Mercurial > pidgin.yaz
changeset 16218:8625c519d3a7
Remove the FAQ. Fixes #159.
| author | Richard Laager <rlaager@wiktel.com> |
|---|---|
| date | Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:21:58 +0000 |
| parents | 416a125b66ac |
| children | 8c191d655f51 |
| files | doc/FAQ doc/Makefile.am pidgin.spec.in |
| diffstat | 3 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 1280 deletions(-) [+] |
line wrap: on
line diff
--- a/doc/FAQ Mon Apr 16 16:21:33 2007 +0000 +++ /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 @@ -1,1278 +0,0 @@ -Gaim: The Pimpin' Penguin IM Clone Thats Good For The Soul - -1. Compiling and Installing - - 1.1. What does "Gaim" stand for? - 1.2. Why can't I compile Gaim? - 1.3. I'm trying to install Gaim, but it complains that I don't have - libgtkspell.so.0, from where can I get this? - 1.4. What do I need to use the SILC protocol? - 1.5. Is there some way I can compile just Gaim, without all of these - protocols? - 1.6. I installed a new version of Gaim, but the about window says I'm - still using the old version. - 1.7. Are the packages signed? If so, by who, and how can I get the - key? - 1.8. Can I use Gaim for GTK+ 1.2? - 1.9. Can I run Gaim on IRIX? - 1.10. Can I run Gaim on HPUX? - 1.11. Can I run Gaim on MacOSX? - 1.12. How do I apply the patch "something.diff"? - 1.13. Why is Gaim crashing when I start it? - 1.14. Gaim <non-current version> is buggy. Gaim SVN is buggy. Why? - 1.15. Why do you always say not to use SVN? - -2. Using Gaim - - 2.1. How do I register for a new account? - 2.2. How do I use AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, ICQ, or any other - protocol? - 2.3. How do I use Google Talk? - 2.4. How do I change the font Gaim uses? The empty left padding? The - background color? - 2.5. Where did my ability to use Ctrl-Enter to send a message go? - 2.6. When I click the status selector, I see blank space and have to - scroll. What can I do about this? - 2.7. The status selector has extra padding in it. How can I make it - smaller? - 2.8. How do I make gaim use emacs-like keybindings, or assign a - custom hotkey? - 2.9. How do I make Escape close the conversation window? - 2.10. How do I use smiley themes? - 2.11. Why are the status icons so big? - 2.12. Why do the emblems move around the status icon? - 2.13. How do I get sound to work correctly? - 2.14. How do I make Gaim use ALSA or OSS for playing sounds? What does - the "Automatic" option do? - Why does Gaim use the same WM_CLASS for every window? It makes - 2.15. it impossible to control window size and placement for the buddy - list separately from the conversations. - 2.16. I blocked someone accidentally, how can I unblock them? - 2.17. What is a "Buddy Pounce"? - 2.18. Where does gaim store its logs? - 2.19. Can I use Gaim for e-mail, blogging, an RSS feed, or something - else that isn't IM-related? - -3. Features - - 3.1. Does Gaim support file transfer? - 3.2. Can I turn the tray icon off? - 3.3. What do those colors in the conversation tab mean? - 3.4. Can I import or export my buddy list? - 3.5. Does Gaim support animated smileys? - 3.6. Can I make Gaim group screen names by the person that owns them? - You know, like Trillian's Meta Contacts? - 3.7. What happened to my timestamps? Can I change them? - 3.8. How does Gaim decide which saved statuses to show in the status - selector? - 3.9. Why are no states listed when I go to set a state for Auto Away? - -4. AIM/ICQ (OSCAR) Protocol - - 4.1. Can I set my profile? - 4.2. Can I set a buddy icon? - 4.3. I just changed my buddy icon, and I can't see the new one. - 4.4. Some of my buddies are not showing up as online, why is that? - 4.5. Can I use AIM URI's such as "aim:goim?screenname=robflynn"? - 4.6. Does Gaim support DirectIM and IM Image? - 4.7. Can I send SMS messages? - 4.8. Can I add SMS numbers to my buddy list? - -5. IRC Protocol - - 5.1. How do I join a channel with the IRC plugin? - 5.2. Is there a way to make Gaim automatically identify me and/or join - IRC chats on login? - 5.3. Is it possible to change the user name that appears in - username@hostname? - 5.4. How can I set/change my real name? - -6. Jabber Protocol - - 6.1. How do I choose which Jabber server to use? - 6.2. How do I change my Jabber resource to be other than the default - of "/Home" (or the old default of "/Gaim")? - 6.3. Can I remove a buddy from my Jabber roster entirely? - 6.4. What does "Cancel Presence Notification" do? - -7. Y!M (Yahoo) Protocol - - 7.1. I cannot connect to Yahoo! and I'm behind a firewall or NAT. Why - doesn't Gaim have Yahoo's "Firewall with no proxy" option? - 7.2. I blocked someone, but it doesn't seem to have worked. - 7.3. Can I get a list of Yahoo! Chat rooms? What about localized - lists? - 7.4. What protocol does Gaim use to connect to Yahoo!? - -8. MSN Protocol - - 8.1. Will Gaim support MSN video chat? - 8.2. Why are my file transfers so slow? - 8.3. Is there a way to invite more than one person to an MSN chat? - 8.4. Is MSNP11 (MSN7) going to be supported? - 8.5. Why can't I sign on to MSN? - 8.6. The MSN plugin won't load, but I have Mozilla NSS! - 8.7. What does "MSN: S: 911 3" in the debug window mean when I cannot - connect to MSN? - 8.8. How do I set an MSN avatar? - 8.9. What does "Has you" in the buddy tooltip mean? - 8.10. How do I set my MSN Friendly Name (the name other users see)? - 8.11. What does "Error reading from switchboard server" mean? - -9. Gadu-Gadu Protocol - - 9.1. What is Gadu-Gadu? - 9.2. I compiled Gaim from source and now it doesn't have Gadu-Gadu - support. Why? - -10. Zephyr Protocol - - 10.1. What is Zephyr? - 10.2. Other Zephyr clients (zwgc, owl, tzc) work, but Gaim dies with - "Couldn't initialize zephyr". - 10.3. Gaim isn't working, but I never got any other Zephyr client - working on this machine. - 10.4. How do I use Zephyr from behind my firewall, or without - recompiling with kerberos support if needed? - -11. SILC Protocol - - 11.1. What is SILC? - -12. Novell Protocol - - 12.1. Are there any public servers for Novell? - 12.2. I can't seem to get it to work. - -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 used to work, but - does not with the current version. - 13.4. Where can I