I'm trying to use Skype in my Kubuntu Breezy (upgraded with KDE 3.5) installation.
I've tried the Ubuntu version I've found on the net and also a klik:/ version, but the result is the same:
It starts well, so I put my skype name and password, press next and while it's showing the "Logging in..." message the computer hard freezes. I can't move the mouse and I can't login from teltet or ssh. It hangs the entire Linux!. How's that possible? Does it happen to someone else? What's the solution?

Hi

Using Skype 1.2.0.11_API on debian Linux Sarge (kde 3.3.2) with a 2.6.8 kernel and a OPL3SA2 soundcard I get similar lock-up/hang. I cant tell if my Skype does use Arts or ALSA or /dev/whatever because it simply doesnt tell.

But, for me it happens first when it starts handling sound: i fire it up, dial some echo / test account. It starts emit some sound (about half a second) and when completely locks up all processing. All terminals/consoles gets completely unusable / locked independent of priority (nice --19 bash).

If you have some other version of Skype, that plays some sound at startup - we have the same sort of sound-related error.

I guess it is related to the kernel or rather that Skype gets the kernel doing something without first checkin if the kernel actually can do what it want it to do. Maybe related to sound-capabilities. Maybe something related to duplex or hardware mixing (because of other bug-reports ive seen).

This does always happen when i try to use Skype. Every time I have to reboot and clean up my file-systems. ((And always the file for KDE:s settings has been broken and ends up in /LOST+FOUND together with my odd-colored socks)).

Thereof I dont like or recommend trying using skype at all - becasue apparently I/we can't trust this software - for example, such lockups on a computer with a FAT file-system could be pretty fatal destroying huge amounts of data.

I have also noticed that there is no menus for setting up sound - like if I want it to use Arts or something else. No menus for networking : maybe I want it to use a proxy not globally configured in KDE... No bandwidth-related settings or tests. Also I dont see any tests - I would like skype to check if my system is enough for it to run.

It would be interesting to try some different sound-setups, but the risk of Skype damaging my hardware kinda prevents me :-(.

Sound is one of the worst things of commercial software for Linux. While every OpenSource application (AmaroK, Totem, Xine, and so) uses ALSA or have completely configurable sound systems, all commercial applications rely on OSS (RealPlay, Skype, Flash). I wonder why they keep using a legacy sound system instead of implementing better sound. OpenSource applications does this, they can use their work!!

Hi!

I experience the same problem. Trying to connect to echo123 (SKYPE STARTED WITH ROOT PRIVILEGES) completely freezes my System (Connecting...). Only the reset button helps. I can't figure out the problem.

Skype started under normal user account, just shows the Connecting...-Message indefinetly.

I have this Problem with Skype Version 1.3.0.50 and 1.3.0.53. The Version 1.3.0.37 was OK, no lock ups!

My computer is not that fast, Celeron with 333 Mhz and 128 MB RAM, but I'm sure it should be enough to run Skype.

Software configuration:
Debian/GNU Linux 2.4.27-3-686, sarge/stable
IceWM, ALSA 1.0.11-5~bpo.1 (www.backports.org)
Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07) using ALSA with EMU10K1

Has someone out there an idea or a hint?

Thank you very much!

Regards

Bruno

edit: More specific information about user account under which skype was started

Hi,
Have seen many issues about Skype "freezing" in various posts. I also have problems
with skype freezing my UI. Have tested various combinations of kernels-distrubutions and
sound sytems. This is my findings, defs:

1) I and most posters seems to mean "freeze" as the gui and sounds stops for a while but
resumes after some time (may be minutes).

2) From my view I don't think it's due to the Linux sound system used. For Skype OSS or ALSA.
The "freezing" occur on a system not having ALSA installed at all. Also having tested with
all "sounds muted" with an incoming chat. The same behavour.

3) For me the "freeze" time depends on how long Skype has been up running, but inactive.
Inactive is no incomming call or chat, or as I test it, no Tools>Options>Sounds>test ring tone
The longer "inactive", the longer the freeze time.

4) I dont have this "freezing" for 1.2.0.18 but for all 1.3-beta = 1..3.0.37,1.3.0.50,1.3.0.53

Taking a strace for skype after some "inactivity" when testing sound revealed long delays
in some "clone system calls". I attach a strace log file. Look for my comments "<---"

Best regards.

I also get such freezes..

They used to take from 5 minutes all the way to an hour. Not only skype froze but the complete system.
With te latest skype th freeze seem to be taking a lot shorter.. today I got one of 30 secs. And after that the skype became really slow.. and unresponsive. At least tis time after having been frozen I could make a call without having to restart skype.

I am using Slackware 10.0 - 11.0 hybrid.
My kernel version is: 2.6.18
My system is a HP-kayak XU 6/300
With Dual Pentium-II 300 Mhz
with 224 MB ram


Axion
--

Skype for Linux Developers,

Can we please have a response to this!?

