Kopete Instant Messenger
Screenshots
Questions
- The flashing taskbar notifications aren't working for me, but I still see passive popups when people come online or go away. Why doesn't the taskbar flash?
- I used to send messages with Ctrl+Enter but it doesn't work, and I can't find the page in Configure Kopete... where I used to set it, what's happened?
- I don't see any "plugins" listed in the "Configure Plugins" dialog. What's up?
- I have many <desktops / monitors / computers> and / or I talk to many people at the same time, and as a result I wish Kopete could play a <sound / pop up a message / change my wallpaper / reboot my computer > whenever I <receive a new message / someone goes online / someone goes offline > When will this be added?
- How come file transfers don't work?
- How do I pronounce Kopete?
- I'm using Red Hat, Kopete hangs or freezes while connecting. I see debug output like "kopete: relocation error: kopete: undefined symbol: _ZN13KNotifyClient5eventEiRK7QStringS2_"
- Why all of this silly single-click behavior? It's very annoying!
- Will you make the user-interface skinnable?
- During configure I get the error that Qt 3.3 is required, but I only have Qt 3.2.x?
- When I have more than one messaging service under a user's name in my contact list and I click on that user's name, it will message them on the wrong messaging service.
- I would like a feature in the next version of Kopete.
- My Kopete crashed or has/had unexpected behavior (unexpected behavior does NOT fall in the category of "Kopete doesn't act like Gaim", etc).
- The Jabber plugin disappeared in my KDE 3.3 installation, what happened?
- The Jabber plugin does not compile, it complains about Stringprep-related functions. What's wrong?
- Jabber SSL support stopped working, I get the message that the QCA TLS plugin is probably missing. What am I supposed to do?
- I can't connect with IRC. The icon stays in the blinking connecting state, but never connects. What's the problem?
- Did you know about the dedicated MSN section of the KDE wiki?
- I AM behind a firewall. Which ports need to be open for MSN file transfers?
- I can't connect with MSN using Kopete 0.8.0 or 0.8.1, or I connect and get disconnected again straight away. What's up?
- Why can't I change my display name in MSN? Whenever I try to I get an 'Error 715' error message.
- I can't connect to MSN with Kopete 0.7.2. I thought this version was meant to fix the MSN upgrade messages, not break it entirely!
- Lots of my ICQ contacts never show up online, but I can receive messages from them. What's going on?
- Some of my ICQ contacts always show up as offline even though they've messaged me and I can carry on a conversation with them. What's going on?
- I use Jabber and ICQ together. Whenever I go online with Jabber, I am disconnected from ICQ with an error message about being connected from another client. What's up?
- I've never been able to build Kopete. I get a lot of error messages of the form 'yy_flex redefined at line...'. Am I using the wrong tools?
- When I'm compiling Kopete I get an error that looks like this, or similar: invalid use of undefined type class KIntNumInput
- When I'm compiling Kopete I get an error that looks like this, or similar: will/usr/include/linux/videodev2.h:36: syntax error before ';' token
- You guys are awesome! Why aren't you in KDE?
- All of my old account settings didn't get moved from Kopete 0.6.x to Kopete 0.7? What's going on?
- I'm running Kopete 0.7.0 and I can't connect to ICQ. It tells me my password is invalid when I know it's right. What's going on?
- When I upgraded to Kopete 0.6 it didn't load. In the console I get some "symbol error" with AIM.
- Since the end of June (2004) I can't connect to Yahoo. What can I do?
Answers
The flashing taskbar notifications aren't working for me, but I still see passive popups when people come online or go away. Why doesn't the taskbar flash?
If the flashing taskbar notification isn't working, and the passive popups do work, please check to make sure that arts has been installed correctly and kdelibs was not compiled with the --without-arts switch. Since Kopete still relies on KNotify for nearly everything but the passive popups, this could explain why they don't work. If you have a kdelibs with arts installed, then either email the kopete developer's mailing list at kopete-devel@kde.org or file a bug at bugs.kde.org and we'll give it a look.
I used to send messages with Ctrl+Enter but it doesn't work, and I can't find the page in Configure Kopete... where I used to set it, what's happened?
In Kopete 0.9.1 and above (KDE 3.3.1 and newer) the default Send Message shortcut is Enter. Before this, it was Ctrl+Enter. In Kopete 0.6 and above, you can configure the send button with all the other chat window keyboard shortcuts, in Settings->Configure Shortcuts (in the Chat Window of course). Now you can choose any shortcut for any action. Notice that the shortcuts for each window are configured in that window - so Send Message is configured from the chat window.