find documentation on writing plugins and Perl - scripts? - -14. Development - - 14.1. Can I help? - 14.2. Gaim never leaves a core file. - 14.3. Will you support features such as voice chat, internet phones, - or video chat? - 14.4. Where should I report bugs? - 14.5. Where should I submit patches? - 14.6. Did you guys reverse engineer it? - -15. Miscellaneous Questions - - 15.1. Can I IM you guys? - 15.2. Hello? - 15.3. Does Gaim support secure instant messaging (encrypted IMs)? - 15.4. Why are the passwords in accounts.xml not encrypted? - 15.5. When will the next version of Gaim be released? - 15.6. What will the next version be? - 15.7. So, can I look forward to mega-sexy super functionality with - Gaim? - 15.8. How do I change the language for the Highlight Misspelled words - option? - 15.9. Can I make Gaim transparent/translucent? - 15.10. Can I "skin" Gaim? - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 1. Compiling and Installing -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -1.1 What does "Gaim" stand for? - - For freedom! No, seriously, it doesn't stand for anything. It's our name and - we're sticking to it. The two acceptable forms of capitalization are "Gaim" - and "gaim" (and not "GAIM"). - -1.2 Why can't I compile Gaim? - - Make sure you have relatively recent versions of automake, autoconf, and - gettext. HOWEVER, generally speaking, having the absolute newest of them is - not as good as having one version short of newest since we might not have - found work-arounds for the latest set of changes. Also, some versions of - automake require certain ranges of gettext versions, and we are utterly - unable to keep track of what versions will work with what other versions. - - If you have Slackware < 9.1, you need to get non-slack packages for autoconf, - automake 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. - - Having problems getting SSL and MSN working? See http://gaim.sf.net/ - faq-ssl.php for distribution specific hints. - -1.3 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. - -1.4 What do I need to use the SILC protocol? - - You need to install the SILC toolkit (http://silcnet.org/software/download/ - toolkit/) and the Gaim SILC plugin. This plugin is generally provided as a - separate package (such as a gaim-silc RPM). If you're compiling yourself, see - the ./configure --help for specifying the SILC includes and libs. If you're - compiling an SRPM, use --with silc to build the gaim-silc RPM. - - In Windows, the SILC toolkit is installed with Gaim. - - Some distributions provide the SILC toolkit and include Gaim's SILC plugin in - their Gaim package. - -1.5 Is there some way I can compile just Gaim, without all of these protocols? - - Yeah. There are actually three 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 is the default. - - 2. Use the --with-dynamic-prpls option to ./configure - - 3. 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. - -1.6 I installed a new version of Gaim, but the about window says I'm still - using the old version. - - If you compiled yourself, and 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. - - 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. - -1.7 Are the packages signed? If so, by who, and how can I get the key? - - Yes, all packages are signed. The signature for the tarball and bzip2 archive - are provided by separate downloads. The RPMs we provide are signed by either - Ethan Blanton, Mark Doliner, or Stu Tomlinson. Usually the Mandrake RPMs are - signed by, Mark Doliner, the Fedora Core RPMs are signed by Stu Tomlinson, - and the Red Hat 8 and 9 RPMs are signed by Ethan Blanton. The keys can be - obtained from any key server. http://pgp.mit.edu/ is popular. - -1.8 Can I use Gaim for GTK+ 1.2? - - As of version 0.60, Gaim has been completely converted to using GTK+2.0. We - really really really recommend using the most current version of Gaim and not - a GTK+1.2 version of Gaim. However, if you are living in the '90s, or you're - afraid GTK+2.0 will insult your mother, you can use Gaim 0.59.9, which is the - last version of Gaim that used GTK+1.2. We should warn you though, this - version of Gaim hasn't had any new features since the middle of 2002, and - some protocols likely do not work. Also, the 0.59.x releases aren't - breathtakingly beautiful. - -1.9 Can I run Gaim on IRIX? - - Sure you can - the amount of effort involved depends on which compiler you - use; there is however no official support. - - GCC (tested with 3.4 on IRIX 6.5.29): All but one necessary changes were - included in the official sources. You will notice GnuTLS will not be included - by default, even if the necessary includes and libraries are available; to - add SSL support, open the configure script in your favourite editor and - replace all instances of "-lnsl" by "-lnsl -lgnutls". Ask no questions :-) it - Just Works. Mozilla-NSS wasn't tested. - - MIPSPro CC (tested with 7.4.4m on IRIX 6.5.29): Less trivial for obvious - ANSI-tightness reasons. There's an unofficial patch for 2.0.0 beta3 available - http://jesuschrist.be/gaim/gaim-2.0.0beta3_irix.patch, which applies (amongst - others) the SSL hack described above. You will need to configure WITHOUT the - Zephyr protocol plugin. - - NOTE: Jabber crashed gaim when using TLS. This is a bug inside GnuTLS that - might or might not be fixed by the time you read this. - -1.10 Can I run Gaim on HPUX? - - Yes, you can; with GCC 4.1.1 on HPUX 11.11 at least it worked fine. There is - however no official support. - - The build scripts that are shipped with the "official" releases are - unfortunately incompatible with the HPUX linker; fetching the svn version and - running autogen.sh however gives you a healthy build dir. Configure gaim - WITHOUT the X screensaver extension and disable the gtk- and glibtests; no - source hacks are needed. - -1.11 Can I run Gaim on MacOSX? - - Yes you can, but we do not provide a package for it. The reason being that in - order to use Gaim on MacOSX, you need to install an X server and GTK+, which - we are not prepared to support. You can either compile Gaim (and its - dependencies) yourself, or you can use the fink installer available from - http://fink.sf.net. If you