tomparys/skype repository overview

⁠Functionality

Skype is run inside an isolated Docker container. The program is launched through SSH using X11 Forwarding and sound works through PulseAudio Network Server.

Known Issue: While audio works flawlessly during calls and Skype is perfectly usable, the notification sounds such as call ringing do not work.

⁠Source

The source and instructions to build the image can be found on GitHub: tomparys/docker-skype-pulseaudio⁠.

⁠Pulling the image

The fastest way is to pull the preconfigured image, follow the instructions.

1. Install PulseAudio Preferences⁠ on your host OS. Debian/Ubuntu users can do this:

    sudo apt-get install paprefs
   

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2. Launch PulseAudio Preferences, go to the "Network Server" tab, and check the "Enable network access to local sound devices" and "Don't require authentication" checkboxes

3. Restart PulseAudio

    sudo service pulseaudio restart
   

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   or

    pulseaudio -k
    pulseaudio --start
   

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   On some distributions, it may be necessary to completely restart your computer. You can confirm that the settings have successfully been applied using the pax11publish command. You should see something like this (the important part is in bold):

   Server: {ShortAlphanumericString}unix:/run/user/1000/pulse/native tcp:YourHostname:4713 tcp6:YourHostname:4713

   Cookie: ReallyLongAlphanumericString

4. Install Docker if you haven't already

5. Pull the image from the official repositories on index.docker.io.

    sudo docker pull  tomparys/skype
   

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6. Create an entry in your .ssh/config file for easy access. It should look like this:

    Host docker-skype
      User      docker
      Port      55555
      HostName  127.0.0.1
      RemoteForward 64713 localhost:4713
      ForwardX11 yes
      
   

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   (Optional) I recommend creating an SSH key without a password to be used to connect to this container. So in case you used a non-standard filename for your SSH key, add this:

      IdentityFile /path/to/your/ssh/key
   

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7. Run the container and forward the appropriate port

    sudo docker run -d -p 55555:22 tomparys/skype
   

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8. (Optional) Copy an SSH public key

   If you plan to use an SSH key, copy the public key to the docker container using the following command. The password is docker.

    ssh-copy-id -i /path/to/your/public/key.pub docker-skype
   

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9. Connect via SSH and launch Skype using the provided PulseAudio wrapper script

    ssh docker-skype skype-pulseaudio
   

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   In case you didn't copy the SSH public key, the password is docker.

10. Go use Skype in a safe container!