Setting up Skype with Bitlbee using Spectrum2-backend-skype

This way to use skype with Bitlbee is quite different to the one mentioned in HowtoSkype. It does not need a plugin, but a daemon called spectrum2-backend-skype For this tutorial, I'm going to assume that the backend is running on the same machine as bitlbee itself.

Prerequisites

You need the following:

• spectrum2-backend-skype (which isn't likely to be included within any repository, but is available here or here)

• "Official" skype client
• xvfb-run for a virtual "X" to run skype in

Configuring Spectrum2

This is the configuration I'm using for spectrum2:

/etc/spectrum2/spectrum.cfg

[service]
server_mode = 1

# Hostname (JID) of this Spectrum 2 server mode instance.
jid = localhost

# To bind to all ipv4 interfaces, use server=0.0.0.0
server = 127.0.0.1
port = 5222
backend_host = 127.0.0.1

# Full path to PKCS#12 cetficiate used for TLS in server mode.
#cert=
# Certificate password if any.
#cert_password=

# Number of users per one legacy network backend.
users_per_backend=1

backend=/usr/bin/xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 10x10x8" -f /tmp/x-skype-gw /usr/bin/spectrum2_skype_backend

# Libpurple protocol-id for spectrum_libpurple_backend
protocol=prpl-jabber

[identity]
name=Spectrum Jabber Transport
type=xmpp

[logging]
# log4cxx/log4j logging configuration file in ini format used for main spectrum2 instance.
config = /etc/spectrum2/logging.cfg

# log4cxx/log4j logging configuration file in ini format used for backends.
backend_config = /etc/spectrum2/backend-logging.cfg

[database]
type = none

[registration]
# Enable public registrations
enable_public_registration=1

Since the debian-package didn't include any script to start this daemon at system startup, I added the following to my own crontab:

@reboot                                 sudo spectrum2 --config /etc/spectrum2/spectrum.cfg >/dev/null 2>&1

(sudo, because i can't get it to work currently without running as root, but I'm working on that)

Setting up the account in bitlbee

This is fairly easy:

Bonsi@> acc add jabber <username>@localhost <password>
 root@> Account successfully added with tag jabber2
Bonsi@> acc jabber2 set tag skype
 root@> tag = `skype'
Bonsi@> acc skype set server 127.0.0.1
 root@> server = `127.0.0.1'
Bonsi@> acc skype set ssl off
 root@> ssl = `off'
Bonsi@> acc skype set tls off
 root@> tls = `off'
Bonsi@> acc skype on
 root@> skype - Logging in: Connecting
 root@> skype - Logging in: Connected to server, logging in
 root@> skype - Logging in: Authentication finished
 root@> skype - Logging in: Server changed session resource string to
        `tluyxgxibd'
 root@> skype - Logging in: Authenticated, requesting buddy list
 root@> skype - Logging in: Logged in

After that, bitlbee should fill the channel with skype-users.