| 1 | = Skype plugin for BitlBee |
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| 2 | Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org> |
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| 3 | |
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| 4 | == Status |
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| 5 | |
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| 6 | One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found |
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| 7 | http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I |
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| 8 | returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it. Not a big deal, I wrote |
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| 9 | it in two days or so (and not because I'm a genius or anything ;-) ). I think |
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| 10 | it's pretty stable, but it needs wider testing. Also see the 'Known bugs' |
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| 11 | section, I really hope those random hangups will be fixed soon by Skype. |
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| 12 | |
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| 13 | Oh, before I forget. I'm not a wizard, the Skype API documentation is |
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| 14 | https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested. |
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| 15 | |
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| 16 | == How to set it up |
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| 17 | |
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| 18 | Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to |
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| 19 | Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so. |
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| 20 | In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this |
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| 21 | package) and `skyped` will connecto to your Skype client. |
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| 22 | |
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| 23 | NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can |
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| 24 | connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped` |
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| 25 | automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.) |
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| 26 | |
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| 27 | - If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee` |
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| 28 | and `bitlbee-skype` packages from |
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| 29 | http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo]. |
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| 30 | |
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| 31 | - You need the BitlBee bzr branch: |
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| 32 | |
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| 33 | ---- |
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| 34 | bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ |
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| 35 | ---- |
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| 36 | |
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| 37 | - You need some additional patches: |
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| 38 | |
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| 39 | ---- |
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| 40 | http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-configure-plugins.patch |
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| 41 | http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-global-conf-may-be-null.patch |
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| 42 | http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-makefile-headers.patch |
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| 43 | http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/patches/bitlbee-more-verbose-on-plugin-errors.patch |
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| 44 | ---- |
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| 45 | |
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| 46 | (Yes, I submitted all of them to the |
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| 47 | http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/[bugtracker] already.) |
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| 48 | |
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| 49 | - Now compile and install it: |
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| 50 | |
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| 51 | ---- |
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| 52 | ./configure |
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| 53 | make |
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| 54 | make install install-dev |
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| 55 | ---- |
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| 56 | |
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| 57 | - Get the plugin code: |
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| 58 | |
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| 59 | ---- |
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| 60 | git clone http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype/.git |
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| 61 | ---- |
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| 62 | |
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| 63 | (Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what |
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| 64 | features/bugfixes will you miss in this case). |
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| 65 | |
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| 66 | - Compile and install it: |
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| 67 | |
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| 68 | ---- |
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| 69 | make prepare |
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| 70 | ./configure |
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| 71 | make |
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| 72 | make install |
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| 73 | ---- |
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| 74 | |
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| 75 | - Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server): |
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| 76 | |
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| 77 | ---- |
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| 78 | skype |
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| 79 | skyped |
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| 80 | ---- |
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| 81 | |
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| 82 | NOTE: It's important to start skyped on the same machine and using the same |
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| 83 | user as you run Skype as it uses the session DBus for communication! |
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| 84 | |
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| 85 | - Start your IRC client, connect to BitlBee and add your account: |
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| 86 | |
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| 87 | ---- |
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| 88 | account add skype <user> <pass> |
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| 89 | account set 0/server localhost |
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| 90 | ---- |
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| 91 | |
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| 92 | IMPORTANT: <user> should be your skype account name. This way you won't see |
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| 93 | yourself joining to `&bitlbee`. |
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| 94 | |
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| 95 | NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently. |
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| 96 | |
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| 97 | == Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional) |
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| 98 | |
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| 99 | Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up |
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| 100 | a VNC server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other VNC servers will |
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| 101 | work, too. |
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| 102 | |
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| 103 | First run |
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| 104 | |
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| 105 | ---- |
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| 106 | vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd |
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| 107 | ---- |
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| 108 | |
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| 109 | and create a password. You will need it at least once. |
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| 110 | |
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| 111 | Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents: |
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| 112 | |
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| 113 | ---- |
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| 114 | #!/bin/sh |
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| 115 | |
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| 116 | /usr/bin/sleep 1 |
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| 117 | /usr/bin/skype & |
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| 118 | /usr/bin/sleep 5 |
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| 119 | /usr/sbin/skyped |
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| 120 | ---- |
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| 121 | |
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| 122 | Adjust the permissions: |
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| 123 | |
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| 124 | ---- |
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| 125 | chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup |
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| 126 | ---- |
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| 127 | |
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| 128 | Then start the server: |
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| 129 | |
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| 130 | ---- |
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| 131 | vncserver |
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| 132 | ---- |
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| 133 | |
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| 134 | Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable autologin, and |
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| 135 | allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it). |
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| 136 | |
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| 137 | == What works |
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| 138 | |
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| 139 | - Download nicks and away statuses from Skype |
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| 140 | |
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| 141 | - Noticing joins / parts while we're connected |
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| 142 | |
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| 143 | - Sending messages |
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| 144 | |
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| 145 | - Receiving messages |
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| 146 | |
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| 147 | - Receiving away status changes |
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| 148 | |
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| 149 | - `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp) |
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| 150 | |
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| 151 | - Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits |
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| 152 | |
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| 153 | - Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages |
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| 154 | |
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| 155 | - Adding / removing contacts |
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| 156 | |
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| 157 | - Set away state when you do a `/away`. |
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| 158 | |
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| 159 | - When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline` |
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| 160 | |
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| 161 | - When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online` |
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| 162 | |
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| 163 | - Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation |
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| 164 | |
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| 165 | == What needs to be done (aka. TODO) |
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| 166 | |
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| 167 | - Group chat support. Sadly I'm not too motivated to implement this at the |
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| 168 | moment. |
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| 169 | |
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| 170 | == I would like to have support for ... |
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| 171 | |
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| 172 | If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please |
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| 173 | contact me! |
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| 174 | |
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| 175 | In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this |
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| 176 | setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks, |
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| 177 | then it would be nice to include them here. |
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| 178 | |
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| 179 | == Known bugs |
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| 180 | |
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| 181 | - Sometimes when you get a lot of messages in a short time, some of the |
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| 182 | messages are dropped. This is a known bug in Skype itself as of version |
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| 183 | 1.4.0.99 |
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| 184 | (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[link]). |
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| 185 | |
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| 186 | == Screenshots |
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| 187 | |
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| 188 | You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here]. |
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| 189 | |
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| 190 | == Changelog |
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| 191 | |
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| 192 | You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here]. |
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| 193 | |
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| 194 | // vim: ft=asciidoc |
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