Ubuntu
skype package

Audio problems with Skype.

Asked by Dylan Lawrence Moore

I've been having troubles calling people using Skype. Mainly calling actual phones but also with calling other Skype users and video chats.

In Skype I've disabled the "Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels" and in Preferences -> Sound I've picked the microphone (Input) settings that seem to be the best (Internal Microphone instead of Analog Microphone or Analog Line-In). Normally I can hear the person on the other end just fine but they can't hear me at all.

Any advice for getting this to work better? I don't necessarily have to use Skype but it's really important that I'm able to make calls. Is this just a problem with my audio settings or is Ubuntu incompatible with Skype?

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actionparsnip
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Does the mic work in other apps?

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Dylan Lawrence Moore (arcenez) said : 		#2

Yes, the mic works in other apps. I've noticed that the recording quality works fine in Ubuntu's Sound Recorder, but the delay is about 2-3 seconds long (don't know if that makes any difference but it seems important).

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Can you give the output of:

wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh; chmod +x ./alsa-info.sh; ./alsa-info.sh

Thanks

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Dylan Lawrence Moore (arcenez) said : 		#4

Here ya go:

--2011-08-25 23:56:52-- http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh
Resolving www.alsa-project.org... 77.48.224.243
Connecting to www.alsa-project.org|77.48.224.243|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-driver.git;a=blob_plain;f=utils/alsa-info.sh [following]
--2011-08-25 23:56:53-- http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-driver.git;a=blob_plain;f=utils/alsa-info.sh
Resolving git.alsa-project.org... 77.48.224.243
Reusing existing connection to www.alsa-project.org:80.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/plain]
Saving to: `alsa-info.sh'

    [ <=> ] 27,247 173K/s in 0.2s

2011-08-25 23:56:53 (173 KB/s) - `alsa-info.sh' saved [27247]

ALSA Information Script v 0.4.60
--------------------------------

This script visits the following commands/files to collect diagnostic
information about your ALSA installation and sound related hardware.

  dmesg
  lspci
  lsmod
  aplay
  amixer
  alsactl
  /proc/asound/
  /sys/class/sound/
  ~/.asoundrc (etc.)

See './alsa-info.sh --help' for command line options.

Automatically upload ALSA information to www.alsa-project.org? [y/N] : ^C
vyst@ubuntu:~$

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#5

Instead of pressing CTRL+C, Press Y and hit ENTER.

Why did you press CTRL+C??

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Dylan Lawrence Moore (arcenez) said : 		#6

Aha, because I'm new to Linux and I didn't know what I was doing. I think this is what you want:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=30f9ae1f86f8cb3e3049627133ed52cdd513a4a2

Sorry about that. :)

Revision history for this message
Best actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#7

Try:

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

Does it work better? Skype can be a real pain to get nice.

You may be new to linux, but try reading the screen when you do stuff.

Revision history for this message
Dylan Lawrence Moore (arcenez) said : 		#8

Works perfectly! Thank you! My one last question is, do I need to load Skype this way every time or can I just open it normally from now on?

And if you are so interested, they day I posted that message I had spent the previous night on the ground at a train station due to a communication mix-up, getting about 4 hours of sleep, then worked the rest of the day in the sun. I'm really grateful of you helping me out, but I would appreciate if you would keep comments like that to yourself. I apologize for posting when I wasn't completely with it.

Thanks again!

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Dylan Lawrence Moore (arcenez) said : 		#9

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.

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Dylan Lawrence Moore (arcenez) said : 		#10

Answered my own question: I tried closing the terminal mid-call. Got it.

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#11

I suggest you make an alias or edit the launcher.