Skype-call-recorder on Fedora

Skype is frowned on by many as it is proprietary software and by more as it is now owned by Microsoft. However you cannot get over the fact that it has enabled millions to keep in touch for affordable cost. For recording interviews, I would always suggest using Mumble but on some occasions it is useful when calling land lines or other skype users.

To install skype on fedora just go to the skype download page and select the Fedora 16 32 bit. Yes I know I’m running Fedora 17 64 bit but work with me. Clicking the link should open your package manager and skype should install. Try out the test call to make sure it’s all working.

Once skype is installed you now want to get your hands on Skype Call Recorder

Skype Call Recorder is an open source tool that allows you to record your Skype calls on Linux. Current features include:

• Record calls to MP3, Ogg Vorbis or WAV files
• Automatic and manual recording
• Configure automatic recording on per-caller basis
• Split stereo recording
• Completely free (free as in free beer)
• Completely free (free as in freedom), released under the GNU GPL

Finally a bit of freedom in this post. I selected the 0.8 version but it comes with a warning.

RPM-based distributions, amd64 (Experimental, might not even install)

skype-call-recorder-0.8-1.x86_64.rpm, 131 KB

Well it installs to /usr/local/bin/skype-call-recorder but won’t run. A quick check shows some missing libraries


ldd /usr/local/bin/skype-call-recorder | grep "not found"
libpng12.so.0 => not found
libssl.so.0.9.8 => not found


The first is easy to fix with a yum install libpng12.so.0 which installs libpng-compat. The other one causes a problem however and after trying different avenues, I cheated and copied the file libssl.so.0.9.8 from another ubuntu machine and saved it as /lib/libssl.so.0.9.8.

All is not over as when we run ldd again we find another missing library.

ldd /usr/local/bin/skype-call-recorder | grep "not found"
libcrypto.so.0.9.8 => not found


I was a bit worried that I would end up installing a chain of libraries but this is the last one we need. Again I copied libcrypto.so.0.9.8 to /lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8

After that it ran fine and I was able to record skype calls on Fedora 17 AMD 64 bit.