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. ZNC) 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)

facebook: Several "FacebookUser" contacts that can't be identified

These are most likely profiles that were deleted or that blocked you. They might be included in the friends list of your facebook profile. The facebook mobile app might show an option to remove those contacts.

facebook: Users join before sending messages, then quit

This is bitlbee showing exactly what the facebook xmpp server says. You might want to ignore it in your irc client.

Example /ignore for irssi (will not work for other clients)

/ignore *!*@chat.facebook.com JOINS QUITS

twitter: Error: Stream closed (200 OK)

Bitlbee has to reconnect due to twitter server side maintenance. It's often harmless, but might be annoying, see the following question.

Twitter reconnects too often, it's annoying

Try this:

account twitter set show_old_mentions 0

What SSL library does bitlbee use?

Either gnutls, openssl, or nss, depending on compilation parameters.

GnuTLS is the most common one, most distros use it, and it's the recommended option.

OpenSSL has no detection code (will never be used unless chosen explicitly) and will show a warning about the possible GNU GPL license incompatibility when trying to compile against it. Last time i checked, only openbsd compiled bitlbee against openssl.

NSS is used by redhat based distros - RHEL, centos, fedora, etc. Affected by this bug http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/785 - but should be okay when using the systemd scripts provided in their packages, or inetd mode.

Is there facebook groupchat support?

No.

Is there google hangouts groupchat support?

No. One to one chats should still work through jabber.

Whatsapp?

There's a libpurple plugin here: https://github.com/davidgfnet/whatsapp-purple

Telegram?

Probably not. http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/1140

Is MSN still alive?

Yes, and microsoft still uses the msn protocol internally. See HowtoMsn

Facebook says that I use an application called "Rtgw_xmpp_username_password_login"

This probably means "Realtime gateway xmpp username/password login" and it happens when you use password based login instead of oauth. See HowtoFacebook