May 25, 2008

How-To: Install Skype 2.0 in Debian Lenny

Note: This how-to may also work in Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions.

Skype is a very popular closed-source application for voice conferences and chat. It gained a lot of popularity in the last couple of years, becoming one of the most used applications for internet conversations. The latest release of Skype for Linux is 2.0.

To install Skype, you will first need to get all of its dependencies:

apt-get install libasound2 libc6 libgcc1 libqt4-core libqt4-gui libsigc++-2.0-0c2a libstdc++6 libx11-6

Note: You have to be root in order to install software in Debian. To login as root type su in any console and enter the root password. The password goes in as you type it even if no output is shown.

Note: Ubuntu users, prefix these commands with sudo since the root account is disabled by default in Ubuntu, then enter your user password.

Next, download the Skype Debian Etch package from here. At the time of writing the package is called skype-debian_2.0.0.68-1_i386.deb. To install it, open a console and type as root:

dpkg -i skype-debian_2.0.0.68-1_i386.deb

Or whatever your package is called. You should now have Skype installed. To run in, type in a console skype and it should start. Alternately, press ALT+F2 and in the Run dialogue that appears type skype, then Enter.


To remove Skype, issue the following command as root:

dpkg -r skype

Updated: Jul 01, 2008 (Created: May 30, 2008)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It works perfectly, thanks !

chris said...

yup worked fine first time on 2 debian lenny boxes, one a laptop - running Linux bigbox 2.6.26-2-686-bigmem.

chris said...

only thing i had to do was change the version number for the downloaded .deb package - its gone up a couple of minor versions

Jip said...

It worked for me, thanks!