How to Install Skype for Linux Beta on Debian 9 Stretch
Skype for Linux beta 5.3 was released on May 31, 2017. It is a proprietary software, built on the web-based Skype client. This tutorial is going to show you how to install Skype on Debian 9 Stretch via the official Skype Linux client repository.
What’s new in Skype for Linux beta 5.3:
- Use ‘libsecret’ instead of ‘gnome-keyring’ in order to store your credentials
- Fetch large contact lists by page
- Bugfixes and improvements
For open-source and privacy-concerned users, the Wire app is a good alternative, but there are many people who for some reason can’t quit Skype.
How to Install Skype for Linux Beta on Debian 9 Stretch
We can install Skype on Debian 9 Stretch from the official Skype Linux client repository. Please note that Skype for Linux beta currently only works on 64-bit system. 32-bit users can send a request in Skype community.
So here’s how to install it. Open up a terminal window and switch to root.
su -
Run the following command to add Skype Linux client repository to Debian 9 Stretch system.
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
Then use the following two commands to fetch and install Skype public key so that APT package manager can verify the integrity of downloaded packages from this repo.
wget https://repo.skype.com/data/SKYPE-GPG-KEY apt-key add SKYPE-GPG-KEY
Since this repo is using HTTPS protocol, so we also need to install the apt-transport-https package.
apt install apt-transport-https
Now all left to do is to update our software source and install skypeforlinux package, which is around 50 MB of size.
apt update apt install skypeforlinux
Once installed, you can start Skype for Linux beta from application menu or use the command below.
skypeforlinux
Skype on Debian 9 Stretch with Ambiant-MATE theme
When a new Skype for Linux version comes out, simply run apt update and apt-upgrade command to update to the latest version.
I hope this tutorial helped you install Skype on Debian 9 Stretch.
It helped, thanks
It works, thank you. I used to use SolydX in the past and found it to be rock solid and ease of use, because I was a newbie. I Didn’t know that SolydX 9 was a beta, that’s why Skype wasn’t in the Synaptic Package Manager. I had moved on to other distros with the Mate desktop but keep having problems. I’m going to make SolydX my permanent OS, but I wish it comes with Mate, because KDE give me that sound stuttering problems at high volume level. XFCE use Thunar file manager which doesn’t have a search function to search for files, like Nautilus or Dolphin, for example, without having to use Catfish. If it has that function it would make XFCE a perfect Desktop interface. Thanks again and take care. Bye.