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<h1>X-Chat Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
<h3>1. Section One: Compiling and Installing.</h3>
<blockquote>
<a href="faq.html#q11">1. I get this error: /bin/sh: no: command not found</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q12">2. Why doesn't ./configure find GTK+ on my FreeBSD system?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q13">3. How do I compile X-Chat on my Sun OS system?</a>
<br><br>
</blockquote>
<h3>2. Section Two: Using X-Chat.</h3>
<blockquote>
<a href="faq.html#q21">1. How do I enable identd in X-Chat? (How do I get rid of the ~ infront of my username?)</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q22">2. How do I auto join more than one channel with keys?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q23">3. How do I autoconnect and join a channel when X-Chat loads?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q24">4. How do I cut and paste in X-Chat?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q25">5. How do I connect through a proxy?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q26">6. Why does X-Chat open a listen port?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q27">7. Why is the "Tint Transparency" option shaded out?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q28">8. How do I set different ban types?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q29">9. Why can't I see accented-letters/umlauts/upper-ascii-chars in X-Chat?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q210">10. Why does the timestamp overlap some nicknames?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q211">11. How do I turn on Conference mode where I will not see join or part messages?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q212">12. How can I run the /dccserver command?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q213">13. How do I execute multiple commands in one line?<a>
<br><br>
</blockquote>
<h3>3. Section Three: Crashes, Bugs and other problems.</h3>
<blockquote>
<a href="faq.html#q31">1. Why does X-Chat leak so much memory?</a>
<br><br>
<a href="faq.html#q32">2. My copy of X-Chat crashes, what can I do?</a>
</blockquote>
<br><br><br><br>
<h3>1. Section One: Compiling and Installing.</h3>
<b><a name="q11">1. I get this error: /bin/sh: no: command not found</a></b>
<pre>
If you get an error something like:
Making all in po
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/zed/xchat/files/xchat-1.8.7/po'
file=./`echo ca | sed 's,.*/,,'`.gmo \
&& rm -f $file && PATH=../src:$PATH no -o $file ca.po
/bin/sh: no: command not found
make[2]: *** [ca.gmo] Error 127
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/zed/xchat/files/xchat-1.8.7/po'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/zed/xchat/files/xchat-1.8.7'
make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2
It means you don't have GNU gettext installed. There are two solutions:
a) Install GNU gettext and try again.
b) Use <i>./configure --disable-nls</i>. This will disable foreign
language support and all menus and GUI will be in english only.
</pre>
<b><a name="q12">2. Why doesn't ./configure find GTK+ on my FreeBSD system?</a></b>
<pre>
FreeBSD usually comes with glib12-config and gtk12-config, so you'll need
to set the GLIB_CONFIG and GTK_CONFIG environment variables, e.g:
setenv GLIB_CONFIG /usr/local/bin/glib12-config
setenv GTK_CONFIG /usr/X11R6/bin/gtk12-config
rm config.cache
./configure
Or if you are using a bash shell:
export GLIB_CONFIG=/usr/local/bin/glib12-config
export GTK_CONFIG=/usr/X11R6/bin/gtk12-config
rm config.cache
./configure
</pre>
<b><a name="q13">3. How do I compile X-Chat on my Sun OS system?</a></b>
<pre>
X-Chat uses GNU gettext which in turn requires gmake, either install that
and or use ./configure --disable-nls with Sun's own make.
</pre>
<h3>2. Section Two: Using X-Chat.</h3>
<b><a name="q21">1. How do I enable identd in X-Chat?</a></b>
<pre>
<u>UNIX:</u>
Identd isn't actually apart of X-Chat. You will need to download and install
your own ident server. Most distributions, including RedHat, come with an
ident server program called pidentd. Make sure it is enabled in
/etc/xinetd.conf or read you distribution's documentation.
As an alternative, you can try this experimental identd server: <a href="auth/index.html">xchat_auth</a>
<u>WINDOWS:</u>
The win32 version of X-Chat comes with a builtin identd server. It is
enabled by default, but can be disabled with <i>/set identd 0</i>.
</pre>
<b><a name="q22">2. How do I auto join more than one channel with keys?</a></b>
<pre>
In the Serverlist's channel column enter multiple channels and separate
them by commas, eg: "#linux,#warez,#chat". Do not put spaces between the
channels. If the channels also have keys (passwords), then the syntax is:
"#channel1,#channel2,#channel3 key1,key2,key3"
</pre>
<b><a name="q23">3. How do I autoconnect and join a channel when X-Chat loads?</a></b>
<pre>
In the Serverlist's Edit Window, check the checkbox "Autoconnect"
of the entries you want to auto-connect/join. When you restart xchat
it should automatically connect to these servers, and join the channels.
</pre>
<b><a name="q24">4. How do I cut and paste in X-Chat?</a></b>
<pre>
It's exactly the same as any other X application. You simply mark the text
you want, and then press middle mouse button to paste (if you only have a
2 button mouse, press left and right buttons at once).
</pre>
<b><a name="q25">5. How do I connect through a proxy?</a></b>
<pre>
Go to the menus, Settings -> Setup -> Proxy Server and fill in the requested
information there. There is currently no support for using a username and
password to authenticate to socks proxies. Version 1.8.10 and above supports
authenticating to HTTPD proxies.
</pre>
<b><a name="q26">6. Why does X-Chat open a listen port?</a></b>
<pre>
Normally, X-Chat will not open a listen port, unless you are offering
a file by DCC. If you compiled X-Chat with the --enable-panel option,
ORBit (a library that is apart of Gnome) will open a port. X-Chat cannot
prevent this. If it really bothers you, compile X-Chat with --disable-panel.
</pre>
<b><a name="q27">7. Why is the "Tint Transparency" option shaded out?</a></b>
<pre>
It means you've compiled without gdk-pixbuf available. The configure script
looks for gdk-pixbuf-config to find out if you have it installed. On a
redhat or mandrake system you should have something like:
$ rpm -qa | grep gdk-pix
gdk-pixbuf-0.11.0
gdk-pixbuf-devel-0.11.0
The "devel" package is also necessary! You should be able to find these
packages on your Linux CDROM or local GNOME ftp site. Once you install
gdk-pixbuf, try recompiling xchat.
</pre>
<b><a name="q28">8. How do I set different ban types?</a></b>
<pre>
Three ways:
Right click the nickname in the userlist, and choose a bantype from the
"Kick/Ban" submenu. This menu is only available by default in version
1.6.x or above. You can also do it manually:
/ban <nick> <bantype>
where the <bantype> is a number from 0 to 3.
Version: 1.8 or earlier:
/set ban_type <bantype>
Version: 1.9 or 2.0:
/set irc_ban_type <bantype>
sets the default ban type to use for all bans. The different types are:
0 *!*@*.host
1 *!*@domain
2 *!*user@*.host
3 *!*user@domain
</pre>
<b><a name="q29">9. Why can't I see accented-letters/umlauts/upper-ascii-chars in X-Chat?</a></b>
<pre>
Version 1.8:
Firstly, you should disable fontsets. The setting is in Settings ->
Setup -> Channel Windows -> Use a FontSet. There is no reason to have
this setting ON, unless you know you need it. Some versions of X-Chat
require a restart for this setting to take affect.
If that doesn't fix the problem, try using a different font, some
fonts simply don't have the characters you want.
Version 1.9/2.0:
Refer to <a href="http://xchat.org/encoding.html">http://xchat.org/encoding.html</a>.
Note: Log files are written in UTF-8/Unicode.
</pre>
<b><a name="q210">10. Why does the timestamp overlap some nicknames?</a></b>
<pre>
Some networks allow very long nicknames (up to 32 letters). It can be annoying to have
the separator bar move too far to the right, just for one long nick. Therefore, it has
a set limit for the distance it will move to the right. If you use a large font, you
may need to adjust this distance. It is set in pixels, for example:
/set max_auto_indent 320
Once you adjust this setting high enough, overlapping timestamps and nicknames should
not occur. The adjustment will not take effect immediately, a restart may be needed.
</pre>
<b><a name="q211">11. How do I turn on Conference mode where I will not see join or part messages?</a></b>
<pre>
<u>Version 1.8</u>:
At the bottom right of the X-Chat screen there is a "<" button.
Click that then also click the "Conf" button that will pop up.
<u>Version 1.9/2.0</u>:
At the bottom right of the X-Chat screen, click the little up-arrow
button. A menu will appear, with a "Channel settings" submenu. In this
menu you may turn ON/OFF "Hide join/parts".
</pre>
<b><a name="q212">12. How can I run the /dccserver command?</a></b>
<pre>
In short you can not do this (easily). This is a mIRC only propriotory feature
that is quite nonstandard. There is no code for doing this, mainly because
/dccserver runs on port 59 which in turn would require running X-Chat as
root. Why do you need this anyway? Just use normal DCC.
</pre>
<b><a name="q213">13. How do I execute multiple commands in one line?</a></b>
<pre>
There are two ways to do this:
1) You can create two UserCommands, with the same name, and then execute
the UserCommand. It will be executed in the same order as it's written
in the UserCommands gui.
2) /LOAD -e <textfile>, where <textfile> is a full pathname to a file
containing commands on each line.
</pre>
<h3>3. Section Three: Crashes, Bugs and other problems.</h3>
<b><a name="q31">1. Why does X-Chat leak so much memory?</a></b>
<pre>
The simple answer is, it doesn't! There are some GTK+ pixmap based themes around that
leak alot of memory. Please try using a different theme and see if that resolves the
problem. X-Chat itself only allocates about 40kb of memory through malloc()!
</pre>
<b><a name="q32">2. My copy of X-Chat crashes, what can I do?</a></b>
<pre>
Firstly, make sure it's the latest stable version of X-Chat. Stable versions have
an EVEN middle number, e.g.: 1.8.10 or 1.8.11. Often late fixes are placed in this
directory: <a href="http://xchat.org/files/source/1.8/patches/">1.8.x patches</a>
If you still experience crashes, you should consider running it through GDB. This
will help us find a fix quickly, and it's easy to do! See <a href="gdb.html">here</a>.
</pre>
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