This is something that is quite simple to do, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of good How-Tos out there for it.

If you go the the skype webpage and look at the available downloads, you will notice that there is no 64bit version available for linux. There is a deb available for install on Ubuntu > 7.04 that is a normal 32bit, i386 package though. I am using the latest release of Ubuntu (8.04 Hardy Heron).

There are a couple of things that skype requires before it will install. Fortunately, it is quite easy to install them since they are available in the Ubuntu repos.

sudo apt-get install libqt4-gui

This will install the libqt4-core libraries, and the libqt3-gui package. After that is done, we can install the skype deb. If you just double-click on it, gdebi will complain that the package is for the wrong architecture. Fortunately, since we are working on an Open Source OS, there are many other tools available to us, including those that allow us to force the install.

sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i skype-debian_2.0.0.68-1_i386.deb

The ‘force-architecture’ switch allows the dpkg command to ignore any architecture related errors and install skype. Be sure to use the appropriate filename for the deb package that you download. Skype should now be available from the “Internet” category under the “Applications” menu.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 10:30 PM and is filed under Computers, Linux, Ubuntu, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.