My notes:
1) Register at the chan_skype website. Keep in mind that you want to make sure that you can get the demo version running before you buy the license.
2) Download the appropriate file once you receive the registration acknowledgement email.
3) Make sure you've run your System Update before you attempt to install anything.
4) Run "uname -a" to determine what version kernel you are running.
5) Configure Synaptic to use the other repositories (hint: Menu -> Settings -> Respositories)
6) Use Synaptic to install the appropriate linux-headers file, in addition to VNC, RatPoison, and the usual software compiling utilities (this is one of the hard parts). Do not install Asterisk using this method unless it is version 1.2.9 or greater.
7) Download and install Skype. (Make sure you set up an account!)
8) Download and install Asterisk. (Make sure that openssl, ncurses, zlib and their devel libraries are installed prior to attempting to build Asterisk.) (Make sure that doxygen is installed if you want to build the progdocs.)
9) As root, make the chan_skype binary executable via "chmod a+x chanskype-1.2.10-UBUNTU6.06.bin" and run it. An alternate method would be just run the binary via "sh chanskype-1.2.10-UBUNTU6.06.bin". If the binary complains about missing software, install whatever is missing. If it complains about not being able to recognize what version of Asterisk that you're running, add "1DOT2" or "1DOT4" as an argument. (i.e., "sh chanskype-1.2.10-UBUNTU6.06.bin 1DOT2").
10) Edit /etc/asterisk/skype.conf so that the "channels" parameter equals the maximum number of concurrent calls you will be allowing. (Note: for the personal version, this is "1).
[general] ; general config options, default values are shown ; all but debug can go also in the device-specific sections. debug=1 ; misc debug flags, default is 0 channels=3 context=default
11) Edit /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf (I'll add this later)
12) Create your drone account(s) via:
useradd -g asterisk -m drone1 useradd -g asterisk -m drone2 useradd -g asterisk -m drone3
13) Set up drone1's VNC passwd
su - drone1 vncpasswd
14) (Still as drone1) Create a file called ~/.vnc/xstartup containing the following:
#!/bin/sh [ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources xsetroot -solid grey vncconfig -iconic & ratpoison & /usr/local/bin/loadskypex.sh 1 &
Be sure to change the number "1" in that last line to match the number of the drone account.
15) (Still as drone1) Make ~/.vnc/xstartup executable via:
chmod a+x ~/.vnc/xstartup
16) Go back to being root
17) Create /etc/vncservers so that it contains:
VNCSERVERS="" VNCSERVERS="$VNCSERVERS 1:drone1" VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 896x672 -depth 16" VNCSERVERS="$VNCSERVERS 2:drone2" VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 896x672 -depth 16" VNCSERVERS="$VNCSERVERS 3:drone3" VNCSERVERARGS[3]="-geometry 896x672 -depth 16"
18) As drone1, start vncserver. The howto says to use "/etc/init.d/vnserver start". I didn't have that option. I started it, as root, with "vncserver" and entered the password that I used in #14 above. You can test to see if it's working via:
vncviewer 192.168.1.248:1
Hint: If there's a window open in the viewer, don't mess with it. Otherwise, you'll have to kill and restart the vncserver.
Lessons learned: