Gaim: The Pimpin' Penguin IM Clone Thats Good For The Soul
1. Compiling and Installing
1.1. Why can't I compile Gaim?
1.2. I'm trying to install Gaim, but it complains that I don't have
libgtkspell.so.0, from where can I get this?
1.3. How do I get sound to work correctly?
1.4. Is there some way I can compile just Gaim, without all of these
protocols?
1.5. I compiled Gaim, but when I restart, it did not update.
1.6. I have a question about GTK1.2.
1.7. I'd like to use Gaim on IRIX.
1.8. How do I apply the xxxx patch (name.diff)?
2. Using Gaim
2.1. How do I register for a new account?
2.2. How do I use MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, IRC, Gadu-Gadu(GG), Napster, or
Zephyr?
2.3. How do I make gaim use emacs-like keybindings?
2.4. How do I change the font Gaim uses?
2.5. How do I use smiley themes?
2.6. Why are the status icons so big?
2.7. Why is Gaim crashing when somebody sends me an IM?
2.8. Why is gaim crashing when I start it?
2.9. I just changed my buddy icon, and I can't see the new one.
2.10. Why is everything at such small/large font sizes?
2.11. Gaim CVS is buggy. Gaim <non-current version> is buggy.
2.12. Why is the toggle to disable tabs not working?
2.13. What is a "Buddy Pounce"?
2.14. How do I get rid of the buddy icons in the taskbar?
3. Features
3.1. Can Gaim send files?
3.2. When will file transfer be supported? Is it being worked on?
3.3. File Transfer for xxxx doesn't seem to be working.
3.4. Is there a Gaim tray icon, or docklet, or gnome applet, or panel
icon, or something?
3.5. What do those colors in the conversation tab mean?
3.6. Will Gaim save my buddy list to the server?
3.7. How come there's no Export Buddy List?
3.8. Can Gaim import my buddy list?
3.9. Does Gaim support animated smileys?
3.10. Can I make Gaim group screen names by the person that owns them?
4. ICQ Protocol
4.1. How do I use ICQ?
4.2. ICQ doesn't work.
4.3. Gaim 0.60 pops up a bunch of authorization request Dialogs.
5. TOC Protocol
5.1. What is the TOC protocol?
6. AIM/ICQ (Oscar) Protocol
6.1. Can I set a buddy icon?
6.2. Some of my buddies are not showing up as online, why is that?
6.3. Can I use AIM URI's such as "aim:goim?screenname=robflynn"?
6.4. IM Image doesn't work, why?
6.5. I sent an IM Image, but only a blank line shows up, why?
6.6. Can I add SMS numbers to my buddy list?
6.7. I heard AOL is combining ICQ and AIM, does that mean I can send a
message from an AIM account to an ICQ account and vice-versa?
6.8. Why can't I connect via either Oscar or TOC?
7. IRC Protocol
7.1. Why am I getting disconnected when I try to connect to IRC?
7.2. How do I join a channel with the IRC plugin?
7.3. Is there a way to make Gaim automatically identify me and/or join
IRC chats on login?
8. Jabber Protocol
8.1. How do I choose which Jabber server to use?
8.2. How do I change my Jabber resource to be other than the default
of "/GAIM"?
8.3. How do I register a new Jabber account?
8.4. How do I use invisibility?
I've a buddy that I keep removing from my buddy list but the
8.5. entry keeps coming back every time I log in again! How can I stop
this?
8.6. Can I remove a buddy from my Jabber roster entirely?
8.7. What does "Cancel Presence Notification" do?
9. Y!M (yahoo) Protocol
9.1. I cannot connect to yahoo!
10. MSN Protocol
10.1. I'm getting lots of "Already in Opposite list" errors on msn,
why?
10.2. I'm getting an "Invalid User" popop whenever I sign on. How can
I make this go away?
10.3. Is there a way to invite more than one person to an MSN chat?
10.4. Is MSNP9 (MSN6) going to be supported?
10.5. Will I be able to use Gaim for MSN after October 15th? (The day
they're preventing third party clients from connecting)
10.6. I just upgraded Gaim and the MSN plugin will not load. Why?
10.7. The MSN plugin won't load, but I have Mozilla NSS!
11. Gadu-Gadu Protocol
11.1. What is Gadu-Gadu?
12. Trepia Protocol
12.1. I heard Trepia was going to be in 0.65. Where is it?
12.2. Trepia is showing people in Japan, England, etc. on my buddy
list. I thought this was supposed to show people in my area?
13. Scripts and Plugins
13.1. How do I use perl scripts with Gaim?
13.2. How do I compile a plugin for Gaim?
13.3. I have a plugin or perl script for Gaim that does not work with
0.60 or higher.
13.4. Where can I find documentation on writing plugins and Perl
scripts?
