I have been using this method for keeping Skype up to date on my Ubuntu systems (I’m currently using 10.04 all  around but this ought to be flexible enough to work on other versions).  Here is my condensed version for your copy and paste joy.

You’ll want to have a terminal open for a couple of lines of code. You can open a terminal by navigating to Applications —> Accessories —> Terminal.

Ok, let’s ask Synaptic to manage any new updates that come down for Skype. Open Synaptic (System —> Administration —> Synaptic Package Manager). You will be asked for your password.

Navigate to Settings —> Repositories —> Third-Party Software and click the “Add” button. Enter this line in the “APT Line:” text box:

deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

Then click the “Add Source” button and the “Close” button twice. (The second dialog is just letting you know that you have made a repository change.)

This tells Synaptic where to seek out updates for Skype.

Let’s import the public key so your system knows it is really communicating with the Skype repository when you run your updates.

Hop back over to your Terminal; it’s a single line of code:

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver pgp.mit.edu –recv-keys 0xd66b746e

Now, when you click the “Reload” button in the Synaptic Package Manger you will not get a key verification error.

Installing Skype is a one line command operation or you can just locate it in Synaptic and install it from there:

sudo apt-get install skype

(You will be asked for your password.)

From now on, when you run your updates by navigating to System —> Administration —> Update Manager it should seek out any new updates for Skype in addition to any updates otherwise ready for your system.

Have fun with that.