Installing Skype from Repository

[martih]

Edit: Here is the new version that works with Fedora 13. It installs the latest Skype from the Skype repository (apparently the Skype repo was outdated in the past, but now it contains the same version as on the Skype website).

First, create the skype.repo file in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory:

su -
cat <<EOF> /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo
[skype]
name=Skype Repository
baseurl=http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/fedora/updates/i586/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-skype
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
EOF
exit

Second, install Skype with

sudo yum -y install skype

Third, one may have to install a few libraries that Skype needs. If you're interested, you can find out more about these libraries with ldd /usr/share/skype and with yum provides *..., but this is not required for installation. All you need to do is (got this from Krellan's post):

sudo yum -y install alsa-lib.i686 dbus-libs.i686 e2fsprogs-libs.i686 expat.i686 fontconfig.i686 freetype.i686 glib2.i686 glibc.i686 keyutils-libs.i686 krb5-libs.i686 libcap.i686 libgcc.i686 libICE.i686 libpng.i686 libselinux.i686 libSM.i686 libstdc++.i686 libX11.i686 libXau.i686 libxcb.i686 libXcursor.i686 libXdmcp.i686 libXext.i686 libXfixes.i686 libXi.i686 libXinerama.i686 libXrandr.i686 libXrender.i686 libXScrnSaver.i686 libXv.i686 openssl.i686 qt.i686 qt-x11.i686 zlib.i686

Note: I am aware that setting gpgcheck=0 is a solution that is not optimal. However, it seems that the Skype key that is available on gpg.mit.edu doesn't work with the Skype repo any more. If you happen to know how to deal with this in a better way (e.g. if you know where the current Skype key is), please post it and I will update this guide.


================================

Below is the old version for Fedora 10. It might still be of some value to some people.

First, get Skype's public key:

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 0xD66B746E
gpg -a -o RPM-GPG-KEY-skype --export 0xD66B746E
sudo rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY-skype
rm RPM-GPG-KEY-skype

Second, create the skype.repo file in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory:

su -
cat <<EOF> /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo
[skype]
name=Skype Repository
baseurl=http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/fedora/updates/i586/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-skype
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
EOF
exit

Third, finish off the installation with

sudo yum -y install skype

[Demz]

wouldnt it just be easier to just to rpm -Uvh http://download.skype.com/linux/repo.../updates/i586/
an install it that way?

or even rpm -ivh

[martih]

You could directly download the rpm file and install it the way you suggested. But the problem with this approach is that you have to worry about dependencies. And this can potentially be quite problematic, as several other posts here at FedoraForum show (especially if you're running 64 bit Fedora).

Another problem is with the public key. For some reason, many of the locations that previously offered Skype's public key do no longer offer it. Luckily, at pgp.mit.edu they don't seem to delete keys.

[Demz]

well yeah but if you knew those deps you could put those URL's in to to pull the extra downs in

you could use the skype url an use the deps urls to which would download the whole lot

you could also install skype using the localinstall --nogpgcheck command

[martih]

Sure, I'm not disputing that there is more than one way to install Skype.

The reason I chose the approach above is because I like the way yum automatically takes care of pretty much everything once /etc/yum.repos.d is set up. This way I'm free of worries about dependencies and so forth. But these are just my personal preferences, other people might prefer other approaches, and that's OK.

[glennzo]

Nice job Martih. Works well, but the package is fc5. Is this OK to use with Fedora 10 or Fedora 11 ?

[martih]

Thanks, Glennzo.

I'm not sure where you see that it's FC5. In the URL it says i586, which refers to your CPU type.

In any case, I just installed Skype on Fedora 10, and it worked without any problem. You have to change the audio settings to Pulse after installation, but this is Skype-specific and does not pertain to the installation itself.

There is one point which might or might not be important. I believe that yum should take care of it automatically, but just in case I'm posting it here. There might be some 32 bit packages that Skype still needs when it's running on 64 bit Fedora. Some people suggested to do (Fedora 11)

sudo yum install libsigc++ libsigc++.i586 qt.i586 qt

or (Fedora 10)

sudo yum install libsigc++ libsigc++.i386 qt.i386 qt

before the installation of Skype.

[glennzo]

After you create the repository you can do

yum list skype

You will see

[glenn@leonardo ~]$ yum list skype
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, presto, refresh-packagekit
Excluding Packages in global exclude list
Finished
Available Packages
skype.i586        2.0.0.72-fc5                         skype

The version that you get if you download from the website is skype-2.1.0.47-fc10.i586.rpm. I'm not interested in installing skype nor am I here to criticize your work. You've done a fine job of explaining how to create the repository. Yum itself interests me so I'm all ears when it comes to 3rd party repositories. I do think think that although the repo works wonderfully, folks may want to consider the fc10 version unless there are no important differences between the packages. Shame that the fc10 rpm is not part of that repository.

[martih]

I see, thanks for the reply, Glennzo. I agree that it's a pity there is currently no newer version in this repository.

Probably a solution to get the newest version would be to use the following steps (I haven't tried this myself, but I believe something in this direction should work). First, follow the steps in my original post in order to obtain the necessary dependencies for Skype. Second, type

sudo yum erase skype
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo

in order to remove the old Skype version and the repository information in /etc/yum.repos.d. Third, type

wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-fc10
sudo yum -y --nogpgcheck localinstall skype-2.1.0.47-fc10.i586.rpm
rm skype-2.1.0.47-fc10.i586.rpm

in order to install the newest (as of Sept 5, 2009) version of Skype.

Provided that all the necessary dependencies are installed, one could skip the first and second step and instead only use the third step (i.e. the second code snippet). This would be in the spirit of Demz' earlier proposal. Actually, maybe yum would install the needed dependencies anyway in the second code snippet, but I'm not sure.

[glennzo]

That worked well. No errors at all. Skype, from the command line, opened without trouble. I'm running Fedora 11 by the way...

[premudriy]

Thanks, Martih, very handy tutorial. I'm glad to see Skype advancing for Linux Community.

The only problem with their last beta is inability to play anything else while using Skype. Skype seems to still occupy the sound card. Is there a workaround for this issue yet?

[martih]

Thanks, Premudriy. I'm not aware of a workaround for the problem of Skype occupying the sound card. But this doesn't necessarily mean that there is none. I'm sorry that I can't offer more help on this issue.

[martih]

Just updated my Skype guide for F13. Hope it will be useful to the community.

[tquang]

Access Skype website to get new version and install it, easy.

Skype not release new version for Linux.

[GoinEasy9]

If you just download Skype from their site, then, click on Skype in the download window, the installer will take care of everything for you, including setting up the repo and taking care of dependencies. I've done this on all my machines.