unresolvable (!) dependecy problems installing skype on ubuntu 12.04

Question

I'm having trouble installing skype on a new 12.04 install (64 bit). Below are the results of three different attempts and the outputs. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

1. Download skype .deb file from skype website, I chose Ubuntu 12.04 (Multiarch). Open the deb file with Ubuntu Software Center and I get:

   Error: Cannot install 'libasound2:i386'
   

2. Synaptic Package Manager: I mark skype for installation (and the dialogue box for additional changes lists a ridiculously long list of packages to be removed! but anyway) I click OK, and get an error:

   Could not mark all packages for installation or upgrade:
   The following packages have unresolvable dependencies. Make sure that all required repositories are added and enabled in the preferences.
   skype: 
   Depends: skype-bin
   

3. Tried the instructions from help.ubuntu but I get

    $ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
    dpkg: error: unknown option --add-architecture
   

But one way or another I think I sorted this out, so:

$ dpkg --print-foreign-architectures

i386

This is what my sources.list looks like:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main universe restricted multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main universe restricted multiverse #Added by software-properties
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main universe restricted multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main universe restricted multiverse #Added by software-properties
deb http://cran.r-mirror.de/bin/linux/ubuntu precise/
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner

I then run sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade and finally:

$sudo apt-get install skype:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 default-jre-headless : Depends: openjdk-6-jre-headless (>= 6b23~pre11-1ubuntu1~)
 libatk-wrapper-java : Depends: default-jre or
                                java2-runtime
                       Recommends: libatk-wrapper-java-jni but it is not going to be installed.

 skype : Depends: skype-bin
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

I then try also:

$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

I've also done clean,autoclean, dist-upgrade with no obvious effect.Not sure where to go from here!?

Answer 1

Check these steps;

First install the dependencies by this command in a terminal window(or use Synaptic):

sudo apt-get install lsb-core ia32-libs libqt4-dbus libqt4-network libqt4-xml libasound2

sudo apt-get -f install

Then, download the 64 bit deb package from the official website by:

wget -O skype_Ubuntu-current_amd64.deb http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-64

Now, install skype:

sudo dpkg -i skype_Ubuntu-current_amd64.deb sudo apt-get -f install

Source: http://ubuntuguide.net/how-to-install-skype-on-amd-64-bit-ubuntu-12-04-precise

Answer 2

Here is what I've done on the Virtual Machine

1- Install Ubuntu LTS 12.04.1 (No updates made to the system or installation of any extras or even additional language packs)

2- Browse to http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/ and I got automatically redirected to Skype for Linux

3- I selected Ubuntu 12.04 Multiarch and clicked open instead of save. so it got executed directly after download.

4- On initial run, it opened Ubuntu Software center and gave me the same error as you (dependency error with libasound2)

5- I just opened downloaded file location on tmp and copied the file to my Desktop and executed it again.

6- It gave no more errors and just started to install :)

7- Installation took about 10-15 minutes and I noticed that there are Network activity and background downloads from canonical destinations (I guess it was downloading required dependencies).

8- After almost 15min as I said, Skype got installed and I logged to it and made a test call with no issues :)

So; what I think is: - Skype requires active internet connection during installation. so make sure of that. - Re-download and Copy the file to your Desktop and run it from there (Don't know why but just to reproduce my steps) - This is the package I downloaded : http://download.skype.com/linux/skype-ubuntu-precise_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb

• If above steps like I did didn't fix your problem, I guess that there is/are some corrupt or misconfigured package(s) related to dependencies and this is the cause of your issue.

• try to remove/purge all dependencies listed in my other answer and either install them again, or try to install Skype first and see if it made it for you.

Wish this solves your problem :)