Does Ubuntu (or *buntu) have a working VOIP program?

[VanillaMozilla]

And if not, should this be reported as a major bug?

I've spent days on Ekiga, and I can't get it working. It works about half the time with the Diamondcard echo number, and now it works rarely with the 500@ekiga.net. There is a new version that may or may not work, but I couldn't get it installed from the PPA (apparently libraries haven't been upgraded). For now it's not worth the trouble.

I've tried a couple of others. Empathy is supposed to be the replacement for Ekiga, but it doesn't do SIP out of the box. Pidgin, likewise, I think. I tried Twinkle, with similar symptoms to Ekiga. I've tinkered with a couple of others, but some of them can barely even start up and terminate, much less make a phone call.

This is the pits. Can anyone tell me there's something that actually works?

[Megafag]

And if not, should this be reported as a major bug?

I've spent days on Ekiga, and I can't get it working. It works about half the time with the Diamondcard echo number, and now it works rarely with the 500@ekiga.net. There is a new version that may or may not work, but I couldn't get it installed from the PPA (apparently libraries haven't been upgraded). For now it's not worth the trouble.

I've tried a couple of others. Empathy is supposed to be the replacement for Ekiga, but it doesn't do SIP out of the box. Pidgin, likewise, I think. I tried Twinkle, with similar symptoms to Ekiga. I've tinkered with a couple of others, but some of them can barely even start up and terminate, much less make a phone call.

This is the pits. Can anyone tell me there's something that actually works?

Crunchbang linux comes prepacked with skype, which leads m to think that there is a linux version. but that is probably of little help to you....

[cbwcjw]

There IS a linux version of skype, that is also in .deb and .rpm format.

[weblordpepe]

the linux version of skype was found to data-mine the users /home folder and do all sorts of stuff its not meant to be doing. if you watch it through strace you can see it.

i removed skype for linux and used proper voip. you can either use ekiga or twinkle or something else SIP, and just sign up for a free SIP provider on the net.

[VanillaMozilla]

weblordpepe, please reread my original post. I have the accounts and one of them actually works occasionally. But it's no good if you just ring someone's phone repeatedly but can't get a voice connection.

Did you actually get Ekiga or Twinkle to work reliably?

[iBurger]

Empathy and gtalk? I have few friends using gtalk, but empathy seems to support voice out-of-the-box, I think.

[VanillaMozilla]

Gtalk on Linux? Empathy out of the box? Are you sure?

I was sort of hoping for something that you had tried and knew worked. Something that you could actually install from the Ubuntu Software Center, answer a few simple questions, maybe open an account, and then make phone calls. Reliably. Something that you don't have to spend three days fixing or file bug reports on.

Does anyone know of such a program? Does Ubuntu actually have a working VOIP program?

[juan.villa]

And if not, should this be reported as a major bug?

I've spent days on Ekiga, and I can't get it working. It works about half the time with the Diamondcard echo number, and now it works rarely with the 500@ekiga.net. There is a new version that may or may not work, but I couldn't get it installed from the PPA (apparently libraries haven't been upgraded). For now it's not worth the trouble.

I've tried a couple of others. Empathy is supposed to be the replacement for Ekiga, but it doesn't do SIP out of the box. Pidgin, likewise, I think. I tried Twinkle, with similar symptoms to Ekiga. I've tinkered with a couple of others, but some of them can barely even start up and terminate, much less make a phone call.

This is the pits. Can anyone tell me there's something that actually works?

I run a few Asterisk servers and I've also had a few issues with Ekiga and Ubuntu. Some of the issues are due to the Pulse plugin, bugs, and ubuntu mixed together. I recently stumbled upon a project called "sip-communicator" (http://sip-communicator.org) that actually works quite well. Let me know how it goes for you.

[DZ*]

I use Pidgin to video chat with my wife every day (over XMPP/gmail.com) and it works very well. It worked "out of the box". She has mini 10v with Karmic and I have Fedora 12 with a USB Quickcam.

Unfortunately, nothing else that I tried worked. Skype works with the mini 10v builtin webcam, but it doesn't recognize the Quickcam on my laptop (tried it unsuccessfully with Ubuntu booted from a USB too). Emphathy gives scratchy sound and the video freezes. Ekiga starts a call, then the video window dies out in a few seconds.

BTW, does anyone know if Pidgin video chat would work when the person on the other end uses google's video chat program for Windows?

EDIT: Ok, I was able to video-chat with a Windows gmail contact using Emphathy 2.28.2 on Fedora 12. Didn't succeed with Pidgin though.

[jpl888]

You could also try Qutecom. In my experience it isn't perfect (the odd time it will crash on startup) but it works much better than Ekiga for me.