source: skype/README @ bfe5a8a

Last change on this file since bfe5a8a was 80d9004, checked in by VMiklos <vmiklos@…>, at 2007-09-05T14:40:09Z

users should try git before reporting bugs

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@frugalware.org>
3
4== Status
5
6One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found
7http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I
8returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it. Not a big deal, I wrote
9it in two days or so (and not because I'm a genius or anything ;-) ). I think
10it's pretty stable, but it needs wider testing. Also see the 'Known bugs'
11section, I really hope those random hangups will be fixed soon by Skype.
12
13Oh, before I forget. I'm not a wizard, the Skype API documentation is
14https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
15
16NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plugin still requires
17a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse
18engineer Skype's
19http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation
20layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or
21not..)
22
23== Requirements
24
25* Skype 1.4.0.99. 1.4.0.74 did *not* work for me.
26* bitlbee-dev >= rev245. Previous versions need patching.
27* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.1. Previous versions uses DBus by default.
28* Python 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
29* pygobject
30
31== How to set it up
32
33Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
34Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
35In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
36package) and `skyped` will connecto to your Skype client.
37
38NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
39connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
40automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
41
42- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
43  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
44  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
45
46- You need the BitlBee bzr branch:
47
48----
49bzr branch http://code.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/
50----
51
52NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of revision 245.
53
54- Now compile and install it:
55
56----
57./configure
58make
59make install install-dev
60----
61
62- Get the plugin code:
63
64----
65git clone http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bitlbee-skype/.git
66----
67
68(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
69features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
70
71- Compile and install it:
72
73----
74make prepare
75./configure
76make
77make install
78----
79
80- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
81
82(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
83package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
84previously used DBus interface had
85http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
86problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
87In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
88`pygobject`.)
89
90- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
91
92----
93skype
94skyped
95----
96
97NOTE: It's important to start skyped on the same machine and using the same
98user as you run Skype as it uses the session DBus for communication!
99
100- Start your IRC client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
101
102----
103account add skype <user> <pass>
104account set 0/server localhost
105----
106
107IMPORTANT: <user> should be your skype account name. This way you won't see
108yourself joining to `&bitlbee`.
109
110NOTE: the <pass> option is not used currently.
111
112== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
113
114Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
115a VNC server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other VNC servers will
116work, too.
117
118First run
119
120----
121vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
122----
123
124and create a password. You will need it at least once.
125
126Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
127
128----
129#!/bin/sh
130
131sleep 1
132skype &
133sleep 5
134skyped
135----
136
137Adjust the permissions:
138
139----
140chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
141----
142
143Then start the server:
144
145----
146vncserver
147----
148
149Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable autologin, and
150allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
151
152== What works
153
154- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
155
156- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
157
158- Sending messages
159
160- Receiving messages
161
162- Receiving away status changes
163
164- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
165
166- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
167
168- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
169
170- Adding / removing contacts
171
172- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
173
174- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
175
176- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
177
178- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
179
180== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
181
182- Group chat support. Sadly I'm not too motivated to implement this at the
183  moment.
184
185- Add a question callback for calls.
186
187== I would like to have support for ...
188
189If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
190contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
191problem may be already fixed there.
192
193In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
194setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
195then it would be nice to include them here.
196
197== Known bugs
198
199- None at this time.
200
201== Screenshots
202
203You can reach some screenshots http://frugalware.org/~vmiklos/pics/shots/bitlbee-skype/[here].
204
205== Changelog
206
207You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here].
208
209// vim: ft=asciidoc
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