Install Skype on Ubuntu AMD 64

Installing Skype on Ubuntu 7.10 is not as easy if are running it on AMD 64… Here are the steps you need to follow:

  • Install 32 libraries:

sudo aptitude install lib32asound2 ia32-libs-gtk ia32-libs-kde

  • Get the debian package for from the Skype website
  • Install other 32 bit libraries like:

sudo apt-get install libqt4-core

sudo apt-get install libqt4-gui

sudo apt-get install libdbus-1-3

sudo apt-get install libsigc++-2.0-2

  • Install the skype package:

sudo dpkg -i –force-architecture skype-debian_1.4.0.118-1_i386.deb (thats two dashes before force-architecture)

  • Skype will still not come up as it will have some libraries missing. Actually these libraries are already present but skype wont find them as skype will look into only the lib32 directories. the best way to resolve these mappings is to use getlibs (it really works!)

Double click on the package to install it.

  • at the command line do:

getlibs /usr/bin/skype

This entry was posted in computer, hardy heron, linux, skype, trivia, tutorials, Ubuntu and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

67 Responses to Install Skype on Ubuntu AMD 64

  1. Riccardo! says:

    Complimenti! Ho cercato per due giorni sul web e mi sono scraniato cercando di installare skype!! Questa è l’unica guida che è riuscita a farlo funzionare davvero! Grazie! 😀

  2. divya says:

    @Riccardo

    Thank you very much! Though i cannot understand what you have written… But it sounds like a compliment! Thank you Riccardo… I’m glad this tutorial helped you!

  3. Marko@tesic.biz says:

    Hi,
    I received next error message, and try to find on internet (Google) any help but nothing that can fix it. Can you be so cine to help me with this?
    I am running Ubuntu 7.10 64 AMD on Acer Travel Mate 5720G.

    markot@markot-l1:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get install libsigc++-2.0-2
    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    E: Couldn’t find package libsigc++-2.0-2
    markot@markot-l1:~/Desktop$

    Thanks,
    Marko Tesic

  4. divya says:

    @Marko

    First do an upgrade by typing this on the command line:
    $ sudo apt-get upgrade

    Then try to install libsigc++ as above… If it still cant find the package the do
    $sudo apt-get install libsigc++-2 and press tab once or twice. You will get a list of all libsigc++ packages available. Installing anyone of those should solve your problem.

    Do get back to me, I’d love to know if this solves your problem!

  5. Cappy says:

    It is libsigc++-2.0-0c2a
    Also you can skip installing all of those packages and
    sudo dpkg -i –force-all skype-debian_*.deb

    instead because ubuntu can’t understand that it is requiring 32-bit libraries that it can’t download. Actually .. that gives me an idea. I should make a patch for the package installer ubuntu gui and make it so you only have to click “install” on a 32-bit deb and it would skip all activated checks .. install it .. and run getlibs on it. Actually I think I can do it rather easily! Back to the batcave!

  6. divya says:

    @cappy

    Thanks for the exact libsigc package name. Hope it helps marko too.

    The patch is a great idea! Actually there are many other 32 bit applications that give this kinda problem on 64 bit operating systems. Like vmware server, that also goes through the same 32 bit conflicts.

    Also I just discovered today that the medibuntu repository is finally working for gutsy. I also did a skype install with it, the installation went smooth!

    To enable Medibuntu, go through this: https://divyad.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/medibuntu/
    I have referred a link at the end of the post for gutsy.

  7. Thanks a lot for this tutorial, divya.
    It was the only one that worked for me.

    I didn’t knew your blog and really liked it.
    I added to my feeds, by now.

  8. divya says:

    @Leandro

    I’m glad this tutorial helped you! 🙂 And… you have a nice name!

  9. Thanks.
    Leandro is a common name here in Brazil. And Facchinetti is italian, as you may wondered.
    By the way, divya is a nice name too.

  10. divya says:

    @leandro

    Thank you! 🙂

  11. Shane says:

    Pimptastic. Like Leandro said, this is the only tutorial that I have found that actually got Skype working for me on AMD 64. Now I can actually talk to my family and friends in the US from Argentina! Thanks a bunch!

  12. rr says:

    Hi,

    I did all according to your how-to, then got the following error when trying to run skype:

    skype: error while loading shared libraries: libXss.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

    I’m running Gutsy amd64 on a Pentium D processor.

    Thanks

  13. divya says:

    @shane

    Thanks a lot! glad it helped you!

  14. divya says:

    @rr

    Try this.. I never faced this problem but by reading online I find that this does the job.

    $ getlibs -32 libXss.so.1

  15. Pingback: Install Skype 2.0 beta on Ubuntu Gutsy(7.10) AMD64 « Curiouser and curiouser!

  16. 2.0 says:

    Hey!

    Tried this installation procedure with Skype 2.0beta, it works!
    (first installes 1.4, then 2.0)

    Thanks for the turtorial!

