On 08/06/14 01:35, Philip Amadeo Saeli wrote:

I'm currently running the stock openSUSE-13.1 skype set up as described in the SDB:Skype [1] article:

linux$ rpm -q skype skype-4.2.0.11-suse121.i586

What's weird is that it was working just fine earlier yesterday.

That was a server-side change by Microsoft. I have one account that was affected three days ago, another one today. The change seems to be rolled out in waves, not all-at-once, as it is usual nowadays in the age of cloud services. (That's an observation, not a critique. I wholeheartily subscribe to the new view that there must not be one defined overall state of system in the whole network.)

Also, I am running an even older version of Skype on another, handheld, linux-based device (Skype version [10017/1.7.113.22.2], (C) 2003-2007), and it works without any problem (!).

Prepare that it won't run any more, within a few days. Microsoft announced it.

Anyway, I did read thru some of the referenced email thread and have now downloaded Skype-4.3 from the Skype site. If it looks OK, I will install that one and see how it works.

BTW, anyone have a reference to the changes in the new Skype-4.3? Has anyone else tried out the new Skype-4.3 on openSUSE-13.1?

I didn't have any problems (well, besides the existing and ongoing idiosynchrasies that is Skype in itself; e.g., the problem to actually terminate it from an end user level point of view, compared to a "kill".) It even works on an old notebook of mine running openSUSE 11.4, without problems. Joachim -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Joachim Schrod, Roedermark, Germany Email: jschrod@acm.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

* Sean <naelphin@gmail.com> [2014-08-05 20:02]:

Microsoft blocked the old version, 4.3 works fine on my 64 machine, just tried a test call and it works properly. I use the version from https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:XRevan86:non-free/skype

How does this version differ from the one from the Skype website? --Phil -- Philip Amadeo Saeli openSUSE, CentOS, RHEL psaeli@zorodyne.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday, 2014-08-06 at 02:22 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:

...

How does this version differ from the one from the Skype website?

It probably doesn't actually differ except in some packaging minutae. The Skype download site only announces for openSUSE 12.1, having been built from a source rpm for "12.1", whatever that means, while the above link is for 13.1 and Factory.

This version has a skype script in /usr/bin instead of the binary, which is instead in /usr/lib/skype. The script contains: +++················ #!/bin/bash lib_path="/usr/lib/skype" dbpath="~/.Skype" for plug in $(ls "/etc/skype/scripts-4/" 2> /dev/null); do source "/etc/skype/scripts-4/$plug" done exec "$lib_path/skype" "$@" "$args" --dbpath="$dbpath" | (sed -e "s|~/.Skype|$dbpath|g" 2> /dev/null) ················++- The binaries themselves have different sizes (~500K), so there must be some slight difference there as well. The original has "/etc/dbus-1/system.d/skype.conf: +++················ <!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN" "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd"> <busconfig> <!-- ../system.conf have denied everything, so we just punch some holes --> <policy context="default"> <allow own="com.Skype.API"/> <allow send_destination="com.Skype.API"/> <allow receive_sender="com.Skype.API"/> <allow send_path="/com/Skype"/> </policy> </busconfig> ················++- which is missing on the home version, which instead has directory "/etc/skype/scripts-4/ with 3 files: 00-xdg-dbpath 20-preload-libs 20-v4l2convert +++················ # -*- sh -*- if [ -z "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" ]; then XDG_CONFIG_HOME="~/.config" fi if [ -d "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/skype" ] || [ ! -d "$HOME/.Skype" ]; then export dbpath="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/skype" fi ················++- +++················ # -*- sh -*- for lib in $(ls "$lib_path" | grep '.so.[0-9]$' 2> /dev/null); do export LD_PRELOAD="$lib_path/$lib:${LD_PRELOAD}" done ················++- +++················ # -*- sh -*- if [ -r "/usr/lib/libv4lconvert.so.0" ]; then export LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/libv4lconvert.so.0:${LD_PRELOAD}" fi ················++- And then the home version has also a /usr/share/skype/avatars directory. There are other differences, like the require list. I don't know the implications of all that. Unfortunately, there is not a requirement for repositories to document what they do, or I'm not aware of it. And I have only looked at one of the home repos, tehre are 3. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. (from 13.1 x86_64 "Bottle" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlPnSo0ACgkQtTMYHG2NR9V6gwCeKPtF6zKwOfbpt3cniEyruaDy 5P4AnA0G8ATKMasKYnEqoIWGLnkau/yM =mfEU -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

* Sean <naelphin@gmail.com> [2014-08-05 20:02]:

Microsoft blocked the old version, 4.3 works fine on my 64 machine, just tried a test call and it works properly. I use the version from https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:XRevan86:non-free/skype

I installed this version and all seems to be well now. I was concerned that they were going to make it weird or harder to use somehow as they have consistently been doing with the Windows versions. I like the UI on the current Linux version much better than that on the Windows versions. It seems to have stayed basically the same as the prev version. Thanks for the help! --Phil -- Philip Amadeo Saeli openSUSE, CentOS, RHEL psaeli@zorodyne.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

* John Andersen <jsamyth@gmail.com> [2014-08-06 19:51]:

On 8/6/2014 11:27 AM, Philip Amadeo Saeli wrote:

...

