skype/pulse audio/linux mint Gloria

Since beginning to use mint several weeks ago, I haven not been able to speak with people (computer or landline) using skype.
I did some reading up on the forums.
In one suggestion it said to change the audio settings on skype to output: pulse; input: HDA Intel 0. This caused me to be able to hear others, but they cannot hear me.

In another suggestion it said to turn off pulse audio. I do not know how to do this.

In yet another suggestion it said to download skype beta, so I downloaded Skype beta for ubuntu 8.10 32-bit. This caused new problems: I cannot call up old conversations (that is, there is not even a button to press for "chat history" with a particular contact); the sound problem has _not_ been solved; I have fewer smilies (it looks like a list to scroll down, but will not scroll down); and it seems like I do not have a way to send a file "send data", either.

AAAAAAAAAAch!

Have you gone into sound mixer setting and raised the volume for microphone yet.

__________________
I’ll keep using Linux until they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

If you mean settings>audio, there is nothing on it to adjust the microphone. If you mean something else (under system management), what?

And please, if you know what to do about my new troubles with Skype Beta, I would appreciate.

J

I run Mint 7 Gloria with XFCE 4.6 Desktop. Your Mic is probably muted. This is where all your problems with skype or live chat for that matter probably originate.

What Desktop are you running? Kde or Gnome?

As far as

You will get better Answers from
Mepis Lovers

as I don't run skype at all. I suggest you join their forum. There is a bookmark in your toolbar even I bet. Like I said. You didn;t know that mics are muted in any Linux Distro as a default after install. And you haven't gone into properties in mixer to add functions to mixer so you could see volume controls for Pcm, Speakers, Video, Mic, etc.... which as a New Linux user you wouldn't know. You might want to start over with skype also. Open a terminal and issue this command to delete it for now. You can reinstall Later

then use this tutorial for setting up Mint for begineers. You can use these tutorials for reinstalling skype among other things.

The Perfect Desktop - Linux Mint 7 (Gloria) | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials

__________________
I’ll keep using Linux until they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

I entered the command sudo apt-get --purge remove skype in Terminal, and it told me that since skype is not installed, it cannot be removed. It offered instead to uninstall all of my games (which admittedly I do not need other than to kill time). Here is the note (in German) that Terminal gave me as a response to the command:


sudo apt-get --purge remove skype
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Lese Status-Informationen ein... Fertig
Paket skype ist nicht installiert, wird also auch nicht entfernt
Die folgenden Pakete wurden automatisch installiert und werden nicht länger benötigt:
knetwalk kpat libclucene0ldbl kshisen libqca2 kmahjongg libqt4-opengl
kjumpingcube libqt4-assistant katomic kdegames-card-data librdf0
kdebase-runtime-data-common libqt4-test kdebase-runtime kdelibs5 phonon
libkdegames5 libqt4-core ksirk kde-icons-oxygen libexiv2-5 librasqal1
kdegames-mahjongg-data kbreakout libsoprano4 redland-utils
kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4 libqt4-gui kdelibs5-data kreversi kspaceduel
ksudoku lskat kubrick libstreamanalyzer0 libphonon4 killbots
phonon-backend-xine kdelibs-bin khelpcenter4 libpq5 libstreams0 exiv2 kmines
soprano-daemon kdebase-runtime-data
Verwenden Sie »apt-get autoremove«, um sie zu entfernen.
0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 260 nicht aktualisiert.


The computer is correct in saying I do not have the package installed. What I have instead is the Beta version for Ubuntu 8.10 32-bit. Here is my skype download history:
At first I had (at different points in time) the mint-package of skype installed; and a non-beta version of skype for ubuntu, which I had gotten from the skype-download site.
While looking for a solution for my microphone problems I found the advice to download the beta version (see my first entry in this thread), which I did. Now I have the newest version.
I did attempt to reinstall the mint package, but it tells me "you already have a newer version of skype installed".


Aside from that, what is mixer? There is no application called "mixer" on my computer.

PS I think I have KDE (the os that is supposed to look like a desktop), but I am not certain.

to remove beta version of skype you may have to type in exact name of app name instead bof just skype. Reading up on skype in google shows it has a lot of bug reports in Ubuntu 9.04 which mint 7 is based on. For opening mixer in kde right click speaker icon in lower r/h side of bottom taskbar and select show mixer window. then when window opens select mixer button. Then select settings. Then select configure channels. Then just check box mic and whatever else you want to control.

My search for you.
skype ubuntu 9.04 - Google Search

If you read any of those links it tells you when you first start using skype. TO NOT LET SKYPE CONTROL MIXER SETTINGS. Or it will not work. I am pretty sure that when you first started the app it went through a configuration procedure where it asked that very question. Just say NO.

__________________
I’ll keep using Linux until they pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Hi Rocky,
I solved my problem by contacting Skype directly. They have very good support for linux. First they told me to remove skype in terminal, using the following command:
sudo dpkg -P Skype
But this did not work. I was able to remove skype using the package-manager, then to install the correct version using the same. None of my conversations survived, but that is of secondary importance.

Thank you for your help on this one.

* I must qualify my statement: Skype is workig again, but I have not tried the audio. I shall do so (and report back) as soon as mint is running again.

OK, due to other technical problems, I have had to reinstall linux mint on my hard drive. This time I went into the system settings first thing and (completely perchance) clicked on Audio. I discovered there that I can choose both input and output to be default, HDA, pulse, or something else. I chose the settings to fit my settings on skype, and lo and behold, I had no trouble with skype at all.
So here is what I did: menu->control center->(hardwareAudio->
Then i set playback to "automatically recognise" and record to "pulse audio server". Then I tried out skype and it worked. I do not know why I was being so stubborn about not understanding things before, but now everything is working. I hope helping me with this was not a total waste of time for you.