I don't see any "plugins" listed in the "Configure Plugins" dialog. What's up?
There are two solutions to this problem. If you used binary packages, then make sure that you used binary packages designed for your distribution, and the specific version of your distribution. Crossing distributions and versions around will not work with Kopete. If there are no binary packages for your system, you must compile Kopete using the source packages or source rpms. If you compiled your KDE, then Kopete must go in the same prefix as KDE did. If, however, you compiled the source packages, then make sure that your Kopete is installed in the same location as your KDE, if it is not, you can force it to do so by specifying a --prefix command to ./configure. e.g. ./configure --prefix=/opt/kde3 (where /opt/kde3 is your prefix). To determine where your KDE prefix is, type "which konqueror" in a konsole. It should display something like "/opt/kde3/bin/konqueror", then /opt/kde3 would be your prefix, or if it says "/usr/bin/konqueror", then your prefix would be /usr. Also make sure you performed a 'make install', and check that there is no stale Kopete installation from previous versions in different locations. You might also need to run 'kbuildsycoca' manually after installing Kopete. kbuildsycoca updates the plugin database. It runs when new software using plugins is installed, but it is possible that 'make install; kopete' will run Kopete before the update has completed.
I have many <desktops / monitors / computers> and / or I talk to many people at the same time, and as a result I wish Kopete could play a <sound / pop up a message / change my wallpaper / reboot my computer > whenever I <receive a new message / someone goes online / someone goes offline > When will this be added?
It is already there (surprise!). Kopete is a KDE application and thus makes use of KNotify for all notifications. For those who don't know, KNotify is a very powerful architecture that lets you do pretty much anything you want when an event occurs in a KDE application. You can play a sound, pop up a passive dialog, flash the taskbar, log a message, or even run your own custom commands, such as a shell script, to do anything your heart desires. To access this treasure trove, go into the Configure Notifications dialog, and click "More Options". This will present you with all the different actions you can take on the events listed just above. As a tip, check out some of your other KDE applications to see what events they let you catch. I for one find a passive popup on new emails in KMail to be very handy.
How come file transfers don't work?
There are many reasons for this. First, MSN is the only protocol in which we've implemented support for file transfers. Support for file transfers in Jabber and IRC was added in Kopete 0.9.0 (included in KDE 3.3). Also, file transfers may not work if you're behind a firewall - see separate FAQ in the MSN section.
How do I pronounce Kopete?
Kopete's name comes from the chilean word Copete. Duncan, the original author, recorded an audio sample. It is available here.
I'm using Red Hat, Kopete hangs or freezes while connecting. I see debug output like "kopete: relocation error: kopete: undefined symbol: _ZN13KNotifyClient5eventEiRK7QStringS2_"
The Red Hat RPMs were created using KDE 3.1.1 and you're using KDE 3.1.0. You'll have to upgrade your KDE packages, or compile Kopete from source so that it matches your KDE.
Why all of this silly single-click behavior? It's very annoying!
Kopete is a KDE application. We are not some lame 3rd party application that decides to "look" like the rest of KDE. We also have the "feel" and "integration" aspect of KDE, which means that Kopete follows KDE's standard "Single-click" behavior. If you would like to change this it requires you to change it in all of KDE. You can change to a double-click style by going to K->Settings->Peripherals->Mouse or start KControl and go to Peripherals->Mouse and change to the option "Double-click to open files and folders".
Will you make the user-interface skinnable?
The only answer for this is no. Kopete was invented to be a KDE Instant-Messenger and this also includes having a KDE Look-n-Feel. By adding skins we would break this rule and having both skin-support and skinless-support at once is impractical as well. Just select a different style in KDEs controlcenter and be happy to have transparent menus and other neat eye-candy today's KDE offers. You can, however, run kopete using a different style. Just run "kopete --style=marble" as an example. Any valid KDE or Qt style will work.
During configure I get the error that Qt 3.3 is required, but I only have Qt 3.2.x?
Kopete from CVS requires the latest released version of Qt - 3.3 as of October 2004. Kopete 0.9 requires Qt 3.2 or newer. Old 0.8.x versions require Qt 3.1. If you are compiling Kopete from CVS but are running an older version of KDE than 3.3, you'll need to upgrade to KDE 3.3 before compiling Kopete.
When I have more than one messaging service under a user's name in my contact list and I click on that user's name, it will message them on the wrong messaging service.
