Blank white box where webcam video should be

[Psychoscorpic]

Don't reinstall! You're using Linux, not Windows.
Besides - Mine is a clean install of 10.04, and got the same white screen incoming issue.

Found this on the Swiss Ubuntu Forum:

export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1

Run it in Terminal, and close & restart Skype.

[*Legion*]

Don't reinstall! You're using Linux, not Windows.
Besides - Mine is a clean install of 10.04, and got the same white screen incoming issue.

Found this on the Swiss Ubuntu Forum:

export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1

Run it in Terminal, and close & restart Skype.

Tried that. It did not work.

The only thing that worked was a complete reinstall.

Keep in mind that the white screen happened with all video, not just Skype.

[M1ke]

This won't be of any use to you now that you've reinstalled, but I did eventually find a fix that got skype working perfectly for me again! I found it trawling these forums but have unfortunately lost the thread so I can't give credit to the user I'm eternally grateful to.

It's basically the fix posted just above, with a slight alteration that specifically mentions skype.

 
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 && skype

To save some terminal leg-work each time I want to use skype, I edited the app's launcher in the Applications menu and replaced the command "skype" with the following:

 
sh -c "export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 && skype"

I now once again have a clickable skype launcher and fully functioning video chat in Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit.

Thank you, whoever you are! You've saved me having to boot Windows 7 just for skype

Edit: Ah, I see your problem related to all video and not just skype. In that case I did also read a suggestion of a strange conflict with cairo dock running in GLX mode conflicting with some video resources during my fix-hunt. Just a pointer to a possible avenue to explore further for anyone who comes across this thread with the same problem in future.

[managementboy]

you can edit /usr/bin/skype-wrapper

and add
XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1
to the beginning of the last command... no terminal needed after that

[sleepee]

i know this is old, but thanks so much Psychoscorpic, M1ke, and managementboy. this fix worked perfectly for me.