Any progress on good videophone software for Puppy? (YES!)

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pa_mcclamrock
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Any progress on good videophone software for Puppy? (YES!)

#1 Post by pa_mcclamrock »

A few years ago (I just found from a search), a few people were wondering if there was any videophone software (e.g., Ekiga) that could be made to work well on Puppy. The results of the inquiry were, uh, inconclusive at best. Does anyone here know if there's been any progress in that area? Is anyone successfully using any videophone program on Puppy?

David McClamrock
Last edited by pa_mcclamrock on Sun 21 Mar 2010, 09:52, edited 1 time in total.
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01micko
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#2 Post by 01micko »

Hi Pa

Skype works fine but is rather heavy at 20MB compressed and is proprietary :cry:

Doesn't Ekiga depend on gnome libs? That would make that pretty large too I would think.

I might look into this.

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technosaurus
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#3 Post by technosaurus »

umm - I don't really know if this would work well or not, but ffmpeg can use udp to stream video, I think Hiawatha supports it? and so does mplayer (maybe gxine if recompiled?) ... so I guess it could even be done with a gtkdialog based program

this to get the video --- needs udf stuff though (instead of ~/a.avi) - would need to figure that out
ffmpeg -y -f oss -i /dev/audio -f video4linux2 -s qvga -i /dev/video0 ~/a.avi

would have output to in the hiawatha server for udp and open remote and local for streaming
then open remote (and local) streams in mplayer

how do you know each others address though... I haven't done any dynamic dns servers?

maybe opera turbo would work for this instead?
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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01micko
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#4 Post by 01micko »

hmmm...

Maybe cam functionality could be added to Psip, at least that is in puppy and may be able to be done cheaply.

Another alternative is linphone which needs speex, libosip and libXosip as well as SDL, the other stuff they mention is in puppy.. an sfs would be best I suppose.

There is a cheaper one, TCPCam, don't know much about it yet.
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pa_mcclamrock
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#5 Post by pa_mcclamrock »

01micko wrote:Skype works fine but is rather heavy at 20MB compressed and is proprietary :cry:
I don't mind using proprietary software (e.g., SoftMaker Office) if it's noticeably better than its free competitors. In the immortal words of Linus Torvalds, "it's stupid to use inferior software for ideological reasons." :D And I've got about 750 MB of free space left in my 1 GB pupsave file. A while ago I read that Skype didn't always work fine, but maybe the problems have been resolved, or maybe I wouldn't have them. So, what would be the most convenient way to give Skype a try on Puppy?
Doesn't Ekiga depend on gnome libs? That would make that pretty large too I would think.
Yes, I read that it has a lot of dependencies. With Mandriva, every now and then I got stuck in the so-called "RPM dependency hell," and I don't want to go back.
I might look into this.
Please do--thanks in advance!

David McClamrock
It's stupid to use inferior software for ideological reasons.
--Linus Torvalds

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#6 Post by pa_mcclamrock »

01micko wrote:Maybe cam functionality could be added to Psip, at least that is in puppy and may be able to be done cheaply.
Maybe so, but whoever developed Psip isn't interested. See the Psip help tutorial: "There is no video functionality in Psip and there no plans to include it. Psip was designed to be small and efficient so it would be viable to include in future releases of Puppy Linux."
Another alternative is linphone which needs speex, libosip and libXosip as well as SDL, the other stuff they mention is in puppy.. an sfs would be best I suppose.
Might be feasible; I'll keep it in mind. Thanks!
There is a cheaper one, TCPCam, don't know much about it yet.
Might turn out well in a while, I guess, but it's only at the first beta release and you have to compile it; I'll wait a while on that one.

David McClamrock
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--Linus Torvalds

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01micko
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#7 Post by 01micko »

Hello Pa

I compiled linphone successfully (I think). I need to register a sip account to test it out. I won't post it just yet, I want to be sure it works. I get the gui and all but I need to be more sure than that! The dependencies were a bit of a pain. Speex compiled with no complaints but libXosip and libosip just plain would not compile for me in 431 or the latest upup. I grabbed the debian versions, which hopefully are ok. I used Barry's SDL packages from his quirky repo.

