Skype on RPi?

[prehensile]

Great to hear you got it working

Thanks! I've just added another section to the wiki page with a guide on how to use the SDK to make a test call to the Pi. Which is about as far as I've got with SkypeKit for the time being

[prehensile]

Succeeded with voicepcmhost-rtaudio! Made a call to the Pi this evening, heard my voice come out of the audio port Writeup coming soon...

[Vortex]

Looking forward to your write up.

I have been trying but getting stuck all the time

[prehensile]

Updated the wiki with instructions on how to make calls using a USB soundcard: http://elinux.org/RPi_Using_Skypekit

I have been trying but getting stuck all the time

Yeah, it's not easy. Hopefully the new guide should help; if you're still having problems, post up here or look for me on #raspberrypi-dev on irc.freenode.net and I'll try to help.

[ikookal]

hello all...

how are you thinking to get this skype licensing issue solved? I can't wait to get going with skypekit on the Rpi but I'm a bit scared that after I go through a lot of trouble making some sort of custom skype client it won´t get approved or licensed or how they want to call it.

living in an other country than my family I'd like to use my Rpi to make some sort of standalone video phone system.
will skypekit be the way? or shall i start cracking linphone or something similar? for a number of reasons I'd prefer skypekit.

thanks in advance

[AcerExtensa]

Wow, absolutely nice wiki!

Have got shipment confirmation for my RPi! Can't wait I can start testing and developing with skypekit... On x86 platform all works flawless, hope it will make no troubles with RPi...

[ghans]

@ikookal
I'm with you here - but some Skype "phones" definitely run on Linux.

Easiest way will still be to found a company , prove than you can sell devices/ software
and then pay a shedload of $$$ to Microsoft for licensing.

Lets see how far our "community" efforts get us ...

ghans

[AcerExtensa]

$4000 of certification test fee is only needed if RPi will be distributed as an "Skype"-device. But we build just a software... But I can't find any adequate description for "Skype"-software certification or licensing on skypedev forum... We should ask this here: http://devforum.skype.com/t5/Certification-UX/bd-p/19

[AcerExtensa]

Asked: http://devforum.skype.com/t5/Certificat ... td-p/15352

add thumbsup there

[AcerExtensa]

Ups, got an answer

Hi,

No your solution would be considered an embedded solution and require to undergo the Skype hardware certification.

We need $4000 for certification test.

[ghans]

What are going to do ?
The next time , you should try to advertise it as "App" or "client" - a pure software solution - perhaps that will help.
Just do not mention the OS and hardware

ghans

[AcerExtensa]

It was advertised as Software, it looks like any embedded solutions with skypekit will be considered as an hardware product from skype, and only Apps/Plugins which uses Desktop API can be certified as Software products.

My question on skype was:

Hello!
We (some number of Raspberry Pi users, each with his own skypedev account of course) trying to develop skype product/client/software/component for Raspberry Pi device.

Raspberry Pi is an ARM GNU/Linux box for $25 based on Broadcom ARMv5 SoC board without display(only RSA & HDMI output), peripheral devices(no preinstalled mouse, keyboard, webcam, no audio-in jack) or preinstalled OS. So, each user choose own OS to install, like debian, ubuntu, fedora, gentoo or even LFS and also choose peripheral components they would like to use(usb or SPI webcam, usb soundcard for audio-in etc...)

The question is - would our software pass software certification and can we get distribution key for application, or does such software components for ARM microcontrollers can only be certificated with Skype hardware certification?

Thank you in advance!

[ikookal]

hmmmm, so.....
time to download the linphone sourcecode....

[AcerExtensa]

No, I don't think so. We should go with skype.
Skype on RPi will be interesting for many people and can be used in many Low End and High End projects. Skype box for 25$ + (10$ - 150$(HD Perfomance) peripheral). There is also an interest from XBMC side for skype plugin integration and we can provide that through RPC or pipes.

Don't worry about certification test fee, it's not such a big problem. Keep going!

[AcerExtensa]

Got my RPi today!
Let The Party Started!!!

