Skype SFS for EasyOS and EasyPup

February 17, 2020 — BarryK

I have been asked about Skype a few times recently. A couple of people downloaded 'skypeforlinux' and reported that it does not work.

Yesterday, I received an email from Bryan, that he downloaded the latest skypeforlinux DEB and it worked as user spot:

# run-as-spot /usr/bin/skypeforlinux

...I tried that, and got an error message:

# run-as-spot /usr/bin/skypeforlinux
# /usr/bin/skypeforlinux: line 11: /root/spot/.config/skypeforlinux/logs/skype-startup.log: Required key not available

Won't run as root either. That is version 8.57.76.109.

I got a hint from 'ndujoe1':

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=116884

I downloaded 8.49.0.49 from here:

http://mirror.cs.uchicago.edu/skype/pool/main/s/skypeforlinux/

...yep, runs as root. So, I have made it into a SFS, which works in EasyOS on the main desktop and in a container. In a container, I tested audio, works, but I don't know about how to use the camera.

This should work in EasyPup also, on the main desktop, no container option of course. For both Easy's, click the "sfsget" icon on the desktop to download it.

Note to SFS creators, there is one little trick for the skype SFS to work in a container. /usr/bin/skype is modified:

#!/bin/sh

SCRIPT=$(readlink -f "$0")
USR_DIRECTORY=$(readlink -f $(dirname $SCRIPT)/..)

SKYPE_PATH="$USR_DIRECTORY/share/skypeforlinux/skypeforlinux"
SKYPE_LOGS="$HOME/.config/skypeforlinux/logs"

mkdir -p $SKYPE_LOGS

nohup "$SKYPE_PATH" --executed-from="$(pwd)" --pid=$$ "$@" > "$SKYPE_LOGS/skype-startup.log" 2>&1 &

#200217 BK: wait for skype to exit, otherwise container will terminate...
wait

...I added the "wait". 'skypeforlinux' daemonizes and exits immediately, so /usr/bin/skype will terminate, which will kill the container. The "wait" will wait for all child processes to terminate.

Tags: easy