Sunday, December 20, 2009

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.

4 comments:

wf said...

Many thx for the post :)

Bill said...

i've been trying to figure this problem out for a while.. i'm relatively new to linux. i'm trying to follow these directions but i don't really understand how to do steps 3 and on... it doesn't really make any sense...

this needs to be more self-explanatory..

Anonymous said...

Genius. Thank you so much!

bcat said...

worked like a charm, many thanks!