14. Development
14.1. Where should I report bugs?
14.2. Gaim never leaves a core file.
14.3. Where should I submit patches?
14.4. Did you guys reverse engineer it?
14.5. Will Gaim be ported to Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP?
15. Misc. Questions
15.1. Does AOL's attempts at blocking Trillian affect Gaim?
15.2. Is Gaim affected by the vulnerability found in Windows AIM or
Yahoo Instant Messenger clients?
15.3. Can I IM you guys?
15.4. Hello?
Can I give you money/hardware/other expensive things that can be
15.5. hocked for cash what with you all being students/
full-time-workers and helping to produce this wonderful software
instead of studying/sleeping?
15.6. Does Gaim support secure instant messaging (encrypted IMs)?
15.7. Why are the passwords in accounts.xml not encrypted?
15.8. What is gaim-remote?
15.9. When will the next version of Gaim be released?
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 1. Compiling and Installing
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1 Why can't I compile Gaim?
Make sure you have gettext <= 0.10.40 or gettext >= 0.11.3, autoconf 2.11 or
>= 2.53, and automake >= 1.4px (tested up to automake 1.6.3). If you are
still having problems, make sure that your gettext package includes the
program gettextize (for gettext <= 0.10.40) or autopoint (for gettext >=
0.11.3). If it does not, look for another package.
We don't support gettext 0.11.0 through 0.11.2 or 0.12.1. It may work for
you, but we make no promises.
If you are using autoconf 2.50+, do not use a version of gettext lower than
0.11.3. You will get errors in the po/ directory.
If you have Slackware, you need to get non-slack packages for autoconf,
automake, gettext, and libtool. You also have to copy the contents of /usr/
local/share/aclocal to /usr/share/aclocal. This is due to bugs in Slackware
and the auto* packages.
*BSD users may also have problems with libtool and will also have to remove
the --no-verify from the configure script.
1.2 I'm trying to install Gaim, but it complains that I don't have
libgtkspell.so.0, from where can I get this?
libtgtkspell.so.0 is provided by gtkspell. This library is used by Gaim to
provide the "Highlight misspelled words" feature. You can find an RPM of
gtkspell at freshrpms.net. You can find the source and a non-Red Hat specific
RPM at gtkspell.sourceforge.net.
1.3 How do I get sound to work correctly?
Gaim 0.60 and higher support playing sounds via libao. Playing sounds
directly through esound or arts is no longer supported.
`Libao is a cross-platform library that allows programs to output PCM audio
data to the native audio devices on a wide variety of platforms. It currently
supports OSS (Open Sound System), ESD (ESounD), ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound
Architecture), Sun audio system (used in Solaris, OpenBSD, and NetBSD), aRts
(Analog Realtime Synthesizer). '
To compile Gaim with support for libao you need libao-devel and
audiofile-devel. To use libao you need libao and audiofile. If you do not
wish to install these packages you can also just change your sound playing
method in preferences to Command and use "esdplay %s" or "artsplay %s."
1.4 Is there some way I can compile just Gaim, without all of these protocols?
Sort of, yeah. There are actually two ways to do it.
1. Use the --with-static-prpls option to ./configure along with
--disable-plugins. This will let you choose which protocols are compiled
in with Gaim, but you will not be able to use any other protocols or
plugins.
You'll need to compile any protocols that you specified in
--with-static-prpls. Oscar and TOC are defaults.
2. Change to the directories for the protocols you want to compile (e.g. src
/protocols/jabber), and run make from there. Then after you've compiled
all of them, change back to src/ and run make gaim.
The static prpls option is broke in 0.64 and higher.
1.5 I compiled Gaim, but when I restart, it did not update.
If you previously had an rpm or a Debian package installed, you need to
remove that first. rpm -e gaim or dpkg -p gaim should work. If you are using
0.59.x or lower, you will receive some errors about your plugins when you
restart Gaim. This is normal. Simply go into the Plugins dialog (Tools->
Plugins) and reload them. These errors will only happen once.
Likewise, if you want to use an RPM or deb and you have previously compiled
Gaim from source, you need to make uninstall to remove all Gaim files from /
usr/local.
1.6 I have a question about GTK1.2.
Our GTK2 port is now complete, the 0.59.x release series uses only GTK1.2,
and it is also entirely devoid of new features. 0.60 is the first release
with GTK2 support. 0.60 and all future Gaim versions will no longer support
GTK1.2. With the release of 0.60, the gtk1-stable tree that the 0.59.x
releases were from has been discontinued. If you want anything new in that
tree, you will have to maintain it yourself.
1.7 I'd like to use Gaim on IRIX.
Please see http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=725839&forum_id=
665 at our SourceForge Forum.
1.8 How do I apply the xxxx patch (name.diff)?
Type patch -p0 < name.diff from inside the gaim directory. If that doesn't
work, try patch -p1 < name.diff.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2. Using Gaim
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1 How do I register for a new account?