    Greetings from Vienna!

  17. divya says:

    Glad it helped you!

  18. nadav says:

    while i was executing the next command “sudo dpkg -i –force-architecture skype-debian_1.4.0.118-1_i386.deb”

    my computer announced the following error:

    dpkg: error processing –force-architecture (–install):
    cannot access archive: No such file or directory
    dpkg: error processing skype-debian_1.4.0.118-1_i386.deb (–install):
    package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)
    Errors were encountered while processing:
    –force-architecture
    skype-debian_1.4.0.118-1_i386.deb

    can you help me and tell me what can i do?
    thank you
    nadav

  19. divya says:

    @nadav

    Please read the following post: https://divyad.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/install-skype-20-beta-on-ubuntu-gutsy710-amd64/

    This will solve your problem, just get the static binary of skype 1.4, I have written the post for skype 2.0 beta—— you can use skype 2.0 itself, its a newer version. That post will solve all your problems. Let me know if it worked!

  20. nadav says:

    hello again
    i am stuck in this operation now (this is the error i get after it):

    ~$ apt-get install libxss1
    E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (13 Permission denied)
    E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?

    can you help me with it i don’t really understand why i get it also.

    thank you
    nadav

  21. divya says:

    @nadav

    Ok you are really new to Ubuntu I guess..

    Its simple, inorder to execute apt-get you have to be the root user. So if you aren’t already root you should execute:

    $sudo apt-get install libXss1

    For example, see below:


    divya@Curiouser:~$ apt-get install abook
    E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13 Permission denied)
    E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
    divya@Curiouser:~$ sudo apt-get install abook
    [sudo] password for divya:
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
    abook
    0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 79.8kB of archives.
    After unpacking 328kB of additional disk space will be used.
    Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe abook 0.5.6-3 [79.8kB]
    Fetched 79.8kB in 4s (19.7kB/s)
    Preconfiguring packages ...
    Selecting previously deselected package abook.
    (Reading database ... 93780 files and directories currently installed.)
    Unpacking abook (from .../abook_0.5.6-3_i386.deb) ...
    Setting up abook (0.5.6-3) ...

    divya@Curiouser:~$

    See how root privileges are required. Hope this helped you…

  22. nadav says:

    thanks for the help now it is working

    i have now the problem with creating the short cut this is the answer:

    ~$ cd pathtoskype-static/
    bash: cd: pathtoskype-static/: No such file or directory

    thank you
    nadav

  23. divya says:

    @nadav

    Don’t literally paste that command, by cd pathtoskype-static i mean change to the skype static directory. Like if your skype-static directory is in /home/nadav you should do

    $ cd /home/nadav/skype-static

    If you are already inside the skype dir then don’t bother!

  24. mkhatt2 says:

    Terrific Instructions! Thanks a bunch! I’m getting excited about using AMD64 Ubuntu Linux

  25. divya says:

    @mkhatt2

    Thank you!

  26. James says:

    Brilliant!

    Thank you and happy thanksgiving

  27. Nu Tong says:

    Thank you! This helped a lot!

  28. divya says:

    @Nu Tong

    Glad it helped!

    @James

    Thanks! Happy thanksgiving to you too…

  29. jype says:

    Thanks a whole lot.

    Did wonders (well, skype works 🙂 for me.

  30. Mark Taylor says:

    Thanks a whole lot for this. I’m relatively new to Linux and I’ve been trying to follow some of the other instructions I’ve found on the net for installing Skype and this was the only one that worked. You should be commended for sharing your experience

  31. divya says:

    @Mark

    Thanks… I had to do a lot of jumping around to get skype running on my system… And the reason why I put it up on my blog was because there was no tutorial that would explain clearly on how to install skype in Ubuntu. It was quite surprising that there was no tutorial for such a widely used application.

  32. Wilfried says:

    The long Minus for force -architecture should be ” — ”
    sudo dpkg -i –force-architecture skype-debian_1.4.0.118-1_i386.deb
    After changing the procedure was successful

    many thanks

    Wilfried

  33. divya says:

    @WIlfried

    The long Minus is actually minus minus… it looks joined here!

  34. exorcism says:

    thanks a lot 🙂 worked perfectly for me 🙂

  35. Monel says:

    Cannot install Skype 2 debian on ubuntu 7.10. When opening the download, I get the message “Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libqt4-core” I have not a clue what this means

    I on my first day on Ubuntu, after years of Windows and I a bit lost, particularly in the language of the bogs. As in the times of dos!

    Could anyone help?

    Thank you, monel

  36. divya says:

    @monel

    Can you be a little clear? I am kinda confused what you are saying… did you follow the steps that I have mentioned in the tutorial? If so, at what point did you get stuck? can you paste the exact error too?

  37. Monel says:

    Sorry, was wrong e-aml address!

