Chapter 4. Questions and Answers

4.1. I am using Skype for Linux 1.2.x and it doesn't work
4.2. Is there a difference between usbb2k_api and usbb2k-api?
4.3. The audio is very quiet or garbled when using Skype 1.4.99 or later
4.4. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - can you give me some clues?
4.5. Help, I'm stuck! What should I do?
4.1.

I am using Skype for Linux 1.2.x and it doesn't work

kb2kskype requires Skype for Linux version 1.3 or higher.

4.2.

Is there a difference between usbb2k_api and usbb2k-api?

  • RPM-based systems

    usbb2k_api is the program itself (the daemon), which together with api_connect from the same RPM-package will provide the socket for kb2kskype from the kb2kskype-RPM-package. These two should reside in a directory with system programs like /usr/bin.

    usbb2k-api is the startup-script for the daemon. This should go into a system startup script directory, like /etc/init.d/. Depending on the flavor of Linux used there are different ways to then enable the startup-script properly, chkconfig, update-rc.d, rc-update are different ways on different systems to accomplish that.

  • Debain-based systems

    Due to the strict naming schemes and file system hierarchy of the Debian Package management, the files have somewhat different names, locations and structure.

4.3.

The audio is very quiet or garbled when using Skype 1.4.99 or later

Skype have introduced auto gain control (AGC) to make the audio levels better by monitoring your voice and adjusting the microphone gain levels to compensate, however this has had the opposite effect to what was intended on the B2K hardware. Disable this feature by editing ~/.Skype/shared.xml

Locate the section <VoiceEng> <MicVolume>XXX</MicVolume> </VoiceEng> Add a statement <AGC>0</AGC> in the section so it will look like: <VoiceEng> <AGC>0</AGC> <MicVolume>XXX</MicVolume> </VoiceEng>

4.4.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - can you give me some clues?

  • Check if you have automatic restore of sessions enabled in your Destop environment (e.g. KDE or Gnome), if so, try to prevent session restore for kb2kskype and Skype.

  • Check how your system deals with USB-devices and if there might be some udev-rules (on older systems devfs) required for your system.

  • Check permissions of files and directories. The usbb2k_api programs need to be runable by root and need write-access to /tmp for the socket. The socket itself needs to be accessible by normal users. Doublecheck here as well that any permissions are not tampered with by any udev-rules!

4.5.

Help, I'm stuck! What should I do?

Visit either the thread in the Skype for Linux forum or the Sourceforge forum dedicated to this project. Feel free to ask for help or offer suggestions to others.