Skype on OpenBSD

[Oko]

Here is the screen shoot of my DeLL Latitude D830 running

OpenBSD foo.my.domain 4.4 GENERIC.MP#844 i386

Is there are any chance that somebody send me the following library

libasound.so.2

from a Linux machine. It is the only hidden dynamic library needed to run Skype on OpenBSD. I linked libsalsa.so.2.0.0 instead of real libasound.so.2
but I think it makes application sluggish.
It is needed for idiotic GUI. This is the version of Skype with OSS static libraries so ALSA and above library should not be needed for audio.
The listed audio device is /dev/dsp (which is synthetic voice on FreeBSD) but such audio device doesn't exist on OpenBSD so I will have to play now little bit more with audio.

Other than audio Skype does work and I am able to chat with people even
to see them since this is Skype 2.0 version

[IdOp]

The library you seek may be in this package:

aaa_elflibs-11.0.0-i486-9.tgz

I chose Slackware 11.0 as I believe it's the last built around the 2.4 kernels, which OpenBSD may require.

[Oko]

I still can not get it to work. For curious installation is described in

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.os.bsd.india/352

except that the Siju is missing key step. In order for Linux audio to work
on OpenBSD one has to have a link

/emul/linux/dev/dsp --> /dev/audio

I tried above library with no success and libsalsa.so.2.0.0 which is OSS
substitution for libasound.so.2 for Linux machines that use OSS instead of
ALSA.

The only thing that I would like to play with is to try Skype 1.2 Binaries.
Those were pre ALSA pre 2.6 kernel and worked very well on FreeBSD.
I looked FreeBSD legacy port 1.2 but Makefile is sending me to NetBSD
as Master city. I looked NetBSD port Skype 1.4 which is by the way wip
pkgsrc not official pkgsrc and it sends me to Skype web-site. I could not find there 1.2 binaries.

[Oko]

Just a quick update. I found Skype 1.4 binaries on NetBSD web-site. The good news is that library libasound.so.2 is not needed at all. However if you try to start Skype you will realize that you missing library libsigc-2.0.so.0 which is easy to find.
I also want to point something I didn't mention before. Linux kernel emulator layer on OpenBSD is NOT working well on BSD.MP kernel.
This is well known issue according to Marc Espie. So you will have to use bsd kernel. With bsd kernel Skype 1.4 is rock stable on OpenBSD but I still have playback issue which is of course show stopper for 99% of us. You can use Skype for Chat if you like.
This time I am more optimistic and believe that it might have to do with azalia driver for my DeLL laptop which I use for testing.

$ audioctl
name=HD-Audio
version=1.0
config=azalia0
encodings=slinear_le:16,slinear_le:16
properties=full_duplex,independent
full_duplex=0
fullduplex=0

No full duplex as you can see but the fix is easy.

$audioctl full_duplex=1
$audioctl fullduplex=1

In spite of that playback still not working. The next suspect is mixer.

$ mixerctl -v
outputs.headphones.sour=dac  [ dac dac2 ]
outputs.headphones.dir=output  [ input output ]
outputs.headphones.boos=off  [ off on ]
outputs.line.source=dac  [ dac dac2 ]
outputs.line.dir=output  [ input output ]
outputs.mic.dir=output  [ input output ]
outputs.speaker.dir=output  [ input output ]
outputs.speaker.boost=off  [ off on ]
outputs.other.dir=output  [ input output ]
outputs.other2.dir=output  [ input output ]
inputs.dac.mute=off  [ off on ]
inputs.dac=126,126 
inputs.dac2.mute=off  [ off on ]
inputs.dac2=126,126 
outputs.other3.mute=off  [ off on ]
outputs.other3=120 
inputs.sel.source=other  [ other other4 other2 line mic speaker headphones ]
outputs.sel=126,126 
inputs.sel2.source=other  [ other other4 other2 line mic speaker headphones ]
outputs.sel2=126,126 
inputs.sel3.sel=119,119 
inputs.sel4.sel2=119,119 
inputs.sel5.source=sel3  [ sel3 other5 other6 ]
outputs.sel5.mute=off  [ off on ]
inputs.sel6.source=sel4  [ sel4 other5 other6 ]
outputs.sel6.mute=off  [ off on ]
outputs.other7.source=dac3  [ dac3 sel5 sel6 ]
outputs.other8.eapd=off  [ off on ]
inputs.beep=85 
outputs.volume=126 
inputs.usingdac=10  [ 10 1110 1f ]
record.usingadc=12  [ 12 13 20 ]

Even setting recording device to mic doesn't help much. I am not even able to record my voice with aucat. Issue is probably fixable with playing further with mixer states but
at this point I will probably move experiment to a desktop machine with Sound Blaster Live audio card on which full duplex and recording works as charm. I will post further on this issue.

Speaking of this stinky DelL Latitude D830 I can report that DVD burner is not connected to audio device so in order to play a regular CD you must use.

cdip cdplay

which is rip in practical sence with files going to /dev/null. So much about quality of DeLL Win Laptops.

[Carpetsmoker]

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-oss

Seems to be an ``OSS-version'', but it still required ALSA library.
Also, sound does not work ... I don't care so much about sound as I do for chat though.
So far, the program doesn't run very stable, in 5 minutes the program has crashed twice on me.
I have similar experiences with Opera (Installed from ports), it's not very functional ...