You can change the order of accounts Kopete tries to message people with by using the Up and Down arrows in the bottom right corner of the account configuration screen. Kopete will try to connect with accounts starting from the top. However, if one service has a higher status value that the others for that user, Kopete will use that one. For example, if a person has three services and two are maked as away and the third is marked as online, Kopete will always try to message the user using the online service. Another tip: if you click on the small protocol icon on the right of the menu item, instead of on the person's name, you will always try to contact the person using that service!
I would like a feature in the next version of Kopete.
Please go to http://bugs.kde.org and file a wishlist item under the application 'kopete'. Please be very detailed and proof-read what you have written to us. This is NOT a guarantee that we will add this feature in any version, but allows us to consider it.
My Kopete crashed or has/had unexpected behavior (unexpected behavior does NOT fall in the category of "Kopete doesn't act like Gaim", etc).
Please report this bug to us by going to http://bugs.KDE.org and file a bug report under the application 'kopete'. Bugs will only be accepted if they are in English, they are detailed, and if a crash was involved they contain a backtrace (the text in the tab marked "Backtrace" once Kopete has crashed). If you're using Kopete CVS, however, please mail us at kopete-devel@kde.org instead of filing a bug report.
The Jabber plugin disappeared in my KDE 3.3 installation, what happened?
You're probably missing libidn and libidn-dev. Make sure these are installed and that you are using a recent version of these packages. If you're using precompiled packages made by your distribution, you will need to compile Kopete from source since the packagers failed to set up the dependencies for Kopete correctly. You should also file a bug with your distributions bug tracking system so that they can correct the error in a future package.
The Jabber plugin does not compile, it complains about Stringprep-related functions. What's wrong?
You're missing the libidn and libidn-dev packages. Make sure both of these packages are installed and try again.
Jabber SSL support stopped working, I get the message that the QCA TLS plugin is probably missing. What am I supposed to do?
As the error message indicates, you are missing the QCA TLS plugin, which handles the Jabber plugin's TLS/SSL encryption. Install the package qca-tls or retrieve the plugin from http://delta.affinix.com/qca. Please note that you only need to install the qca-tls plugin, _not_ the QCA library itself. A recompilation of Kopete is not necessary, in fact not even a restart. In case you have installed the plugin and it still won't work, Qt can probably not find it. Since qca-tls installs itself as a Qt plugin, you will have to make sure that it gets installed to the plugin directory of the Qt version you are using to run Kopete.
I can't connect with IRC. The icon stays in the blinking connecting state, but never connects. What's the problem?
You need to upgrade Kopete, or install an identd. Some IRC servers require an identd, and wait 60 seconds or so to find one before continuing. Older versions of Kopete IRC time out after 30 seconds, so the connection is never established. The latest versions (0.8.2) use the KDE wide socket timeout setting.
Did you know about the dedicated MSN section of the KDE wiki?
Yes, it's full of useful and up-to-date information about the development of the MSN plugin for Kopete. It's at http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Kopete%20MSN&comzone=show in case you didn't know.
I AM behind a firewall. Which ports need to be open for MSN file transfers?
If you are behind a firewall, port 6891 needs to be open to inbound TCP traffic.
I can't connect with MSN using Kopete 0.8.0 or 0.8.1, or I connect and get disconnected again straight away. What's up?
MSN have been 'migrating accounts' on their servers. This changes all the group numbers that organise your contacts, and so the next time you connect with Kopete, everything is broken. Upgrade to Kopete 0.8.2. If you can't upgrade, you can work around it by deleting KDEHOME/share/config/kopeterc and KDEHOME/share/apps/kopete/contactlist.xml. Note that you will lose contacts that are not stored on the server, eg. for ICQ (in some cases) or IRC. So moving those files aside is better than totally deleting them, that way you can add the contacts again.
Why can't I change my display name in MSN? Whenever I try to I get an 'Error 715' error message.
Error 715 means your MSN account's email address has not been validated. Go to http://www.passport.net and validate your email address, or enter a valid one if you made yours up. This error has been given a proper error message in Kopete CVS (to become Kopete 0.9), but we can't backport it as it introduces a new string to stable KDE, which would not be translated.
I can't connect to MSN with Kopete 0.7.2. I thought this version was meant to fix the MSN upgrade messages, not break it entirely!
