Pidgin

[Claire]

I have recently bought a Dell netbook with Ubuntu on it and it has a programme on called Pidgin where basically you can use msn messenger on (as you can't use this directly). This was all working fine until messenger had a new release in Decemeber.....now I have no access to Pidgin. According the guidance on the net I need to download and install a new version of Pidgin however, having tried this you need to firstly log into the update manager on ubuntu to received downloads but I keep getting error, downloads can not complete.

I have no idea how to get round this as I don't really understand computers............Can anyone help?

[SuperMan]

This link may help

link

Its also a good idea to get a account on the Ubuntu Forums as there are linux gurus who can help you.

[Monsta®]

Ubuntu ships Pidgin but does not update it after a release (except for security issues and high-severity bugs). For those users who desire new releases of Pidgin, we have packaged Pidgin in a PPA. If you encounter problems with these packages, try building from source and report the bug.

To setup the PPA, copy-and-paste these commands into a terminal:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com \ 67265eb522bdd6b1c69e66ed7fb8bee0a1f196a8

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad...pers/ppa/ubuntu \ `lsb_release --short --codename` main | \

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pidgin-ppa.list

After doing this, open Update Manager, check for updates, and then install the newly available Pidgin packages.

Future Pidgin updates will show up in Update Manager along with the usual Ubuntu updates. The PPA will need to be re-setup only after upgrading Ubuntu.

This PPA is maintained by one developer, so please be patient. It often lags behind the source releases a couple of days.

heres a helpful link! shows how to install pidgin

or format and install windows!

[threegee]

It's at the "oh, just compile it from source" bit that most people's eyes start to glaze over. What most normal people are looking for is a binary - a ready to install program.

The fancy update manager only supports what Canonical in South Africa decide to support. The basics of what you need to know here is that Ubuntu is a spin-off of Debian Linux, and so uses Debian packages. To install Debian packages you use the APT (Advanced Package Tool). Specifically the apt-get command which goes out and gets the packages for you from one or more places in a list of "repositories". The addresses of these "repos" are already stored on your machine, but there are times you may need to add a repo or two to this list to persuade the APT to look at the right place on the Internet for what you need.

APT is brighter than anything windowsy as it not only gets the software for you, but installs it, and resolves dependencies. Resolving dependencies simply means that it sees that everything the program needs to run - the libraries - are in the right versions. The same versions which the author wrote his software for and then tested it with. Very occasionally APT will get stuck when something needs one version of something and something else that's needed needs another version of the same thing. This is called a circular dependency, and that's the time to call in an expert!

Once you understand these fairly straightforward basics you can appreciate what the magic command line words are doing and where that stream of messages is leading.

There's another kind of Linux package you'll encounter - Red Hat packages. You can persuade Ubuntu to use these, but it's often tricky, and one to avoid if at all possible.

[Monsta®]

It's at the "oh, just compile it from source" bit that most people's eyes start to glaze over. What most normal people are looking for is a binary - a ready to install program.

try windows!

[Claire]

Thanks for your responses......I'll try to work it out and let you know how I get on.