The main pet is a little under 7MB and dependencies a bit over 1MB so for 8MB it should be fine as a pet, but I may make an sfs as well.

That other one, TCPCam, seems unsupported. That beta version looks like the one and only, and that was from 2006. I think we can forget that.

Catch you tomorrow (bed time now :wink: [see, one eye is already shut] :lol: )

Cheers
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#8 Post by technosaurus »

just updated on freshmeat today

http://freshmeat.net/projects/yate

Yate is a next-generation telephony engine. While currently focused on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and PSTN, its power lies in its ability to be easily extended. Voice, video, data, and instant... messaging can all be unified under Yate's flexible routing engine, maximizing communications efficiency and minimizing infrastructure costs for businesses. It supports SIP, H.323, IAX, MGCP, Jingle, Jabber, E1, T1, analogic, robbed bit, ISDN PRI, BRI, and SS7.


for skype use the only slightly larger static version and it works fine
as for the non-static I believe it required dbus and dbus-glib at the least, but it has been a while
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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#9 Post by pa_mcclamrock »

technosaurus wrote:Yate is a next-generation telephony engine. While currently focused on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and PSTN, its power lies in its ability to be easily extended.
Great, but maybe not so easily by me as by someone who knows a lot more about this stuff than I do!
for skype use the only slightly larger static version and it works fine
as for the non-static I believe it required dbus and dbus-glib at the least, but it has been a while
OK, I'll compare the static version of Skype with Micko's Linphone package (he PM'd me with the URL, which will probably appear in this thread if Linphone works well for me). But first . . . I'll buy a webcam + mike! (I figured there was no point in buying them until I was pretty sure I could get software that would make them work well.)

David McClamrock
It's stupid to use inferior software for ideological reasons.
--Linus Torvalds

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technosaurus
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#10 Post by technosaurus »

here is 2.2 - compiled against qt-4.5.3

and the older 1.3 gtk2 version
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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fm1st
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LINPHONE

#11 Post by fm1st »

01micko wrote:Hello Pa

I compiled linphone successfully (I think). I need to register a sip account to test it out. I won't post it just yet, I want to be sure it works. I get the gui and all but I need to be more sure than that! The dependencies were a bit of a pain. Speex compiled with no complaints but libXosip and libosip just plain would not compile for me in 431 or the latest upup. I grabbed the debian versions, which hopefully are ok. I used Barry's SDL packages from his quirky repo.

The main pet is a little under 7MB and dependencies a bit over 1MB so for 8MB it should be fine as a pet, but I may make an sfs as well.

That other one, TCPCam, seems unsupported. That beta version looks like the one and only, and that was from 2006. I think we can forget that.

Catch you tomorrow (bed time now :wink: [see, one eye is already shut] :lol: )

Cheers
Hi 01micko, I suggest you try out an account at www.voipraider.com. Their VOIP service for windows (I mean calling internationally phone numbers) is excellent ':D' and the cheapest ever - after a $10 dollars credit you are allowed to call for free land lines in most countries and to mobiles in US, Canada and China, during 90 days before your credits start being eaten-up at the rate of $1 dollar cent per minute. Skype is very good, but in no way can be compared with the rates of voipraider.

I can presently use PSIP 0.12 - it works well but doesn't access the contacts stored at the voipraiders' servers, in opposition the way the proprietary client program does in windows.

If you have any difficulty setting LINPHONE up with the voipraider details, see my post http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 583#350749 or let me know. This was after I had to (painfully) figure out how to set it up on my own.

Please, let me have the LINPHONE you compiled at your earliest convenience. Which version have you compiled (the latest at their site is linphone-3.2.0)?

saudações
fm1st

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#12 Post by 01micko »

I will give you a rough link... the reason is that this IS NOT at any sort of release stage, mainly because I can't seem to be able to compile the dependencies liposip and libXosip on Puppy, probably my fault! :oops: There are Debian libs included which will be fine in dpup and probably upup... they are recent versions. Other dependencies are in the tarball, other problems.. well you are on your own, but they can be figured out easily :wink: .NOTE: Inside the tarball are pets.... only to make it easy for pa_mcclamrock to test.. even though he probably has far more linux experience than me. :lol:

Go to www.dpup.org and search my directories there. You will find some tarballs relevant to Linphone. Use at own risk and above all.. have fun!

