7

Is there a program in the official Scientific Linux repositories that can communicate with people over Skype? I'm worried about Skype's security, but I want to be able to log in to my Skype account and call/chat with my Skype friends.

Community
  • 1
LanceBaynes
  • 39,295
  • 97
  • 250
  • 349
  • I know it is not an answer, but is not skype secured? Skype installation key not imported does not mean that skype protocol communication is insecure. – Nikhil Mulley Dec 02 '11 at 19:31
  • 1
    The problem is I can't get the GPG key for Skype. So if I configure the Skype repository, I can't get updates safely, that's the only problem.. gratz microsoft.. :\ – LanceBaynes Dec 02 '11 at 20:13
  • 1
    http://gigaom.com/2011/06/28/skype-xmpp-support/ – LanceBaynes Dec 17 '11 at 19:33
  • You might be interested in this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/skype#Use_Skype_with_special_user , i.e. run skype via a separate restricted user account and/or use apparmor to restrict what it can do. The official skype can also be installed as a normal user easily if you download the "Dynamic" version (.tar.bz2). – KIAaze Mar 09 '16 at 08:34

3 Answers3

1

As far as I know, there are still no skype-compatible skype-alternatives. However, there are plugins for Pidgin and Empathy that allow you to use skype via the Pidgin/Empathy interfaces. Unfortunately, they still require Skype to run in the background, as they communicate with it via its API.

Alternatively, you might be interested in running skype via a separate restricted user account and/or use apparmor to restrict what it can do.

The official Skype can also be installed as a normal user easily if you download the "Dynamic" version (.tar.bz2) from the official website. To install the necessary dependencies, simply run:

yum-builddep skype # on RPM-based distros
apt-get build-dep skype # on DEB-based distros
KIAaze
  • 767
  • 1
  • 8
  • 18
0

Try this method.

  • Import or Download GPG Key from here .
  • Download the GPG key and then export it to the expected place as root user:

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

  • Add or Update the following repo file int the /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

  • Download & Install Skype

    wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-fc10

    • Install the other libraries that might be needed for skype to work

      sudo yum install also-lib also-plugins-pulseaudio dbus-libs e2fsprogs-libs expat fontconfig freetype glib2 glibc keyutils krb5-libs libpcap libgcc libICE libpng libselinux libSM libstdc++ libX11 libXau libxcb libXcursor libXdmcp libXert libXfixes libXi libXinerma libXrandr libXrender libXScrnSaver libXv openssl qt qt-X11 zlib

      sudo yum localinstall skype-*.rpm

      • If it does not work still, then try sudo yum localinstall skype-*.rpm --nogpgcheck

  • It seems the installed version needs some ld_preload hack to get executed. Update this in your ~/.bashrc.

    alias skype='LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype'

Nikhil Mulley
  • 8,145
  • 32
  • 49
  • Let me know if it did help? – Nikhil Mulley Dec 03 '11 at 12:50
  • After "yum install skype": Package skype-2.1.0.81-fc.i586.rpm is not signed – LanceBaynes Dec 04 '11 at 02:03
  • Did you actually run `rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-skype` after you have done download the key file? – Nikhil Mulley Dec 04 '11 at 17:15
  • well, I would rather check the package is in its integrity with -K option. If I am sure that I have downloaded the rpm package from the right source of the website then I would go ahead and install away the package by passing the gpg check with `yum install --nogpgcheck skype` or disable the gpgcheck in the repo configuration file and proceed with installation. – Nikhil Mulley Dec 04 '11 at 17:25
0

If you are looking for third party applications as in, API then Skype does offer APIs for many programming languages including perl. I am sure you can search through some of the Skype APIs for C++, Perl(Net::DBUS::Skype), Python that can offer you the same functionality of the skype interface for later wrapping in the applications. Cheers.

Nikhil Mulley
  • 8,145
  • 32
  • 49
  • 1
    There are other methods if you do not want to install Skype on the system due to various reasons (insufficient privileges, insufficient disk space, memory constraints etc.,.) then choose third party web interfaces for Skype. Websites like https://imo.im/ and https://plus.im/ offer that functionality, however the trust is what you have to weigh in to use them. – Nikhil Mulley Dec 04 '11 at 12:37
  • [outlook.com](http://outlook.com) also has limited skype web ui – a13ph Mar 17 '15 at 14:25