A: This information was compiled by <a href="mailto:stu@nosnilmot.com">Stu Tomlinson</a>
with much help from #gaim
Read the ChanServ notice? Read the Topic? Read the FAQ?
Still having problems getting SSL to work with Gaim?
read on, maybe you're in luck. but probably not.
A: Gaim needs to be compiled with SSL support to work with MSN, and for
SSL connections on Jabber (where the server supports it). You will need either
GnuTLS (and all its dependencies) or Mozilla NSS & NSPR.
<p>Mozilla 1.5 will not provide all the pieces for NSPR & NSS due to breakage in
Mozilla that misses out some .h files (or something...). You might be able to
install mozilla-{nss,nspr}{,-devel} from 1.4, or install nss from source, in
parallel and link against those for Gaim. Or just use GnuTLS.</p>
OpenSSL is not an option for SSL support in Gaim because the OpenSSL
<a href="http://www.openssl.org/source/license.html">license</a>
(BSD-style with advertising clause) is not compatible with the Gaim license
(<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">GPL</a>).
!SECTION Distribution Specific Tips
If you want to compile from source, make sure you have
<code>libgnutls11-dev</code> installed. You can ensure you have all the
necessary build dependencies installed by running: <code>apt-get build-dep
Note: libgnutls & libgnutls-dev (from woody) are known to NOT work
Q: Fedora Core (3 & 4)
A: Use the official Fedora Core packages from <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors.html">
Q: Fedora Core (1 & 2)
A: Use the Gaim provided packages : <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235">
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235</a>
A: Gentoo's ebuilds for Gaim should "Just Work". Before you do
anything, sync your Portage package database:
<pre><code>emerge sync</code></pre>
The most recent Gaim version is usually not in Gentoo stable. To ensure you
are using the most recent release in Portage, you may add the following line to
<code>/etc/portage/package.keywords</code>. If you are not using x86, replace
"~x86" with your CPU type, such as "~ppc" or "~sparc":
<pre><code>net-im/gaim ~x86</code></pre>
Portage will build and install the NSS and NSPR packages automatically if you
do not have them. Altenatively, if you add the following line to
<code>/etc/portage/package.use</code>, Portage will automatically use GnuTLS
instead, building and installing it if necessary:
<pre><code>net-im/gaim gnutls</code></pre>
After you are satisfied with your configuration, run the following command
to install the latest version available in Portage and any dependencies that
<pre><code>emerge gaim</code></pre>
Also, don't forget that emerge is <b>not</b> a <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=transitive%20verb">transitive verb</a>!
A: If you're crazy enough to actually use LFS surely you're crazy enough to
figure this out on your own? (or just see below on compiling from source)
A: There are 3rd party RPMs for Mandrake 10.1 here:
<a href="http://gaim.jesuschrist.be/">http://gaim.jesuschrist.be/</a>
Q: Mandrake (9.2 & 10.0)
A: Use the Gaim provided packages : <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235">
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235</a>
A: Use the Gaim provided packages : <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235">
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235</a>
A: Please join this century.
Q: Slackware (9.1, 10.0 & 10.1)
A: There are sometimes 3rd party packages for Slackware 9.1, 10.0 and 10.1 here:
<a href="http://www.linuxpackages.net/">http://www.linuxpackages.net/</a>).
These packages may depend on other packages available from the same site.
Or you can use the Gaim source, with mozilla-1.4 installed (if you have another
version of mozilla, try replacing 1.4 with your version number):
<pre><code>./configure --with-nss-includes=/usr/include/mozilla-1.4/nss \
--with-nspr-includes=/usr/include/mozilla-1.4/nspr \
--with-nss-libs=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4 \
--with-nspr-libs=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4</code></pre>
We are told that recently, Slack removed Mozilla-1.7.5 from Slackware-Current
and replaced it with Mozilla-Firefox-1.0.1. This may change the exact
location for the paths above.
