skype problems

[Lauri]

> Actually 2 of them.
> 
> 1. I can only make one connection per reboot, otherwise there is 
> "something wrong with the audio device" when a new connection is 
> attempted.  My headphones continue to function normally.  And my own 
> voice is flawless both in my phones and at the other end of the call.
> 

This is a known bug, Skype doesn't close the device. Restarting Skype
fixes that.

Use skype_dsp_hijacker.

See: http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=32290

> 2.  Reception is very intermittent, and coupled with a lot of chuttering 
> noises.  This I verified is on my end by trying the echo123 facility, 
> even the ladies recorded voice was chopped up into just fractions of a 
> word here and there.
> 

This is also a common problem. I fixed this with dmix-ing.

See: http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=4068
My solution: http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?p=197195#197195

> As a point of note, skype only opens a path to /dev/dsp once on the 
> reboot and restart.  It shows 3 opens to /dev/mixer when a failed call 
> to echo123 is live, and leaves 2 of them behind when it has been hung up.
> 
> The audio system is an ATX in an HP laptop.  OS is 386 FC5 with all 
> updates on an amd64 turion system.
> 
> Does anybody have a clue to share?
> 

Lauri