[~/skype_static-2.0.0.72-oss]% ldd skype                                                                  puffy:21:29
skype:
        libasound.so.2 => /usr/lib/libasound.so.2 (0x4cfae000)
        libXv.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXv.so.1 (0x4a508000)
        libXss.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXss.so.1 (0x4824b000)
        libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x480db000)
        libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x50c4c000)
        libXi.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXi.so.6 (0x57803000)
        libXrender.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrender.so.1 (0x50d5d000)
        libXrandr.so.2 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrandr.so.2 (0x4b3f5000)
        libXfixes.so.3 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXfixes.so.3 (0x4a025000)
        libXcursor.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXcursor.so.1 (0x5391f000)
        libXinerama.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXinerama.so.1 (0x5783b000)
        libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0x4d06e000)
        libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x4882f000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x49b7d000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x4bfc5000)
        librt.so.1 => /lib/librt.so.1 (0x4cd84000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x4a973000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x50f4f000)
        libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x51e5a000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4eaa5000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x553c6000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4e840000)
        libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x54d88000)
        libexpat.so.0 => /usr/lib/libexpat.so.0 (0x52c7d000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x4dcb7000)

[Oko]

Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-oss

Seems to be an ``OSS-version'', but it still required ALSA library.
Also, sound does not work ... I don't care so much about sound as I do for chat though.
So far, the program doesn't run very stable, in 5 minutes the program has crashed twice on me.
I have similar experiences with Opera (Installed from ports), it's not very functional ...

You must be using bsd.mp kernel since you probably have multi core machine. Linux emulation doesn't interact well with bsd.mp kernel. That is well know bug and there is no fix for it. Try running Opera and Skype on bsd kernel.

Opera 9.64 is rock stable on 4.5/i386 stable (release version 9.63 also but it has serious security bug so I back ported 9.64). Opera 10 runs also very stable. You can find unofficial port of Opera 10.xxx on the ports mailing list. Use MARC's server to browse archive since he is not stripping attachments.

Skype 1.4 (which you can get from NetBSD repository) works rock stable.
You will not be able to use the sound though. I was able to get the message working but not full duplex (audio recording). I do not use Skype so I do not care. If you want VoIP with OpenBSD this is how should be done OpenBSD way

http://archive.openbsd.nu/?ml=openbs...-06&m=10838127

Acrobat 7.0 works very stable including on bsd.mp kernel which was a HUGE surprise for me.

In principle Linux emulation is dying code and right now exists so that people can run Opera. FreeBSD emulation is also dead as far as I know. You can not run any 6.0 or latter binaries.

Best,
OKO

[Carpetsmoker]

You must be using bsd.mp kernel since you probably have multi core machine. Linux emulation doesn't interact well with bsd.mp kernel. That is well know bug and there is no fix for it. Try running Opera and Skype on bsd kernel.

Yes, I'm using bsd.mp, this must be the problem then.
Does running bsd.sp affect performance a lot?

FreeBSD emulation is also dead as far as I know. You can not run any 6.0 or latter binaries.

There are FreeBSD 5 and FreeBSD 6 binaries for Opera ... (Not for Skype though ...)

As a sidenote, I really, really dislike Skype I only use it because some people I know will not use anything else Now I have to fire up a Windows machine every time I want to use it ... :-/

[Oko]

Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker

Yes, I'm using bsd.mp, this must be the problem then.
Does running bsd.sp affect performance a lot?

Actually there is no bsd.sp. There is only bsd and bsd.mp. You question has no good answer. OpenBSD still has a big giant lock and uses n:1 threading model. In plain English OpenBSD is not capable of scheduling system calls of single application on multiple processes and making use of them. Actually because of that MySQL will run faster on bsd than on bsd.mp. On another hand if you are running multiple applications bsd.mp will preform significantly better since they will be running on different processors.
So if you are editing multiple videos you should definitely use bsd.mp.
OpenBSD uses too much crypto and randomization to scale nearly as good as other BSDs and Linux. I do not think that a typical desktop user can notice that but if you are running large data base you should keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker

There are FreeBSD 5 and FreeBSD 6 binaries for Opera ... (Not for Skype though ...)

Of course. I switched to OpenBSD from FreeBSD two years ago. Right around 6.1 so I should know at least that much.

Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker

As a sidenote, I really, really dislike Skype I only use it because some people I know will not use anything else Now I have to fire up a Windows machine every time I want to use it ... :-/

You do not have to make excuses for yourself. I completely understand. I actually played with a Skype to see if it can be make to work on OpenBSD exactly for that reason. Unfortunately Skype due to its firewall and NAT penetrating abilities is really wide spread VoIP application. I am a bit surprised by a number of people who use it to chat. I am having hard time to see what is wrong with IRC.

You mentioned that you mostly use chat not VoIP on Skype. If that is the case Skype works 100% rock solid on bsd kernel. I honestly have to admit that once in a while I use it to talk to my uncle back in Europe. My solution was to cut a copy of SLAX with only Skype module and to use it as a LiveCD.

I tried to use SLAX via Qemu so that I do not have even to use physical hardware. Unfortunately only one out of three audio drivers for Qemu supports full duplex mode and that one doesn't work on OpenBSD properly.
That was just not worth of hacking.

As a side note. Wine team and few OpenBSD guys have make really great progress towards getting latest Wine to run on OpenBSD. There are cod auditing reasons as well same security reasons that stirred interest of OpenBSD developers to port Wine. So we might be able to run Skype in Wine soon basically by accident.

Best Regards,
OKO

[BSDfan666]

Originally Posted by Oko

Actually there is no bsd.sp. There is only bsd and bsd.mp.

OpenBSD -CURRENT (..and 4.6?) installs bsd.mp on MP systems as /bsd, so it installs the uniprocessor kernel as /bsd.sp.