This has been mentioned ad nauseum. My PC / Laptop / Other PC all freeze sometimes for up to 5 minutes and it is ALWAYS caused by either an incoming IM or incoming skype call. I've tried everything with NICE but it really freaks me out. I have a windows machine also and really the Linux version has a LONG way to go.

Edit:Running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS - 2.6.15-27-386

Brian

Ok,

After doing some testing, if I disable ALL sounds it stops this from happening.

So I'll just use my telephatic powers if I'm in the other room!

Brian

Disable animated emoticons.

Although I tried to disable sounds and the smileys, I had no success. Still the same behaviour.

And... I have to start skype with root privileges. Otherwise the "Connecting..."-Message appears. and nothing happens.

Actually, this seems to be somehow related to the X server. If I click the call button and very quickly press ctrl+alt+f1 to switch to a text VT, the system keeps responding quite happily. I can strace skype and the X server, etc. etc. But as soon as I press ctrl+alt+f7 to switch back to X, the system freezes. So maybe those clone() calls are a red herring.

Skype 1.3.0.x for Debian freezed my (K)ubuntu about 10 - 20 seconds when a call or a chat arrived. I removed that package and downloaded static binary tar.bz2, Qt 3.2 included. That works ok! No freezes anymore.

I wonder, if there is localized version of that Skype? Where can I find Skype.po file?

I also have the 'freezes', and I noticed the LKML thread about it.

Distinguishing symptom seems to be 'soft lockup on CPU' message.
People with Ubuntu + IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad experience this,
so it may be some bad interaction with Intel sound driver or CPU?

http://groups.google.pl/group/fa.linux.ker...362379fc639d633
--
Michal

I use AMD Duron 1.2 GHz and Asus A7V600-X (has internal sound card) with Spectec memory.

Try running skype as a regular user instead of as a root user.

I have had same problem in Ubuntu 6.06 and 6.10. But in my case problem occurs only when I click call button. After freeze I have only click Ctrl+Alt+SysRq+B to rebot system! It's very old problem. Previous Skype version had same problem too.

Hi!

I managed to get rid of the problem by using XUBUNTU.

Cheers

Bruno

Bruno,

What release of Xubuntu are you running? I've had the freeze problem with Ubuntu 6.06 (kernel 2.6.15-27-386) and it happens even if I use a light weight window manager (in this case icewm) instead of Gnome. With regret I have had to return to using Skype 1.2.0.18 with the skype_dsp_hijacker workaround for /dev/dsp problems. For all its problems that older Skype release does not freeze my system and does allow the phone calls to get through - which is after all what Skype is all about!

MikeT

Same problem on Kubuntu Edgy Eft, 2.6.17-10-generic kernel, using skype version 1.3.0.53_API. System locks up completely for minutes up to indefinite periods of time. This occurs frequently and is highly problematic.
Unfortunately, I don't have anything constructive to add. I'm going to try an older version of skype and see if I have any luck with that.

-Jake

Hi MikeT!

I downloaded the newest xubuntu version. I can't tell you exactly which one it was, because I had to give the computer away.

Cheers

Bruno

Just to say - I have exactly the problem that others here mention - on ubuntu 6 Edgy (6.10) and simplymepis 6 which I think share a lot of stuff these days.

I was using 1.3.0.53 (GOLD THAT'S A LAUGH). Now I have tried the suggestion to switch to the static binary Qt 3.2 but still have the same problems. I feel it MAY related to the sound in some way. If I get a call, or a chat, I hear just the first ping or two of the notification signal and then everything locks up. Usually, the system recovers when the chat arrives. Normally I have to wait 30 seconds to 5-10 minutes. A couple of times it has needed a cold reboot. I am really p***ed off with it. Especially as we get nothing from the skype tech's even acknowledging the problem (unless you have seen something I haven't). Today my wife tried to make a call and all sound just died... The WAF is very low. Of course linux gets the blame for a skype problem (As in "Why don't we just use Windows??")

Does anyone know where there is a more active thread on this, or where there is any response from skype?

BTW - I also have Gizmo, which is an excellent program, doesn't have any problems at all but unfortunately, I have to pursuade my skype friends to switch. Not easy when many are using win xp and don't have our problems!!

RJ

meeeeeeeeeee tooooooooooooo.

Skype completely freezes X, sometimes just temporarily (for like a minute), sometimes she never comes back. I haven't tried the ctrl+alt+f1, but I will when I get it to happen again.

I'm running Ubuntu 6.10 (edgy) with all the latest patches. Skype is 1.3.0.53-1, installed using Ubuntu's package manager. Hardware is a IBM Thinkpad t42, 1.6 Intel M with 1GB RAM.

Disabling all Skype effect sounds DOES help a lot, but it still freezes X occasionally. It's really unuseable. I can't believe Skype won't officially respond to this, it's obviously a critical bug that is very real. I've been a paying customer for years and this is just outrageous -- I'm now looking for alternative solutions because I am just "up to here" with this nonsense.

