and the terminal shows:

#skype-login
killall: skype43: no process killed
W: [pulseaudio] main.c: This program is not intended to be run as root (unless --system is specified).
E: [pulseaudio] main c: Daemon startup failed.

EDIT : Please also try typing the following in a terminal:
/usr/share/skype/skype43

any error messages?

Tried that too - got the same "Skype can't connect" on the Skype screen.

Am I just plain hosed - or what?

[greengeek]

I see two main possibilities:

1) If your processor has no SSE2 then Skyping is off the menu for you. Can you find a model number on your Ideapad?

2) From your comments earlier I get the feeling that you may have remnants of multiple skype installs and this may be upsetting things. Do you have access to an ecternal CD drive for this netbook? If so it would make it very easy to load a "live session" of Slacko 5.7..0 which is unadulterated. If you can boot in this manner, then try whichever pet you prefer, the results of that trial should be conclusive one way or the other.

Otherwise, without a CD drive I think you may have to make a new install (maybe even on usb) so that you are starting fresh. May not get any better results, but it's the only way to be sure if you have got contaminated files or configs.

[anikin]

Run this in the terminal to check to see if sse2 is there:

Code: Select all

grep --color=always -iw sse2 /proc/cpuinfo

[jhecht]

I see two main possibilities:

1) If your processor has no SSE2 then Skyping is off the menu for you. Can you find a model number on your Ideapad?

No SSE2 (or SSE) was listed when I ran the hardinfo proggie. Is there another way to check?

2) From your comments earlier I get the feeling that you may have remnants of multiple skype installs and this may be upsetting things. Do you have access to an ecternal CD drive for this netbook? If so it would make it very easy to load a "live session" of Slacko 5.7..0 which is unadulterated. If you can boot in this manner, then try whichever pet you prefer, the results of that trial should be conclusive one way or the other.

I have an external USB CD drive. That's how I loaded Slacko 5.7.0 in the first place. I'll try that test and let you know the results. Thanks!

But, but - before I do that, is there no way to purge all Skype elements from the computer? Can't I just make hidden folders visible with the magic eye, and flush all Skype-thingies?

[bigpup]

But, but - before I do that, is there no way to purge all Skype elements from the computer? Can't I just make hidden folders visible with the magic eye, and flush all Skype-thingies?

If you installed Skype using a pet of it.
The install should be listed in the uninstall list in PPM (Puppy package manager)
Remove it using PPM should get everything removed.

You can do a search in Pfind for Skype.
That should bring up a list of everything Skype.
In Pfind you can right click on any listed item and get a menu with option to delete.

[greengeek]

No SSE2 (or SSE) was listed when I ran the hardinfo proggie. Is there another way to check?

Try anikins command shown in the post above yours - very nifty - it displays all the flags and highlights the sse2 string if it's there.

I have an external USB CD drive. That's how I loaded Slacko 5.7.0 in the first place. I'll try that test and let you know the results.

Remember to enter the following command at the boot prompt:
puppy pfix=ram
Just to ensure it stays a pristine boot

But, but - before I do that, is there no way to purge all Skype elements from the computer? Can't I just make hidden folders visible with the magic eye, and flush all Skype-thingies?

Got me there - I just don't know. If your install was a frugal one it would be easy to hide the savefile (and all it's internal changes and add-ons) but I just don't know the best way to flush a full install. I'd be concerned that it would be easy to miss just one small file and beggar everything up.

I reckon anikins test is the starting point (or ending point depending on your results...) followed by the CD boot if you think your cpu has the sse2.

[greengeek]

ps: a lot of the files used by skype have names that dont look anything like "skype" so there would still be the risk of missing something...

EDIT : Here is a sprinkling of what Windows users think of the SSE2 requirement:
http://community.skype.com/t5/Windows-d ... -p/3587375

Not just Linux affected by this.

[jhecht]

From the feedback here, I think my best (fastest) option is to simply wipe and reload Puppy Linux. After that, I can install (hopefully) Skype. I've got a USB CD/DVD drive I can plug in to do so. It means reinstalling Team Viewer and re-copying my friend's data, but that's pretty quick.