This depends on the protocol.
AIM: Go to http://my.screenname.aol.com/_cqr/login/login.psp?siteId=
snshomepage&authLev=1&mcState=initialized&createSn=1.
ICQ: Go to http://web.icq.com/register.
Yahoo: Go to http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_register.
MSN: Go to http://registernet.passport.com.
Gadu-Gadu: Use the official client to create an account.
Jabber: See the question How do I register a new Jabber account? below.
2.2 How do I use MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, IRC, Gadu-Gadu(GG), Napster, or Zephyr?
In Gaim 0.60 and higher, use the Account Editor (Tools->Accounts, or the
Accounts button on the start screen) to add the account. The appropriate
protocol plugin is loaded automatically.
In Gaim 0.59 and lower, you must first load the protocol plugin for the
protocol that you want to use. These plugins come with Gaim, so just go to
the Plugins dialog (Tools->Plugins, or the Plugins button on the start
screen). The list of plugins on this screen is a listing of plugins you have
already loaded and does not included unloaded but available plugins. To load
a new plugin, click "Load." The protocol plugins are named libprotocol.so, so
MSN for instance is provided by libmsn.so, and Gadu-Gadu is provided by
libgg.so. Now you can use the Account Editor to add an account with the
desired protocol.
2.3 How do I make gaim use emacs-like keybindings?
You need to edit your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 to contain the keybindings line from http:
//gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0.
2.4 How do I change the font Gaim uses?
The font preference in Gaim is used only for the formatting of outgoing
messages, and that only on the few protocols we support outgoing format on.
The display fonts used by the rest of Gaim are those specified by GTK. To
change this font you need to edit your ~/.gktrc (Gaim 0.59.9 and lower) or ~
/.gtkrc-2.0 (Gaim 0.60 and newer). An example ~/.gtkrc-2.0 is available http:
//gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0.
2.5 How do I use smiley themes?
Gaim 0.60 and higher support themable smileys. To select a theme, open Gaim's
preferences to the "Smiley Themes" page and click on whichever theme you want
to use. To install a theme, simply drag it into the theme selector. You can
find themes on the Gaim Smiley Themes (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
themes.php) page.
You can also install themes manually by uncompressing them to their own
directory in ~/.gaim/smileys/
2.6 Why are the status icons so big?
We believe that, by adding a second line of text to each buddy list entry,
we're able to show more information about each buddy on the buddy list. The
'Big List,' as we call it, shows status text, idle time, and warning level
concisely and attractively. It shows more than one status "emblem" for each
buddy, indicating at the same time a mobile user who is away. Most
importantly, it puts the buddy icon in the list, making it far easier to
locate buddies within a large list where names are harder to pick out than
images. Due to the increased usability of this UI, we have made it the
default.
We are aware that some people feel more comfortable using an interface more
similar to IM clients they may have used in the past. 'Big List' can be
disabled by un-checking "Show buddy icons in list" in the Buddy List
preferences.
2.7 Why is Gaim crashing when somebody sends me an IM?
If you're using a version older than 0.55 (or Ximian or Debian's 0.54
package), you can be crashed remotely through an IM using one of two strings.
The solution is to upgrade to the latest version, where both exploits are
fixed.
If you use Yahoo with Gaim 0.59.8 or lower, you need to upgrade. Yahoo
changed the protocol in a way that broke Gaim, Trillian, Everybuddy, and
their own linux client.
If you use Gaim 0.59.5 and Gaim segfaults as soon as it signs on, you do not
have a valid ~/.gtkrc file. This is fixed in debian's 0.59.5-2 package, and
is fixed in 0.59.6 for the rest of the world.
If you are using a version newer than 0.59.6 and Gaim still crashes, please
let us know.
2.8 Why is gaim crashing when I start it?
With 0.60 and higher, try running gaim with GDK_USE_XFT=0 set. If this does
not fix the problem, please submit a bug report. If gaim is not crashing, but
is just sitting there not displaying anything, try turning off anything else
that might be using the sound device (ie xmms) and then starting gaim. If
this fixes the problem, it is a libao issue, not a gaim issue, and can be
worked around by the use of esd or arts.
If you use MSN, and have a version 0.64, downgrade to 0.63 or upgrade to
0.65.
If you have ever installed 0.65, edit your ~/.gaimrc, changing your auto away
preference from -1 to 0.
If you use 0.67 and do not have yourself on your buddy list, upgrade.
If you use 0.70 or lower, make sure only one version of Gaim is installed.
2.9 I just changed my buddy icon, and I can't see the new one.
First, try IMing yourself. Buddy icons are checked when you IM people, so
depending on the protocol, that may work. If it still doesn't update, check
the file size (buddy icons must be smaller than 4kb) and the image size (it
should be 48x48 or 50x50 in most cases). Also, check the file type. GIF or
JPEG images are best supported; most other formats do not work at all. If all
of that checks out and it still doesn't work, and you're sure the protocol
supports it, try restarting Gaim.
2.10 Why is everything at such small/large font sizes?
You need to edit your .gtkrc-2.0 in your home directory. This is almost
certainly a gtk theme thing. You can find more gtk themes by visiting
themes.freshmeat.net, art.gnome.org, or searching on Google. If it is a
particular message window, you can also try ignoring font sizes (Tools->
Preferences->Message Text), though that will only have limited effects. See
an example .gktrc-2.0 at http://gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0.
2.11 Gaim CVS is buggy. Gaim <non-current version> is buggy.
Yes, it is! CVS is often unsupported by Gaim, as are non-current versions.
This is because non-current versions have old bugs which may be fixed in the
current version, and CVS is frequently unusable because of the changes in the
code (and it has new bugs). If you are using either and have a problem,
upgrade/install the current version of Gaim before posting a bug or asking
for help in Gaim's IRC channel. If the bug does not exist in the current
version, then please do not ask for help.
2.12 Why is the toggle to disable tabs not working?
You have told gaim (or have neglected to change the default) to place tabs in
the "Last Created Window" instead of in a "New Window." Change this tab
placement option and you will be all set.
2.13 What is a "Buddy Pounce"?
Gaim introduced buddy pounces a few releases before AOL came out with "Buddy
Alerts." Despite this though, you could think of a buddy pounce as an Alert
and get an idea of the most minimal uses of a buddy pounce. In reality, a
buddy pounce is much like a macro, or a recorded action. When you set a
pounce on someone, you choose from a number of events, such as signon or
someone going away, and then you choose from a number of actions. These
actions include everything from playing a sound (like an Alert would do) to
sending a messsage to the person, to executing a command. This action will
occur the next time gaim detects the event, ie the next time the person in
your buddy list who you have pounced signs on.
2.14 How do I get rid of the buddy icons in the taskbar?
As of 0.71, you do not.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 3. Features
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1 Can Gaim send files?
TOC can, in a limited way, and OSCAR can send files over AIM in 0.60 and
higher. Most protocols are capable of it, but Gaim hasn't implemented
anything yet. Support is being worked on and may partially work for MSN and
Jabber.
3.2 When will file transfer be supported? Is it being worked on?
Gaim 0.60 includes preliminary file transfer support. It likely contains a
few bugs that will be fixed in time. Currently, Gaim supports sending and
receiving files via AIM, receiving files via Jabber and IRC. File transfer
receive code exists for MSN, but it is very flakey, and files are often
corrupt. If you would like support for another protocol, get CVS and submit a
patch using the generic file transfer API.
3.3 File Transfer for xxxx doesn't seem to be working.
File transfer for all protocols is still buggy. This is being worked on, but
has no set date for completion.
3.4 Is there a Gaim tray icon, or docklet, or gnome applet, or panel icon, or
something?
In 0.59.x and below, Gaim only has support for Gnome's panel. Gaim 0.60 and
higher have replaced the gnome-applet with a tray icon that conforms to the
standards at www.freedesktop.org. This tray icon is supported in KDE 3.1,
Gnome 2.2, and Red Hat Gnome 2.0. Gaim will insert the tray icon in any
System Tray implementation that conforms to these standards, so feel free to
write one for your window manager of choice. For Gnome, you must have a
Notification Area in your Gnome panel.
This docklet is the only supported way of putting Gaim in a Gnome2 panel. The
panel applet (the gaim-applet rpm, the gaim-gnome deb package and compiling
with the --enable-panel flag) is only supported with Gaim 0.59.x and Gnome
1.x, the GTK1.2 versions of Gnome.
3.5 What do those colors in the conversation tab mean?
A red tab means a message is waiting for you; green means the buddy is
typing; yellow means the buddy began typing, and then stopped. Gray means
that there has been a join or a part in that chat.
3.6 Will Gaim save my buddy list to the server?
Yes, as of 0.60 Gaim saves your buddy list to the server for AIM, ICQ, MSN,
Yahoo, TOC and Jabber. Gaim 0.59.x supports this for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, TOC and
Jabber.
3.7 How come there's no Export Buddy List?
In 0.59 and earlier you can use cp to copy your buddy list. It is stored in
the $HOME/.gaim directory. The file name is your screen name, in all capital
letters. Gaim 0.60 does not support exporting your buddy list.
Import and export code will hopefully be reintroduced for one of the 0.6x
releases, due to the introduction of the unified xml buddy list in 0.60.
3.8 Can Gaim import my buddy list?
Unfortunately, no, you cannot import your buddy list with Gaim 0.60 and
later. However, as Gaim will read the server copy of the buddy list, this is
most likely not necessary unless you use a 3rd party client that is broken
(aka trillian).
