skype - Two Linux Mint 16 systems Skyping--one can see both parties on webcam, the other can see neither

07
2014-07
  • Kev

    I installed Linux Mint 16 32-bit edition on my netbook and a friend's laptop. When we Skype, I can see her live image, and I can see my own live image, so everything looks and sounds right on my end. On her end, she can see neither of our webcam images--just a static avatar for me, and a black box where her webcam image should be. Stranger still, in the Skype options under Video Devices, it says "no devices found"! That's really funny to me, because if Skype can't find a webcam device, how is it broadcasting from it to me over the internet? But more to the point, how can we get it so she can see me?

    Just FYI, Skyping with her from a Windows machine also works on my end but not hers: again, I can see both her and I, and she can see neither of us.

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    Related Question

    ubuntu - webcam problem with skype on linux
  • Ayoub

    I am runing ubuntu 9.10 and the latest version of skype but I have problem with webcam. When I trie the webcam with cheese it works fine but when I try to use the web on skype , skype crashes. can any body help me


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  • Benjamin Bannier

    Skype cannot directly interact with video4linux. You need to load an extra library (v4l1compat.so) for the compatibility layer:

    # LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

    Maybe you need to adjust the library path for your setup.

    To make this permanent just add this variable to /usr/bin/skype: add

    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so; export LD_PRELOAD

    e.g. on the 2nd line there.

    Maybe you also want to report this in your distribution's bugtracker.

  • Frepa

    The question is old but the problem still exists. As honk says, setting LD_PRELOAD to the v4l1compat.so library works.

    On my 64-bit ubuntu 12.04, this worked:

    LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

    I have a 32 bit skype, so the library should match that.

    I want to launch skype with a panel icon. I put this in the command field:

    bash -c "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype"

    This avoids creating a separate script file. Without bash however, it does not work.

  • Todd Harris

    I couldn't add to the /usr/bin/skype file either (it is a binary file). Anyhow here is my workaround:

    1) in my home folder I made a file (using gedit) that contained - 

    #! /bin/bash

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

    2) then added an application link to my menus -

    bash /home/yourusername/skype_with_video.sh

    (the Skype icon should be in the /usr/share/icons/ folder for the link)

    Not elegant, but it works.