Wine + Skype, webcam

ceti · Post by **ceti** » Mon May 14, 2007 4:00 pm

Hi,

I bought a webcam, it was detected ok by Bianca, it works fine.

The problem is that I want to use it to talk to my friends. Skype Linux doesn't support Webcams, so I tried to install Skype Windows (latest version) with Wine. Unfortunately, it didn't work (Skype refuses to run).

Questions:
1 - Is there a trick to install Skype via Wine? I just run wine SkypeSetup.exe, as usual.
2 - What software alternatives to Skype do we have? Or is my webcam useless?

Thanks

scorp123 · Post by **scorp123** » Mon May 14, 2007 4:23 pm

Even if you get Skype (Windows) to work under WINE it still could not see your WebCam

... Your best bet would be to use VMware (VMware Server: free as in "free beer") or VirtualBox (free + open source): Both products can be configured in such a way that the virtual guest OS can speak to real USB devices. I personally use this method to transfer files to and from a "Windows Mobile" device via USB-cable and ActiveSync (it's way faster than via IR or BlueTooth).

As I see it you have these options:

- use Skype inside a virtual Windows (VirtualBox, VMware), allow the virtual OS to access your USB webcam

- use a different protocol: e.g. OpenWengo? AMSN (MSN messenger clone for Linux), maybe GAIM or Kopete (both are able to connect to multiple protocols such as Yahoo, AOL, MSN ... the camera might work there I guess?)

BTW, out of curiosity: Which webcam did you buy? Can you tell us more please? Thanks

ceti · Post by **ceti** » Mon May 14, 2007 7:01 pm

Thank you, scorp123. I'll try one of these (or maybe Crossover?).

I bought the webcam for my wife (Mother's Day, you know). It's the Genius Look 312P w/ 300K pixels. It was instantly recognized both by Bianca KDE and Bianca Gnome (of course), I like it.

I bought this model because the camera lies in the nose of a lovely dog, can you believe it? Perfect for women, I think...

Thanks, again.

scorp123 · Post by **scorp123** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:50 am

ceti wrote:(or maybe Crossover?)

Nope. Same problem as with WINE (on which Crossover is based): your program will run inside a Windows-like emulation which has no idea and no clue about Linux hardware and Linux devices and therefore has no way to talk to the camera. You'd need to add some sort of virtual hardware layer into WINE / CrossOver so that apps inside those emulations could see webcams, TV tuner cards, etc. which are under Linux's control. And as far as I know such a layer does not exist yet for WINE / CrossOver.

ceti · Post by **ceti** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:48 pm

Thanks again, scop123, for the clarification.

I ended up with VirtualBox, that looks easier to me. I'm presently reading the (enormous) User Manual.

My son told me that another solution would be AMSN (for video) + Skype (voice). What you think? (sorry to take your precious time).

Cheers

scorp123 · Post by **scorp123** » Tue May 15, 2007 8:28 pm

ceti wrote:My son told me that another solution would be AMSN (for video) + Skype (voice). What you think? (sorry to take your precious time).

Yes, I heard about people who do this. It's a bit painful but apparently this can work.

ceti · Post by **ceti** » Tue May 15, 2007 9:01 pm

Thanks, again.

Cheers

NiksaVel · Post by **NiksaVel** » Thu May 17, 2007 2:58 am

if you're not adamnt about using skype, than I see that we have GyachE improved proggy in automatix now...

It uses YIM (Yahoo Instant Messanger) protocol and from what I see it supports both voice and webcam...

if you do try it out, please post some comments, I would like to hear how it performs.... from what time I've spent browsing the various forums regarding video-voice chat I've come to realise that skype has by far the best optimisation for their streams and other programs just dont offer the same quality... but it's been awhile so maybe they improved...

Husse · Post by **Husse** » Thu May 17, 2007 7:13 am

Tried GyachE improved and got video working but not sound (USB headset - might not like USB)