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| Image via CrunchBase |
As a guide for me and everybody else who may need it, this article is now on Skype in Ubuntu.
Skype isn't actually available from the Software Center, but that wasn't a deterrent. I searched, and www.skype.com would have given you the .deb installer for Linux.
I picked the one which said Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit (for Skype is still a 32-bit application).
Doing a 'sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/skype*.deb' quickly performed the installation, and quickly after, I typed 'Skype' in the dash, clicked on the icon that came up, and a flicker. Nothing more.
What was that? What happened?
I thought, maybe my click isn't quite activating the program. So I went back to the Dash, re-typed 'Skype', clicked the icon, and... no, still the same. Tried several times, and no change.
Confirmed that Skype isn't running, I searched the web for similar issues, and yes, a lot have asked the same question that is now running in my mind.
As I would always do, I click on the link that's 2nd or 3rd, try the suggestions, and when that doesn't fix the problem, I do the whole thing again. Which is why sometimes my system gets so messy!
3 days. 4 days. Still not much help I find from the the web. Until today.
I tried to run Skype from the Terminal, and the error message led me to the solution: "error loading libGL.so.1", and I used that as a search string, and I got a long list, as usual, but this particular article made Skype work in my machine. I just find it odd that nobody checked this as an answer, while those that were checked as answers didn't help me at all. Duh!
I simply followed what was stated there (I always follow, sometimes without thinking, really!)
I performed a search first, just to satisfy my curiosity, as I suspect some multiple instances, and yes, I have the i386 and x86_64 instances installed, but as I said, it worked:
1. find / -name libGL.so.1
2. Type and run: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1 skype
> this should bring up Skype; type Ctrl+C to quit, and continue with below
3. Type and run: sudo nano /etc/ld.so.conf.d/skype.conf
> you can also use 'pico' if you like (sudo pico...)
4. Add this line: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/
> Save and exit
5. Finally, type and run: sudo ldconfig -v
That definitely fixed my Skype in Ubuntu. Now, I can type Skype in Dash, click on the icon, and I would immediately see Skype window pop up - and working!
Till then!
