After many an hour trying everything to get Skype working with my USB PLANTRONICS headset, I ended up uninstalling PulseAudio and… Skype worked! Here’s how I got Skype 2.1b working dandy in Ubuntu 10.04:
First I installed Skype 2.1 beta from their site: http://skype.com. You just download the .deb file, double click it, it’ll open in Gdebi, and let it install.
That’s the easy bit!
Now, with my USB headset plugged in the only audio settings I could get in Skype was PulseAudio. What I really wanted was to have the ringtone come through my desktop speakers but use the headset mic and headphones for the actual call. I tried installing pavcontrol and playing around with it. I did manage to get the mic working there by doing a test call and quickly (and I mean quickly!) switching the input to mic while it was recording but this didn’t get me the call audio through the headset.
*sigh*
Having tried every combination within the PulseAudio control settings I gave up on it and searched for more info. Then I came across a post on Ubuntu Forums [1] about uninstalling PulseAudio and installing ALSA (the previous sound control stuff before PulseAudio became ‘popular’) instead. Here’s how to uninstall PulseAudio. Open a terminal and paste in:
sudo apt-get purge libcanberra-pulse pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat pulseaudio-module-bluetooth pulseaudio-module-gconf pulseaudio-module-udev pulseaudio-module-x11 gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio pulseaudio-utils pavucontrol
NOTE: when you look at the list of packages it will uninstall, it says it will uninstall the ‘ubuntu-desktop’ package. I ran the command above and there were no changes to my Ubuntu desktop. If you end up at a terminal with no desktop, you should be able to get your desktop back by doing:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
I doubt you’ll need that, but I just want you to be prepared.
OK, so now we have no audio/controls, but we can get them back by doing:
sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer alsa-oss python-alsaaudio
which installs ALSA controls.
Now, when I reboot and load up Skype, I have a plethora of audio settings and I can choose my internal sound card for the ringing and the USB headset for input and call output. Perfect!
[1] http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9202903#post9202903
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#1 by Volker Bradley at June 21st, 2010
Here is what I did to get perfect audio using a Plantronics USB headset with Skype in Ubuntu 10.04:
Removed the .asoundrc file with the following two lines in it (if you have created this file):
pcm.pulse { type pulse }
ctl.pulse { type pulse }
As long as this file was present, I could not record sound from the Plantronics headset.
Then rebooted the computer
Do not open any other apps that might use sound like Firefox
Then click on the Gnome Audio Applet -> Sound Preferences -> Input -> and then put a dot in front of Internal Audio Analog Stereo
Then click on the Pulse Audio Applet -> Volume Meter (Recording). You will see a little movement in Front Left and Front Right from the Internal Audio Analog Stereo device
Now close the volume meter.
Return to Gnome Audio Applet -> Sound Preferences -> Input -> and then put a dot in front of the USB DSP v4 Audio Interface Analog Stereo line
Again click on the Pulse Audio Applet -> Volume Meter (Recording). You will see a little movement in Front Left and Front Right from the USB DSP v4 Audio Interface Analog Stereo device
Minimize, but do not close, both screens. Skype should work perfectly now
You can open Firefox now if desired/
If you close the two screens, the sound input from the Plantronics headset may not work