[SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

Salkay · 2016-07-30 00:24:15

It looks like (legacy) Skype has been removed from the repositories. This was the package literally named "skype".

The wiki states that for this version, "Video and voice chat no longer works." However, this is simply incorrect. I have two computers running Arch Linux, both with skype 4.3.0.37-7 installed. I just tested again, and video and voice chat work perfectly. Does anyone know why this package was removed?

Last edited by Salkay (2017-05-08 22:56:52)

Scimmia · 2016-07-30 00:59:35

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/50190

Salkay · 2016-07-30 01:14:44

Thanks Scimmia. I'm presuming that numerous people still use Skype, so where to from here? Presumably filing a new bug report to get it back into the repositories will fail. Should I just create an AUR package?

TheChickenMan · 2016-07-30 01:24:19

Maybe https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/skypeforlinux-bin/ will be moved to be the new "skype" package soon? I would have thought the old package would have been moved to the AUR when it was removed but I don't see it there. It looks just gone now. I don't much like skype but a lot of people that I know use it and expect to be able to contact people using it so I do need to keep it installed.

Salkay · 2016-07-30 01:38:07

Yes, I hate it as well, but unfortunately it's a de facto standard for many contacts, so I need it too. (Also FWIW, as opposed to the bug report, it's always worked fine for me, at least when communicating with the most recent OS X client. I can't say for Windows.)

Also, I think the AUR's skypeforlinux-bin is the "new" alpha, not the "legacy" working version.

Last edited by Salkay (2016-07-30 01:43:34)

TheChickenMan · 2016-07-30 01:53:32

Salkay wrote:

Also, I think the AUR's skypeforlinux-bin is the "new" alpha, not the "legacy" working version.

It is the new alpha. I still think I like the older version better but maybe I'm just old and crufty and don't like change.
I was saying that maybe the package for the new alpha will be moved eventually to replace the legacy version as the "official" skype.

Scimmia · 2016-07-30 02:02:35

You've already got the package and it's available in the ALA. There's no more updates anyway, so what does it matter if it's in the multilib repo or not?

TheChickenMan · 2016-07-30 02:30:02

Scimmia wrote:

You've already got the package and it's available in the ALA. There's no more updates anyway, so what does it matter if it's in the multilib repo or not?

It doesn't really matter, not is it entirely unexpected. I guess I was just trying to speculate about the best course of action for those, myself included, that continue to need the application. After checking out the new alpha package from the AUR, I will probably continue to use the old legacy package until it breaks and hope that by then the replacement has been made a bit better than it is now. It's not terrible but it feels a lot less native. The new alpha has like a chromebook app feel which doesn't really seem as nice with my desktop. It might be worth adding the legacy skype to the AUR (if it's not already there soon) for people that wish to install and use that for the time being.

Salkay · 2016-07-30 06:21:26

TheChickenMan wrote:

It is the new alpha. I still think I like the older version better but maybe I'm just old and crufty and don't like change.

According to the wiki, video chat doesn't even work in the new one. So I'm stuck with the old version for now, where video chat at least works.

Scimmia wrote:

You've already got the package and it's available in the ALA. There's no more updates anyway, so what does it matter if it's in the multilib repo or not?

1. It would allow others to install it more easily.
2. Currently AUR helpers (e.g. pacaur) complain that it's not available on updates, and kalu also complains. For the latter, I could manually add it to the blacklist, although if I had to do that for every package, it'd get tedious soon…

I'm happy to move the old skype PKGBUILD to the AUR, but I'm not sure where to find it now… ALA just has pre-compiled packages, not PKGBUILDs.

##EDIT
I found the old version at vABS. skype is now in the AUR.

Last edited by Salkay (2016-07-30 06:38:22)

woodape · 2016-07-30 07:21:37

I've also never had a problem with the (now old) skype client, used group calls, video, audio. The new one isn't of any use to me either until it actually supports video calls. It is very much an alpha release.

I can't understand why something that works would be dropped for something that is only in early testing, even if it is no longer supported.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-07-30 11:07:15

I thought Skpe were moving to a browser-based client.

https://web.skype.com/

R00KIE · 2016-07-30 12:00:43

I also find this move a bit premature. Neither skype for web or the new skypeforlinux have feature parity with the old client, not supporting video calling is a deal breaker.

Trilby · 2016-07-30 12:03:57

Salkay wrote:

2. Currently AUR helpers (e.g. pacaur) complain that it's not available on updates

That is completely irrelevant to this thread. If anything that is a bug/feature-request to be passed to the aur-helper developer. There are countless ways one might have local packages that are not in the repos or the AUR. If your aur-tool can't cope with that in a reasonable way, the fault lies with the aur tool.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-07-30 00:24:15

[SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#2 2016-07-30 00:59:35

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#3 2016-07-30 01:14:44

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#4 2016-07-30 01:24:19

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#5 2016-07-30 01:38:07

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#6 2016-07-30 01:53:32

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#7 2016-07-30 02:02:35

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#8 2016-07-30 02:30:02

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#9 2016-07-30 06:21:26

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#10 2016-07-30 07:21:37

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#11 2016-07-30 11:07:15

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#12 2016-07-30 12:00:43

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

#13 2016-07-30 12:03:57

Re: [SOLVED] Skype removed from repositories?

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