FAQ (WORK IN PROGRESS!)

I'm going to put #bitlbee frequently asked questions here, in no particular order, based on answers given in #bitlbee.

How to get the bitlbee version

/ctcp root version

The result might be in the status window, depending on irc client.

Can't connect to google talk

Probably a SRV resolution error, related to http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/1098

account jabber set server talk.google.com

OTR4 builds losing messages or crashing

Upgrade to latest bzr. Applies to early development versions and the ones that are currently shipped with debian testing/unstable and ubuntu trusty 14.04.

See: VersionReference http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/1109 http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/1110

"help otr" gives a help message but "otr foo" says "unknown command"

The help text is always included even if you don't have the otr plugin installed. Install it.

Skype plugin losing messages

See known issues section of HowtoSkype, a few workarounds there.

jabber: Setting `oauth' does not exist.

You're using bitlbee-libpurple, which has a different jabber implementation without oauth. Install the normal bitlbee if you don't need any libpurple specific plugins.

You can force compiling the bitlbee jabber module in the libpurple build with this simple one line change. This replaces the libpurple one.

--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -604,7 +604,7 @@ EOF
        # Having both libpurple and native IM modules in one binary may
        # do strange things. Let's not do that.
        msn=0
-       jabber=0
+       jabber=1
        oscar=0
        yahoo=0

Tickets: http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/1141 http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/731

I've rebuilt bitlbee and everything seems the same

Check ps aux, kill all old bitlbee processes. Disconnect your irc client. Ensure that you installed to the right place (the configure script installs to /usr/local by default)

msn - Error: Session terminated by remote server (RCT)

RCT means reconnect. The remote server needs to restart for maintenance.

The nick is (probably) not registered

Check that the permissions of the files in /var/lib/bitlbee match the user that is running the bitlbee daemon.

twitter: Error: Could not retrieve /1.1/favorites/create.json: 404 Not Found (Sorry, that page does not exist)

The tweet was deleted

`make install` throws errors about xmlto not found

It's building the user guide. Install asciidoc. You could also ignore the error.

Random issues that make no sense at all and absolutely nobody understands

Might be selinux.

<root> Setting ` ' does not exist. (and similar errors)

You might have a OTR plugin in your irc client or bouncer, which sends a whitespace pattern (made of spaces and tabs) when it's set to "opportunistic" mode, and having that at the end of root commands confuses bitlbee. Find a way to disable it. (Note that the bitlbee otr plugin does the same, but only where it makes sense).

How to register a new jabber account in a server?

Not supported yet. You can use a client like psi or gajim one time just to do the registration step, then do the rest in bitlbee.

How to configure bitlbee to listen on SSL/TLS?

Use stunnel or tls-enabled irc bouncer (e.g. http://znc.in/) in front of it. (TODO: docs)

How to show offline nicks in /names list

chan &bitlbee set show_users online+,away+,offline

Twitter shows messages from blocked users

Turns out we're supposed to get a list of blocked users and hide them on our side. (TODO: trac ticket)