Installing Skype on 8.10 Desktop and getting it to work with Logitech Headset

Installing Skype on a Ubuntu 8.10 desktop turns out to be a piece of cake, getting it to work with my Logitech USB Headset was a little harder.

Installation of Skype was easy following these directions. First, I edited /etc/apt/sources.list to include the Skype repository:

# vi /etc/apt/sources.list
# tail -3 /etc/apt/sources.list
# SKYPE
deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

Then I did the repository install and installed skype:

# apt-get update
# apt-get install skype

At this point Skype was installed and appeared under Applications -> Internet -> Skype

But when I tried to make a call Skype reported "Problem with Audio Playback" and nothing worked.

Long story short, these directions finally worked for me, specifically, here are the devices I used:

Sound in: Logitech USB Headset (pluhw:Headset,0)
Sound out: Logitech USB Headset (hw:Headset,0)
Ringing: Logitech USB Headset (hw:Headset,0)

During the time I worked on this problem I restarted pulseaudio, I don't know if this helped or not, but I'll mention it just in case:

# killall pulseaudio
# /etc/init.d/pulseaudio start

Following is more details on things I saw and what didn't work.

If I run System -> Preferences -> Sound, I see both ALSA and OSS versions of the Headset, but only the OSS version works (the ALSO version returns the following error when I try to test it: "audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Could not open audio device for playback.")

Trying to record with Applications -> Sound & Video -> Sound Recorder does not work.

"alsamixer -c 1" showed Logitech USB Headset, but I couldn't get anything further to work.

I tried these directions but I saw the same problem others did in that when I tried to remove pulseaudio, apt-get/aptitude wanted to remove ubuntu-desktop and I stopped there.

Here is the output from a couple commands:

# cat /proc/asound/cards 
 0 [ICH6           ]: ICH4 - Intel ICH6
                      Intel ICH6 with STAC9752,53 at irq 16
 1 [Headset        ]: USB-Audio - Logitech USB Headset
                      Logitech Logitech USB Headset at usb-0000:00:1d.3-2, full speed

# cat /proc/asound/devices
  2:        : timer
  3:        : sequencer
  4: [ 0- 4]: digital audio playback
  5: [ 0- 3]: digital audio capture
  6: [ 0- 2]: digital audio capture
  7: [ 0- 1]: digital audio capture
  8: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
  9: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
 10: [ 0]   : control
 11: [ 1- 0]: digital audio playback
 12: [ 1- 0]: digital audio capture
 13: [ 1]   : control