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#13 Post by pa_mcclamrock »

Success! I've been using Linux since 1999, and Puppy every day for a couple of years now, but I'm an absolute "noob" when it comes to webcams and things like that, so I was anticipating some difficulties. I did have to overcome a couple of minor ones--but within a short time after my webcam + microphone (Logitech Webcam Pro 9000) arrived yesterday, I was seeing and hearing, and being seen and heard by, Micko almost halfway around the globe. (This was with Skype on Puppy 4.3.1; I'll try Linphone pretty soon, I hope.) Maybe other video-telecommunications "noobs" will be interested to read a bit about it.

After plugging the webcam into a USB port, I went to the Skype download page for Linux (http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose/) and selected the "Static" binary package. Using the "Utility --> XArchive archiver" menu item in Puppy, I opened the "skype_static-2.1.0.81.tar.bz2" tarball and extracted it to a new directory under /mnt/home, so as not to clutter up my pupsave file. Following the easy directions in "[How to] Install Skype on Puppy" (http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=45612), I made a /usr/share/skype symlink for the new directory, and added a desktop icon to run the "skype" executable located in that directory. I clicked the icon, read some legalese, accepted the agreement, got myself a Skype username and password, and signed into Skype.

The first time I tried making a test call, it didn't work because my microphone, under "Sound Devices" in the Options menu, was set to "Default device." It should have been set to "USB Audio Default Audio Device." Fortunately, this was a pretty obvious guess, as it was the first USB item listed. After I fixed that, the test call worked; the video test also worked with no problem, since the webcam was automatically detected as the only video input device; I check-marked "Start my video automatically when I am in a call" under "Video Devices" in the Options menu; and I figured I'd try calling home to Australia. (I mean, home for Puppy, not for me; I've never been there, I can't give a very good imitation of "Strine" talking, and I've been led to believe that "Oz" is an emerald city that you get to by way of a yellow brick road).

Micko PM'd me his Skype username, and the call went through--except, at first, for the sound from me. For some reason, the microphone had been reset to "Default device" again. This would have been easy to fix if it had been easy to find the Options menu again. Unfortunately, for someone like me who is accustomed to big desktop icons and conspicuous menus, the tiny Skype icon in the bottom left corner of the main Skype window was not a very obvious choice for where to look. Fortunately, Skype lets you chat in text as well as talk; for want of sound, I typed some chat lines back and forth with Micko (since lip-reading didn't work too well) while wondering what to do. When I finally figured out that the tiny, inconspicuous icon was the "Main Menu" icon, and saw that "Options" was one of the items in the main menu after I clicked the tiny icon, I reset the microphone to the correct device, and the sound worked!

Compared to some of the difficulties I've faced (and not always surmounted) with other apps for Linux over the years, that was really, really easy, and well worth it. Thanks to Micko, to the Puppy and Skype developers, to "Cowboy Frank" for recommending the Webcam Pro 9000 (http://cowboyfrank.net/webcams/Logitech ... iption.htm)--and, not least, thanks to my daughter who is going away to college, and some friends of our family who are moving to another state, for motivating me to get a videophone setup!

David McClamrock
It's stupid to use inferior software for ideological reasons.
--Linus Torvalds

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#14 Post by 01micko »

Well, congrats pa!

Was nice speaking with you and seeing you. :)

Yep, only minor issues, and I suspect that skype tries to keep to the "default" device.. possibly a minor bug, but other than that I think it is quite a good program. As I told you, I had great success with tasmod and he is in England.

Looking forward to see how Linphone fares.. possibly next weekend, I'll probably be too busy with work during the week, but if it rains then I'll have plenty of time. (We have had way too much rain here over the last six weeks).

Cheers

Mick
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