As you may already know, Microsoft has killed the good old Skype for Linux version 4.3. The classic app written in Qt, which was fast and lightweight, can no longer be used because it can't sign-in to the service. Here is a quick workaround that will revive the app for you.
On November 10, 2017, the Skype team made the official announcement on the Skype forums that the classic app for Linux had reached its end of life.
As announced earlier this year, the old Skype for Linux v4.3 is at its end-of-life and will be decommissioned in the upcoming weeks.
You will be automatically signed out of Skype until you update. Please, update to the new Skype 8.x, which is ready for you with lots of improvements at Skype.com.
In case you hit any issues, please check known issues, system requirements, or post your questions directly to this forum. All your feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,
The Skype Team
The classic Skype for Linux, version 4.3, was the last version of Skype with peer-to-peer protocol (P2P) support. The Redmond software giant is about to drop server-side support for all older Skype clients which use a peer-to-peer protocol to establish a connection between clients.
Today, if you sign out from your Skype 4.3 account, you won't be able to sign-in again.
The server-side software checks the client version. If its major version number is below 8, the login will be rejected. This simple check hints that if you modify the executable file of Skype 4.3, it will continue working. Here is how.
Run Skype 4.3 for Linux After November 2017
- Open a new terminal as root.
- Type the command
which skypeto see the full path to the Skype binary. Usually it is /usr/bin/skype. - Now, run the following command and you are done!
sed -i 's/4\.3\.0\.37/8\.3\.0\.37/' /usr/bin/skype
Substitute the /usr/bin/skype portion with the actual path to the Skype binary. The command will replace the Skype version from 4.3.0.37 to 8.3.0.37.
Note: If you have an older version of Skype, correct the values in the command.
It is worth mentioning that the solution can stop working at any moment. Microsoft is not interested in the classic Skype client.
You can download Skype 4.3 for various Linux distros if you need from using the following links:
- Classic Skype (deb)
- Classic Skype for Ubuntu Precise Pangolin (deb)
- Classic Skype Static Binary (any distro)
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