Also, you'll need to add /usr/lib/mozilla-1.4 to /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig
If you have Mozilla Firebird installed instead of plain Mozilla 1.4, you
<i>might</i> be able to use the packages mentioned above by adding this
directory to <code>/etc/ld.so.conf</code> and running <code>ldconfig</code> as
<pre><code>/usr/lib/MozillaFirebird-0.7</code></pre>
<p>This has been reported to work with Mozilla Firebird 0.7, other versions
might work but this has not been thoroughly tested.</p>
<p>Firefox also includes the necessary libraries, so if you have a binary package
of Gaim that was built with SSL support you may be able to add
<code>/usr/lib/firefox</code> to <code>/etc/ld.so.conf</code> and run
<code>ldconfig</code> as root.
Q: SuSE (8.2, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2 & 9.3)
A: There are 3rd party RPMs for SuSE 8.2, 9.0, 9.1 & 9.2 here :
<a href="http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=Network%2Fgaim/">
http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=Network%2Fgaim/</a>
<b>Note</b>: These RPMs use GnuTLS for SSL support, but GnuTLS is not shipped
with SuSE. You can get RPMs of GnuTLS (and OpenCDK & libtasn1, which are
required by GnuTLS) from the same site.
<b>Note2</b>: SuSE >= 9.1 <i>does</i> include GnuTLS, and you should
use the SuSE provided GnuTLS with the Gaim RPM from the above site.
If you wish to compile Gaim from source using Mozilla NSS, there
are Mozilla NSS packages available on the same site, here:
<a href="http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=%2FLibraries%2Fmozilla-nss/">
http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=%2FLibraries%2Fmozilla-nss/</a>
Q: Ubuntu (Warty 4.10 & Hoary 5.04)
A: If you want to compile from source, make sure you have
<code>libgnutls10-dev</code> installed.<br/>
Lars-Erik Labori provided a nice easy to follow guide:
First of all, you need to remove the old ubuntu Gaim version:
<pre><code>$ sudo apt-get remove gaim</code></pre>
1. You need to download the latest Gaim source from <a href="/downloads.php">here</a>.<br/>
2. You need to install the GNU TLS library development files:
<pre><code>$ sudo apt-get install libgnutls10-dev</code></pre>
<pre><code>$ ./configure --enable-gnutls=yes
$ sudo make install </code></pre>
Your new Gaim should be up and running.
A: Compile from source. See the note below on GnuTLS versions that have
been reported to work with *BSD, these tips might also help you:
For i18n to work, you need to have gettext installed. It will probably stuff
itself in /usr/local, so you need to configure like this:
<pre><code>./configure --with-libintl-prefix=/usr/local</code></pre>
Alternatively, if you only need to use English, you can disable i18n (and the
dependancy on gettext) by configuring like so:
<pre><code>./configure --disable-nls</code></pre>
Apparently GnuTLS is no longer working for FreeBSD users (and possibly
others), but it (apparently, again) does work with NSS/NSPR from ports
<pre><code>cd /usr/ports/net/gaim ; make WITHOUT_GNUTLS=t WITH_NSS=t WITHOUT_AUDIO=t package clean</code></pre>
A: Compile from source. See the note below on GnuTLS versions that have
been reported to work with *BSD, these tips might also help you:
For i18n to work, you need to have gettext installed. It will probably stuff
itself in /usr/local, so you need to configure like this:
<pre><code>./configure --with-libintl-prefix=/usr/local</code></pre>
Alternatively, if you only need to use English, you can disable i18n (and the
dependancy on gettext) by configuring like so:
<pre><code>./configure --disable-nls</code></pre>
A: See <a href="http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=725839&forum_id=665">
this thread</a> at our Sourceforge forum for some steps towards getting Gaim running on
Please get in touch if you do manage to make SSL go.
Alternatively, SGI have a package of Gaim 0.64 on their freeware site here:
<a href="http://freeware.sgi.com/index-by-alpha.html">
http://freeware.sgi.com/index-by-alpha.html</a><br />
<b>Note:</b> That is not a current release, and is <i>not</i> supported by
Gaim developers or in #gaim.
A: There are 3rd party packages for Solaris here :
<a href="http://www.blastwave.org/">http://www.blastwave.org/</a>
and here : <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=19386&package_id=98537">
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=19386&package_id=98537</a>
If you use the package from blastwave.org and get this error: "Fatal: no
entropy gathering module detected", make sure that you have the Solaris
/dev/random patch installed (Solaris 8 (sparc): 112438, (x86): 112439), and
that /dev/random is world readable.