With Gaim 0.59 and earlier, this depends on the format of the buddy list.
Gaim has mixed success importing Windows AIM buddy lists. If you want to try,
click File->Import. This is accessible after you sign on. If you want to
import an Licq (http://licq.org/) contact list, you can try using the
licq2gaim.pl perl script, which comes with the Gaim source code, but we do
not support this.
3.9 Does Gaim support animated smileys?
Yes, as of version 0.70 Gaim supports animated smileys.
3.10 Can I make Gaim group screen names by the person that owns them?
Sure! Right click a buddy on your list and at the bottom of the menu click
"Expand". Then just drag other screen names to the same person below it. When
you're done, click on the arrow to collapse them. When the contact is
collapsed, Gaim will select a buddy to display based on the status of the
buddies in the contact, and their order.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 4. ICQ Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1 How do I use ICQ?
ICQ support is part of the OSCAR protocol, labeled AIM/ICQ in Gaim (see the
question ICQ doesn't work for why). To use it, simply put your account number
in the Screenname box and your password in the Password box. Leave the server
settings set to the default (login.oscar.aol.com and port 5190).
4.2 ICQ doesn't work.
Use AIM/ICQ for ICQ. AOL stopped supporting the older versions of the ICQ
protocol. The newer versions are extensions of Oscar, which is labeled AIM/
ICQ in Gaim. Currently, Oscar supports as much of ICQ as the ICQ plugin used
to. To use Oscar for ICQ, put your UIN in the Screenname box, and leave the
server information alone.
4.3 Gaim 0.60 pops up a bunch of authorization request Dialogs.
This is a side effect of enabling support for the server side lists. Yes, you
must re-request authorization, we can't find a way around this requirement.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 5. TOC Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1 What is the TOC protocol?
It's an AIM protocol used by quickbuddy and aimexpress. It's not particularly
recommended that you use it unless you know what it is. :) The only time it
would be useful in Gaim is if Gaim's OSCAR (AIM/ICQ) protocol stopped working
for some reason, such as being blocked.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 6. AIM/ICQ (Oscar) Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1 Can I set a buddy icon?
Yes. Go to the Account Editor (Tools->Accounts from the buddy list), and
click to "Modify" the AIM/ICQ account you wish to have an icon. Enter the
full path to the image you wish to use in the box labeled "Buddy Icon File."
The file must be below 4KB. It can have any dimensions, and can be in any
format. However, if you wish Windows users to see it, it must be in a format
Windows understands, such as .bmp, .gif, and .jpg.
6.2 Some of my buddies are not showing up as online, why is that?
AOL has set a limit for the maximum number of people you can have in your
buddy list. This number is currently 200. Gaim 0.58 and newer give you a
warning if you are over the limit, but if you are using something prior to
0.58, make sure you are not over the limit (and upgrade to something more
recent!).
The other possibility is that your server-stored buddy list is corrupt.
Unfortunately, Gaim 0.53 had a bug that caused it to corrupt some entries,
especially group names. While this corruption doesn't show in Gaim unless you
remove the SCREENNAME.0.blist file from ~/.gaim, it does affect how long the
server thinks your list is. The best way to fix this, is to:
mv ~/.gaim/SCREENNAME.0.blist ~/
where SCREENNAME is your screenname, without spaces and in all caps. Then
signon, delete all groups, signoff, and signon again to verify that your list
is empty. Once it is empty, signoff, mv your SCREENNAME.0.blist file back
into ~/.gaim, then sign on again. This should not be necessary in Gaim 0.60
and higher.
If you have 0.60 or higher, move ~/.gaim/blist.xml instead.
6.3 Can I use AIM URI's such as "aim:goim?screenname=robflynn"?
Yes, with Gaim 0.60 and higher, but it can be difficult to set up. You need
to pass the entire URI to the gaim-remote program (included with gaim). To do
this with Gnome 2, run gnome-file-types-properties or "File Types and
Programs" from the preferences menu. Add a service with protocol "aim" and
set the program to gaim-remote uri "%s". This will make AIM URIs work in
Galeon 2. Also, not all types of aim URI's are supported. The ones that are
supported are goim, addbuddy, and gochat.
If you use wingaim, this will not work as gaim-remote has not yet been ported
over.
6.4 IM Image doesn't work, why?
IM Image is very sensitive, even from windows. Gaim currently only supports
sending IM Images if the sender is not behind a firewall or NAT device. Given
that the windows version of AIM also has trouble in this situation, we are
not sure this is entirely fixable. A work around that is sometimes effective
is to have the receiver, not being behind a firewall, request a direct
connection, then send the image.
In cvs, the html widget is being re-written. it currently does not support
many features of the old widget we used with GTK1.2, including images.
