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Asked: 2016-09-13 10:51:12 +0800 CST

Skype Video Call Screen keeps flashing and Camera Problem

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Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04.1.

Application: Skype 4.3 for Linux.

Whenever I start a Video Call, I can see the person on the other side but the screen keeps flashing ceaselessly.

Furthermore, the person on the other side and I, can only see a closeup of my face. So I need to move away from the screen in order for the other person to see my face.

sudo lshw | grep -A9 VGA 
         description: VGA compatible controller
         product: Sky Lake Integrated Graphics
         vendor: Intel Corporation
         physical id: 2
         bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
         version: 07
         width: 64 bits
         clock: 33MHz
         capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
         configuration: driver=i915_bpo latency=0

Help much appreciated.

Thank you.

skype

2 Answers

  1. I also have chipset Intel 915 and I had the same problem with video calls in Skype.

    Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.10 (from 16.04.1) helped me and completely solved this problem.

    I believe that problem is solved in new version of Linux kernel. You can also try this fix if you don't want to upgrade.

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  2. What worked for me, was using the nomodeset option in the grub bootloader. There are two methods to set nomodeset:

    1. Temporary:
      • While booting press and hold shift in order to see the grub menu
      • Choose the entry you want to change (in a normal installation the first entry) and press e to edit it
      • Look for quiet splash and add nomodeset before it
      • Finally press F10 to boot.

    If this worked for you, you can use the permanent way for all bootups.

    1. Permanent:
      • edit /etc/default/grub (for example: sudo nano /etc/default/grub)
      • change the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset quiet splash"
      • Finally update the grub config: sudo update-grub

    The next time rebooting, you don't have to specify the boot option.

    I run Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with 4.4 kernel on Lenovo i310 laptop.

    The output for sudo lshw | grep -A9 VGA is the following:

    description: VGA compatible controller
    product: Sky Lake Integrated Graphics
    vendor: Intel Corporation
    physical id: 2
    bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
    version: 07
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
    configuration: latency=0

    This answer is partially copied from last answer at When I start my camera in video call on Skype 4.1. incoming video is flashing blue?

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