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I have been using Skype for over 10 years now, almost since the initial release, and most of my friends/family/colleagues use it too. So switching IM is not an option.
Microsoft
has recently changed Skype
protocol to force users to update to newer version. I will skip the emotional part a.k.a "What do I think about MicroSoft". If this info is new for you, feel free to read:
The situation is simple I have to update to newest version even on my Linux Mint
machine. Newest version for Linux
is 4.3
The problem I have faced is that in v 4.3 as part of improvements, Microsoft
has dropped the support of ALSA:
So now Skype
can only be used with PulseAudio. I have uninstalled PulseAudio
long time ago because it was the source of countless bugs and glitches. Here is the list (not the full one) of issues I was experiencing with PulseAudio
:
- Mute button mutes the sound but does not unmute it
- Slider of
Pavucontrol
gradually increases the sound to ~60%, then just jumps to 100% - When playing movies, pause buttons stops the video, but the sound continues to play for ~5 seconds.
- When switching between songs or rewinding/seeking in
Audacious
sound becomes choppy - Choppy sound in Youtube
- High CPU usage by
PulseAudio
process. - Sound is choppy in VirtualBox guest (tested with win XP only)
I am not the author of the phrase, but I will quote it here, because I strongly agree with it:
Most problems with the sound in Linux can be solved by removing PulseAudio
So now I face the dilemma: I have to use Skype
, because I cannot force all my friends/family colleagues who are mostly Windows
users to switch to other IM software. But to continue using Skype
I now need to install PulseAudio
(thanks to Microsoft). And, (hurrah!) I get all the old bugs, that I missed so much.
Does anyone have a workaround to this problem? Is there a way to use Skype 4.3
with ALSA
? Or is there a way to trick the system and log in with the older version of Skype
? Or maybe (in the worst case) run PulseAudio
just for Skype
and make sure it does not interfere with the rest of applications, drivers and system sound?
I am using Linux Mint 13: Maya
Any suggestions, thoughts, links will be much appreciated.
I was thinking to set up a virtual machine only for this reasons. Do you think is a reasonable workaround? – Hastur – 2014-09-10T22:25:42.933
Hm... It is not reasonable for me. However it is a workaround and it may be useful for someone else having the same problem. – Art Gertner – 2014-09-10T22:44:47.890
have a look at this thread http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7597786.html
– Fegnoid – 2014-09-11T11:49:22.340@Fegnoid, thanks, this looks like what I am looking for. I will try to test this solution over the weekend and I will update my post with results! – Art Gertner – 2014-09-11T12:12:29.647
Why can't you stay with Skype 4.2.0.11, and which Linux distribution are you on? – harrymc – 2014-09-11T13:43:57.553
Hi, @harrymc, did you read the post? )) I have mentioned that MS have forced out older version of skype. I have provided 3 links to relevant articles. With 4.2.0.11 you cannot login any more. – Art Gertner – 2014-09-11T13:46:47.810
Which Linux distribution ? – harrymc – 2014-09-11T14:29:29.220
@harrymc, Mint 13 maya – Art Gertner – 2014-09-11T14:30:34.290
What's your take on this thread, showing how to make skype work with alsa, with pulseaudio used only for skype but not for the rest of your system.
– harrymc – 2014-09-11T14:38:41.420@harrymc, please read the rest of comments above)) – Art Gertner – 2014-09-11T14:40:07.023
I see it was already suggested and probably didn't work, so some more details on why it did (or not) work would be useful. Just to note that some people say that PulseAudio is much less glitchy if one turns timer-based scheduling off by adding tsched=0 in /etc/pulse/default.pa. As another note, I believe the Windows version of Skype works on Wine which uses alsa, so may be a workaround. – harrymc – 2014-09-11T14:55:50.037
@harrymc, you keep surprising me. I will quote my own comment again: "this looks like what I am looking for. I will try to test this solution over the weekend and I will update my post with results!". So I believe it might be a good solution. I just need to wait until I have enough time to test it on my linux machine at home – Art Gertner – 2014-09-11T15:14:59.010
Have fun with it and maybe with the other suggestions. – harrymc – 2014-09-11T15:23:39.550
The best solution I can imagine for your situation is to set up ALSA with dmix, such that Pulseaudio can connect to it without locking the soundcard. You'd then just have a pcm.!default entry in your ~/.asoundrc pointing to dmix, and rules for skype pointing to the pulse device. I honestly wished I understood it enough to explain to you; it seems to be a pretty common issue for people to have little understanding of ALSA configuration, though. This and this may help as reference.
– 0xDAFACADE – 2014-09-12T01:12:05.350I run Mint 13 maya as well, does anyone have a comprehensive guide to setting up PA and restricting it to ONLY be used by skype? and to not allow PA to do anything else? It's screwed with my system before and I really don't want to install it, but if I do I want to limit it. I have a hard time following the gentoo forum post. – EdgeCaseBerg – 2014-09-15T14:41:12.460
I tried to follow solution on Gentoo forum. Does not seem to be possible on Mint. – Art Gertner – 2014-09-15T14:51:34.103