Curing Skype's Ugliness on Ubuntu

Tuesday, April 04

For anyone interested in installing Skype on Ubuntu linux and making it not look like shit, here’s how I did it (ubuntu breezy + gnome, that is).

Download and install Skype using dpkg,

$ wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-deb
$ sudo dpkg -i skype_1.2.0.18-2_i386.deb

Go ahead and launch Skype from the Applications/Internet menu (or by typing skype on the console) and notice how ugly it looks while shaking your head in dissapointment. Now close it and prepare for its extreme makeover.

Qt is a cross platform development framework on which Skype is dependent and version 3.2 should already be installed. You will however need to install the qtconfig manager, a theme called ‘polymer’, and using qtconfig, apply said theme. Unless, of course, you are into the ugly look, in which case I urge you to avoid reading on.

$ sudo apt-get install qt3-qtconfig
$ wget http://www.informatik.tu-cottbus.de/~mkrause/debian/polymer/polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i polymer_0.3.2-1_i386.deb

When dpkg is finished its dance, launch the qtconfig program in the following manner,

$ qtconfig

Other than making sure you select ‘Polymer’ as the GUI Style under the Appearance tab, you are free tweak things to your heart’s content. I set my font to 9pt sans-serif.

Launch Skype again for the reveal and say a quiet thank-you to these guides:

How have I managed to avoid Skype for this long, I wonder.

Comments

Leave a response

  1. Aaron M – April 04, 2006 @ 01:38 PM

    FYI: That’s an outdated version of Polymer. You can get a never Ubuntu package for it here at kde-look.

  2. joe p – May 04, 2006 @ 12:00 PM

    I tried this, but it failed to configure. Warning…I just installed Linux today, and am a complete linux noob. Here is the error msg.

    Any ideas about what went wrong?

    sudo dpkg -i skype_1.2.0.18-2_i386.deb

    (Reading database … 56731 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace skype 1.2.0.18-2 (using skype_1.2.0.18-2_i386.deb) ... Unpacking replacement skype … dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of skype: skype depends on libqt3-mt | libqt3c102-mt (>= 3:3.3.3.2); however: Package libqt3-mt is not installed. Package libqt3c102-mt is not installed. skype depends on libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.4-1); however: Package libstdc++5 is not installed. dpkg: error processing skype (—install): dependency problems – leaving unconfigured Errors were encountered while processing: skype

    Thanks,

    Joe