    I cannot install Skype dbian 140 or 200 on an Intel computer using ubuntu 7.10
    I get the message Error: Dependency not satisfiable: libqt4-core

    Any help?

  38. divya says:

    @monel

    My post is for systems running a 64 bit operating system with an AMD processor.
    What is the nature of your ubuntu installation? is it 32 bit or 64 bit? From your comment it looks like its intel.
    Since you are new to linux, I suggest you should read the post at http://bapoumba.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/medibuntu-non-free-codecs-for-gutsy/
    and follow the instructions. After that do
    $sudo apt-get install skype

    and you’ll be done!

  39. Sparhawk says:

    DOPE!

    Thank you divya, the getlibs was what I needed, Skype was not finding the appropriate libraries, just like you said!
    This is the first howto I’ve seen that actually does the trick and gets skype working on the Ubuntu/amd64 platform.
    Thank you ever so much and keep up the good work!

  40. divya says:

    Thanks sparhawk!

  41. Idetrorce says:

    very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
    Idetrorce

  42. GOAway says:

    Work like a charm!

    Thank you so much….

  43. butcher says:

    help, i am new in Linux. i have an acer aspire amd64 bit and i want to use skype in ubuntu 7.10. although i tried the steps mentioned above i didn’t manage to install ia32-libs-gtk ia32-libs-kde and libsigc++-2.0-2. any help?

  44. divya says:

    Hey butcher,

    what problem are you facing? whats the error message you get?

  45. Tom Purnell says:

    Might be worth pointing out that the force-architecture dpkg option is preceeded by two dashes. It looks to me like your blog software is replacing the doubledash with a single long dash.

  46. divya says:

    Thanks Tom,

    I’ve included that one in the post 🙂

  47. Harish says:

    Hi !
    I had followed everything mentioned in the
    tutorial. Everything worked fine.

    This is so cool

    Thank you so much for the tutorial !

  48. electro says:

    Thanks for the help here… it is nearly working, I’m sure… but not quite… I’ve followed the instructions, but it claims something isn’t there that is… how do i get it to point in the right place?

    jdt@duckling:~/skype-2.0.0.27$ ./skype

    ./skype: error while loading shared libraries: libQtDBus.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

    jdt@duckling:~/skype-2.0.0.27$ locate libQtDBus.so
    /usr/lib/libQtDBus.so.4.3.2
    /usr/lib/libQtDBus.so.4
    /usr/lib/libQtDBus.so.4.3
    /usr/lib/libQtDBus.so

  49. electro says:

    Sorry – not these instructions – I followed these ones:

    Install Skype 2.0 beta on Ubuntu Gutsy(7.10) AMD64

    but was checking here that i had all the libs. Apparently so.

  50. heroin says:

    thx a lot, works great on ubuntu 7.10

  51. Joaquin says:

    THank you verry much for your help, it is great to have people helping people ^_^

  52. divya says:

    You’re welcome!

  53. Srikant says:

    I am running Ubuntu Gusty (7.10) AMD 64. The skype 2.0 installation went perfectly and i could log on. but my video is not working. it says no video device detected. what should i do?

  54. divya says:

    @Srikant

    That must be a problem with your webcam drivers. make sure you’ve got the right drivers for the webcam… Also check if ekiga softphone detects it… if it does then we can conclude that skype has the problem

  55. Srikant says:

    yes ekiga softphone detects my webcam. so does Kopete. only skype doesnt. so what could be the problem with skype? any drivers required. Pls help as a number of my friends are on skype.

  56. Srikant says:

    Also GYachE also detects my cam

  57. divya says:

    @srikant

    Check this wikipage to see if your webcam is supported by skype, the entire list is given here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SkypeWebCams

    If so there are instructions to get it working too! Hope this helps

  58. Pingback: Nessa páscoa, experimente o ooVoo | Leandro Facchinetti

  59. brian says:

    i have install everything but when i come to install the last command line it says “Unable to locate package /usr/bin/skype
    E: No packages found
    /usr/bin/skype not found in your repositories
    Make sure you have all repositories enabled and updated
    Using mirror http://dm.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
    ” and i do not see anyway mirrors like that. is there any other way i can install skype?

  60. divya says:

    Hey brian,

    You can install directly without apt-get. Here’s the link to the post I have written for the same: https://divyad.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/install-skype-20-beta-on-ubuntu-gutsy710-amd64/

    This will work.

  61. donkerewolf says:

    Perfect 🙂 Thanks a lot!

  62. divya says:

    @donkerwolf

    Thanks 🙂 glad it helped you!

  63. clovepower says:

    Easiest thing is to enable the Medibuntu repository as explained here:

    http://www.medibuntu.org/

    Then Skype can be installed automatically with Synaptic.

  64. edek says:

    It’s outdated.

    There’s just regular amd64 version at http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-ubuntu-amd64

  65. Abhishek says:

    Hey guys there is a 64 bit version available by Skype at

    http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-ubuntu-amd64

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