If you're compiling from source, you must make sure everything is compiled
using gcc and not Sun's cc
A: Information on setting up GnuTLS can be found at: <a href="http://alphamonkey.org/view.php?type=notes&id=309">
http://alphamonkey.org/view.php?type=notes&id=309</a>
A: Use the Gaim provided packages : <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235">
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235</a>
A: The Gaim Autopackage needs either GnuTLS, or Mozilla NSS & NSPR, just like any other form of Gaim.
However, currently it requires a version of GnuTLS with an soversion of 11. A good way to find out is:
<pre><code>/sbin/ldconfig -p | grep libgnutls</code></pre>
and to look for a "libgnutls.so.11".
If you have some other version (version 10 is common), it won't install, unless you have Mozilla NSS & NSPR
for it to use instead. You may need to edit either the file /etc/ld.so.conf or the enviromental variable
LD_LIBRARY_PATH in order for it to find NSS & NSPR, however, because Mozilla NSS & NSPR are often installed
at some place like /usr/lib/mozilla-{version} or /usr/lib/firefox-{version}. See also the hints here for your specific
Q: SCO (anything, anyversion)
A: You're kidding, right? This stuff is licensed under the GPL, and SCO don't
<p>If that isn't enough to get you to use a decent OS, consider this:</p>
<blockquote><p>"If Darl McBride was in charge, he'd probably make marriage
unconstitutional too, since clearly it de-emphasizes the commercial nature
of normal human interaction, and probably is a major impediment to the
commercial growth of prostitution."</p>
<div style="text-align: right;">- Linus Torvalds, December 5th 2003.</div>
<p>(Darl McBride is CEO of The SCO Group)</p>
!SECTION Compiling from source
A: I strongly recommend you use pre-packaged binaries where possible, however if you MUST
use source, these tips might help you. GnuTLS is the (developers) preferred
option, but I've witnessed more success with Mozilla NSS & NSPR
Q: Mozilla NSS & NSPR
A: Mozilla NSS & NSPR can be found here:<br />
<a href="ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/nss/releases/NSS_3_9_2_RTM/src/nss-3.9.2.tar.gz ">
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/nss/releases/NSS_3_9_2_RTM/src/nss-3.9.2.tar.gz</a>
(despite it's name, it contains both NSS & NSPR)
<pre><code>--with-{nss,nspr}-includes should point to the directory with the .h files in (eg. nspr.h)
--with-{nss,nspr}-libs should point to the directory with the .so files in (eg. libnss3.so)</code></pre>
<p>If you can't add to <code>/etc/ld.so.conf</code> (or your (*nix) OS doesn't have one) set
the <code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</code> environment variable instead, either before running Gaim or
(for bourne shell & bash) on the Gaim command line, eg.
<pre><code>setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/lib/mozilla-1.4</code></pre>
<pre><code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4 ; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH</code></pre>
or sh/bash: run Gaim with this command:
<pre><code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4 gaim</code></pre>
If you have multiple versions of Mozilla installed, you might have some
problems with which version is detected by <code>./configure</code> and which
libs are used at runtime. This is because, by default,
<code>./configure</code> uses pkg-config to find the Mozilla NSS & NSPR
libs and includes. If you explicitly specify the Mozilla libs and includes
to use with the --with-nss etc. options to <code>./configure</code> then
pkg-config will not be used, and you might have more success.
The notes below on installing Mozilla NSS & NSPR might also help.
A: Thanks to sofar on #gaim for this:
Here's a list in the proper order which you need to install/compile, the
versions and links I give compile normally on a reasonably clean system.
