Alright, let's get this out of the way. Yes, I'm an idiot for buying a chromebook. Yes, I did think that Microsoft might pull its head out of its arse to make Skype accessible across all platforms. Yes, I want to skin Bill Gates alive with a potato peeler.

Got it? Good.

So I bought my boyfriend a small netbook with the singular desires of 1] he needs his own little computer to work on homework and 2] I want to be able to talk to him on Skype. I hate this chromebook with a passion now. I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing when it comes to Linux.

Let's get to why I'm here. I found out I can use Crouton to run the Linux desktop side by side with the Chrome OS. I got that installed. Then I downloaded Skype and Pulseaudio. The other night, I manged to get the combo headset/microphone working and Skype working along with it. Now it's not.

I'm stopped by THIS roadblock - trying to go into pavucontrol gives me a box that says trying to establish connection with pulseaudio which it never does. Something tells me this is the issue and that if I could get into pulseaudio everything will be okay.

SO how do I fix this issue with pulseaudio? And while I'm at it, and I hate myself for it, I'll quote an old professor of mine "Just the facts, sir." And take it slow. Like I said - I have no knowledge of Linux beyond the corner I've chipped away.

Hi,

not really an answer to your question, but is there any reason you can use google hangouts instead of skype? I've found it works painlessly on Chrome OS, Android and Debian (and presumably other Linux flavours).

Evo2.

Skype sucks. Pure and simple. Google Hangouts have far better quality, allow conferencing, and they just work. You're not an idiot for buying a chromebook. I have one, and I use it almost all the time. It works. Crouton also works, and I have a Debian install in it. Pulseaudio is very finicky, and I don't like it much. Alsa will run without it, and should give you audio if you keep at it. Google has many hits for Linux, alsa, and pulseaudio. Pulseaudio is so picky I really don't have a good recommendation for a place to start. You need to use your google-foo and work at it if that's what you have to have. With Hangouts, you don't have to install anything other than Chrome, and it works out of the box.

Yes, we could use google hangouts but only for voice/video calls. There are three main reasons why we want Skype: 1] video/voice calling 2] this is where our roleplay groups are and considering we're looking at 20 different people, it's unlikely either of can convince them to move and 3] we have own own personal roleplays in our private chat.

I've already been pounding away at in google search trying to find an answer to this and nothing I've tried has actually worked or was incomprehensible because, remember, I'm less than useless when it comes to linux.

i think i saw similar stuff over on crunchbang forums.
try to search with the magnifying glass in the top right (no, i'm not insulting you, there's something weird about that magnifying glass, many people miss it).

Well, if you have to use Skype, you have to. My first suggestion would be to purge pulseaudio and start with alsa. I don't know what model chromebook you have, but if it's one of the ARM CPU models it can be problematic running Skype and anything else. Debian has more ARM-compatible packages than any other distro, and that would be my suggestion. But you probably installed Ubuntu, and there again you're on your own. There are lots of Ubuntu forums, as well as chrome/crouton forums, and I would suggest starting there.

From the Chromebooks Google+ page:
I haven't tried it, and don't plan to, but it's a possibility.