Regards

--booj

PLEASE HELP
I am running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and skype 1.0.3.53.
I consistantly get freezes of up to 10 minutes whenever someone calls me. The freeze is system wide, the keyboard is down, X display is down, ssh for remote access is down. The computer still responds to pings which means the lowest level networking is alive, but none of the higher level servers are alive. It seems to be very easy to reproduce this problem. I have had it for the last several versions of skype and OS updates. It is a serious kernel problem.... no user applications should be able to take down the box this hard. Because skype is not open source, it makes it very hard for any of the many thousands of skilled linux programmers (who program for free) to fix it. We are stuck relying on a few dis-interested skype programmers. PLEASE - pay attention to the linux users and resolve this problem or open the source to the linux project so someone else can repair it. With linux becoming much more widespread, you risk losing a lot of customers.

Lawrence VE7IT

I can't believe that Skype has still not issued a reply on this. To disregard such a serious and widespread bug is like a slap in the face. I cannot use skype until it stops hardlocking my system. I therefore plan to use OpenWengo instead. It's open source, uses open protocols (SIP), has native ALSA support, native webcam support, and, best of all, does not hardlock my system.
Skype, please take note, you have lost a customer.

-Jake

I just want to second everyone else in this thread. It's a VERY REAL problem that forces a lot of us to move from Skype to other messaging clients. I am also a paying customer, so this problem causes Skype to loose business. And I wonder why there is no response from Skype on this issue (official or not), as it is clearly a bug...

Same problem for Ubuntu, have tried with both Edgy and Dapper, each installed on two different systems with different sound cards. Skype installed from skype .deb repository. Disabling animated emoticons and sound does not help. Running skype as a regular user, incoming calls and chats freeze system for up to a couple minutes, the freeze lasts longer the longer skype has been inactive. Very annoying.

Hi, okay. Just an official reply on this issue (finally).

This issue has been one of ongoing debate between Ubuntu developers, ALSA developers, kernel developers and Skype developers, and actually caused a mini-flamewar on LKML at one point due to what happens.

Basically, Skype was requesting the highest runtime priority available. On some Ubuntu/Debian, this appears to be realtime, which is fine. However, when combined with ALSA, this seems to produce an awkward race condition within itself, causing a kernel lock-up for an indeterminate period of time.

We have spent numerous resources on dealing with this problem, and I'm happy to say that it now appears fixed in latest builds and you can look forward to a Skype without system lock-ups in the 1.4 release, which we hope to have available for forum users shortly.

Thanks to everyone for your patience through this, I realise it has been frustrating (trust me, it's been incredible frustrating for us internally). Things weren't really said as there was always active development going on, and we were always hopeful that it had been fixed, but unfortunately in all 1.3 releases, it continued to veer its ugly head.

Things are a looking a whole lot brighter, cheer up!

Andrew.
Linux UI Developer.

Thank you Andrew for the encouraging news.

Now, please post us a link to the new installer for Skype/linux 1.4

/P

Just how *shortly*? I get the impression that a LOT of users (myself included) are clamouring to get their hands on this new fixed version.

Also, does Ubuntu 7.x alleviate matters at all? I intend to give that a try at least...

Hi, just a short update. I'm using Fedora Core 6 with fluxbox-1.0.0-0.2.rc3 as widow manager and the new version of Skype (the one you just said it will fix the freezing of system) is still crushing my machine. I have to kill the window manager in order to be able to do some work. Why is freezing? I have no darn clue. I disabled every gizmo I could find (don't care about nice pop-ups, sounds, blah-blah - I care only on chat-ing and calling functionality) and the same effect - my perfect (till upgraded skype) linux box is on its knees. What I don't understand is how in the God's name applications like Pidgin, Koppete, or others that intensively use animated graphics don't load the system at all and this...this...lets name it "application" is killing it?! I would happily use some other means of communication if it wasn't a damn corporate policy to use Skype (anyway...skype on Linux because skype on win32 works ok).

later edit: hmmm..the static version seems to work. Still puzzles me the difference between versions (since I have QT4 installed as a dependency required by skype package).

Bogdan

Hi -- we've replicated this internally as an issue between Qt4 and fluxbox. We're trying to work out what exactly is causing it, but haven't been able to resolve it yet.

Just to note to others viewing the thread, this is completely unrelated to the original Debian/Ubuntu lock-up issue this thread was about, which is indeed gone in 1.4.

Andrew.

I for one want to thank you for this post. I'm building up a new laptop, and have this problem. And I'm running Fluxbox.

You're informative post just saved me tons of debugging time.

For what it's worth, my system hangs most often when I try to open a chat window. It totally freezes Xorg such that I have to power cycle. I don't start Skype anymore because of this.

Yes, it hangs when opening chat window.
You can use static skype build, it should work fine (older Qt4 version doesn't have this fluxbox allergy).

I have closed this thread as it is getting bit off topic.

You can follow the original problem in topic:
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=90229