Skype from .deb crashes in various Puppies.

[bigphil]

I've just installed a later version using the Deb from their website.
Unfortunately it crashes when I instigate a video call and ends up at the login screen.
I've tried it using Bionic 64bit and Fossa 64bit, both frugal installs, and they both exhibit the same problem.
The earlier versions work OK but I think there are security fixes in the later versions.

I then found Mikes Portable version and gave that a go.
It allows me to instigate a video call but crashes during it again ending up at the login screen.
I've only tried the Portable version in Bionic.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Phil

[ThruHammer]

Phil, according to this page you need both sse2 and 3 processor instruction sets (cat /proc/cpuinfo).

Under "Help" hit Skype Status. Everything appear normal?

If yes, kill off your tray instance, then rt-clk an empty area in the same directory where LAUNCH resides and "Window" >> Terminal Here. Run "./LAUNCH" from this terminal then capture and post the results after any ensuing crash.

[bigphil]

@ThruHammer

apologies for being so dumb but I don't understand what you mean by rt-clk - would you kindly explain.

thanks

Phil

[mikewalsh]

@bigphil :-

Like this:-

This opens a terminal inside that directory. Typing

Code: Select all

./LAUNCH

....., followed by hitting 'Enter', tells it to execute the file 'LAUNCH' in that location. OK? It's the readout from the terminal that we're interested in, y'see.....

Mike.

[Flash]

bigphil, please do not use the word "Help" in your titles. It starts us down a slippery slope at the bottom of which virtually every thread is titled, simply, "Help!" I've seen forums where this is the case and they are useless.

[bigphil]

Thanks for the video Mike, I almost got it right just forgot the ./ - it seems from the video you have the same problem as me.

@Flash - point taken, I'll store it in non volatile memory for future reference.

Regards

Phil

[mikewalsh]

@bigphil :-

Umm.....when you say you've got the same problem as me, are you referring to where it says about "failing to create symbolic links"?

If you're able to initiate a video call, but it THEN crashes, that, to my way of thinking, is more indicative of a hardware issue. I have to assume that at this point Skype has started, yes?

The reference to 'failing to create' symbolic links is a by-product of redundancy that I've built in to the wrapper script. They ARE being created; if not, Skype wouldn't launch.....

Can you copy/paste your terminal readout into your next post, so we can takea look at it, please? Just saying it looks like mine doesn't actually tell us anything..!

Mike.

[bigphil]

Here's the data displayed in terminal during a crash, it launched OK but when I tried to make a video call it crashed.
It's a bit long I'm afraid, where I added a row of * is where I believe it crashed.
I hope you clever people can understand it as it makes no sense to me.

root# ./LAUNCH
(electron) Sending uncompressed crash reports is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Electron. Set { compress: true } to opt-in to the new behavior. Crash reports will be uploaded gzipped, which most crash reporting servers support.
(node:8329) electron: The default of contextIsolation is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in a future release of Electron. See github.com/electron/electron/issues/23506 for more information

(skypeforlinux:8329): libappindicator-WARNING **: 15:27:23.102: Unable to get the session bus: The given address is empty

(skypeforlinux:8329): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: 15:27:23.104: Unable to get session bus: The given address is empty
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]

(skypeforlinux:8329): libnotify-WARNING **: 15:27:26.100: Failed to connect to proxy

(skypeforlinux:8329): libnotify-WARNING **: 15:27:26.100: Failed to connect to proxy

(skypeforlinux:8329): libnotify-WARNING **: 15:27:26.100: Failed to connect to proxy
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
(node:8329) electron: The default of contextIsolation is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in a future release of Electron. See github.com/electron/electron/issues/23506 for more information
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:set-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:set-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
ALSA lib pcm.c(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM mic_call
ALSA lib pcm.c(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM call
ALSA lib pcm.c(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM loopback_call
ALSA lib pcm.c(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM mic_call
ALSA lib pcm.c(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM call
ALSA lib pcm.c(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM loopback_call

******************************************************************************************************

(node:8329) electron: The default of contextIsolation is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in a future release of Electron. See github.com/electron/electron/issues/23506 for more information
/dev/fd/3: No such file or directory
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]

(skypeforlinux:8329): libnotify-WARNING **: 15:29:09.622: Failed to connect to proxy

(skypeforlinux:8329): libnotify-WARNING **: 15:29:09.623: Failed to connect to proxy

(skypeforlinux:8329): libnotify-WARNING **: 15:29:09.623: Failed to connect to proxy
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:get-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
Error occurred in handler for 'keychain:delete-password': [Error: The given address is empty]
(node:8329) electron: The default of contextIsolation is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in a future release of Electron. See github.com/electron/electron/issues/23506 for more information

Regards
Phil

[mikewalsh]

@bigphil :-

O-kay. First, I just want to clarify something....

That looks like a big, long scary list of things that aren't right. However, you can ignore it..!

Current Skype is an Electron-based application....all right? The Electron platform is built around a very stripped-back version of the Chromium browser. Chromium is the "daddy" of Chrome, Iron, Opera, Vivaldi, even M$ Edge nowadays; every single one of them is based around Chromium's code-base; thus, they all inherit its "quirks".

One of the 'quirks' of Chromium is that if you run it from the terminal, even if it fires-up & runs perfectly, a quick glance at the terminal shows a never-ending litany of complaints, and 'moaning' & 'whinging' about this, that or the other not being to the browser's liking. Yeah, I know; if there's that many things wrong with it, then how come it's running at all?

The devs at the Chromium Project wrote it to run this way for ONE simple reason; effectively, it gives a "live", real-time, ongoing debug session ALL THE TIME the browser is active. This helps to make it very easy for all their beta & dev version 'testers' to report issues, and ensures that problems in Chrome/Chromium et al tend to get fixed very promptly indeed.

And because Electron is based on Chromium, any Electron app, if launched via the terminal, will display that same, never-ending list of complaints; a 'noisy' terminal is perfectly normal for these browsers and associated apps, 'cos that's how they were built to work.....

----------------------------------------------------

I take it you ARE aware that Skype needs to run-as-spot, yes..? The .deb package is written for mainstream distros, which expect that you're running from a dedicated /home directory as a "normal user". Of course, this isn't how Pup runs, is it?

----------------------------------------------------

As to why it's crashing when you've initiated a call, hmm..... The only clue I can spot is that block of stuff about ALSA. Skype is written to expect PulseAudio to be on the system, and, with rare exceptions from Puppians who've built Puppies with it built-in, it's not a 'standard' component of Puppy. Normally, Pups are ALSA-only, all the way, so, to get round this, we usually install the 'apulse' libs from OscarTalks; these 'fool' apps into thinking that Pup's ALSA is actually PulseAudio, where in reality it's not. All it does is to translate PulseAudio system calls into ALSA system calls that Puppy can work with.

I would suggest, therefore, that you install them on the system, and then try again. You can find the newest version of 'apulse' here:-

http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/apulse-0.1.13-x86_64.pet

See if that helps. Let us know how you get on, please..!

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

I've now modified & re-uploaded the portable. I've added a couple of conditional loops into the 'LAUNCH' script, to remove any trace of earlier installations prior to attempting the sym-link action.

Mike.

[bigphil]

Mike - I've installed apulse as you suggested and uploaded your new portable.
Unfortunately it still crashes just the same as before.

Regards
Phil

[ozsouth]

@bigphil - have you tried skype for web (login.skype.com)? I had difficulties with earlier packages being frequently superseded, so tried it & found it satisfactory. You'd need either Chrome or a combo of another browser + apulse. If that doesn't work, I'd suspect hardware issues.

[mikewalsh]

@ozsouth :-

@bigphil - have you tried skype for web (login.skype.com)? I had difficulties with earlier packages being frequently superseded, so tried it & found it satisfactory. You'd need either Chrome or a combo of another browser + apulse. If that doesn't work, I'd suspect hardware issues.

Yah, I'd go along with that, actually. In either Chrome, or the Linux build of Edge (as you'd expect!), Skype for Web works perfectly. I'm getting so's I turn more & more online stuff into "web-apps", so I can then set them up with a Menu Entry & launch them as standalone "apps" on the desktop..... This works well for me, since I auto-start Chrome at boot-time with the "--silent-launch" flag; it doesn't display, but it's up-and-running in the background, so any subsequent calls to the browser are almost instantaneous.

(I have ETP to thank for this, since I found he'd used it in his "ChromeBook Pup" some years ago. I've used it with several of the Chromium-based 'clones', on & off, ever since.)

Works well, if your hardware has sufficient "grunt" to cope with it. SkypeForWeb will run in all of the 'clones', but the video support is only there in Chrome or Edge as yet. In fact, if you try to load it in current Firefox, it tells you straight out that the browser is NOT supported. Which doesn't surprise me, actually, given that the desktop client and the web version are identical. Being built with Electron - itself Chromium-based - that's about what I'd expect, if I'm honest.

I'm wondering now what sort of mike (or cam) bigphil is trying to use, TBH, so......yeah; hardware issues HAD occurred to me, too.

Mike.

[bigphil]

I'm using a Logitech Quickcam with an integrated microphone., if I remember correctly its called a Pro something.

Mike - I would be interested to know where you get the Linux version of Edge, I've searched the forum for clues but to no avail.
Does it install and run directly from the .deb file?

I'm currently trying to get Firefox to run Skype for web using the Skype web for Firefox addon. Annoyingly it detects my camera but not the microphone.

It seems Edge or Chrome is the way to go.

Regards

Phil.

[mikewalsh]

@bigphil :-

Interesting. I didn't know there WAS an add-on for Firefox. Have to track this down & try it out.

My c920 HD 'Pro' just works with everything in Linux, because it's supported by the in-kernel UVC (UsbVideoClass) driver.....and that's been in the kernel for some years by now.

I do a 'portable' version of Edge for Linux, too! You can find it here:-

viewtopic.php?f=90&t=1150&p=20452#top

May be a couple of versions behind by now; I haven't updated this for around a month. It'll still work fine, though. Give it a try, see what you think.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

@bigphil :-

Edge or Chrome are better in one other important respect.

You say FF won't recognise the microphone? It won't, either; it will only look for 'default_mic'.....and you cannot set the webcam's mike as the 'system default'. Puppy won't have that.

With Edge & Chrome, however, you get a drop-down list of microphone sources, and you're able to then select the webcam's built-in mike. So, as you say; for Skype4Web, these two really are the only two hassle-free options.

Mike.