[liz]

We at the Foundation are also going to be kicking the embedded question further up the tree; it seems the person Acer spoke to really didn't understand that this is just a Linux box, not some special ARM platform.

[AcerExtensa]

/me writing GUI client for skype with Qt

SkypeSDK is really crappy

Is here someone with good designer ability? Fancy QML GUI for skype will be just nice!
P.S.: All my fancy designs looks like Windows 3.1

[ghans]

Any updates on licensing ?

[AcerExtensa]

We need good working client first. Forget the license at the moment, it will all be good.
P.S.: i mean - forget the certification and fees, not the license rules of course

Some advices/wishes on design/layout for client? Maybe someone has absolutely fantastic vision on that? Come on, share your visions.

[Annie]

For chatting only there is a way to use https://imo.im/ as substitute for skype. It works for me inside Chromium browser very slowly but it works. I'm currently using Debian squeeze.

[ikookal]

hi there...

anybody got something working yet?

although i haven't exactly gotten my hands dirty yet i have been thinking..
just in this topic alone, there is a number of people working on getting their skypeclient up and running.
probably everybody has got their own set of specifications and wishes they are building into it.

well that's great and all though i don't believe skype is going to give licenses for each single one of those.
i think the way of standing a chance of having it approved would be gathering our strengths and work on one project, which ofcourse would have to be versatile enough to fit everybody's needs.

I think the way to go would be to make some sort of skype daemon (here I'm thinking of some sort of mpd style application)
something smart enough to run alone as a proper skypeclient being controlled from the command line but which at the same time would allow relatively easily to code your custom GUI over it in basically whatever language you'd like.

let me know what you think..

[daikini]

Recently I bought a smart tv, which has the ability to download apps. I've downloaded Skype and we'll be using it this week for the first time.

I got my RPi a couple of weeks ago and I've been considering what projects I could move forward with. A SkypePi would be the perfect size to turn any tv into a Skype-enabled monitor (minus the camera). Anyway, would this project you're all working on be able to do this for a tv?

I could DEFINITELY see this being an amazing tool for people.

[ghans]

Yes , probably.
The minor problems have already been mentioned.

ghans

[AcerExtensa]

I'm creating now client with Qt4, have tried Qt5 on qtonpi, but it is not usable at the moment(didn't tried Qt5 on raspbian yet, but don't think it is better there). At the moment it is an alpha version with simple gui and only chat facilities(with contacts list and so on). Gui is scaled, so you can use it as simple desktop application or fullscreen app with big fonts and icons to be used on TV. App will provide some kind of RPC communication(REST + JSON/Simple XML/Plain text +KeepAlive) to control it over the network. Android remote control app is also planned.

I hope I'll get time to release first beta version this week for testing purpose...

A SkypePi would be the perfect size to turn any tv into a Skype-enabled monitor (minus the camera).

Why "minus camera"? camera and audio is also planned...

I think the way to go would be to make some sort of skype daemon (here I'm thinking of some sort of mpd style application)
something smart enough to run alone as a proper skypeclient being controlled from the command line but which at the same time would allow relatively easily to code your custom GUI over it in basically whatever language you'd like.

SkypeKit is actually a daemon and you can code your client in many languages... Building daemon for daemon will be just waste of RPi resources and how do you imagine support for many languages? Plugin system with language interpreters for RPi? I don't think this will work well and smooth enough... And what about Video Calls? How do you imagine transition of video streams to plugins?

I don't see reasonable opportunity to develop such kind of M$ like mashups for device with 192MB RAM, 700Mhz CPU and ~700 bogos...

Using Qt5(when it will get stable and usable release) we can use QML for GUI, so it will be pretty customizable.
For WebApps and custom small apps or plugins(like plugin for xbmc) RPC protocol to control main client, read contact list with statuses and possibility to send chat messages will be enough for most of real world use cases, and it is planned.

Of course it is all IMHO

[AcerExtensa]

P.S.: If someone would like to participate in developing SkypeRPi with Qt(don't matter what, core developing, RPC, Android remote App, Design, future QML GUI), contact me.