For instance, Skype that they themselves entitled multi-arch does not install correctly on debian amd64 if i386 arch is not enabled. This a quick « how to » make skype runs.
First check your main architecture:
$ dpkg --print-architecture amd64
Display other accepted architecture:
$ dpkg --print-foreign-architectures (it should display nothing)
Add the i386 architecture
$ dpkg --add-architecture i386
now you can see the :i386 packages in your apt-get search
Download the .deb of the skype application
ok you know where to go…
Install GDebi
This application is particularly useful when you have a .deb that have lots of missing dependencies. it will install everything at once.
$ apt-get install gdebi
Run GDebi on the .deb file
it will install the package and the dependencies
Enjoy !
Another method was to install the ia32lib that provides a bridge from 32bits to 64bits arch but it won’t help regarding the architecture dependies warning.