libgpg-error (needed by libgcrypt):
<a href="ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/alpha/libgpg-error/libgpg-error-0.5.tar.gz">
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/alpha/libgpg-error/libgpg-error-0.5.tar.gz</a>
libgcrypt (needed by GnuTLS):
<a href="ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/alpha/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.1.43.tar.gz">
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/alpha/libgcrypt/libgcrypt-1.1.43.tar.gz</a>
libtasn1 (needed by GnuTLS):
<a href="ftp://ftp.gnutls.org/pub/gnutls/libtasn1/attic/libtasn1-0.2.6.tar.gz">
ftp://ftp.gnutls.org/pub/gnutls/libtasn1/attic/libtasn1-0.2.6.tar.gz</a>
<a href="ftp://ftp.gnutls.org/pub/gnutls/attic/gnutls-0.9.91.tar.gz">
ftp://ftp.gnutls.org/pub/gnutls/attic/gnutls-0.9.91.tar.gz</a>
libopencdk is a PITA, don't use it, GnuTLS will break. Also version 0.9.92 of
GnuTLS doesn't compile because the maintainer forgot to add 1 file needed. 0.9.91
You shouldn't need to pass any --with-xxx-libs/include to Gaim since everything is
by default put in the normal include/lib dirs on my system. If you put any of the libs in
obscure places you are daft, just don't do that ;^).
For FreeBSD (and, it seems, OpenBSD) users:
<blockquote><p><synic> ok, gnutls 0.8.10 officially works on FreeBSD<br />
<synic> and 0.8.6 doesn't :)</p></blockquote>
The notes below on installing GnuTLS as non-root might also help.
Q: Non-root (mozilla-{nss,nspr} or GnuTLS already installed)
A: If you don't have root access on the system you're trying to install Gaim
on, you need to configure Gaim to install under your home directory.
<pre><code>./configure --prefix=$HOME</code></pre>
If there are additional dependancies required that are not installed on
the system, you'll need to install those in a similar manner and pass the
correct locations to Gaim's ./configure as shown in the next sections.
Q: Non-root including mozilla-{nss,nspr}
A: Download NSS & NSPR source from here:
<a href="ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/nss/releases/NSS_3_9_2_RTM/src/nss-3.9.2.tar.gz ">
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/security/nss/releases/NSS_3_9_2_RTM/src/nss-3.9.2.tar.gz</a>
<pre><code>cd nss-3.9.2/mozilla/security/nss
make install</code></pre>
<p>If compiling on Solaris (and maybe other Unixes), the Mozilla build system
defaults to using the OS supplied cc even if it's not in the path. You must
force the build to use gcc using these make commands instead of the above.
Also, make sure you have a relatively recent gcc (3.2.x has been reported to
work, 3.1.x has been reported to fail). Thanks to Bill Tompkins for these
NS_USE_GCC=1 make nss_build_all
NS_USE_GCC=1 make install</code></pre>
On systems where make is not GNU make, use gmake. The above commands will
build the libraries without optimizations and with debugging enabled. To build
optimized libraries use these commands:
make BUILD_OPT=1 nss_build_all
make BUILD_OPT=1 install</code></pre>
<pre><code>mkdir -p $HOME/lib
mkdir -p $HOME/include/nspr
find ../../dist/*/lib -type l \
\( -name "*.so" -o -name "*.chk" \) \
-exec cp -L {} $HOME/lib \;
cp -Lr ../../dist/public/* $HOME/include
cp -Lr ../../dist/*/include/* $HOME/include/nspr</code></pre>
The above lines require GNU find & GNU cp, on Solaris you can get these from
<a href="http://www.sunfreeware.com/">Sunfreeware.com</a> in the findutils and
coreutils packages (remember to make sure the GNU commands are in your path
<pre><code>./configure --prefix=$HOME \
--with-nss-includes=$HOME/include/nss \
--with-nspr-includes=$HOME/include/nspr \
--with-nss-libs=$HOME/lib \
--with-nspr-libs=$HOME/lib
make install</code></pre>
You should now be able to use Gaim by running <code>$HOME/bin/gaim</code><br />
In some cases, it might be necessary to set
<code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/lib</code>
Q: Non-root including GnuTLS
A: This has been tested using the exact same versions of applications specified
above in the GnuTLS section, with the exception of libtasn1 (GnuTLS actually
includes a version of libtasn1 which seems to work).