would like a native aqua interface or a - user-friendly installer, we suggest trying Adium (http://www.adiumx.com/). - -1.12 How do I apply the patch "something.diff"? - - Type patch -p0 < something.diff from inside the Gaim directory. If that - doesn't work, try patch -p1 < something.diff. - -1.13 Why is Gaim crashing when I start it? - - First of all make sure you are using the most recent version of Gaim. If you - still have problems, try the following: - - • Make sure only one version of Gaim is installed. "whereis gaim" can - sometimes be useful for determining this. - • "export GDK_USE_XFT=0" in a terminal and then run Gaim from the same - terminal. - • 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. - • Try disabling or deleting any 3rd party plugins, especially anything - related to encryption. - • If you use 0.75 or higher on win32, try deleting tcl.dll. - -1.14 Gaim <non-current version> is buggy. Gaim SVN is buggy. Why? - - Non-current versions have old bugs which may be fixed in the current - version--that's why we make new releases. SVN is frequently unusable because - of changes in the code. Bugs are introduced during the development process - and are hopefully fixed before a release is made. - -1.15 Why do you always say not to use SVN? - - That's a long story. For starters, see the previous question. It is often the - case that Gaim SVN exhibits bad behavior due to features and bugfixes which - are in a transitory state or which are not yet well understood. These bad - behaviors range from the harmless (maybe a graphical glitch in a dialog box) - to the irritating (a particular protocol may not work), to the downright - damaging (recently a bug in SVN destroyed the user's buddy lists). While - behaviors like this are acceptable to some users (particularly developers, - who are used to such things), they tend to cause many Gaim SVN users to - contact Gaim developers and report the same (usually egregious) bug over and - over - using time which could be better spent fixing the bugs. - - A second major point involves public resources - an SVN checkout is not a - cheap operation. As many Sourceforge users are aware, at various points in - the recent past Sourceforge CVS has been less than pleasant to work with. - This is, of course, because Sourceforge hosts dozens and dozens of useful and - active projects which use[ed] CVS as a primary method of source code - collaboration. Unfortunately, when too many users are poking around in that - CVS just for the sake of poking around, it prevents other users who are - trying to do work to improve those very same projects from accomplishing - their tasks. Naturally, this could easily become true of Sourceforge's SVN - offering as well. It is better for the community if an enterprising - individual wishing to fix a particular bug [s]he has seen can get to the code - and create a patch, even if this means that some users have to wait a few - weeks for the next release to see what new features it might hold. - - The third point is not a problem which has yet come up, but it is in the back - of the mind of the developers who bring you Gaim. As a third-party IM client, - Gaim is not a priority (and indeed may be an irritant) for the IM service - providers. We do our best to keep Gaim playing nice and being friendly on the - IM networks it uses; however, at times there are bugs in the protocol - support. If a few dozen people are using this buggy client, the IM providers - are not likely to go out of their way to do anything about it. However, if - hundreds of people are pointing an ill-behaved client at an IM server, the - server administrators may be forced to take action. (This is particularly - likely if the buggy behavior is damaging in some way.) Gaim releases - represent code which the Gaim developers feel is relatively well-behaved and - stable. This includes not only the interface seen by Gaim users, but the - traffic seen by IM service providers. Gaim SVN bears no such guarantees. - - In short, there are a lot of good reasons to not use Gaim SVN if one does not - wish to develop Gaim, Gaim plugins, or a codebase which interacts with Gaim - in some intimate way. There are, however, only a few reasons to use Gaim SVN - outside of the above. Please weigh these things carefully and decide whether - you wish to use Gaim SVN for a good reason which furthers the community, or - for selfish reasons which are not entirely important. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 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. - - MSN (including Hotmail email): Go to http://registernet.passport.com/. - - MSN (using your own email address): Go to http://register.passport.net/. - - Yahoo: Go to http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_register. - - Jabber: See the question How do I register a new Jabber account? below. - - ICQ: Go to http://web.icq.com/register. - - Gadu-Gadu: Use the official client to create an account. - - Novell: See your Novell server administrator. - -2.2 How do I use AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, ICQ, or any other protocol? - - Use the Account Editor (Accounts->Add/Edit) to add the account of the - appropriate messaging service. Use the checkbox in the account editor to - enable the account. - -2.3 How do I use Google Talk? - - Create a Jabber account as per Google's FAQ. The Audio component is not - currently supported and will not be until work on it is finished. We have no - time frame for that as yet. - -2.4 How do I change the font Gaim uses? The empty left padding? The background - color? - - The font preference in Gaim is used only for the formatting of outgoing - messages. The display fonts used by the rest of Gaim are those specified by - GTK+. To change this font you need to edit your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file. If you - need help you can see our example .gtkrc-2.0 (http://gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0) - file. On Windows, this file is located at C:\Documents and Settings\username - \.themes\Default\gtk-2.0\gtkrc. If the file does not exist, create it. - - You can also just switch to a different GTK+ theme. You can find GTK+ themes - (and information on using them) by visiting themes.freshmeat.net, - art.gnome.org, or searching on Google. - - Similarly, the other font preferences are the defaults for outgoing messages, - and gaim's global settings are controled by the gtk theme. Additionally, some - settings to specific parts of gaim can be set by a Gtk+ theme. - -2.5 Where did my ability to use Ctrl-Enter to send a message go? - - Gaim used to have an option in the preferences window which let you choose - whether to use Enter or Ctrl-Enter to send a message. This was less than - optimal for many reasons, not least of which was because it only let you - choose between those two options. It also caused large problems for people - who required an alternate input method (people who were typing in Chinese or - Japanese for example). On top of all this gtk provides an incredibly nice - mechanisms which allows keybindings to be set for things via the gtk theme - files. Gaim decided to use this gtk interface as a method of allowing people - to use Ctrl-Enter to send but to also allow people to use anything else they - felt like and to reduce the clutter in the User Interface. The gtk interface - is, unfortunately, not as immediately obvious as a simple checkbox, however - it is still simple. The example gtkrc file seen http://gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0 - shows you how to do it (among other things). - -2.6 When I click the status selector, I see blank space and have to scroll. - What can I do about this? - - Edit your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 to contain the appropriate lines from http:// - gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0. Search for "appears-as-list". - -2.7 The status selector has extra padding in it. How can I make it smaller? - - Edit your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 to contain the appropriate lines from http:// - gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0. Search for "xthickness". There are two examples. Start - by trying the first one. If that makes the status selector look worse, then - try the second one. - -2.8 How do I make gaim use emacs-like keybindings, or assign a custom hotkey? - - You need to edit your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 to contain the appropriate lines from - http://gaim.sf.net/gtkrc-2.0. If you are using gtk-can-change-accels = 1, - then you hover over the menu item then press your desired key stroke. - -2.9 How do I make Escape close the conversation window? - - Sadly, you can't use the hover-and-press technique just described for this, - because Escape closes the menu. You have to hand-edit ~/.gaim/accels. Close - Gaim, and open ~/.gaim/accels in your favorite text editor. Find - (gtk_accel_path "<main>/Conversation/Close" "[something]"), remove the - semi-colon (which is the comment character) from the start of the line if it - is there and replace whatever is between the second pair of quote marks with - Escape. Save and close, and restart Gaim. - -2.10 How do I use smiley themes? - - 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: - //sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=746976&group_id=235&func=browse) tracker. - - You can also install themes manually by uncompressing them to their own - directory in ~/.gaim/smileys/ - -2.11 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 and idle time 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 interface, 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. The 'Big List' can be - disabled by un-checking "Show buddy details" in the Buddies menu. - -2.12 Why do the emblems move around the status icon? - - The four corners of the icon have different precedence. The lower-right is - the highest, lower-left is second-highest, etc. The most important emblem is - in the lower-right, always. When an AOL buddy is not away, the fact that [s] - he's an AOL user is the most important information shown in the icon. The - consistency is that the user can always look in the same place on the icon to - find out what he needs to know. Also, importantly, the lower-right corner - emblem is the only emblem that shows up when "Small list" is on, as only one - emblem would fit. - -2.13 How do I get sound to work correctly? - - Gaim uses gstreamer to play sounds. Playing sounds directly through esound or - arts is no longer supported. - - To compile Gaim with support for gstreamer you need libgstreamer0.10-dev and - its dependencies. 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. - -2.14 How do I make Gaim use ALSA or OSS for playing sounds? What does the - "Automatic" option do? - - The "Automatic" option lets gstreamer pick how the sounds are played. You can - use the gstreamer-properties tool to control this. - -2.15 Why does Gaim use the same WM_CLASS for every window? It makes it - impossible to control window size and placement for the buddy list - separately from the conversations. - - Both strings in the WM_CLASS property are supposed to be the same for all - windows in the same instance of an application. ICCCM states that one is - meant to be the same for all instances of the application, the other is meant - to be unique to that instance of the application. ICCCM also states "If a - client has multiple windows with identical WM_CLASS and WM_NAME properties, - then it should provide a WM_WINDOW_ROLE property." - - Gtk+ sets these WM_CLASS values for us so that they are unique for Gaim - instances, and the documentation for the gtk_window_set_wmclass function says - explicitly not to use it for anything else. Gaim uses the WM_WINDOW_ROLE hint - to differentiate windows. If your window manager is having problems - differentiating between Gaim windows, please ensure that it uses the - WM_WINDOW_ROLE hint per the ICCCM. - -2.16 I blocked someone accidentally, how can I unblock them? - - See the "Privacy" option under the "Tools" menu of the Buddy List. - -2.17 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 sign on 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 message 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. - -2.18 Where does gaim store its logs? - - On unix, they are in ~/.gaim/logs, on win32 they are in the C:\Documents and - Settings\user\Application Data\.gaim\logs directory. (NOTE: Application Data - is a hidden directory.) In either case, new logs (new as of 0.73) are in - subdirectories that correspond to protocol/yourscreenname/theirscreenname. - -2.19 Can I use Gaim for e-mail, blogging, an RSS feed, or something else that - isn't IM-related? - - No, you can't. We get requests for this often, but Gaim is indeed a messaging - client. Aside from the capabilities each protocol may support, the Gaim - developers have no intention to turn Gaim into a multi-feature Internet - client capable of doing everything under the sun. We also won't be helping to - develop plugins to turn it into that. There are many Internet applications - available for Linux, Windows, or whatever operating system you use that would - undoubtedly do a better job. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 3. Features -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -3.1 Does Gaim support file transfer? - - Somewhat, yeah. As of 1.2.1 The following is supported: - - • Sending and receiving files on AIM/ICQ (although it might be a bit buggy) - • Sending and receiving files on IRC - • Sending and receiving files on Jabber - • Sending and receiving files on MSN - • Sending and receiving files on SILC - • Sending and receiving files on Yahoo when not using an HTTP proxy - (sending is limited to an unknown file size) - - Most of the protocols themselves support file transfer, but Gaim has not been - written to support it yet. If you would like file transfer to work better or - be more complete, get SVN and submit a patch using the generic file transfer - API. - -3.2 Can I turn the tray icon off? - - Sorry, no. The tray icon will load if you have a Notification Area. - -3.3 What do those colors in the conversation tab mean? - - • Red - A message is waiting for you - • Blue - Someone sent a message containing your name - • Green - The buddy is typing - • Yellow - The buddy began typing, and then stopped - • Gray - There has been a join or a part in that chat, or the buddy has - signed off - -3.4 Can I import or export my buddy list? - - The plugin pack hosted at http://guifications.sourceforge.net/PluginPack has - a plugin to do this. - -3.5 Does Gaim support animated smileys? - - Yes, but there is a bug which can cause animation to be lost if gaim has to - resize the image. - -3.6 Can I make Gaim group screen names by the person that owns them? You know, - like Trillian's Meta Contacts? - - 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. - - You may need to turn off the preference option to automatically expand - Contacts in order to be able to edit an existing Contact. - -3.7 What happened to my timestamps? Can I change them? - - As of 2.0.0, timestamps follow the system locale. This is a significant - difference from previous versions of gaim, and though it was requested more - than once, we know it will prove to be a controversial decision. Fortunately - for all of you out there, we also provide plugins to change it. - - As of 2.0.0, there are two plugins that relate to timestamps. One, the - "Timestamp" plugin, has existed for some time. It allows you to have iChat - style timestamps, though implemented to behave slightly differently. The - other plugin is new. The "Message Timestamp Formats" plugin allows you to - manipulate your timestamps in a couple different ways. Notably, you can - restore the 1.x timestamp format, and/or cause all timestamps to have dates - in them. - -3.8 How does Gaim decide which saved statuses to show in the status selector? - - Gaim shows six "popular" saved statuses in the status selector. These are - your six most recently used statuses, offset by a weight. Gaim sorts all your - saved statuses by the timestamp when they were last used. And then, for each - time you've used a status, the timestamp is increased by one day. - - If you are upgrading from 1.x or lower, gaim is unable to determine which are - the most popular states, as these older releases did not save that - information. As a result, the initial contents of the menu will be somewhat - random. It will settle over the first few uses of (distinct) states into the - behavior described above. - -3.9 Why are no states listed when I go to set a state for Auto Away? - - Gaim can only use saved states for this feature. You need to create and save - a named state first. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 4. AIM/ICQ (OSCAR) Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -4.1 Can I set my profile? - - In AIM, yes, you can. Go to Accounts->account name. Set your ICQ profile is - not supported yet. - -4.2 Can I set a buddy icon? - - Yes. Go to the Account Menu, 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 smaller than 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. - -4.3 I just changed my buddy icon, and I can't see the new one. - - First, try IMing yourself a few times. 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. - -4.4 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 500 for AIM, if you don't think you are - anywhere near that limit, it is possible that your server-stored buddy list - is corrupt. - - If you think this might be the case, you can try signing on with an official - AIM program from AOL. This will usually correct any problems with the list. - -4.5 Can I use AIM URI's such as "aim:goim?screenname=robflynn"? - - Yes, you need to register gaim-url-handler in your browser. This requires - that Gaim be built with dbus support. - -4.6 Does Gaim support DirectIM and IM Image? - - Yeah, kind of. This tends to be one of the buggier areas of Gaim. If it's not - working for you, make sure that at least one person is not behind a firewall. - -4.7 Can I send SMS messages? - - Yep, just send an IM to the person's phone number. For example, if the phone - number is (919) 555-1234, you would message +19195551234 We think this should - work for countries with a country code of 1 (the United States and Canada). - - Sending SMS messages using "the ICQ method" is not yet supported. - -4.8 Can I add SMS numbers to my buddy list? - - Yes. You should be able to add phone numbers to your buddy list using the - same format as above. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 5. IRC Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -5.1 How do I join a channel with the IRC plugin? - - Create an IRC account and then sign on. After you have signed on, you can use - Buddies->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. - -5.2 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. - Do not include "/msg nickserv" as part of the message to send. - - 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. - -5.3 Is it possible to change the user name that appears in username@hostname? - - Yes. Go to the Accounts menu. Select your IRC account and click to edit. - Click the Advanced tab. Enter a name in the Username field. - -5.4 How can I set/change my real name? - - Go to the Accounts menu. Select your IRC account and click to edit. Click the - Advanced tab. Enter a name in the Real name field. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 6. Jabber Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -6.1 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. - -6.2 How do I change my Jabber resource to be other than the default of "/Home" - (or the old default of "/Gaim")? - - In the buddy list window, click the Accounts menu. Next, find your Jabber - account and click Edit Account. Change the value in the Resource field. Click - Save. Note: This setting cannot be changed while the account is connected. - -6.3 Can I remove a buddy from my Jabber roster entirely? - - With Gaim 0.60 or later, the deletion code will do this. Gaim currently does - not retain invisibility settings between logins, just as it doesn't currently - retain "away" status. - -6.4 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 buddy list, 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. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 7. Y!M (Yahoo) Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -7.1 I cannot connect to Yahoo! and I'm behind a firewall or NAT. Why doesn't - Gaim have Yahoo's "Firewall with no proxy" option? - - Yahoo!'s firewall with no proxy option connects to Yahoo! by wrapping the - YMSG protocol inside HTTP. Gaim currently doesn't support doing this. - - Gaim does support changing the port it connects to. Try changing the - Pager Port in the Account editor under "Show more options". Ports known to - work are: 20, 23, 25, 80, 119, 5050, 8001, and 8002. While this doesn't work - for as many people as actually tunneling through the HTTP protocol would, it - helps many users. - -7.2 I blocked someone, but it doesn't seem to have worked. - - As of 0.81, this is a known bug in our Yahoo code. We're not sure what - exactly is wrong, but it seems to fail most often when automatically removing - the buddy from your buddy list at the same time it blocks them. It also - always seems to fail if Gaim already thinks the buddy is blocked, and you try - to block them again. - - We suggest manually removing Yahoo! buddies before attempting to block them. - For buddies which Gaim reports are blocked but which are not, unblocking them - and reblocking them from the Tools->Privacy dialog will often get things - working. - -7.3 Can I get a list of Yahoo! Chat rooms? What about localized lists? - - Tools->Room List will let you list available Yahoo! Chat rooms. Yahoo! has - currently disabled user-created rooms. The option to create rooms still - exists in Gaim but is non-functional unless Yahoo! re-enables user-created - rooms. - - Please note that defaults to US localized chat rooms. To get a localized room - list, you'll need to change the Chat Room Locale setting in the account - editor, under "Show more options". In previous releases, this was known as - "Chat Room List URL". The URL is no longer used; it has been replaced by a - country code. These codes are the same as the country codes previously used - in the URLs. Certain country codes no longer seem to work (most notably de). - - The list of known country codes is: - - • aa => Asia - • ar => Argentina - • au => Australia - • br => Brazil - • ca => Canada - • cf => Central African Republic - • cn => China - • dk => Denmark - • es => Spain - • fr => France - • hk => Hong Kong - • in => India - • it => Italy - • kr => Korea, Republic of - • mx => Mexico - • no => Norway - • se => Sweden - • sg => Singapore - • tw => Taiwan - • uk => United Kingdom - • us => United States of America - - If you discover any of these no longer work, or find other country codes that - do work, please don't hesitate to contact the development team. (See the - Contact Information (http://gaim.sf.net/contactinfo.php) page.) - -7.4 What protocol does Gaim use to connect to Yahoo!? - - Normally Gaim uses the YMSG protocol, which is the same protocol that the - official Yahoo! clients use. If an attempt to login returns the "Invalid - Password" error code, Gaim automatically tries to log in using the "Web - Messenger" method. This method still uses the YMSG protocol, but - authenticates differently, and connects to a different server. - - While in Web Messenger mode, several things work differently or not at all. - Adding, moving, and removing buddies doesn't work, and the only available - statuses are "Available" and "Invisible". In addition, the Yahoo! server - seems to ignore all Yahoo! Chat related packets. For this reason, we use the - YCHT protocol to join Yahoo! Chat rooms while connected using the Web - Messenger method. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 8. MSN Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -8.1 Will Gaim support MSN video chat? - - See #vv. - -8.2 Why are my file transfers so slow? - - Gaim only supports tranferring files over MSN via the MSN servers. This means - all your data is sent to an MSN server and then forwarded to the person at - the other end of the transfer. It is unknown whether we will support true - peer to peer file transfer over MSN. - -8.3 Is there a way to invite more than one person to an MSN chat? - - Yes. Right click a buddy on your list and choose "Initiate Chat". In the - conversation window that appears, choose "Invite" from the "Conversation" - menu to invite another user. When the conversation framework gets another - rewrite, it is possible that this will be simplified. - -8.4 Is MSNP11 (MSN7) going to be supported? - - It is being worked on. - -8.5 Why can't I sign on to MSN? - - You probably did not compile Gaim with SSL support, or the SSL plugin failed - to load. 