empathy – How to Start Empathy Hidden

Apparently this is a known bug in Empathy, so I decided to launch Empathy from a script that checks if the network is up (connecting to http://www.google.com, internet's true heartbeat :) If the network is not working, it will sleep for 5 seconds and retry, until it tried 30 times

This is the script (named waitfornet.py)

#!/usr/bin/python

from urllib2 import urlopen, URLError
from subprocess import Popen
from time import sleep
from sys import argv

MAX_TRIES = 30
DELAY = 5

if len (argv) < 2:
    print ('Check for network connectivity and run a command once the net is up')
    print ('Tries up to %d times waiting %d seconds between each try' % (MAX_TRIES, DELAY))
    print ('\nUSAGE: python waitfornet.py <command to run>')
else:
    while True:
        MAX_TRIES -= 1
        if MAX_TRIES < 0:
            raise ValueError ('Reached the max iteration count and the net is still down')

        try:
            data = urlopen('http://www.google.com')
        except URLError:
            # if there's a problem connecting to google, that must mean
            # that the net is still down, so sleep 5 seconds and try again
            print ('Internet is down... retrying...')
            sleep (DELAY)
            continue

        # if you got here it means that the urlopen succeded
        pid = Popen([argv[1], ' '.join(argv[1:])]).pid
        break

and this is how I launch it from the "Startup Applications" menu:

~/scripts/waitfornet.py empathy

I don't use Empathy, but try this. Install Skype for Pidgin plugin from the Ubuntu Software Center. Open Skype and log in, and add your Skype account to Empathy protocol named ‘bigbrownchunx-skype-dbus’ or Pidgin Accounts --> Skype DBUS . You will need to allow Empathy/Pidgin access to Skype. ^{Source:J.Sneddon}

This protocol plugin allows libpurple to communicate with Skype. Applications using libpurple (Pidgin, Finch, Empathy/Telepathy, etc.) can thus show your Skype contacts alongside those from other protocols, and you can communicate with them using that application instead of the Skype user interface.

This plugin communicates with the Skype application in the background to perform its work, so it's necessary to have Skype installed and running. This product uses the Skype API but is not endorsed, certified or otherwise approved in any way by Skype. ^Source:USC

OR

Skype-Wrapper is a small third-party ‘plugin’ that integrates many of Skype’s features directly into the Ubuntu desktop. This includes support for Ubuntu’s Messaging Menu, notification system and Unity launcher. ^{Source:J.Sneddon}

To install, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command(s) below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:skype-wrapper/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install skype-wrapper python-skype