OpenSUSE and BT Headset

I signed up for Skype earlier this year and I’ve been using it fairly often. The two main gripes I have about Skype is that the Linux version needs to be updated and that the DTMF tones are way too short. This makes it a pain in the butt to call into voicemail or join a conference call. There are a few hacks for Windows/Vista, but when you’re running Linux, you’re pretty much SOL.

Well, my brother was nice enough to give me a Bluetooth Headset, the Motorola H700. It took me about 2 mins to get it paired with my BlackBerry. Unfortunately, I’ve spent the last two hours trying to get the right packages installed and to get it working with OpenSUSE and Skype. Even with a handy tutorial, I am running across some issues.

At first glance, I thought it would be easy – my IBM Thinkpad T41p has Bluetooth, so I don’t need a dongle. Also, I noticed that there are configuration settings in Yast. But to get it working, I need to install btsco and compile it. When I run ./configure, it errors out with “configure: error: Sufficiently new version of libasound not found.”

libasound is a module that is provided with Alsa and the Alsa plugins. Alsa is up to date, and I can’t find a newer version anywhere. So, I’m assuming it must be a problem with the btsco configuration script. If I was more of a techie, and less of a finance person, I’m sure I’d be able to figure it out