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I wonder how to install and use Skype in Ubuntu (12.04) on ARM architecture (my Toshiba AC100, which originally ran Android).

I suppose there must be Skype builds for Linux on ARM: for Android, and for Maemo/Meego/Tizen.

Where can one get these builds and how to adapt them for a usual GNU/Linux system like Ubuntu?

(But, generally, I believe that we must be able to solve our problems ourselves rather than depend on the publishers of non-free software. It wouldn't be such an ugly situation if the question was about free software: we could try to adpat it for ARM and build ourselves.

Also, the Skype communication protocol is not open, posing more problems for our freedom and security.

But this question merely asks for instructions for those who need Skype working on their ARM computers, without the concerns about freedom and considerations of other VoIP protocols and software.)

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Skype has no official support for any ARM based device, as you alreay know, you could create a debian package on your own. Extracting the meego package, repackage it with adapted paths. Use ld/ldd to get any dependencies. Be aware that this may or may not work depending on the compiler options used for skype/ubuntu (ARM ABI, hard/soft float, neon extensions, ...).

You should also be aware of license restrictions, i.e. repackaging and/or redistribution may be prohibited.

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  • But it's not clear how to get the package for Meego. That's why I'm asking.
    – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
    Sep 1, 2012 at 10:26
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    The N9 out of the box firmware has it installed by default - so all you need to find is a firmware image of the Nokia N9, mount it (via mount -o loop /binary-firmware-image/some/mount/point, you may to figure out which partition of the blob to use, in case it has multiple, I do not know about that)
    – drahnr
    Sep 1, 2012 at 21:21
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    talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=81697
    – drahnr
    Sep 1, 2012 at 21:22
  • As for the official support of Skype for ARM: But I've stumbled upon a discussion of smth from Skype for even armv6 (like in Raspberry Pi): devforum.skype.com/t5/Compiling-Runtimes/… and devforum.skype.com/t5/Compiling-Runtimes/… . So there might be something offcial for the more powerful ARM machines. But I agree: getting a working build from Meego should be simpler solution..
    – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
    Sep 2, 2012 at 4:08
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    I once read they intended to ship a libskype library with a public api (about 2 years ago), so projects like ekiga, pidgin, empathy, etc could use it - but that's still vaporware. Trust the code, not announcments.
    – drahnr
    Sep 2, 2012 at 9:47

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