6.5 I sent an IM Image, but only a blank line shows up, why?
For Gaim 0.59.x and lower, You need to have gdk-pixbuf installed to view IM
Images. If the receiver is also using Gaim, [s]he also needs to have this
installed.
6.6 Can I add SMS numbers to my buddy list?
Not currently. This functionality has been broken since around September
2003. There is no ETA for when it will be fixed.
6.7 I heard AOL is combining ICQ and AIM, does that mean I can send a message
from an AIM account to an ICQ account and vice-versa?
Yes, AOL is slowly letting the two messaging networks interoperate with each
other. Messaging between the two protocols works as long as the receiver of
the message supports it. Gaim 0.60 supports sending and receiving messages
between AIM and ICQ, but the person receiving the message must support this.
Gaim, of course, supports this for both ICQ and AIM accounts. Windows AIM
version 5.2.3139 supports receiving messages from ICQ users. It is unknown if
earlier versions of Windows AIM support this. Windows ICQ build 3800 does not
support receiving messages from AIM users. Windows ICQ Lite builds 1150 and
later support receiving messages from AIM users and sending messages to AIM
users. MacAIM versions 4.6 beta, build 1.1131 and newer support sending and
receiving messages to and from ICQ users.
The same clients that support receiving messages from the alternate messaging
network will also show up in buddy lists of people using the alternate
network. This means that if you can message an ICQ user from an AIM account,
then the ICQ user will also show up in your AIM buddy list. So an AIM user
using Windows AIM version 5.2.3139 will show up in an ICQ buddy list.
6.8 Why can't I connect via either Oscar or TOC?
If you are using Linux, your kernel may be using a network option called
"ECN". It seems that the AOL servers are currently dropping packets marked as
"ECN-capable". In order to turn this off, run the command "echo 0 > /proc/sys
/net/ipv4/tcp_ecn" as root, or (if your distribution supports it) put the
line "net.ipv4.tcp_ecn = 0" in the file /etc/sysctl.conf.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 7. IRC Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1 Why am I getting disconnected when I try to connect to IRC?
You will be disconnected if the nickname you chose is already in use on that
IRC server. Try again with a different nickname. In 0.60 or later, Gaim will
prompt you to change your screenname in this situation.
7.2 How do I join a channel with the IRC plugin?
First create the account, then sign on. After you have signed on, you can use
File->Join A Chat on the buddy list to join a channel. In any window, either
a conversation or a chat, in which your IRC user is the sender, you can also
use /join to connect to a new channel.
7.3 Is there a way to make Gaim automatically identify me and/or join IRC
chats on login?
Yes. Add NickServ to your buddy list and place buddy pounces on him/her/it.
In version 0.64 or higher, you can add a chat to your buddy list, right click
it, and tell gaim to auto-join it.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 8. Jabber Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.1 How do I choose which Jabber server to use?
The Jabber server name is part of your Jabber I.D., such as
somebody@server.name. So when entering your Jabber "screen name", the server
is specified as part of your JID.
8.2 How do I change my Jabber resource to be other than the default of "/
GAIM"?
When you create your account in Gaim, simply append the desired resource
identifier to your Jabber I.D. For example: somebody@server.name/resource
8.3 How do I register a new Jabber account?
As of version 0.52 and up:
1. Click "Tools->Accounts->Add"
2. Select "Jabber" for the protocol.
3. Fill in screen name and password as you normally would. THIS IS A
REQUIRED STEP
4. Check the "Register with server" check-box
5. Click "OK".
Note: You are strongly recommended to check the "Remember password" check-box
as well, as Gaim presently does no password verification. So if you don't
type in what you thought you did, you're hosed.
8.4 How do I use invisibility?
Jabber invisibility support is available in Gaim version 0.60 and later.
There are two ways to use Jabber invisibility: on a per-buddy and on a
per-server basis.
To use per-buddy invisibility: right-click on the buddy on the Online buddy
list and select "Temporarily Hide From." You will appear to that buddy to be
off-line. To make yourself seen by that buddy again: right-click on the buddy
and select "Un-hide From." Note that the menu changes based on whether you're
currently invisible to that buddy or not.
The "Temporarily" part is a dead give-away. Your invisibility to that
buddy will last only until the next time you log on or until you set
server invisibility (discussed next) on and off.
To use per-server invisibility: click "Tools -> Away," select the Jabber
server login for the server upon which you wish to become invisible (if
necessary) and select "Invisible." To become visible again: select anything
else from that same menu (such as "Online"), or set your away status or log
off the server and back on again.
You can set yourself invisible per-server and subsequently make yourself
visible to selected buddies only.
Gaim currently does not retain invisibility settings between logins, just as
it doesn't currently retain "away" status.
8.5 I've a buddy that I keep removing from my buddy list but the entry keeps
coming back every time I log in again! How can I stop this?
