Hi,

I use Skype on my Gentoo-box (kernel 2.6.7, ALSA, KDE 3.2.3) but there's a very long delay that increases when calling with somebody. I followed the tips in the FAQ, but the delay remains.

A friend of mine, also running Gentoo, can call from Belgium to Japan without delay, but when I'm calling with him (there's only a few km between us), I have that delay.

Anybody having the same problem? Thanks!

hi, i have the same problem

when i call a friend of me, i can hear him without delay, but he hears me with a long delay of about 10sec or more
i have the same OS config as you!

Same problem. Firewall works perfectly - if i boot the same machine under WinXP (Firewall is running on my server, which acts as gateway, and is configured to forward ports 30000 - 30500 udp and tcp to my machine) I can talk without delay. Works perfect.

I am using Gentoo.

Linux atwork 2.6.7-hardened-r2 #3 SMP Thu Jul 15 15:36:26 CEST 2004 i686 Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux


* kde-base/kde
Latest version available: 3.2.3
Latest version installed: 3.2.3

But the strange thing is - it has worked before! Problem occured 2 weeks ago?!

I am running another machine (notebook) with the same user in the same network. If someone calls me it rings on both pc's and if i accept the call on the notebook (need to - because i work under linux) it stops ringing on my linux machine. I was really impressed. And i don't think this makes the troubles.

I have noticed that delay as well, and I'm using SuSE 9 version of Skype on SuSE 9 with KDE-3.2.3
Delay seems to be around 5-10s... It's always what I say on my Linux box that arrives delayed, not what comes from remote.
I have it on my Desktop, Notebook, using 3Mbit ADSL or ISDN. In both cases I am behind a firewall with NAT.
Processor is not very busy... and it does not depend on network either.

I loaded skype using artsdps and can experience a long delay...
Loading without artsdsp i have no delay

Try running artsd with realtime priority and playing around a bit with the sound buffer (see the KDE Control Center, under Sound & Multimedia -> Sound System). Running with realtime priority will probably have the most impact, but if it's still not good enough decreasing the sound buffer size should reduce the delay further.

Also if you are using an older version than 0.91.0.3, please upgrade and report if the problems disappeared. 0.91.0.3 has some sound-related internal fixes which may eliminate your delays.

I'm using gentoo , and skype version 0.91.0.3

I have latency that increase over time, after about 2 minutes of talk it become latency of more than 30 sec...

I'm talking to other user within the local network (the other use windows version). There is no letancy when he talk, but only for my talks.

I'm using arts with realtime.

any ideas ?

I just installed Gentoo linux and i'm having the same problems as mentioned above. I'm running 2.6.8.1 kernel and kde desktop (so with arts). When I start with a skype conversation everything is ok, but after a few seconds the delay starts. During the call the delay increases in time with a maximum of about 8 seconds.

Does somebody know how to fix this bug???

Geetings, ArmiDuctor :wink:

P.S. I'm running skype version 0.91.0.3

I notice similar problem. Delay increase during conversation up to 10 or more second.
I work on gentoo linux 2.6.8-gentoo-r3 with ALSA sound architecture. I start Skype as a root in such a way:

/usr/bin/nice -n -20 artsd -d -a alsa -D rear -F 1&
/usr/bin/nice -n -15 artsdsp skype

any suggestions?

Kwant!

hello all,

i have the same problem, running gentoo-box, kernel 2.8.1, kde 3.2.3
my sound setup it's the same show in the sticky post

if i start skype without artsdsp the sound quality is orrible...
any ideas???

(a native alsa sound support in skype can solve this? )

I think native ALSA support in Skype would solve a lot of issues really (nudge, nudge, eh?) - I've been fooling around with a lot of setups lately and have found out that 2.6.8+ ALSA OSS emulation is shaky at best. Sometimes sound gets distorted for no apparent reason, sometimes recording will not work at all etc. etc. None of these issues are present in native ALSA applications so I can only deduct that this is a problem with the OSS emulation layer.

I am having some serious issues here at the moment, with a 2.6.8 SMP kernel w/ALSA + OSS emulation. Skype finds the device but is unable to record audio through it, and xmms will simply segfault and die if I use the OSS output plugin. This might be related to ACPI issues or conflicts with other drivers, but I doubt it. Native ALSA sound works perfectly.

So, I'd put ALSA, aRts and ESD output plugins pretty high on the wish list for the next Skype version

i think that this is the ONLY BIG bug/problem that the skype linux version have, i hope that developers will ADD a system of plugins like xmms or add the full native ALSA support...

What is your arts timeout set to in the arts controls?
I keep mine rather short - sub 5 seconds, and have talked for
hours without any increasing lag.
I use full duplex, realtime priority, a medium size buffer, and 2 to 5 second time out. SuSE 9.1 and SuSE 8.2 - both work about the same.
I fire up with artsdsp in both cases.

I have another machine with a sound card that won't do full duplex, and
in that one I don't use artsdsp, but still have arts set to timeout after 2 seconds.

Oh, and where did you get a kernel 2.8.1? :wink:

ok i'm Linus Torvalds and i'm working currently on this release!!!!!



no more jokes, I have got a 2.6.8-r1 kernel,
there was a mistake when typing....
my sound buffer is set to 46 milliseconds
and the timeout is set to 4 seconds
so what's on doc?

Hi all,

I encountered the same increasing delay as well - it's about 7 seconds after 15 mins of talking... Sometimes there is no delay at all, but in most cases there is, even within the same LAN!

This happens both on my Desktop-PC (Ahtlon XP 2000+) and on my Notebook (Acer with 1,5 GHz Pentium M), independent of the network connection I'm using. Operating System in both cases is Suse9.1 (Kernel 2.6.5) with ALSA 1.0.3 and KDE 3.2.1.
My artsd-Settings: full duplex, 58ms buffer, auto-off after 5s

Running Windows (sux...) everything works fine!

Hope that there will be a solution soon...
xxtobi

I'm using version 0.92.0.2 on Gentoo with kernel 2.6.8-r3 (gentoo patchset) with built-in ALSA and kde 3.3 and also experiencing the delay-increasing-with-call-time problem. Everything starts out nice, but after a few minutes the delay noticeably accumulates. I'm on a fast university network calling abroad to another university network.

Has anyone made any headway with this?

The problem I described above seems to be eliminated when I turn off the KDE sound server (arts).

With aRts running, skype starts itself in a special aRts wrapped mode (seemingly regardless of whether it is called through artsdsp or not), and there is a delay that accumulates as the call progresses (even with smallest possible buffer, full duplex, real-time priority, all that).

With aRts deactivated, skype evidently accesses /dev/dsp directly, and in this case, there is no delay even after an hour. So something seems to be wrong with how Skype interfaces with aRts (or something is wrong with aRts).

I hope a fix for this comes around eventually, but in the meantime, the problem can be resolved by turning off aRts.

The reason why skype starts with piping to arts is that in gentoo skype is started through a wrapper that looks for artsd and esd, and if it finds one of them, runs skype through artsdsp.
Probably the only way to get it working fine is to have native alsa support in skype :-(