The guide walks through installing Skype on Rocky Linux 8 by first adding Microsoft’s repository—importing its GPG key and creating a dedicated repo file. With the repo in place, you simply run dnf install skypeforlinux, letting DNF resolve any required dependencies (including optional 32‑bit libraries). It then shows how to confirm the installation with skypeforlinux --version and fixes a common post‑kernel‑update audio issue by reinstalling alsa-plugins-pulseaudio. Finally, it notes that the permanent repo enables automatic Skype upgrades via dnf update skypeforlinux, while you can lock the package if you wish to stay on a specific version.

How to Install Skype on Rocky Linux 8

If you’re running Rocky 8 and need that familiar Microsoft‑owned chat client for quick video calls or a voice‑only catch‑up, this guide will get it onto your system without the usual “dependency hell”. I’ll walk through the exact steps, explain why each one matters, and point out a couple of pitfalls I’ve run into after a recent driver update broke my audio.

Add the Microsoft repository

Rocky 8 doesn’t ship Skype in its default repos, so we have to pull it from Microsoft’s own package source.

sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

The key import guarantees the packages are signed and haven’t been tampered with.

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo
[skype]
name=Skype for Linux
baseurl=https://repo.skype.com/rpm/stable/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
EOF

Creating a dedicated repo file keeps the Skype packages separate from the rest of your system, which makes future updates cleaner.

Install the client

Now that the repo is known to dnf, pull in the latest stable build:

sudo dnf install skypeforlinux

dnf resolves all required dependencies automatically. If you see a warning about missing 32‑bit libraries, it’s because some older audio backends still rely on them. In most cases they’re optional; just hit “y” to continue.

Verify the installation

After the install finishes, run:

skypeforlinux --version

You should see something like Skype for Linux 8.x.x. If the command isn’t found, double‑check that /usr/bin is in your $PATH; a misconfigured shell can hide newly installed binaries.

Common hiccup: No sound after a kernel update

A few weeks back I updated to the latest kernel and Skype suddenly lost audio. The culprit was the alsa-plugins-pulseaudio package being removed during the upgrade. Fix it with:

sudo dnf install alsa-plugins-pulseaudio

Then restart Skype; you’ll be back in the meeting without a hitch.

Keep Skype up‑to‑date

Because we added a permanent repo, regular system updates will pull newer Skype versions automatically:

sudo dnf update skypeforlinux

If you prefer to stay on the current version for a while, just avoid running a full dnf upgrade or lock the package with dnf versionlock.

That’s it. You now have a fully functional Skype client on Rocky 8, and you know where to look if audio decides to bail out after a kernel bump.