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. - -8.6 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. - -8.7 What does "MSN: S: 911 3" in the debug window mean when I cannot connect - to MSN? - - See http://gaim.sf.net/911.txt. - -8.8 How do I set an MSN avatar? - - Gaim calls these Buddy Icons. Go to Tools->Accounts and click to Modify your - MSN account. You can drag and drop a file to the resulting dialog, or use the - Open button. - -8.9 What does "Has you" in the buddy tooltip mean? - - It shows you if that MSN user has added you to his/her buddy list. "Has you: - No" does not mean you can't talk to that person. - -8.10 How do I set my MSN Friendly Name (the name other users see)? - - In the Buddy List window, go to Accounts->account->Set Friendly Name. - -8.11 What does "Error reading from switchboard server" mean? - - We haven't fully figured that out yet, but even Microsoft's client seems to - get similar errors, although with less frequency than we do. See Bug 1060205 - for further information. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 9. Gadu-Gadu Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -9.1 What is Gadu-Gadu? - - Gadu-Gadu is an IM protocol popular in Poland. You can find more about it at - www.gadu-gadu.pl (website in Polish). - -9.2 I compiled Gaim from source and now it doesn't have Gadu-Gadu support. Why? - - We now use an external libgadu. Install your distro's libgadu-dev or - libgadu-devel package and rebuild Gaim (making sure to rerun ./configure). If - your distro doesn't provide libgadu, you can download it from http:// - toxygen.net/libgadu/files/libgadu-1.7.0.tar.gz. Unpack the tarball and run: - - ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --disable-libgadu-openssl --disable-static --enable-shared - - make - - su -c "make install" - - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 10. Zephyr Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -10.1 What is Zephyr? - - Zephyr is an IM protocol developed at MIT for use with Project Athena. Its - features include Kerberos IV authentication, multi-level chats (aka - "subscriptions"). You're probably using this because your college/employer/ - organization uses it as a local IM/chat system. If not, you probably don't - have a server to connect to. - -10.2 Other Zephyr clients (zwgc, owl, tzc) work, but Gaim dies with "Couldn't - initialize zephyr". - - Your site might require the use of Kerberos 4 for authentication, though few - prepackaged Gaim binaries use Kerberos. One solution is to compile Gaim with - the --with-krb4 flag to point to the location of your Kerberos 4 devel files, - usually one of /usr, /usr/local, or /usr/athena, e.g. ./configure --with-krb4 - =/path/to/kerberosIV - -10.3 Gaim isn't working, but I never got any other Zephyr client working on - this machine. - - You need to have zhm (which comes with the standard Zephyr distribution) - installed, and running, and pointed at your Zephyr servers. e.g. - - zhm z1.example.com z2.example.com z3.example.com - - Alternatively, there might be a firewall or a NAT between you and the Zephyr - servers. Zephyr generally doesn't work in an environment where incoming - connections cannot be made to arbitrary UDP ports. - -10.4 How do I use Zephyr from behind my firewall, or without recompiling with - kerberos support if needed? - - You can use tzc, "Trivial Zephyr Client" and ssh to run Zephyr from a machine - that is behind a firewall or NAT. First, make sure that tzc is installed and - working on the remote machine. The best version of tzc to use can be found - http://www.club.cc.cmu.edu/debian/dists/testing/contrib/source/ - tzc-cclub_001-3.tar.gz. Second, make sure that you can make a passwordless - ssh connection to the remote machine and get kerberos 4 tickets. Then, click - on "Show more options", enable "Use tzc", and set the tzc command to - - /path/to/ssh username@hostname /path/to/tzc -e "%s" - - Alternately, if you have tzc working on your machine, you can enable "Use - tzc", and set the tzc command to - - /path/to/tzc -e "%s" - - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 11. SILC Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -11.1 What is SILC? - - SILC is an open protocol designed from the ground up with security in mind. - It is, or should be, the protocol of choice for the paranoid. See http:// - www.silcnet.org for more details. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 12. Novell Protocol -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -12.1 Are there any public servers for Novell? - - Not really. This protocol is designed to connect to a Novell GroupWise server - running on a corporate LAN. - -12.2 I can't seem to get it to work. - - Novell tells us that this protocol plugin will only work with either the - GroupWise Messenger for Linux server or the GroupWise Messenger SP2 (or - higher) server for NetWare and Windows. In addition, the server must be - secure (SSL enabled). If you have any trouble, see the FAQ question about - submitting bugs, and they will be forwarded to Novell, who have been kind - enough to continue active maintenance to the protocol plugin code they - provided us. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 13. Scripts and Plugins -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -13.1 How do I use perl scripts with Gaim? - - Save the perl script to ~/.gaim/plugins/ or $prefix/lib/gaim/, restart Gaim, - and load the perl script by checking the check box next to its name in the - Plugins dialog. - -13.2 How do I compile a plugin for Gaim? - - To compile a plugin for Gaim, you must have Gaim's source code. To download - Gaim's source code, get the most recent tarball from http:// - gaim.sourceforge.net/downloads.php (http://gaim.sf.net/downloads.php) and - untar it with the command: tar zxvf filename where filename is the file you - downloaded. - - After you have a Gaim source code tree: - - 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. On Unix/Linux Type: - - make name.so - - where the name of the file you wish to compile is name.c. - - On Win32 Type: - - make -f Makefile.mingw name.dll - - 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 used to work, but does not - with the current version. - - The plugin and perl script API has changed several times, 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/plugins/, and must - implement the new API, as documented by the make docs command from the root - of the Gaim source code tree. This will generate html documentation in the - doc/html directory. Also note that plugins and perl scripts are now - controlled from a separate Plugins dialog. - -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 with some details for C plugins. Also be sure to check out our - online documentation (http://gaim.sf.net/api/index.html). Be especially sure - to look at the Related Pages, which lists all of Gaim's signals, as well as a - nice perl script HOWTO. - - This documentation can be generated directly from the Gaim source by running - make docs. You will need doxygen and graphviz dot installed for this to work. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 14. Development -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -14.1 Can I help? - - But of course. Just find something that's bugging you and fix it. There are a - slew of a bug reports in Gaim's bug report tracker - you could pick one and - try to tackle it and submit a patch. You could also help with general bug - triage by going through the bug reports and leaving comments such as "this - has been fixed" or "this is a duplicate of bug #12345." As always, make sure - you follow the same coding style used in Gaim, and make sure you don't break - the core/UI split. - -14.2 Gaim never leaves a core file. - - On most installs core files are limited in size to 0 bytes, and are therefore - not created. To rectify this situation, add ulimit -c unlimited to your - startup scripts (~/.bash_profile is a good place) or run it manually in a - terminal before starting Gaim from that terminal. You can also run Gaim - directly in gdb with gdb gaim. - -14.3 Will you support features such as voice chat, internet phones, or video - chat? - - Merging the gaim-vv code will take time, and we are not sure when it will be - ready. Even then, there will remain work to be done before voice chat, video - sharing, or internet phones will work on all protocols. Right now there is - nothing in subversion related to -vv, we are not sure when that will change. - -14.4 Where should I report bugs? - - http://gaim.sf.net/bug.php. - -14.5 Where should I submit patches? - - http://gaim.sf.net/patches.php. - -14.6 Did you guys reverse engineer it? - - Jabber, MSN 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. Novell was provided by Novell, and SILC was - written by one of the developers of the protocol. - -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -| 15. Miscellaneous Questions -+------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - -15.1 Can I IM you guys? - - Sure! Look at the Contact Information (http://gaim.sf.net/contactinfo.php) - page! - -15.2 Hello? - - We don't know how to answer this question. Stop asking it. - -15.3 Does Gaim support secure instant messaging (encrypted IMs)? - - Short answer: Yes, use the SILC protocol. - Long Answer (for other protocols): 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. - - There are a number of 3rd party plugin developers working on developing a - secure IM framework. See the Plugins (http://gaim.sf.net/plugins.php) page - for links. - -15.4 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.php. - -15.5 When will the next version of Gaim be released? - - The schedule for releases is every third 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. - -15.6 What will the next version be? - - Starting with version 1.0.0, Gaim version numbers have 3 parts to them. The - format is major.minor.micro. If we change something internally in Gaim such - that some plugins won't work with the newer version, we will increment the - major version number. If we don't increment the major version number, and - we've added things to the Gaim API that won't break any older stuff, we will - increment the minor version number. In any other cases, we will increment the - micro version number. Even and odd numbers have nothing to do with stability, - and you should always be running the latest release of Gaim to get new - features and bug fixes. - -15.7 So, can I look forward to mega-sexy super functionality with Gaim? - - Yes, that is the intended idea. In fact, there have been quite a number of - unpopular geeks who have made the switch to gaim. In a matter of days, the - number of dates and awesomeness points received by the geek increased ten - fold! You, too, can have an exciting life with Gaim. Get Gaim. Get the babes. - Get uhh... hmm. - -15.8 How do I change the language for the Highlight Misspelled words option? - - Gaim currently only supports spell checking in your locale language. This is - because gtkspell 2 does not offer a good way for us to know which - dictionaries are available or to switch between them. This functionality has - long been promised for gtkspell version 3, which has been delayed somewhat - indefinitely. See gtkspell.sf.net. - -15.9 Can I make Gaim transparent/translucent? - - You can make Gaim translucent in most versions of Windows using the - "Transparency" plugin. It is not possible to make Gaim translucent in Linux - and other platforms that use X11. - - X.org provides a COMPOSITE extension that allows applications to have true - translucency, but it is X.org-specific and it requires support at the GTK+ - level (if it is to be per-widget). We do not wish to support this form of - translucency until it is supported by GTK+. We also do not wish to implement - the psuedo-translucency offered by other programs (by copying a section of - your background image, tinting it, and plastering it onto a Gaim window). - -15.10 Can I "skin" Gaim? - - The UI can be customized using GTK themes. Read http://gaim.sourceforge.net/ - skins.php for more information. -