The Stone Edge

More than a year ago, when I chose OpenSuse as my desktop OS, clearly I made a wrong decision — I mean, OpenSuse is very good, but I shouldn’t have chosen the x86_64 version. There are just too many compatibility issues.

Anyway, I don’t want to reinstally my OS yet, so I have to deal with it. Here is how I installed the 32-bit Skype on my 64bit OS:
# 1. download the static version of Linux Skype
wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-static
# The file I got is skype_static-1.4.0.118.tar.bz2
#
# 2. untar it to my "apps" directory, where I usually keep all my customized applications
tar xjvf skype_static-1.4.0.118.tar.bz2 -C ~/apps/
#
# 3. get 32-bit libsigc-2.0.so.0
cd /tmp
wget ftp://fr.rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/libsigc++20-2.0.17-1.i386.rpm
rpm2cpio libsigc++20-2.0.17-1.i386.rpm | cpio -idv
cp /tmp/usr/lib/libsigc-2.0.so.0.0.0 ~/apps/skype_static-1.4.0.118/libsigc-2.0.so.0
#
# 4. create a script to start skype in /usr/bin
sudo vi /usr/bin/skype
#
# following is the script for /usr/bin/skype
#
#!/bin/bash
#
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
cd ~/skype_static-1.4.0.118/ && ./skype &
#
# 5. make sure the new skype script is executalbe
sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/skype
Now Skype can be started by typing in “skype” in any terminal window.

My system is OpenSUSE 10.1 x64 on Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Since Adobe released Flash 9 for Linux a few weeks ago, I have been trying to install the plugin for the Firefox 2.0 (64bit), but with no luck. The reason is that the plugin is 32bit, which doesn’t work well with the 64bit Firefox. After some research, today I finally get it done by using nspluginwrapper. Here is how I did it:

1. Download nspluginwrapper
   According to the author of nspluginwrapper, “nspluginwrapper is an Open Source compatibility plugin for Netscape 4 (NPAPI) plugins. That is, it enables you to use plugins on platforms they were not built for. For example, you can use the Adobe Flash plugin on Linux/x86_64, NetBSD and FreeBSD platforms.” Currently the latest version is 0.9.91.2. You will need both the plugin and the viewer.
2. Install plugins
   # install the viewer; You have to install the viewer first
# because the plugin depends on it.
rpm -Uvh nspluginwrapper-i386-0.9.91.2-1.x86_64.rpm
# install the plugin
rpm -Uvh nspluginwrapper-0.9.91.2-1.x86_64.rpm
3. Use the nspluginwrapper to wrap the flash plugin
   I assume the flash plugin has already been installed. If not, go to YaST / Software Management and search for “flash” and install it. After the installation, you should find a file /usr/lib/browser-plugins/libflashplayer.so. Now we need to wrap it:
   nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/browser-plugins/libflashplayer.so
4. Now restart the Firefox and go to YouTube, you should be able to watch those great video clips.