Running some kernel called 2.4.22something? Kopete normally sends the kernel version to the MSN server as a user agent, but the MSN server can't handle words in there. So put on your best grin and fake it - add the following to KDEDIR/share/config/kopeterc, in the [MSN] section: UserAgent=0x0409 winnt 5.1 i386 MSNMSGR 5.0.0 MSMSGS . This way you look like a windows box and the server lets you connect.
Lots of my ICQ contacts never show up online, but I can receive messages from them. What's going on?
This was reported as bug 61223 in our database. It has been fixed and the fix is in Kopete 0.8.0 and later versions. You may have to delete and then readd the contacts that never show up online in order for things to work properly.
Some of my ICQ contacts always show up as offline even though they've messaged me and I can carry on a conversation with them. What's going on?
The ICQ plugin in previous versions did not always add contacts to the serverside contact list. Those contacts not in the serverside contact list are always shown as offline until they're added to the serverside contact list. Due to bugs in the previos implementation, synching with the serverside list is currently disabled in CVS. Work is progressing on this issue.
I use Jabber and ICQ together. Whenever I go online with Jabber, I am disconnected from ICQ with an error message about being connected from another client. What's up?
Remember when you played with ICQ transports on that other Jabber client? You set up an "ICQ Transport" which allows you to talk to ICQ people from Jabber. ICQ doesn't allow multiple connections to the same account, and disconnects you. Look in your Jabber contacts for a contact of the form "123456@icq.jabber.org" and delete it.
I've never been able to build Kopete. I get a lot of error messages of the form 'yy_flex redefined at line...'. Am I using the wrong tools?
Have you configured Kopete using --enable-final? Try again without this option. Also, check the build and install FAQs elsewhere on this site
When I'm compiling Kopete I get an error that looks like this, or similar: invalid use of undefined type class KIntNumInput
Your Qt is not seeing required KDE libraries that we used to design our graphical interface. In order to fix this, please visit http://www.cmvacations.com/~nbetcher/qtconfigfix.png and follow the instructions listed in that graphic. The name of the program you need to run is 'qtconfig'. If you don't have 'qtconfig' installed, please consult your distribution to find which package 'qtconfig' is in. Please note that 'your_KDE_prefix' in the graphic is distribution dependent, meaning that it could be /usr or /opt/kde3. Do NOT put KDEDIR or any other bash environment variables in there, it will not accept those. Once you have done this, saved, and quit you will need to preform a 'make clean' and try again at compiling. If this doesn't work, please consult your distribution in fixing this problem since your system has not been setup right.
When I'm compiling Kopete I get an error that looks like this, or similar: will/usr/include/linux/videodev2.h:36: syntax error before ';' token
This file is part of Mandrake 9.0 and seems to cause an error in combination with Kopete. You can edit kopete/plugins/Makefile and remove the directory motionautoaway from the 'SUBDIRS=' line, so at least the rest of Kopete compiles for you.
You guys are awesome! Why aren't you in KDE?
Kopete is included in KDE in the 'kdenetwork' package as of KDE 3.2.0.
All of my old account settings didn't get moved from Kopete 0.6.x to Kopete 0.7? What's going on?
We've had a few people report that all of their old account settings didn't get moved from Kopete 0.6.2 to Kopete 0.7. We believe we've fixed the remaining issues with upgrades and those fixes will be in Kopete 0.7.1. You may also check our 0.7 branch out from CVS. See the CVS Page for instructions.
I'm running Kopete 0.7.0 and I can't connect to ICQ. It tells me my password is invalid when I know it's right. What's going on?
This issue has been fixed. Kopete 0.7.1 and later contain the fix.
When I upgraded to Kopete 0.6 it didn't load. In the console I get some "symbol error" with AIM.
The Kopete Team is aware of this problem and was unfortunately unable to come up with a good solution for this problem for this release. The reason this is happening is because the Kopete Team changed the old-AIM plugin to a different, more featureful AIM plugin (using OSCAR), but this causes upgrading problems for people not using a package manager (like RPM or dpkg). To solve this problem, just remove all files in your KDE directory that begin with "kopete_aim.". On SuSE this command would be (as root): 'rm /opt/kde3/lib/kde3/kopete_aim.*', and on most other distributions (including Redhat, Mandrake, Debian, Arklinux, and others) it's: 'rm /usr/lib/kde3/kopete_aim.*'. These files are not needed, and will cause your Kopete to not load.
Since the end of June (2004) I can't connect to Yahoo. What can I do?
Yahoo changed their code to disrupt third party clients like Kopete, Gaim and Trillian. We have incorporated a fix now and this should be available in an updated kdenetwork package from your distribution vendor.
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