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FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions.
Why msn-pecan?
I (Felipe Contreras) am the main author of the MSN protocol plug-in in Pidgin, after working on it for more than 4 years I don't have commit access and probably won't any time soon. It's frustrating not to be able to improve it the way I want it.
A lot of people have contributed over the years, and keep working on it, but I'm the one who re-designed it into the current form and probably knows more about the core stuff, and how to improve it.
So I forked my own code, and I'm very pleased with the results. Everybody's contributions are welcome.
Will it ever be merged?
I've done everything Pidgin guys wanted. Ask them why not.
How do I use it?
See HowToInstall.
What is an alias?
An alias is a "private name"; something you set for your contacts. A nickname is a "public name", and it's different from an alias; it's something your contact sets for himself.
If the displayed name changes constantly it means your contact has changed his nickname. If the display name doesn't change it means you have set an alias; aliases take precedence over nicknames.
You can see both the nickname and the alias in the tool-tip in Pidgin.
My buddy's nickname is not updated
You might have an old alias. Try changing it by right-clicking your buddy and then select Alias, remove all the text so it's empty.
The text displayed should now be the nickname.
How do I change my personal message
There's no concept of personal message in Pidgin, instead, you must use the status messages.
You can try to select a new status at the bottom of the main window, but instead of selecting another status, choose Available again. A field should appear below, where you can enter your new status message.
If you would like this behavior to improve, please vote on issue 51.
The emoticons are different
This is an open issue that needs to be fixed in libpurple, see issue 5.
For now you can try Andrei Neculau's original smileys here.
I have an issue that is not mentioned here
Fill a report on the issue list, please attach the issue with a debug log.
On Linux, simply
pidgin --debug > debug_log.txt
On Windows go to Help, then Debug Window. If it's a crash, then you would have to download the debug version and attach the files created in %TEMP%.
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I think a link to this page should be kept in the "Issues" session as that is the first place I'd look!
Perhaps, but I can't modify that page.
Perhaps I will add some permanent issues if this keeps coming.
I set up some aliases over windows live messenger; I can see my aliases over all the other msn clients for linux (emesene, aMSN), but with pidgin and your plugin I'm suffering. I can't see the already inserted aliases with your plugin. I can set them, but I don't know if they conflict with the others (If I enter with emesene now, will I see the old alias or the newly set by pidgin?). Can you give me some hints? It seems that I'm the only one to have this problems. Right now I'm going to compile via GIT and see. Thanks for all, Michele (Italy)
Hi, Thank you for this library (personal messages was the most important thing I was waiting for in Pidgin) !!! I have just a litte problem : smileys are not very numerous (less than with purple). It is possible to add some new ones ? Thank you. David.
Hi again, I'm on Debian and I have dependances' problems with msn-pecan. Is there a Debian's version ? Thank you again. David.
For debian, you have to edit the deb file. The deb file is an archive, with another one : control.tar.gz in this one, and in the control replace the line "Depends:" by this one :
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.7), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libpurple0 (>= 2.4.1)
and it should work
I wish you the best and think that you proceed good in doing this!
Adium in version 1.3b4 will try your MSN Protocol! Bring us voice :D Mac users, like I am, will thank a zillion times!
Hi Felipe,
Do you think that it would be possible to add offline messages? It's kind of frustrating to see all other MSN clients offering it but not Pidgin :)
Hi, I was just wondering if you have contacted the Funpidgin / Carrier guys. (Carrier was forked from Pidgin by people who were also frustrated with Pidgin's development process). It appears to me they might gladly welcome your efforts on bringing MSN support up to date and it would be great to see your efforts merged.