* Sean <naelphin@gmail.com> [2014-08-05 20:02]:

...

Microsoft blocked the old version, 4.3 works fine on my 64 machine, just tried a test call and it works properly. I use the version from https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:XRevan86:non-free/skype

I installed this version and all seems to be well now.

I was concerned that they were going to make it weird or harder to use somehow as they have consistently been doing with the Windows versions. I like the UI on the current Linux version much better than that on the Windows versions. It seems to have stayed basically the same as the prev version.

Thanks for the help!

--Phil

I just refuse to use any part of Skype anymore. They have totally backdoored it and I see no reason to reward then for that by attracting any users to the product.

I've been using the Venum Tox client ( tox.im ), which lacks the directory services in its early current state, but otherwise handles texts, voice and video (untested by me) and file transfer, completely encrypted, end-to-end, and directly p2p.

I've toxed text and toxed talks (say that three times fast) to friends in Europe and it worked quite will.

These guys intend to go after Skype and beat them with their own stick. Linux, Windows, and Android clients all work. (But the android is a little sparse). I have very little use for this, since most of my foreign contacts just call me on sip.

I mainly use Skype for work purposes, for group communication and collaboration. We are geographically distributed, and it is something that works on everyone's systems (bosses and grunts alike). I'd totally welcome something that could replace it! Hadn't heard of Tox prior to this. I'll be checking it out. Thanks, --Phil -- Philip Amadeo Saeli openSUSE, CentOS, RHEL psaeli@zorodyne.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 08/07/2014 06:04 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

El 2014-08-06 a las 23:00 -0500, Philip Amadeo Saeli escribió:

...

* John Andersen <> [2014-08-06 19:51]:

...

...

I just refuse to use any part of Skype anymore. They have totally backdoored it and I see no reason to reward then for that by attracting any users to the product.

I've been using the Venum Tox client ( tox.im ), which lacks the directory services in its early current state, but otherwise handles texts, voice and video (untested by me) and file transfer, completely encrypted, end-to-end, and directly p2p.

Ran across this little piece of info regarding skype and security considerations. Most may have seen it, some may have not. But skype seems to have made it into the list of information Snowden acquired. It certainly brings into question just what we all open ourselves up to when using closed source code: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/05/encrypted-or-not-skype-communication... Opensouce is not immune, but at least you have the ability to check. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 08/08/2014 11:39 PM, Felix Miata wrote:

Dear <userid>,

We are now retiring older versions of Skype and it appears that at some point you signed into Skype with one of these. To continue signing into Skype on Linux you'll need to download the latest version. The new version comes with improved performance, the latest features and security updates, so you'll get the best possible Skype experience....

You forgot the lines:

to make it as comfortable as possible, we have attached a jar of Vaseline to minimize the discomfort.

-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 9:42 AM, Philip Amadeo Saeli <psaeli@zorodyne.com> wrote: ...

...

*Your Skype for Linux version is being retired. Update today.*

Dear <userid>,

We are now retiring older versions of Skype and it appears that at some point you signed into Skype with one of these. To continue signing into Skype on Linux you'll need to download the latest version. The new version comes with improved performance, the latest features and security updates, so you'll get the best possible Skype experience....

Yup! I got one of those as well at about the same time.

Would have been nice to have received it a few days earlier, *before* they disabled the older version, so I could have been prepared and saved quite a bit of wasted time troubleshooting.

I've got this mail some days ago, but my old version of skype is still working... (Touching the wood though: pulse has never worked fully on my HW. I honestly tried it with every new release of OS but eventually had to disable it.) -- Mark Goldstein -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 08/09/2014 12:31 AM, John Andersen wrote:

The reason Microsoft bought Skype at the ridiculous price it paid, is because the NSA paid the entire bill to get it into hands of someone who could make it accessible to snooping.

That is democracy-corrupting on so many different levels it just boggles the mind... Not only is it incestuous from the "public->private partnership" standpoint, it is even more so from the "microsoft->customer" standpoint... You can carry that syllogism to it's logical conclusion substituting "NSA" for "public" and "citizen" for "customer" and for the parallel conclusion substituting "microsoft" for "NSA". Either way it is the "citizen" on the losing end of either stick... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On Wednesday 06 August 2014 09:01:57 Sean wrote:

On 6 August 2014 04:34, Philip Amadeo Saeli <psaeli@zorodyne.com> wrote:

...

After having applied the most recent openSUSE-13.1 updates (via YOU), I am no longer to sign in to Skype, getting a "Skype can't connect" error message on the Skype UI. I have never before received this error in my several years of using Skype.

Microsoft blocked the old version, 4.3 works fine on my 64 machine, just tried a test call and it works properly. I use the version from https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:XRevan86:non-free/skype

Did not find a Tumbleweed version. Where should I look for this version or which version coold/should i use? -- Linux User 183145 using KDE4 and LXDE on a Pentium IV , powered by openSUSE 13.1 (i586) Kernel: 3.15.7-42.g972d9a6-default KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3 09:26am up 1:18, 3 users, load average: 0.42, 0.55, 0.64 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org