Skype, Apulse, home directory protection and custom menu entry: putting it all together

kikinovak · 01-09-2016, 07:02 AM

Hi,

This morning I've been fiddling with Skype, and things run more or less OK. I just need a hand for some finishing touches.

First, I installed the apulse and skype packages from SBo, without tweaking anything. I'm running Slackware64-14.1 with multilib.

I fired up Skype and got no sound. So I checked in /usr/share/applications/skype.desktop to see how Skype was called:

Code:

Exec=env XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype %U

I added 'apulse' to that line:

Code:

Exec=env XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so apulse skype %U

Now sound worked OK, and the Skype Echo Call test was successful.

My next idea was confidentiality, since Skype is notorious for its intrusiveness. I read the README.Slackware file on SBo and followed the suggestion at the end of the file, e. g. created a skype user and group like this:

Code:

# groupadd -g 666 skype
# useradd -u 666 -d /home/skype -m -s /bin/bash -g skype skype
# usermod -a -G audio,video skype
# echo "%skype ALL=(skype) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/skype" \
    >> /etc/sudoers.d/66_skype
# usermod -a -G skype kikinovak

Then I opened a terminal and executed Skype with these limited rights:

Code:

$ xhost +local: && sudo -u skype /usr/bin/skype

This also worked, sort of, except I had no video and no sound, since Skype was not called with all the parameters defined in the custom menu entry file as above.

So I have two questions:

How would I put all of this together on the command-line?
How would I put all of this together in a custom menu entry skype.desktop?

Cheers,

Niki

GazL · 01-09-2016, 08:17 AM

How about creating a /usr/local/bin/skype shellscript wrapper that does the necessary before execing skype. That's my usual approach to these sorts of situations.

yars · 01-09-2016, 08:45 AM

Quote:

except I had no video and no sound

I think it would be enough to put skype user into 'audio' and 'video' groups.
For command-line, as a option, you may use alias; to do it, place the skype binary to /usr/libexec/skype/skype and make an alias:

Code:

echo "alias skype=\"xhost +local: && sudo -u skype /usr/bin/skype $@\"" >> ~/.bashrc

Then, in the /usr/bin/skype place this:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so apulse /usr/libexec/skype/skype $@

Then you will no need to modify skype.desktop. Also, for me, I made a modification of the original SBo's SlackBuild:

Code:

--- skype.SlackBuild.orig	2014-07-05 05:21:02.000000000 +0400
+++ skype.SlackBuild	2016-01-09 17:43:15.749248162 +0300
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 # Slackware build script for skype
 
 # Copyright 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014  Mario Preksavec, Zagreb, HR
+# Modification 2015, Yaroslav Shmelev, Russia
 # All rights reserved.
 #
 # Redistribution and use of this script, with or without modification, is
@@ -68,10 +69,29 @@
  \( -perm 666 -o -perm 664 -o -perm 640 -o -perm 600 -o -perm 444 \
  -o -perm 440 -o -perm 400 \) -exec chmod 644 {} \;
 
-mkdir -p $PKG/usr/{bin,share/{skype,pixmaps,applications}} $PKG/etc/dbus-1/system.d
+mkdir -p $PKG/usr/{bin,doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION,share/{skype,pixmaps,applications}} $PKG/etc/dbus-1/system.d
 cp -a skype $PKG/usr/bin
 cp -a avatars lang sounds $PKG/usr/share/skype
-cat skype.desktop > $PKG/usr/share/applications/skype.desktop
+
+# Detect apulse. If found, skype will use them:
+echo -n "Detecting apulse... "
+APULSEBIN=$(which apulse)
+if [ ! -z ${APULSEBIN} ]; then
+  echo "yes, $APULSEBIN."
+  sed -e "s@APULSE@$APULSEBIN%" $CWD/skype-alternative.desktop.in > $CWD/skype-alternative.desktop
+else
+  echo "WARNING: apulse binary not found."
+  sed -e 's/@APULSE@//' $CWD/skype-alternative.desktop.in > $CWD/skype-alternative.desktop
+fi
+
+# Use alternative desktop file for skype instead of default one:
+if [ ${USE_ALTERNATIVE_DESKTOP:-yes} ]; then
+  cat $CWD/skype-alternative.desktop > $PKG/usr/share/applications/skype-alternative.desktop
+  cat skype.desktop > $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/skype-original.desktop
+else
+  cat skype.desktop > $PKG/usr/share/applications/skype.desktop
+  cat $CWD/skype-alternative.desktop > $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/skype-alternative.desktop
+fi
 cat icons/SkypeBlue_48x48.png > $PKG/usr/share/pixmaps/skype.png
 cat skype.conf > $PKG/etc/dbus-1/system.d/skype.conf
 
@@ -83,8 +103,6 @@
 cp -a LICENSE README $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION
 cat $CWD/$PRGNAM.SlackBuild > $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/$PRGNAM.SlackBuild
 cat $CWD/README.SLACKWARE > $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/README.SLACKWARE
-cat $CWD/skype-alternative.desktop > \
-  $PKG/usr/doc/$PRGNAM-$VERSION/skype-alternative.desktop
 
 mkdir -p $PKG/install
 cat $CWD/slack-desc > $PKG/install/slack-desc

And then use the alternative desktop entry file:

Code:

cat skype-alternative.desktop.in 
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Skype (Alternative)
Comment=Skype Internet Telephony
Exec=env XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so @APULSE@ skype %U
Icon=skype.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Categories=Network;Application;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/skype;
X-KDE-Protocols=skype