As of Gaim version 0.59 and later: Select the Edit Buddies tab, right-click
on the offending entry, and select "Remove From Roster.
8.6 Can I remove a buddy from my Jabber roster entirely?
As of Gaim version 0.59 and later: yes. In the Edit Buddies tab, right-click
on a buddy and Select "Remove From Roster.
The buddy will disappear from your buddy list and also will no longer receive
presence notifications from you.
In 0.60, the deletion code will do this. Gaim currently does not retain
invisibility settings between logins, just as it doesn't currently retain
"away" status.
8.7 What does "Cancel Presence Notification" do?
This selection, available in Gaim version 0.60 and later, and found by
right-clicking on a buddy entry in the Edit Buddies tab, prevents that Jabber
I.D. from receiving future presence notifications when you log on to the
server.
After you do this, that buddy will have to re-request a subscription to your
presence (and you will have to approve it) for them to again see you on-line.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 9. Y!M (yahoo) Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.1 I cannot connect to yahoo!
Make sure you have at least 0.70. If you still cannot connect, change the
host you connect to from scs.yahoo.com to scs.msg.yahoo.com
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 10. MSN Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.1 I'm getting lots of "Already in Opposite list" errors on msn, why?
The reason this happens is because you have a screenname in both your permit
list and your deny list. There are two ways to fix this: the correct way and
the quick way. The correct way is to go to tools->preferences (tools->privacy
in 0.60 or later), and manually scan the list and remove the duplicate
entries. The quick way is to remove the msn .blist file from the ~/.gaim
directory. This will have a side effect: the msn server stores the
screennames of your contacts, but does not store what group they are in, so
you will have to re-sort your msn contacts into the appropriate groups.
10.2 I'm getting an "Invalid User" popop whenever I sign on. How can I make
this go away?
Delete your buddy list. On unix, this will be at ~/.gaim/blist.xml (or ~
/.gaim/USERNAME.0.blist pre-v0.60). Note that you will lose buddy groups and
aliases when you do this. Alternatively, since this will delete ALL buddy
lists, not just the msn one, you can hand edit the ~/.gaimrc to remove the
msn account. Start gaim up, which will remove the entries from the account
that no longer exists, and re-add your account. For most users, this will be
the better temporary solution.
10.3 Is there a way to invite more than one person to an MSN chat?
Not at this time. When the conversation framework gets another rewrite, it is
possible that it will be worked on. Until that time, sorry. :)
10.4 Is MSNP9 (MSN6) going to be supported?
MSNP9 support has existed in Gaim since 0.69. However, at this point,
features such as custom smileys and buddy icons aren't yet implemented.
10.5 Will I be able to use Gaim for MSN after October 15th? (The day they're
preventing third party clients from connecting)
Yes. We use MSNP9, which is available in 0.69 and up, and MSNP9 is supported
after October 15th.
10.6 I just upgraded Gaim and the MSN plugin will not load. Why?
You did not compile with SSL support, or the SSL plugin failed to load. As of
protocol version 9, the MSN protocol requires the use of SSL, which gaim
provides by either GnuTLS or the combination of NSS and NSPR from the Mozilla
project. Install one or both of these and recompile Gaim, and see the next
question.
10.7 The MSN plugin won't load, but I have Mozilla NSS!
Some distributions, including Slackware, install Mozilla NSS to a
non-standard directory. The fix is simple. Edit /etc/ld.so.conf and add /usr/
lib/mozilla-1.4 (or whatever version you're using, but it's usually 1.4) to
the file, and run ldconfig as root. Then re-run configure and recompile Gaim.
You may also need to specify where the include file are for NSS and NSPR, see
./configure --help for the options.
Mozilla 1.5 has a broken .pc file and does not install the necessary .h
files, and so will not be detected.
See http://gaim.sf.net/faq-ssl.php on getting ssl to work with gaim.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 11. Gadu-Gadu Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.1 What is Gadu-Gadu?
Gadu-Gadu is an IM protocol popular in Poland. You can find more about it at
http://www.gadu-gadu.pl (website in Polish).
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 12. Trepia Protocol
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.1 I heard Trepia was going to be in 0.65. Where is it?
Support for the Trepia protocol was removed right before 0.65's release. It
may make it into a future version, but we're not sure yet.
12.2 Trepia is showing people in Japan, England, etc. on my buddy list. I
thought this was supposed to show people in my area?
We believe this to be the protocol, not Gaim. As Trepia continues to update
and refine their protocol, it will become more accurate. If we find out
otherwise, we will attempt to incorporate the changes necessary to act like
the official client.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 13. Scripts and Plugins
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.1 How do I use perl scripts with Gaim?
Save the perl script to ~/.gaim/ or $prefix/lib/gaim/, restart Gaim, and load
the perl script by checking the check box next to its name on the Plugins
page in preferences.