<pre><code>./configure --prefix=$HOME
make install</code></pre>
<pre><code># fix the configure script!
perl -pi -e 's/ --prefix=\$gpg_error_config_prefix//' configure
./configure --prefix=$HOME --with-gpg-error-prefix=$HOME
make install</code></pre>
<pre><code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/lib ./configure \
--prefix=$HOME --with-libgcrypt=$HOME
make install</code></pre>
<pre><code>./configure --prefix=$HOME --enable-gnutls=yes \
--with-gnutls-libs=$HOME/lib \
--with-gnutls-includes=$HOME/include
make install</code></pre>
You should now be able to use Gaim by running <code>$HOME/bin/gaim</code><br />
In some cases, it might be necessary to set
<code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/lib</code>
before running Gaim (this was not necessary on the tested system)
A: ./configure will tell you when it is finished what SSL implementation
is going to be used. You will get one of these 4 lines:
<pre><code>SSL Library/Libraries......... : None
SSL Library/Libraries......... : Mozilla NSS
SSL Library/Libraries......... : GnuTLS
SSL Library/Libraries......... : Mozilla NSS and GnuTLS</code></pre>
It should be fairly obvious that if it says "None", it is not going to work
for you, so you should fix that by making sure you're passing the right
--with-xxx-libs & --with-xxx-includes as described above before even bothering
A: If <code>./configure</code> said it was going to compile with SSL but
the make fails to build, it is likely that you have a broken installation of
the chosen SSL libs. If you did not specify any --with-xxx-libs or
--with-xxx-includes when running configure, try explicitly pointing it at your
If it still fails during <code>make</code>, you should probably try the other
SSL option and explictly disable the one that failed with
<code>--enable-nss=no</code> or <code>--enable-gnutls=no</code> as appropriate.
A: If you've managed to build Gaim, with SSL support reported by
<code>./configure</code> and without any build failures, but when running it
still complains, there are a few things you can try.
Make sure that you only have one copy of Gaim installed, it is possible that
there is another one in your path that does not have SSL support. You can
check which Gaim is being run with "<code>which gaim</code>", or you
can be sure to run the version you've just compiled by specifiying the full
path to it. Note: <code>./configure</code> will warn you if it finds an old
version of Gaim already installed.
If you are sure that you are running your freshly compiled Gaim, check Gaim's
SSL plugin is actually linked to the necessary libs. If you compiled with
Mozilla NSS, you can do this (replace /usr/local/lib with the prefix you
<pre><code>$ ldd /usr/local/lib/gaim/ssl-nss.so
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x40023000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i686/libc.so.6 (0x42000000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x80000000)</code></pre>
That one is NOT linked against NSS, and will not work. Go back to the
beginning and try again (or, if you also compiled with GnuTLS, keep reading).
<pre><code>$ ldd /usr/local/lib/gaim/ssl-nss.so
libnss3.so => /usr/lib/libnss3.so (0x4004e000)
libsmime3.so => /usr/lib/libsmime3.so (0x400b0000)
libssl3.so => /usr/lib/libssl3.so (0x400d0000)
libsoftokn3.so => /usr/lib/libsoftokn3.so (0x400f0000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i686/libpthread.so.0 (0x40155000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x401a5000)
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x401a8000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i686/libc.so.6 (0x42000000)
libplc4.so => /usr/lib/libplc4.so (0x401bf000)
libplds4.so => /usr/lib/libplds4.so (0x401c4000)
libnspr4.so => /usr/lib/libnspr4.so (0x401c7000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x80000000)</code></pre>
That one is linked against the necessary things, and all libs were found. If
any of the bits on the right say "not found", then the compile worked but the
libs cannot be found by the dynamic loader. See notes above about
<code>/etc/ld.so.conf</code>, <code>ldconfig</code> and the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
If you compiled with GnuTLS (or both), the steps to check the Gaim SSL plugin
are similar to above, except the file to check is <code>ssl-gnutls.so</code>.
The output should look like this if all is good:
<pre><code>$ ldd /usr/local/lib/gaim/ssl-gnutls.so
libgnutls.so.8 => /usr/lib/libgnutls.so.8 (0x40003000)
libgcrypt.so.7 => /usr/lib/libgcrypt.so.7 (0x4005e000)
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x400c6000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i686/libc.so.6 (0x42000000)
libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x400dc000)
libgpg-error.so.0 => /usr/lib/libgpg-error.so.0 (0x400ea000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x80000000)</code></pre>
For completeness, here's the output if it can't find some of the libs:
<pre><code>libgnutls.so.8 => not found
libgcrypt.so.7 => not found
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x002b7000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0x004f4000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x0088d000)</code></pre>
