Make Skype Video Work In Ubuntu

When I tried to use my webcam in skype all I was getting was garbled video. Other programs like cheese worked with the video just fine.

So, I set out to find the answer on Skype forums. Here's where I found the answer.

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-997807.html

#1. Run "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype" at the command line and test the video in Skype again.

(If that gives you an error, you may need this instead: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype)

#2. Create a new file in your home directory called skype. (/home/user/skype)

#3. Edit the file skype and put the command from #1 in it.

#4. Run "chmod +x skype" in order for the script to be executable.

#5. Edit the skype launcher and change the command to /home/user/skype. Substitute user for your user name of course.

Now Skype video will work without the hassle of running an archaic command from the terminal.

Repairing RPM Errors

On SLES10SP2, I was trying to run yast online update, and kept getting a bunch of errors, including this one....

"rpmdb: fatal region error detected; run recovery"

To resolve the problem I first had to do the following...

Change to the rpm directory..
#cd /var/lib/rpm
Remove file locks from rpm directory..
#rm -f __db*
Rebuild the rpm database. This will take a few minutes.
#rpm --rebuilddb

After that completed, I was able to apply updates without incident.

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