13.2 How do I compile a plugin for Gaim?
To compile a plugin for Gaim, you must have Gaim's source code. There are two
ways to get this: Tarballs, and CVS. To work with a tarball, follow the
instructions below. To use CVS, follow the instructions on the CVS (http://
gaim.sf.net/cvs.php) page. Please note that often, CVS is much less stable
than the tarballs! Do not use CVS unless you are writting a patch.
To work with a tarball, download the latest source code from http://
gaim.sf.net/ and untar it with the command:
tar zxvf filename
where filename is the file you downloaded.
After you have a Gaim source code tree, either through tarballs or CVS:
1. Change to the resulting directory and run the command:
./configure
This will create the necessary make files.
2. Move the plugin you wish to compile into the plugins/ directory in the
Gaim source code tree.
3. Change to the plugins/ directory.
4. Type:
make name.so
where the name of the file you wish to compile is name.c.
Note well the difference in the extensions. If you type make name.c
instead of name.so, it won't work.
5. After make finishes, you can move the plugin to a place that is more
convenient. $prefix/lib/gaim is suggested. If you installed Gaim by
compiling it yourself, $prefix is /usr/local by default. Otherwise,
$prefix is /usr.
13.3 I have a plugin or perl script for Gaim that does not work with 0.60 or
higher.
The plugin and perl script API has changed in 0.60, which means plugins and
perl scripts must be modified in order to work. The plugin or perl script
must be located in $prefix/lib/gaim or in ~/.gaim, and must implement the new
API, as documented in the howto file in the plugins directory. Plugins and
perl scripts are now controled from preferences.
13.4 Where can I find documentation on writing plugins and Perl scripts?
If you look in the plugins/ directory in the Gaim source, you should see a
HOWTO file for C plugins and a PERL-HOWTO for Perl scripts.
In 0.68 or later, get the source code and run make docs. You will need
doxygen and graphviz dot installed for this to work. This will produce an api
reference and both the perl and plugin documentation.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 14. Development
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.1 Where should I report bugs?
http://gaim.sf.net/bug.php.
14.2 Gaim never leaves a core file.
On most installs, for some odd reason, core files are limited in size to 0
bytes, and so are not created. To rectify this situation, add ulimit -c
unlimited to your startup scripts or run it manually in a terminal before
starting gaim from that terminal.
14.3 Where should I submit patches?
http://gaim.sf.net/patches.php.
14.4 Did you guys reverse engineer it?
TOC, Jabber, MSN, Napster, and IRC are published protocols, so we didn't have
to reverse engineer those. Oscar, ICQ, and Yahoo are not published, and were
reverse engineered by other people.
14.5 Will Gaim be ported to Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP?
Gaim has released a Windows version.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 15. Misc. Questions
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.1 Does AOL's attempts at blocking Trillian affect Gaim?
No.
15.2 Is Gaim affected by the vulnerability found in Windows AIM or Yahoo
Instant Messenger clients?
No.
15.3 Can I IM you guys?
Sure! Look at the Contact Information (http://gaim.sf.net//contactinfo.php)
page!
15.4 Hello?
We don't know how to answer this question. Stop asking it.
15.5 Can I give you money/hardware/other expensive things that can be hocked
for cash what with you all being students/full-time-workers and helping
to produce this wonderful software instead of studying/sleeping?
No. We're completely fool-hardy and won't accept any gratuities with no
strings attached for just being good guys. That and we'd have to share with
everyone who has submitted patches. ;-)
15.6 Does Gaim support secure instant messaging (encrypted IMs)?
Not natively. Doing secure instant messaging right is a big deal and
requires, among other things, an authentication scheme. Simply encrypting
your data stream without verifying the party with whom you are chatting is
not secure in any way; some other clients offer options like this, but we
feel that such measures instill a false sense of security that is more
harmful than helpful.
The gaim-e project (http://gaim-e.sourceforge.net/) is working on developing
a secure IM framework that uses the GnuPG and the OpenPGP trust model for
authentication. If you are serious about secure instant messaging, read the
documentation on the "web of trust" model available at http://www.gnupg.org/
and try out gaim-e.
15.7 Why are the passwords in accounts.xml not encrypted?
This is a case of a really long answer to a short question. Read our
explanation at http://gaim.sf.net/plaintextpasswords.txt.
15.8 What is gaim-remote?
gaim-remote is a second executable included with Gaim starting with 0.60. It
allows you to perform some actions to control/manipulate an existing Gaim
process from the command line. Run gaim-remote --help to get an idea of what
we currently envision it doing.
15.9 When will the next version of Gaim be released?
The schedule for releases is every other Thursday. However, a new version
will only be released if it meets a certain standard of quality (i.e., it
will not be released if it still has a large number of serious bugs).
Therefore, some releases will take longer than others. Major rewrites means
lots of new bugs to work out. The new version will be released as soon as it
is possible to do so.
