Fix Skype Not Working In Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail [For Users With Proprietary Nvidia Or AMD Drivers]

Some Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail users are having issues with Skype not starting when using the proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers (it crashes / segfaults). So here's a work-around you can use to get it to work until this is fixed in Ubuntu / Skype.

Update: some users have confirmed that this fix also works if you're using proprietary AMD / ATI drivers.

Get Skype to work In Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail (with proprietary Nvidia / AMD graphis drivers)

1. To get Skype to work in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail with proprietary Nvidia / AMD drivers, firstly we'll rename the Skype executable from "skype" to "skype-bin":

sudo mv /usr/bin/skype /usr/bin/skype-bin

2. Now let's create a file called "skype" under /usr/bin/ - for this we'll launch a text editor as root (I'll use Gedit in the instructions below):

gksu gksu gedit /usr/bin/skype

(I've used "gksu" twice in the command above so Gedit doesn't open a blank tab along with /usr/bin/skype)

And in this file, paste the following:

#!/bin/sh
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1
exec skype-bin "$@"

Then save the file.

3. And finally, run the following command in a terminal:

sudo chmod 0755 /usr/bin/skype

That's it. Now Skype should work in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail.

If you want to revert the changes made by using the instructions above, use these commands:

sudo rm /usr/bin/skype
sudo mv /usr/bin/skype-bin /usr/bin/skype

Note: I didn't test this on an Nvidia-only system but on my Optimus-based laptop. Initially, running "optirun skype" (so I've used Bumblebee to test this) didn't work but it did work after following the instructions above.

seen on ubuntudicas.com.br