Then, I can test Skype from a 'live CD' boot, and once I figure out what to do, I'll have a clean Puppy install to work with. I'll post the results once done.

Thanks to everyone here for their help!!

[greengeek]

John - wait up! You don't have to modify or delete your current Puppy installation in order to to try the live CD boot.

When you boot from CD you will see the 'boot:' prompt which will give you a few seconds where you can enter the following parameter:

puppy pfix=ram

This will load the CD code direct into RAM and ignore your hard drive installation. Once Puppy is running in ram you will need to click the 'connect' icon on the desktop to temporarily set up the network connection, then you can mount the hard drive, run whichever skype pet you want to load, then try it and see what happens.

None of this will or modify (or be affected by) your existing puppy installation - as long as when you shut down you select the "DO NOT SAVE" option.

[rufwoof]

@John

Is there any way you can boot another vmlinuz/initrd to your usual one? i.e. do you have grub4dos or a PXE server that you can net boot from?

Assuming you can then download the vmlinuz and initrd.lzo from here http://tinyurl.com/ngf6snn and boot using those i.e. grub menu entry something like

title Puppy 533t
root (hd0,2)
kernel /Puppy_533t/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pfix=ram
initrd /Puppy_533t//initrd.lzo

you may (probably) have to change the (hd0,2) to something else - typically the first number is the drive number and the second is the partition in that drive, counting from zero i.e. mine is /mnt/sda3 so sda = first hard drive so number = 0, and third partition so second number is 2.

The initrd.lzo is similar to initrd.gz that are more commonly used, but it used LZO compression instead of gzip compression. The initrd.lzo is also big (around 180MB) as it also contains puppy sfs internally to that.

If you can boot that - just select the VESA option during the boot process, then connect to the net by clicking the network tray icon and then open /root/my-applications and in that directory there's a get-latest-firefox script that will ... surprise surprise download the latest firefox. Once that's downloaded open something like /root/my-applications/Firefoxnnnn/opt/program/firefox sub directory and click on firefox to run the browser and revisit the URL again and grab the biggy (500MB) officelzop1.sfs file. Once that's downloaded right click and sfs load it and that will include skype4.3 (together with Libre office, Audacity, Open Shot, Blender, xvidcap, flash Qt and full blown inkscape. Python is also wrapped up into that lot as well).

I find that running vesa is fine as that puppy also includes mesa so the graphics speed/quality is generally acceptable enough not to need having to install a specific graphics card driver, excepting if you're doing some high power graphics stuff.

That Slacko 533t based puppy has the Slacko 5.7 kernel, so it supports recent hardware. The normal puppy menu has been relegated to a right click of the desktop. Avoid the main menu as it takes some other installation activity to get that working correctly i.e. use the right click desktop menu to start up skype etc, not the normal main menu button.

All this assumes you have 1GB+ ram and 1.2GB of disk space+

[jhecht]

Run this in the terminal to check to see if sse2 is there:

Code: Select all

grep --color=always -iw sse2 /proc/cpuinfo

Opened terminal and typed code >exactly< as shown above, like this:
grep(space)--color=always(space)-iw(space)sse2(space)/proc/cpuinfo

Code worked, and gave me a list of flags with sse2 listed twice, and highlighted with red colored text. So that much works.

This is in a brand-new install of Puppy 5.70 on a Lenovo Ideapad netbook. No modifications to the Puppy install, and (hardwired) Internet works. I'll deal with the wireless later.

[jhecht]

If you installed Skype using a pet of it.
The install should be listed in the uninstall list in PPM (Puppy package manager)
Remove it using PPM should get everything removed.

For some arcane reason Skype didn't show up in PPM, even though I did use a pet for the install. I gave up, wiped the computer, and reinstalled Puppy 5.7.0. Puppy works fine (so dog-gone fast!) And I put TeamViewer back fairly painlessly. I used TV 9 this time, not TV 10, and it was OK. There >may< be a problem with TV 10, as it was giving me a hard time, but I can't remember the details - sorry.

Now if I can just get Skype working... I looked at some of the Skype alternatives, and will go that route if I must, but Skype is the most common chat program in Windows, and the computer's owner has some Skype-friends outside the US...