Member Avatar for Cudmore

So I've been having a problem with Gaim, the chat client, on both of my systems. Actually, I've reinstalled linux on them both atleast once, and each additional time I install Gaim, I get the same problem. It random crashes shortly after MSN login...

Mostly when my mouse moves over the application. As soon as I log in and go to drag my window or interact with it, the app just dissapears. It doesn't happen any more on my desktop, and I don't know why because it used to, but it's happening on my laptop. That bothers me.

If Kopete were capable of file-transfer, I would use that. Unfortunately all my attempts with Kopete have failed, and I can't get file transfer to work, so I moved to Gaim.

Can someone please help me solve one of the two problems... Kopete file transfer, or Gaim login. I just want a chat client that works well and is user friendly.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by John A

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Quick, practical steps to isolate the crash and to get Kopete transfers working. : please include your distro, Gaim version (or whether you compiled from source) and whether you used a distro package when you post logs — and were right to ask those basic details; they matter for symbol packages and known distro bugs.

To pin down the Gaim crash

  • Try a fresh profile (move the client config directory in your home to a backup name) so plugins/config are out of the way.
  • Test under a different window manager or a plain X session to rule out theme/WM interactions.
  • Run the client with debug enabled and capture output; if it segfaults, get a backtrace with gdb. Example workflow:
    
# run with debug output
pidgin -d > pidgin.log 2>&1

get a backtrace if it crashes

gdb --args pidgin
run

after crash

bt full


Install debug symbols for the client and libpurple to make the backtrace readable. See Pidgin (successor to Gaim) for current builds and debugging advice: [Pidgin](https://pidgin.im/) and general gdb help: [GDB docs](https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/).

To troubleshoot Kopete file transfers
- Test file transfer with both endpoints on the same LAN first. If that works, the problem is NAT/firewall.  
- Check local firewall/iptables and router port forwarding — many IM file transfers are direct peer-to-peer and fail behind NATs.  
- Run Kopete with debugging turned on and capture its logs; look for connection attempts and socket errors. KDE’s Kopete documentation and user pages can help with specific protocol/setting options: [Kopete (KDE user docs)](https://userbase.kde.org/Kopete).

When posting results, include distro/version, exact client package/version, the debug log, and the gdb backtrace. Those make it practical to identify a specific bug or misconfiguration.

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Member Avatar for pty

What distro/version of Gaim are you using?

Member Avatar for John A

And did you download a binary of Gaim, or did you compile it yourself?

For alternative MSN clients (although I've found nothing wrong with Gaim) that have worked for me, I've used aMSN and Mercury.

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