Linux Skype 4.2 won't sign in

Is there any known problem with Skype 4.2? I'm running Mint 16.

Tried various methods to get to Skype 4.3, which is apparently what's available, but of course this is linux.

P

 

Skype on linux has always been a crash-happy pain in the arse [not much better on windows tbh...]

for installing/upgrading to 4.3 - if you haven't already, uninstall the repo version, and grab the .deb straight from here [you want the 'Ubuntu 12.04 (multiarch)' one]... I found the package in the *buntu repo causes nothing but problems...

 

Tried all that. It still says 4.2 in the title bar of the window that pops up when I start skype. I even tried issuing some "apt-get remove skype" type stuff.

No idea what's going on.

P

 

try 'apt-get purge skype' [removes app and any left-over settings]

then if you've downloaded the one from the website

cd ~/Downloads [or where it's downloaded to]
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

or iirc, you should be able to double-click the .deb and install it that way [assuming nothing's changed in ubuntu or mint since I last used them]

running 'apt-get install skype' just re-acquires the repo version

EDIT: i know you an linux don't get on, you're frequently very vocal about it... but if i can help you get the [admittedly unreliable on linux] skype working without it descending into that argument, I will.

 

have you updated your repository's?

Remove skype

apt-get purge skype

update your repos

aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade

then try and install and see what version you get

apt-get install skype

 

I'm always a bit concerned about "update" or "upgrade" commands on apt, but we'll see.

Edit: Er, yes. It's spat out 400,000 lines of incomprehensible debug, and is now asking:

Code:

configuration file /etc/gnome/defaults.list
  ==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation
  ==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version
    What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
    Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O: keep your currently-installed version
    D : show the differences between the versions
    Z : start a shell to examine the sitaution
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** defaults.list (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?

Needless to say I have no idea what to do here.

P

 

It's saying that an update wants to modify a file that's already been modified,

You can either overwrite the exisiting version with the on from the update [Y or I]
Keep the existing version [N or O, this is the default action if you press enter with no response]
View the difference between the two versions [D]


In this case i'd just overwrite the file.

 

I appreciate what it's saying, I just...

Oh, let's do that, then. Here goes nothing.

I get Skype 4.2. Again.

I thought it was supposed to be easy to keep linux up to date? I mean, I don't want to be divisive, but this sort of stuff is exactly why the thing gets a bad rep.

 

usually, it's a lot less of a ballache than this...

did you install it from the .deb you get from the skype website or 'apt-get install skype'?

If you're doing the latter and it's still coming back as 4.2, the newer version hasn't been uploaded to the repo by the powers that be yet [which is a frequent, yet annoying occurrence for some apps]... personally for things like skype i grab it direct from the developer for this very reason...

 

Windows XP has been out of support since April 2014, and I can still get Skype for that!

Is there some way of updating the OS in place, or is this a reinstall job? Because I really can't be bothered, just for skype.

 

That's not helped by Mint's 'don't upgrade, reinstall from fresh' attitude to new versions... though tbh I should've spotted that it was an older version... it's hard to keep track when you're not using them day in day out...

Downloading straight from the skype website should still rectify it if Phil can't/doesn't want to upgrade...

 

You can, but it's a bit of a pain, [a lot of a pain tbh, though Gareth will probably disagree] as as i said, mint themselves tell their users to reinstall from fresh whenever a new version comes out... I struggle to recommend Mint because of this...

if you want to give it a shot this will run you through upgrading from petra [16] to qiana [17]

once you've done that you can do the same again, replacing 'qiana' with 'rebecca' for the current version [17.1], the 'trusty' bits remain the same.


however tempting it is, don't try and jump straight from 16 to 17.1... whilst 17 and 17.1 are both based on Ubuntu Trusty LTS, you're less likely to break something doing it one version at a time...

 

Before Phil edges further towards the argument i've been trying to keep this thread away from by saying 'well that's bloody stupid, why doesn't linux do in-place upgrades?'

A lot of distros, including but not limited to - vanilla *buntu and fedora do [though the latter's in-place upgrade can be a bit hit-n-miss]... Mint just happens to be one of the ones that doesn't...

Typically the ones that are built on top of another distro [like mint] don't, as they have to try and juggle their own updates with updates to the underlying distro [*buntu in mint's case]. It's also why new versions of mint lag behind new version so *buntu by a month or two, and also why they've now taken to basing it upon the Long Term Support version to help alleviate the problem.

 

Downloading it directly from the skype site is more or less the first thing I tried, in the full (and as it turned out correct) knowledge that there would be downloads for this week's most fashionable distros, and not one for Mint.

For this reason I often get the feeling that people should be very cautious about saying that certain software is available "for linux". It might be available for Debian or Ubuntu or whatever, but there are very few things that are really available for all the variations. It is a puzzlement.

P

 

As I said above you want the 'Ubuntu 12.04 (multiarch)' package... Mint is based on ubuntu, so you want the ubuntu package. [it really should say '12.04 or later' tbh]...

I know it's confusing as it doesn't say 'this is the one you want if you have Mint' and a bit misleading by implying it's only available for a 3-year-old distro... but blame MS for that, not the distro makers...

I do know your pain though, I'm typically a Fedora user, me and ubuntu don't get along... And it annoys me no end when a lot of devs think 'linux' == 'ubuntu' [Spotify i'm looking at you]... I know Ubuntu [and derivatives like Mint] is the popular one, and trying to keep tabs on every linux distro is an exercise in futility, but it's an annoyance all the same...

EDIT: You have to think of it a bit like a custom car... If you want spares, you need to know the car it's based on to know what to look for - In your case, it'll rarely state 'Works on Linux Mint' [though some packages do], so you instead need to look for a package for the underlying distro [*buntu]...

 

So you're telling me to use software intended for another version of linux entirely. After we've been through a load of commandline hell and been told that I'm using the wrong distro and should reinstall from scratch.

Sorry, this whole escapade has just kicked me into full-blown linux hilarity mode, now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLmd0100T9g