Install Skype on AMD64 Debian/Sidux

I switched to running the Sidux distribution not too long ago, at the same time I upgraded to a 64 bit AMD machine. It’s my first foray into Debian based distros and has been pretty nice until I went to install Skype. I won’t regurgitate the other message boards, but in a nutshell here was my solution:

  • Add Medibuntu repository to my apt sources. I had to manually select the hardy.list file to download since there were no sid.list files.
  • Install ia32-libs and ia32-libs-gtk packages via apt. May need other ia32-libs-* as well.
  • Update apt and install Skype package via apt. NOT by downloading from Skype website

I use Pidgin IM with a Skype plugin package, so I have a single contacts list. Bummer is I have to have Skype running in the background so it can communicate via dbus, but it’s better than nothing.

Published by

Tyler Mitchell

Product and marketing leader, author and technology writer in NoSQL, big data, graph analytics, and geospatial. Follow me @1tylermitchell or get my book from http://locatepress.com/gpt

%d bloggers like this: