I had been running Mint 17 when I bought a new CPU. I installed Mint 17.1 on it and all has worked OK except Skype. It is important since I have family in other countries.

Sound in works and I can record sound. But in Skype I can hear but not speak. For a 64 bit machine I read that libasound2-plugins should be installed, but they were installed with Mint. I am running Skype 4.3.0.37 that is the latest (as far as I know) for Linux. The pulseaudiovolume control shows a strong mike input.

I am running the MATE version. Hopefully someone out there has worked with this problem. The couple of suggestions in the Skype forum did nothing.

Many thanks,

José

The problem is that Skype is a 32-bit application. You do need libasound2-plugins, but you need to make sure you have the 32-bit version installed

Then you should be able to start Skype with

This has worked for me in the past. I would recommend checking out Google Hangouts over Skype as it seems to have better Linux support than Skype (which is now owned by Microsoft).

Thanks for getting back to me. The libasound2-plugins:i386 were already installed with Mint. I made a try starting Skype the way you mention, but I am afraid that that did not do it. It is a very strange problem.

Just curious: are you running the 64 bit version of skype or the 32 bit version? Microsoft has stated that their 64 bit version has lots of bugs in it.

That is a good question. I simply installed the version offered in Package Manager, but don't know what version it would be. It could be that it loaded a 64 bit version since my machine is 64 bit, but don't know how to tell the difference.

Look for the 32 bit version on the net(Microsoft's website) download the Linux 32 bit version.............uninstall your current version, then install the 32 bit version.

I disagree here. Use the Software Manager, and strike two, there is no 64 bit Skype for Linux.

At one time you could download Skype softgware from the Skype Website, Then you could download it from Ninite or the software manager. Now you can only get it from the software manager or Microsoft. At any rate the 32 bit version works, the 64 bit version does not.

Well, I suspect that the version I loaded from Package Manager is the 32 bit version since it works fine. No problems at all except that I cannot talk to others. I can hear fine, but not talk. I notice that when I use the Skype Test Call that there is only a loud hiss noise when my voice should be.

The next thing I would check is the microphone connections.

No problem with the mike. Pulse audio control indicates a good input level and I can record sound. So.... it is not that.

I'm confused, is it the mike or the speakers, ie, input or output? If you can record but not hear sound, then I would say that your speakers are malfunctioning, and not your mike. Check the output in pulse audio, maybe you don't have it configured correctly.

No, the problem is the input to Skype, that is, I cannot talk through Skype. Voice out works OK, text works OK. In other words, everything about sound works OK except to talk through Skype.

I don't want to harp on this, but it seems to me that the problem is in your sound settings within Pulse audio: click on the speaker Icon in your task bar and bring up sound:

There you can check your input and output(sound devices) and change them till it works.

Make sure you have Skype open also.

Curiously a similar thing happened when I installed Debian Jessie Mate Desktop changing from my Wheezy. I could hear my Son in the USA but they could not hear me in India. On his suggestion I changed the sound input volume. In my case, it was System ---> Control Center ---> Sound ---> Input Volume.
After that Skype is working.